The raves are starting to come for our 7-city "Putting the Ha! in Hanukkah" tour. Today, we got this from Metromix LA:

http://losangeles.metromix.com/events/roundup/eight-times-as-awesome/256060/content


Good For The Jews—"Putting the Ha! in Hanukkah"

Echoplex - The Echo - 1154 Glendale Blvd. - Echo Park

December 25 : 8 p.m.

Though musical comedic duos aren't exactly rare these days, we certainly appreciate the good ones. After hunting online for tracks by Good for the Jews, we're pleased to say "They Tried to Kill Us. We Survived. Let's Eat" has made its way as a sonic loop in our subconscious—You Tube it and you'll see what we mean. Spend Christmas night at the Echoplex running up a bar tab as Rob Tannenbaum and David Fagin turn holiday and/or recession frowns upside down with their show on December 25.

Hold on to your yarmulkes and your tefillin: Good For The Jews have posted a new song.

It's called "Goin' Down To Boca," and Rob and David recorded it in Hoboken, NJ with our skillful and patient friend Tom Beaujour, at his fine recording studio. As always, we're open to your opinions, as long as they are gushing or positive.

As you'll also see, we've announced the dates of our annual "Putting the Ha! in Hanukkah" tour, starting December 21, which extensive research tells us is the first night of Hanukkah.

That is a question we've been asked a lot lately: "What the hell is up with the band?"

We're recently back from the Leeds International Jewish Performing Arts Festival*** where we played two soldout shows and, at the festival's request, even added a third. Rob triumphed over jet lag; David ate the world's greatest shwarma sandwich. Marc Salem, the mind-reader who did a Broadway show, caught one of our sets and told us how much he liked it. Can you guess what I'm thinking right now, Marc?

So right now, we're making Big Plans. We'll be in Houston in September, in Kansas City in November, and then our traditional Putting the Ha! in Hanukkah tour throughout December. For 2009, we've already booked shows in Providence and at the D.C. JCC.



***Couldn't you have come up with a more catchy festival name, Leeds? Maybe "JewFest"? It's probably not taken yet. Or even LeedsInt JewPerfArtsFest. Just something that would fit on a t-shirt.

A week or so ago, in response to our email announcement about the concert in D.C. this week, we received the following communication from Comivez@aol.com:

"Your show was sophomoric and embarrassing in Seattle, I hope you have made some improvements."

Since our email list is voluntary, I wondered why Comivez@aol.com had signed up to be contacted by us, despite having clearly quite disliked the show. I decided this person was either a masochist, who liked being reminded of painful experiences, or a sadist, who enjoyed the role of a scolding schoolmarm. I mean, to call our show sophomoric is just such an error of--oh wait, we are sophomoric. But since we like it that way, why would we make any sort of "improvements"?

My reply to Comivez:

"Judging from the thousands of people who've seen and loved our show, and from the rave reviews we have, your opinion is not widely held. You've been removed from our email list."

Now here is Comivez's final, pompous email to us:

"Good, thousands of people in our culture love tasteless food, entertainment etc etc. I think you can do better. Happy to be off the mailing list..."

Well nyah-nyah to you too, Comivez. I know you are but what am I? What does this jerk know, anyway? It's really obvious to the rest of you, and to me, that we could not possibly do better.

In the Weekend section of today's Washington Post , Curt Fields picks the Good For The Jews show on Tuesday night at Jammin Java as one of the week's best D.C. concerts:

"The irreverent and lively humor of Good for the Jews comes to Jammin' Java (703-255-1566) along with the Alexandria Kleztet."


See it at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041701225.html

Thanks, Curt! But you forgot to use the world "hilarious."

I have a Google alert set up for the phrase "Good For The Jews," so I'll know when a newspaper or blogger has written about our music. Sometimes, the alert brings me to a reference that has nothing to do with the band -- lately, it's often brought me to a discussion of whether a political candidate is or is not "good for the jews."

