What do you get when you put together one proud Jew, two Christians (including a Palestinian) and a Mexican? Rookie Card, winners of Best Pop Act at the San Diego Music Awards.
By James Giza
When Adam Gimbel was starting his band Rookie Card four years ago, he happened to watch “Keeping the Faith,” starring Ben Stiller as Rabbi Jake.
“There’s a running joke through it that when Ben Stiller was a kid he collected Heroes of the Torah trading cards,” says Gimbel. “And I can’t remember the actual name of it, but he always wanted that Rabbi Shlomo or whatever rookie card, and he never got it. And I’m like, ‘Ding!’ It was right when I started the band. I’m like that would be the best name. And it’s perfect. The rookie card is the best, most valuable card, and we’re rookies.”
It’d be difficult to call them rookies anymore, though. Following the July release of their debut album, “Near Mint,” Rookie Card was voted Best Pop Artist at this year’s San Diego Music Awards. Featuring Gimbel on lead vocals and guitar, Nasrallah Helewa on drums, Dylan Martinez on lead guitar and Kevin Gossett on bass, the band has played shows all over San Diego, Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Their sound is alt-poppy with a bit of alt-country flavor, and their lyrics – written by Gimbel – are catchy, clever and funny.
Rookie Card has drawn raves from those in the local music scene. Anya Marina, a DJ for 94.9 FM, says that Gimbel has “amazing songwriting talent.”
“Mark my words,” she says. “Rookie Card will go far.”
In “2/29” Gimbel sings about being born on the day that only comes along once every four years. Granted, Gimbel wasn’t born then. He just wondered what it would be like, and by all accounts he pretty much nailed it.
“I talked to a girl who runs, like, the main leap year Web site, and I just knew she was going to die,” he says. “And she wrote me an email where she actually broke down every lyric of the song and was like, ‘Oh my God… yes… totally… you feel our pain!’ She just assumed I was born on a leap year because I got it so perfect.”
Gimbel, 33, works a day job as head of the Garden of Speedin’, which puts out parts-locating guides for old cars. The promotion skills he’s learned there have translated well to the band, which has given away thousands of laminated “rookie cards” of famous musicians like Michael Bolton, Michael Jackson and Menudo.
Gimbel’s family moved to San Diego from Chicago when he was 6. He grew up in Mission Hills and then University City and was bar mitzvahed at Temple Beth Israel. Though proud of his heritage, Gimbel has no deeper connection to the religion. He attends services once every few years and then it’s more about seeing friends and family than anything else.
“It’s nostalgic,” says Gimbel, who has written and done solo performances of a song, “Double Hockey Styx,” about his lack of faith. “I can’t help but sing along with prayers even though it’s nothing that I believe in with all my heart.”
In Rookie Card, Christians (Helewa and Gossett) actually outnumber Jews (Gimbel) two to one. Helewa, better known as Nas, provides a particularly striking contrast to Gimbel, whose first job as a 9th grader was slangin’ Hebrew Nationals at the La Jolla Jewish Community Center hot dog stand.
Nas was raised Lutheran, and he regularly attends a bible study at Hillside Church of God in El Cajon. His father is Palestinian – raised Greek Orthodox on the West Bank in Ramallah, he moved to the United States in 1969, joined the Marine Corps and fought in Vietnam. Every June for the past six or seven years, Nas has gone to Manti, Utah, for the Mormon Miracle Pageant, which runs for eight nights and is highlighted by a cast of more than 500 performers retelling the origins of Mormonism through dance, music and drama.
Gimbel had his reservations when Nas first told him about
his religiosity, but Nas turned out to be very open-minded when talking
religion. The same goes for Gossett.
“I haven’t really been around that many people
that are actively into religion, but they are two of the more cooler religious
people of any kind of religion that I’ve ever met,” says Gimbel.
“And they probably know more about Judaism than I do because the
Old Testament’s the Old Testament.”
“We’ve never used our religious differences to
bite at each other,” says Nas, who joined the band three years ago.
“We bite at each other with stupid stuff. Like I play a lot of video
games, and Adam makes massive fun of me for that. And I’ll give
him grief for schmoozing with everybody he sees and calling everybody
he knows his friend. It’s like, OK dude. But that’s superficial,
and when we get down to brass tacks, I think we’re very calm and
reasonable about it.”
The lyrics on “Near Mint” don’t touch
on any Jewish themes although in “The Sun Always Shines on Christmas”
Gimbel does call Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a Nazi. (Let’s just
say he was a little upset when the Governator was elected.) Outside of
Rookie Card, however, he’s found ways to channel his Jewish pride.
The past two years, Gimbel and his makeshift band, Rabbi
Gimbel’s Jews Explosion, performed shows at Chanukah time. The Casbah
had been doing a “12 Days of Christmas” show for years, and
Gimbel thought it was time for the Jewish kids to get a little holiday
representation.
“When I was a kid my mom would come to our elementary
school and cook latkes and teach the kids about Chanukah,” he says.
“It’s not like I felt like, ‘Hey, we’re not getting
our fair share,’ I just thought it’d be fun to do something.”
So he pooled together musician friends from the area who
were at least partially Jewish – striking out only with the bassist
– to form Jews Explosion. The band played one show at Casbah in
2002, then returned in 2003 for several more gigs, including in Los Angeles.
They covered songs mainly by Jewish musicians – the Beastie Boys,
Beck, Bob Dylan – changing the lyrics to give them a Jewish-Chanukah
twist.
This led to such gems as the following, to the tune of “War
Pigs” by Black Sabbath:
“Rabbis gathered in their masses/Clippin coupons &
free passes/No pork sitting in our stomach/Smell of ham just makes me
vomit/Holding notes and turning bluish/Ozzy isn’t even Jewish?”
And…
“The roof is on fire but what about the fiddler/ I got more
rhymes than my man Bette Midler/
Do it upright, you know I keep kosher/Hands in the air like you’re
on a rollercoaster.”
There won’t be a Jews Explosion this Chanukah, however.
Gimbel had fun doing it, but he’s too busy with Rookie Card. Instead,
he’ll be spinning in Casbah’s main room Dec. 24 under the
name DJ Rabbi Adrock.
And, in case anybody’s wondering, Gimbel has put perhaps
the most important question about Rookie Card to rest.
“We would totally play bar mitzvahs,” he says.
Rookie Card
When: Wednesday, Dec. 22
Where: The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., San Diego
For more information, call (619) 232-HELL.
For feedback, contact editor@sdjewishjournal.com.