Passover begins on Saturday. Anyone stressed out by the shortage of Tam Tams should take note of Jewmongous’ Taller Than Jesus, an album that will surely provide comic relief. Taller Than Jesus is a hilarious, slightly un-kosher collection of pop from Sean Altman, better known as the co-author of the “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?” theme song. While you might want to think twice about playing “They Tried To Kills Us (So Let’s Eat)” at your grandparents’ seder, the album also contains a range of funny songs which will carry you through the rest of the year. LWMB caught up with Altman and talked about Jewmongous’ album and got to the bottom of his “Semiti-Sound.”

LWMB: The release of Jewmongous’ Taller Than Jesus is 4/20. Was that release date chosen because it’s the first night of Passover, or because it’s a high holy day for stoners?

Sean Altman: I chose it because it's Passover, but I'm grateful that my stoner public can find special meaning in this date, too. Instead of hiding the afikomen, they can hide the traditional pot brownies or the crack-laced gefilte fish.

By the way, how tall are you?

I'm 6'3" and even taller in shoes, which makes me much taller than Jesus. No disrespect to old JC but I've been to the Museum of Natural History and, let's face it, back in his day guys were friggin' shrimps. A guy my height would have been considered either a god or an ogre, but would have scored lots of chicks in either case.

“They Tried To Kills Us (We Survived, Let’s Eat)” seems to be an anthem among the Yidcore movement. What inspired you to write that song?

A prominent rabbi was a fan of my secular songwriting (aka the power-pop songs I wrote about my ex-wife), and he asked me to pen a song which tells the story of Passover. Up until that moment my knowledge of Passover was limited to the blockbuster film The Ten Commandments. I thus consulted that bastion of credibility, The Internet, and discovered, to my dismay, that all Jewish holidays can be summarized with the expression "They Tried To Kill Us, We Survived, Let's Eat." I may have gotten a few facts wrong in the song, so it's really the Passover story according to Wikipedia.

Your album was recorded in Semiti-Sound. How does that production process differ sonically from Shiksa-Sound?

Semiti-Sound tries desperately to sound like Shiksa-Sound in the hopes that Shiksa-Sound will sleep with it.

Your cover of “I Wanna Be Sedated” is a nice way to close the album. Why did you choose it? What would Joey Ramone think of it?

I chose that song (the album's only cover song) because I'm a big fan of Joey Ramone. He was born Jeffrey Hyman, but like his peers Chaim Witz, Gary Lee Weinrib and Lou Rabinowitz (Gene Simmons Geddy Lee and Lou Reed) he was forced to change his name to appease "The Man" (Santa, perhaps), and I believe he would have wanted it sung this way: ultra Jewy.

In the liner notes you recall Rabbi Gottlieb—who who warned you about becoming a Bar Mitzvah Jew­—from your youth. What does he think of Jewmongous?

Alas, the rabbi passed away many years ago. If you listen carefully, though, you can hear him turning in his grave, to the rhythms of my album.