Today, a new alert brought me to a blogspot I'm not going to name, because I don't want to support it by directing traffic there--with only 2,123 lifetime pageviews, it seems pretty marginal. Much of the content consists of routine "Jewish-conspiracy" monitoring: ESPN did not fire (Jewish!) reporter Dana Jacobson for her anti-Catholic jokes during a roast, which proves the Jewish conspiracy; the "AmeriKan MSM" is clearly "pro-Jew," "Zionist-controlled" and exists solely "to PUSH the ZIONIST AGENDA!" (Caps and exclamation point from the original source!) There are also links to Holocaust denial sites, and a post called something like "Every Retard Is Jewish."

Okay, so the blogger in question doesn't like Jews, or the mainstream media, or the (Jewish!) neo-cons who conspired with Mossad to create 9/11 while protecting (Jewish-owned!) buildings near the World Trade Center. Oh, and he also doesn't really care for Dana Jacobson, except maybe in that secret I'd-love-to-hate-fuck-her-in-an-alley way. Most of us can relate to that. I used to feel the same way about Amy Grant, around the time of "Baby Baby."

But the blogger in question isn't full of only hatred and contemptuous sexual desire expressed as hatred. There is also love. Specifically, love for Ron Paul.

Ron Paul, our blogger proclaims, is such a great and inspiring candidate that he provokes fear. The kind of fear that leads to conspiracy. The kind of conspiracy that can only be undertaken by Jews. Hence, this blog headline: Zionist Propaganda: Ignoring Ron Paul .

Ron Paul's bid for the presidency is lagging, it's argued, only because (Jewish!) editors and (Jewish!) publishers and (Jewish!) newscasters--like Brian Williams and Katie Couric and, uh, whoever the fuck does the evening news on ABC these days-- anyway, the Jews are cock-blocking Ron Paul with their CirKumcised AmeriKan Konspiracies.

Don't believe it? The numbers, unlike Jews, don't lie. Ron Paul got four percent of the vote in the South Carolina primary, only half of the eight percent he logged 11 days earlier in New Hampshire. The South Karolina media? Run by Jews! Q.E.D. They ignored Paul's candidacy so cannily, they even eroded his support by half. They are in thrall to Jew-pandering presidential DemoKratiK Kandidates, like that female lesbian and that black Muslim. From the Beaufort Gazette to the Hilton Head Island Packet , these S.C. rags are deep in the pocket of AIPAC!

But Jews in South Carolina comprise only 0.3 percent of the population, you explain. That's a miniscule number, you scoff. Yes, but when those 11,225 Jews conspire with one another to brain-wash the South Carolina electorate, what possible chance do the other 4,243,858 non-Jews have?

Last May, in the New York Sun , Ryan Sager called Paul an "anti-Semite" because Paul had said, "By far the most powerful lobby in Washington of the bad sort is the Israeli government." Sager later apologized for his "overly harsh" accusation. Every political Kampaign has its own set of Kode words, and when you refer derisively to "the Israeli lobby" while running for President, you can't be surprised when reporters sift through your record for other winking allusions. I'm not saying Ron Paul is an anti-Semite. But in the online world, anti-Semites do seem to like Ron Paul.

Matthue Roth, whom I don't think I've ever met, posted on Jewcy.com today that a) he doesn't really like our music, b) we're nice guys, c) we do too many songs about circumcision, d) he's jealous of us, and e) he had a dream about me.

Read it here:
http://www.jewcy.com/user/1988/matthue_roth1988-5

I'm thinking of writing a comment to his post. But aside from saying that c) we don't have any songs about circumcision in our set, and b) we're really not all that nice, I'm not sure what to say. Any ideas?

That, believe it or not, was the title of a blog entry today: "What's a Rabbi to do with the Rob Tannenbaums of the world?"

You can read it yourself, at ravmorey.wordpress.com.

Now, I know what a priest would do. But a rabbi? I was expecting a lecture, to be blunt -- no matter how many times rabbis endorse what we do, or invite us to perform at their synagogues, I still think we're one song away from being yanked by the ear. But this rabbi's thoughts, even though he doesn't seem to have ever heard our music, were far more provocative, and I agree with his central premise: inclusion suits our religion.

