So I was thinking about how nice it turned out that our record release show on April 14 will technically be on Passover (the seventh night, though it seems like most American Jews celebrate on the first and/or second nights, next Wednesday and Thursday, straddling the seder in Israel).

It’s funny because one of my initial song ideas– predating the Fellowship by a couple of years– was a song that somehow got “Adir Hu” worked into it. “Adir Hu” is a song that’s sung towards the end of the Passover seder.

Not sure how this happened. I had a very simple two-chord progression that worked really well with one of the traditional melodic standards for the song. I couldn’t help but think that some Jews at some point (50 years ago? a century? more? less? the origins of these melodies are always controversial, and I don’t really like it when Jews argue too much) had a little bit of Joey Ramone in them. Or a little Mambo-X, or Camera Obscura, or etc. etc. Milli Vanilli etc.

Just found this really old demo of “Ancillary Devices” (before the demo version on my myspace was made) from 2005.

Do you know what Passover is? Is it a Jewish thing?

Do some Christians celebrate it?

If you’re Jewish or not do you have any Passover plans for next week?

Do you have any Passover family traditions?

Click here to hear another version of “Adir Hu,” compliments of the Florida Atlantic University Jewish Sound Archives.

Passover Music Box, Shirley R. Cohen (1951)

Hebrew School celebrates its second Passover (can you believe it?) this weekend. Following on the heels of my Purim post, I’ve got more of Shirley Cohen’s oeuvre. This is another find from my excursion to last fall’s WFMU record fair. It’s a scratchy 78, with takeoffs on renditions of the “traditional” Passover songs of American Ashkenazic Jewry. Once again, apart from the decorative sleeve (why do children’s illustrations from half a century ago look so eerie?) and the thick, leaden beauty of the format, there isn’t much substantive here in terms of music, good or bad. Apart from what I’ve previously discussed as the presumptive marketing notion behind these records, there’s not much thinking outside of the music box here.

There were, however, some bizarre and melancholy moments when I slowed the record down from 78 to 45 rpm:

According to the diasporic Ashkenazic traditions, Passover’s first and second seders occur on the 19th and the 20th this year. Because of a strange conjunction in the lunar and solar calendars, the night of the second seder also has several other significances. On the 20th, while we’re munching on matza and getting charoset stuck in our teeth, the birthdays of Hitler and the Prophet Muhammed are also being celebrated. Among marijuana enthusiasts, the day is celebrated as “4/20,” often with communal gatherings of smokers in northern California, Vancouver, etc. Unfortunately for these revellers, cannabis has been declared by rabbis as unfit for the holiday.

Lest we forget… Let this puzzling PSA spoof serve as a reminder of how the enslaved become enslavers themselves, or just plain bigots. I’m not sure if that’s in the Maxwell House Hagaddah.

Last year’s Passover with Abbie Hoffman.

Having trouble getting a clean break when splitting the matza for the afikomen? Let this Japanese instructional video light your way.