New Recess Monkey Album: A Sneak Peek

I was in Seattle last week with my family and although there were a number of kids' musicians playing in the area at the time (Captain Bogg & Salty, and Eric Herman, I believe), I didn't want to turn the family vacation into a total kids' music busman's holiday. After all, we had lots of pictures of the Seattle skyline to take so when we got home we could ask ourselves why we took so many pictures that weren't cropped anywhere near tight enough. Oh, and we needed to watch people throw fish at Pike Place Market. (Not really sure about that in retrospect.)

But when loyal reader Katy mentioned that her daughters were participating in the Recess Monkey camp and said I was welcome to sit in on one of their end-of-the-day performances, I thought that it'd be a fun way to spend an hour or so. So my daughter and I joined up with them.

For those of you unfamiliar with Recess Monkey's last album, Aminal House, it was made with lots of help from kids at a similar camp last year (read more about that camp here). The basic process was the same this year, with the band coming up with some basic song structures, and the kids helping fill in some of the gaps musically and lyrically.

The result, if the 25-minute set of song highlights the trio performed on the last day of that week's camp is any indication, will be an album that will meet the high level of expectations set by Aminal House. I didn't take notes or pictures (because, let's face it, that just would have been waaaay too weird), but there was lots of cool poppy goodness in those song snippets. With studio wizardy and the promised "sick guitar licks," I think it'll be a big hit, both with kids and their parents.

The album -- "Wonderstuff" -- will be a double-CD set, which, I don't know, might be a first. The band's nicknamed it the "Yellow Album," though I'm hoping the Beatles references end there and that drummer Daron Henry doesn't walk out on the recording for a while. (If they play the roof of the Sub Pop building and break up, we'll know they've taken their Beatles idolatry too far.)

The story that loosely ties the CDs together concerns the Wonderbees who, according to guitarist Drew Holloway, "gather nectar from the magical meadows and turn it into Wonderstuff. The bees sting wonderstuff into people and creatures, providing them with dreams, good ideas, and inspiration galore. One day however, the bees travel to the meadows only to discover the grass and flowers have been replaced by an endless grey." This story will be told in part by song and in part by narration, hopefully by bassist/keyboardist Jack Forman, who delivered his narrative amusingly while, for reasons best left unexplained, dressed in a barrister's wig.

The track list (at the moment):

Disc One
1. The Wonderbees
2. Busy Bees
3. My Pet Rock
4. Don't Wanna Go to Bed
5. Magical Meadows
6. Bad Ideas
7. The Rat
8. The Sun Will Shine for You
9. Backpack!
10. Best Friend

Disc Two
1. Pool
2. Come Out of Your Shell
3. The Funniest Thing I Ever Did See
4. The Grey
5. Rollercoaster
6. The Golden Seed
7. Hula Hoop
8. My Friend Shadow
9. Helping Hands
10. The Wonderbees #9

OK, I'm kidding on that last one. It's just a reprise.

Anyway, the CD should be out by October.

Listen To This: 3 Rs For Recess Monkey!

Earth Day songs generally preach, and I think one thing that a lot of parents really dislike about a lot of kids' music is when that music tells listeners what to do. So, the trick in writing an Earth Day song for kids that parents will tolerate is writing a catchy tune.

Which Recess Monkey did with "3Rs for Ours," which debuted on last weekend's Spare the Rock show and is now available for listening and downloading at the band's Myspace page.

Yeah, it's April 25th, but get it now anyway. Because every day is Earth Day, right?

Review: Welcome to Monkey Town - Recess Monkey

Listening to Seattle-based Recess Monkey's first album, 2005's Welcome to Monkey Town is a bit like watching some show called "Before They Hit the Big Time" -- even if everything isn't quite in place, you can definitely see the outlines of what's to come.

Whereas their breakout follow-up album, 2006's Aminal House had a stronger Beatles influence, this CD has more of a non-Beatles British Invasion feel to it, with the occasional veering into jangle-pop (the opening "We're Recess Monkey") or even something vaguely Doors-like (but not, you know, "The End"-Doors-like) closer "Math Vitamin." The best tracks here are the uptempo ones, such as "Monkey Bars," with a muscular guitar line, hand claps, and the occasional "la la la." I also really liked "I Got a Toy (But I Played with the Box)," all about imagination, and with a few nice melodic touches (the "beep-boop" signifying the robotic arm toy). (As for the slow songs, "Can You Build a Bridge?" has some nice lyrical touches - "Can you build a bridge to someone / By tearing down a wall?")

