Mania Regressia

You can only get away with a name like this if you are Jewish, of course, and Jewish Monkeys consists of eight guys from Tel Aviv. They sing irreverent, provocative or simply absurd songs in English (and sometimes Yiddish) sounding like an Israeli Gogol Bordello. When Mania Regressia's opening song, ‘Caravan Petrol’ declares ‘I used to be a motherfucker, not knowing what to do in life’ it's surprising to read that the singers started out in Frankfurt Synagogue's boy's choir in the 70s. But then again, you know what they say about convent girls…

Roni Boiko, Jossi Reich and Gael Zaidner are the three singers and they claim Woody Allen and The Marx Brothers as influences. Actually, their humour doesn’t seem that sophisticated, with a Les Paul cover punningly retitled ‘Johnny is the Goy for Me’ and a calypso version of ‘Hava Nagila’. They started out as the backing band of the group Boom Pam, although they now have their own line-up of accordion, clarinet, guitar, trombone and bass drawing on klezmer, Gypsy and surf rock. Their live gigs look as if they’d be a lot of fun, with the right friends and suitable inebriation.