Tuesday, January 30, 2007 at 12:52AM Just as a reminder, the deadline to enter the contest to win the latest album from Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang, Get Up & Dance!, is tonight, Tuesday night. You and your farm animal friends will thank you.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 5:58AM 
The latest album from Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang, Get Up & Dance!, was released last week, and we've got a copy with your name on it.
Well, technically speaking, it doesn't really have your name on it. I mean, that would imply that the fix is in for this contest and that every single reader is a winner, which isn't true.
Oh, I mean, you're all winners in the very global sense of being worthwhile people. But in another, more real sense, one of you (whose name, I would re-emphasize, is not yet known to me) is a winner, and the rest of you, while not exactly losers, are non-winners. Winning-challenged. Left holding a bag devoid of winning.
But, yes, thanks to Gwendolyn herself, not only do we have a copy of the new album, we also have a copy of their live concert DVD, Live in Grandma's Living Room. We're giving this combo away to one lucky reader. (If you're not familiar with the GTG music, get yourself on over to their music page and click on any one of their three albums to listen to streaming samples. You want to enter.)
What do you need to do? Post in the comments the name of the hairdo Gwendolyn wears and your favorite person (real or fictional) who also sports a similar hairdo. I will randomly select one winner from all entries. All entries are due by 8 PM MST Tuesday, January 30. Good luck!
(Photo courtesy Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang)
Thursday, October 5, 2006 at 9:51AM We've been talking a lot about adult rockers' recording music for kids, but sometimes the path goes in the other direction.
The Showtime drama Weeds has featured not one but two pieces of kids' music in its second season -- "Little Monkey" from Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang and "Crazy Dazy" by Chris Ligon (featured on the Bloodshot Records' excellent The Bottle Let Me Down compliation).
In fact, Gwendolyn and co-conspirator Brandon Jay are the co-composers for the season, so I believe music supervisor Gary Calamar had inside knowledge when he wrote of Gwendolyn's reaction to the use of "Little Monkey" in the episode.
"You should have seen Ms Gwendolyn's face when she saw Silas and Megan monkeying around to her song. I don't believe this is what she had in mind when she wrote it. Makes me smile!"Gwendolyn also contributed another song to the show, "Happy Clappy Birthday," which, until recently, was on the show's Myspace page. It was almost a satire of cutesy kids' music until the final verses took a more... downbeat view.
(You can listen -- or attempt to listen, as the player gave me some difficulties -- to all these tracks, or at least the first 15, happy seconds of "Happy Clappy Birthday" by following this link.)
What other kids' songs would you love get broader exposure?
Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 3:49PM Released in 2003, the debut self-titled CD from Los Angeles' Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang had its genesis in the 2000 movie Chuck and Buck.
Movies about stalking childhood friends 15 years later don't typically serve as the inspiration for forming a children's music band, but Beck drummer and music producer Joey Waronker asked unimonkered LA folk-rock singer Gwendolyn to contribute a song to the movie soundtrack -- out of that grew this entire album.
The entire album has the feel of a Saturday morning cartoon or kids' variety show. Gwendolyn sings with a somewhat high-pitched and nasally-pinched voice. In addition, there appear to be "characters" singing along on many of the songs (there are characters pictured on the CD case but the liner notes aren't clear). The entire thing just screams, "CUTE!"
As someone who tends to react allergically to cartoony voices and cuteness in general, I mentally prepared myself to actively dislike the album. It's a testament to the strength of the melodies and musical production that I can look past the characters' voices and focus on the melodic hooks.
Some of those hooks have lodged in my brain, and may never come out. "Anatomy" isn't much more than a spoken-word recitation of a whole bunch of body parts and their purpose, but the poppy chorus, "It's your anatomy," repeated nearly ad nauseum, is running through my head right now over and over. "Farm Animal Friends" has a nice loping country song feel to it. The song from Chuck and Buck, "Freedom of the Heart (Ooodily, Oodily)," isn't necessarily a kids' song, but it's got a kid-like feel and a very '70s pop sound and a chorus that goes "Oodily oodily oodily oodily oodily oodily fun fun fun." (I assure you, it's head-bopping.) The song "Little Monkey," for a character which appears to be an Elvis impersonator, has a suitably '50s Elvis-like sound. In addition to being catchy musically, the band (seven members in total) sounds good, too.
Lyrically, the 26-minute album deals squarely with typical preschooler concerns -- manners, sharing, washing, and bugs, among other things. The lyrics are direct ("Please" -- "When you say things with a smile / A little tiny inch becomes a mile / You can go far when you're cheerful / Because nobody likes someone who's tearful"). The earnest lyrics don't leave a lot of room for adult humor, but some sneaks in. (In the aforementioned "Anatomy," Gwendolyn mentions, "Hair / Everybody has hair / Well, except for my dad.")
Given the show-like approach of the music and lyrics, the album is most appropriate for kids aged 2 through 6. You can hear samples of music from their two albums and a full download of "Farm Animal Friends" here. You may want to double check that the characteristics of the CD I could see past you can see past, too. The album is available through their website or the usual online suspects.
Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang had all the hallmarks of being a CD I wasn't going to like at all, but very quickly it wore down my defenses. It's a fun little CD with great melodies that's likely to engage your kids. Recommended.
