JQuery :: Avoiding Object Has No Method Errors

I am trying to use some really simple jquery in a rails 3 app. I am trying to get a function to run whenever a rails 3 js callback is fired, the function is to add or remove css classes from link elements. But so far I keep getting errors in the console (chrome) stating that the object defined by my css selectors doesn't have the addClass and removeClass methods.Here is my code:

$(function($) {
var resetArtistTabStates = function () {
$("#artist-tabs li a".addClass("current"));

[code]....

The ajax:success event come from rails.js jquery file, which contains the following:

callRemote: function () {
var el = this,
method = el.attr('method') || el.attr('data-method') || 'GET',

[code]....