The difference between this CD and its follow-up lies in production quality and absurdist humor. To my (non-music-production) ears, the mix here felt muddier and distant, the lyrics not always crisp. Compared to the sonic bloom on Aminal House, the CD just didn't feel quite as alive -- I would love to hear what the band would have done with "Nancy (Librarian Extraordinaire)" two years later -- here it just feels flat. Also, there's some of the goofy humor that made the follow-up standout, but not enough. Songs like "Math Vitamin" or "Mercado" are more the exception here than the rule. And, I never thought I'd say this about a kids' CD, but I kinda missed the skits -- Mayor Monkey only makes the briefest of appearances.

Given the lyrical matter, the 33-minute CD's most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7. You can hear 4 cuts from the album at the band's music page and can order it from the band or through the Land of Nod here.

This review sounds more negative than it really is -- I quite liked Welcome to Monkey Town. It just isn't the absolute hoot that its successor is -- if your family is new to the band, you should start with Aminal House. But if you liked Aminal House (or if you're new to the band), I think you'll like its predecessor. Recommended.

Camping With Recess Monkey

I really liked Recess Monkey's album Aminal House, but was curious what role the kids in the Seattle UCDS summer music camp played in the album.

So I asked singer and guitarist Drew Holloway for more details.

"It was a week-long camp but the three of us did a fair share of tracking in the weeks before and after camp. Jack [Forman, bass & piano] did the massive job of mixing the cd which we then had professionally mastered.

The camp was made up of over 80 kids. 30 of the kids were 3-6 years old and spent the bulk of the day in a separate camp on site. In the morning, however, those children joined the other group, 6-11 years old, for a "gig" [group sing-along] and some big group recording [like in "Aquarium" and "Fred"].

Each afternoon consisted of three sessions [songwriting, recording, and artwork]. We divided the 50 kids into three groups [land, water, and air] and they rotated through each activity.

I worked with the songwriting group. For the most part I was the Elton John and they were the Bernie Taupins. Sometimes small musical snippets made their ways into songs ["Squirrels" was based on a camper-generated bass line]. The kids worked mostly in pairs and small groups to draw and write stories. When it worked we combined ideas like in "Chicken" and other times we voted for favorites "Pet Shark."

Daron [Henry, drums] led the art contigent. Kids created animal-letter typography and foot-high self-portraits. The portraits were used in an installation that later, through the magic of photoshop, became the cover.

Jack was the captain of the recording booth. He taught the kids about basic engineering and multi-track recording [We used protools]. In the studio, campers laid down vocal and percussion tracks. Their favorite part was always listening back.

We ended the day by singing some songs and doing a guitar solo overdub in front of the whole group. What a blast."

Holloway also reports that they'll be doing two weeks of the camp this year, maybe with a video/DVD component.

Others have wondered in the comments, and I agree -- why don't more artists try this? You'd certainly have to have a certain patience to deal with dozens of elementary school students, but a lot of kids' musicians have at least some familiarity with teaching kids.

A (summer) school of rock (or folk or pop or whatever) would be pretty awesome for a lot of kids.

Review: Aminal House - Recess Monkey

If you weren't convinced by the cover that Aminal House (yes, that's spelled correctly) had some Beatles influences, the liner notes, which thank, among others, Billy Shears, would seal the deal.

So what about the album itself -- is it worthy of such blatant Beatles homages?

Well, yes.

Aminal House (late 2006) is the second album from Seattle-based band Recess Monkey and whereas The Sippy Cups sort of tap the psychedelic part of '60s and '70s rock for their sound, Recess Monkey sticks more closely to the Beatles for their sound and inspiration. Which isn't to say that they sound like the Beatles -- they often sound more like Beatles-inspired bands such as Crowded House. At they very least, they, like the Beatles, are willing to explore a wide range of rock sounds, from the funk of the opening, title track to the singalong chorus of "Aquarium" to the Elton John-like piano ballad "Grey Zebra." (They're fine with more direct homages, too, pulling out a very "Blackbird"-like acoustic guitar figure for "Butterfly," for example.) One of my favorite tracks is "Cookie," a '60s rocker with a hint of Motown about a very nervous pointer dog ("Cookie don't crumble now / Cookie don't fall apart"). Musically, the group is tight; singer Drew Holloway uses the occasional falsetto to good effect, too.

Thematically, the songs are all animal-related, treating animals as characters with personality. The album also has a few sketches which are mostly amusing and very reminiscent in spirit (and somewhat in vocal characterizations) of SteveSongs' Marevlous Day! album. (And, hey, it's not every day you listen to a kids' album that makes a John Vanderslice reference, and a funny one at that.) At 54 minutes in length, it runs on a bit too long, but at least they're experimenting to the end.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9, which isn't surprising since the album includes kids voices on some tracks and their ideas from a summer camp led by the band in summer 2006. You can hear the album's first five tracks here and purchase the album here.

Aminal House is an album that must have been a blast to make, chock-full of creativity. The album is never less than interesting, and always a melodious spin. Definitely recommended.

(More details on the process of recording the album can be found here.)