Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 1:53PM Via Paste -- new album Ready For the Flood due out September 16th.
To say I am geeked would be putting it mildly. New Jayhawks album with just one of 'em would be awesome. Both? Oh, yeahhhh...
Tuesday, July 1, 2008 at 10:19AM Most of the time, I'm pretty much a strict constructionist when it comes to kids music -- if it ain't geared for the kids in some way, I'm not covering it.
But, hey, why not bend the rules a little bit. I missed this news a couple weeks back, but The Broken West just posted a new track from their new album on Merge to their Myspace page. "Perfect Games" has got the great laid-back power-pop vibe (if such a thing can exist that made their debut I Can't Go On, I'll Go On so much fun to listen over and over. Just shy of a great album.
Really, go now, listen to the new track, then go listen to "Down in the Valley," "On the Bubble," and "So It Goes," and tell me that's not some crunchy pop goodness right there. Your kids will wait for you.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 4:47AM I don't talk a lot about music that isn't specifically kids' music, but that guideline's never stopped me before from veering into stuff for the adults.
And so when I saw the video below for Tally Hall's "Good Day," I thought, hey, that's worth posting. For one thing, it's a really cool song. For another thing, it's a really cool video. The punchline to the video will probably go over your kids' heads, but the video and the song is pretty kid-friendly. Especially if you and your kid are able to process rapidly-changing cuts and about 8 different tempo changes.
"Good Day" is from Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, which is being re-released by Atlantic Records on April 1. (You can hear "Good Day" and more at their Myspace page.)
Now, I'm hardly the first person to the Tally-Hall-for-the-kids party (Clea mentioned this very song more than 18 months ago), but there really is a kids' music connection here...
3/5ths of the band are the voices for the Happy Monster Band on Playhouse Disney, which runs in 5-minute "American Idol"-inspired snippets on weekday mornings. I believe they've also written (or at least recorded) the music. The lyrics are your basic "do good" stuff targeted at 3-year-olds, but the music itself is surprisingly susceptible to repeat listening.
Now, I would be happy to direct you to the video player at the Playhouse Disney site if indeed said video player actually, say, played videos there. But it's been incredibly spotty in its playback, so instead I'll go back to Youtube. You can find "Scare Up Some Fun," "Do the Monster Stomp," and "Get Up and Go Go Go" there. And you can watch the best of 'em, "I Will Be Your Friend," below:
(Note: video oddly ends mid-song. Try your luck with the videoplayer if you want more.)
Monday, February 25, 2008 at 4:16AM It's been years since I've run an Oscars pool -- that happened about the time that the number of movies I saw in a theatre dropped to a dozen or so (but, hey, I love you, kids!) -- though I did catch part of last night's ceremony, including the announcement of Best Original Song, which went to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for their lovely and aching "Falling Slowly" from the movie Once.
It was a little surprising, the win. Alan Menken, whose brilliance as a movie-musical composer cannot be denied (think all the classic Disney animated movies from nearly 20 years ago) had the misfortune of being nominated three times with Stephen Schwartz for Enchanted in the category, which meant that voters too blinkered to recognize the best song of the three (note: "Happy Working Song," duh) split his vote.
Not that I'm complaining. It's a stunning song from a great little movie. The soundtrack is nice, but I've found that it never quite moved me the way the movie did. The soundtrack version of the Oscar-winner adds a string section which, while sweet, takes away from the central core of the movie, the way these two artists create a singular musical voice. Much better is the movie's version. Less than 20 minutes into the movie, you hear this duet, and it floors you. The clip below is from the movie.
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - "Falling Slowly"
And in case you feel like you need a kid-friendly version (or at least one the kids might be a little more interested in -- initially), you can click here. I wouldn't recommend it, though -- it's absolutely awful. Update: And Bill notes that MST3K alum Mike Nelson feels similarly.
Once is out on DVD now, and if you haven't seen it, you should.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 3:17AM One of the best parts of Sara Hickman's performance at the Austin Kiddie Limits Festival last September was her performance of "Iolana," from her album Big Kid (that's the song I made my Bob Dylan reference for). Well, the fine folks at DadLabs got Sara to visit them in their studio and give them another performance.
(Warning: I think I've skipped past some of the saltier language in the first half of the video -- yes, a post with kids' songs that has salty language, great -- but in case I'm still low-tech here, the song starts about 4:30 into the video.)
Between this and part 1 of the interview, Hickman sounds like she'd be a heckuva fun person to have a beer with. (Note: the song in this first part is hysterical, but definitely not for the kiddos.)