This final installment can be found at http://www.jewcy.com/daily_shvitz/you_guys_are_hilarious_will_you_sign_my_forehead

December 24, 2007

The forehead can't rank higher than seventh on the list of most popular body parts for rock bands to autograph (assuming that breasts count as two separate parts). But for Jews, the keppe is sacred, the font only of education and wisdom, but also the sexuality that never quite emanates from the hips. So we were honored when Andy, a 15 year old at the first of our two D.C. concerts, asked us to sign his forehead. "Good luck with the tumor," I wrote with a black Sharpie, as his boho parents happily stood nearby. Andy will be 18 by the time that note wears off.

The Birchmere in D.C. was the penultimate stop on the Good For The Jews thirteen city "Putting The Ha! In Hanukkah" tour of major metropolises with substantial Jewish populations. The tour ends Sunday night, December 23, at the HighLine Ballroom in New York, with a hometown bash that also includes sets by Dave Attell, the LeeVees, Todd Barry, and Rachel Feinstein. Not since the Sickle Cell Anemia Telethon of 1975 have this many funny Jews gathered on one stage.

We sold 675 tickets at the Birchmere for our two weekend shows. Yes, we perform on Shabbos. Which means it isn't only Nazis who criticize us:

"Just curious," someone named Rochelle wrote to us this week. "How do you guys rationalize/explain performing/working on Friday nights?" A classic Jewish question— feigned innocence, stuffed with judgment and condescension. I explained that we are Jews who choose not to keep Shabbos, and that we offer other Jews the choice of whether or not to see our show on a Friday night. We are pro-choice. That's an explanation, Rochelle; the notion of rationalization presupposes that there are unacceptable ways to practice religion, and that is a description of fundamentalism. Sit on a dreidel and rotate.

The Jews' biggest critics are other Jews. It's a syndrome I call "Jew-on-Jew violence." Orthodox Jews look down on Conservative Jews, for not being observant enough. Conservative Jews look down on Reform Jews, for not being pious enough. And Reform Jews look down on Orthodox Jews, for not showering enough. I think that's unique to our tribe. Does one Presbyterian feel superior to another Presbyterian? Is there infighting among Methodists? Probably not.

Here's another recent email, from Stan Meyer, who makes a point of quickly establishing his religion: "Of all the bigoted hate-filled songs coming out of a fellow Jew's mouth." Stan is objecting to our song "Jews For Jesus," a small piece of mockery conceived around this couplet: "Jews For Jesus, the phrase is pure deceit/It's like being a vegetarian for meat." Although David Fagin and I are not observant Jews, at least we don't worship Jesus. So there are Jews even we can look down on. And Stan Meyer objects to the way we mock Jews For Jesus. "This religiously inspired hate-filled language is as bad as the rhetoric of Al Queda," he tells us.

Admittedly, I don't spend a lot of time on the Al-Jazeera site. But I'm guessing that whatever propaganda they compose about Jews and the decadent west is a lot less satirical than what we say about Jews For Jesus: "You offer me a pamphlet, I decline/I'd rather jam a broom up your behind." Likening a cheap song to Al Queda solicitations of martyrdom is pretty facile hyperbole. If Stan Meyer isn't a Jew For Jesus, then he's a synagogue hall monitor writing detention citations for Jews whose blue Stars of David aren't affixed straight.

Look, Good For The Jews gets plenty of adoration, too. The word hilarious comes up a lot in newspaper articles as we go from town to town. You can read about the show we played in Portland, Oregon, by going to the fantastic chick-on-chick blog Girl Gone Child , and I hope I'm not linking from this blog to that one only because the writer kvells about my wit and charm, and one commenter declares "OMG Rob is hawt and Good For The Jews' little ditty 'It's Good To Be A Jew At Christmas' made my panties explode."

Even better than the rave reviews, even better than being called hawt, better even than signing Andy's forehead was an email we got the morning after our first concert in D.C. It came from Camille, whose last name I'll omit for obvious reasons: "I saw your show at the Birchmere last night and it was HILARIOUS. It was an amazing show. [Additional compliments deleted for the sake of brevity.] Unfortunately, my friend's mom made us leave. I am a twelve year old Christian, and if you can make me laugh when your main target is Jews in their twenties and thirties, you're hitting a pretty wide audience."

Teaching twelve year old Christians how to say shvantz and fehrkakt and Shabbos goy, and how to think differently from parents, seems like a pretty worthy use of a Friday night. Spin that dreidel, Rochelle.