OK, This Is A Top 10 Most Anticipated Album For Me

I've written before about the awesomeness that is Seattle's Central Services Board of Education, the kids' side project of the band Central Services (which, in itself, is pretty darn enjoyable).

Well, after many, many months of wondering when they were going to get into the studio and record more than just the four great songs on their Myspace page, my (OK, unvoiced) wonderings have been answered. According to this post, recording on a full-length album has begun and "will probably be done by spring." Sounds like they're bringing in a bunch of guests including members of the awesome band Awesome on "horns, appliances, and harmonies."

So this automatically moves to my Top 10 list of most anticipated albums for 2008 (how could it not, not with titles like "know your inventors, part V"), but it begs the question... What are you looking forward to?

Review: Wonderstuff - Recess Monkey

When the Seattle band Recess Monkey aped (pun somewhat intended) the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover on their 2nd CD, Aminal House, it wasn't a random reference -- they really did sound a bit like the Beatles on that fine CD. So with their Sgt. Pepper's under their belt (and maybe their fun but a little rough-around-the-edges debut Welcome to Monkey Town standing in for Please Please Me), all that's left is to release a double album, right?

Uh, right.

Set to be officially released this weekend, Wonderstuff is the year's most ambitious kids' music album. A double-CD set (a first for the genre as far as I'm aware) telling the story of Everett the Wonderbee, who along with some friends, travel far and face danger as they seek the mysterious Gray which threatens the meadows where Everett and his friends all live. Oh, and the songs and the stories were created (and performed) by the band with the help of a bunch of elementary-school-aged summer campers. (Really. I sat in on the tail-end of one the days of camp as an invited guest of one of the campers.) So, yeah. Ambitious.

Although the band joked this summer that they were making their "Yellow Album," as I listened I thought more of another late '60s double-CD set from another English band -- the Who's Tommy. Though miles away from Pete Townshend's somewhat dark and disturbing storyline, Wonderstuff is, at its heart, also a rock-pop opera. It intersperses its songs with narration and dialogue from the characters which move the story along. These snippets, usually a minute or so in length, are often quite amusing (for both parents and kids, though not always at the same time). The story itself -- a hero quest worthy of Joseph Campbell -- will be of interest to kids. (I must say, though, I actually missed "Mayor Monkey" from the previous CDs, which is one of the first times I've ever actually missed a skit character.)

Of course, the heart of the album are the 20 songs here. There are a fair number of songs that one would describe as Beatlesque ("My Pet Rock" is one such song, featuring the album's best melody), but other styles get their day -- the later Beach Boys sound of "The Pool," the Byrds-ian jangle-pop of "Down Down Down," even the Who get a cut ("Round and Round"). Which isn't to say newer artists get ignored. Some of the tracks on the 2nd CD have to me a more minimalist Spoon vibe, the dour "The Gray" could be a cut from Stephin Merritt's Gothic Archies side project, and the boys give another shout-out to John Vanderslice in the power-pop of "Backpack." Lyrically, the songs are split between those that hew closely to the narrative (e.g., "Magical Meadows") and those whose relationship to the story is tenuous ("Down Down Down" is really about a roller-coaster ride). In other words, take out the overarching story and you'd have a completely different album.

It would also be probably 30 minutes shorter, and when you're talking about 81 minutes worth of entertainment that's currently on the two disks, that's a big difference. In fact, if there's one drawback to the CD, it's the length. It would sound great on a long car ride (the story is interesting enough to keep the attention of the listener), but it may be too long for many listeners.

The album will be most appropriate for listeners ages 5 through 10. You can hear samples at the album's CD Baby page. I also think you'll be able to listen at the album's website, but that function doesn't seem to be up and running just yet.

With Wonderstuff, Recess Monkey have recorded another album bursting with energy and good spirits. Even if you're not interested in the rock-pop opera, there are a bunch of fabulous songs at the heart of this album worth your time. Definitely recommended.

Note: The album's release party is this Saturday, Oct. 20, at the Experience Music Project in Seattle Center. If you can make it, go. I think it'll be ten tons of fun.

DVD Review Two-Fer: Jim Cosgrove / Eric Ode

I receive a lot of CDs every week, some good, some bad, but not so many DVDs. I expect DVDs to become a much bigger deal in the world of kids' music here in the next couple years as artists look to connect with their audience in multiple ways, beyond just recorded music and concerts. It's also a way to help artists develop more of an identity nationally. (It's also a way to generate additional revenue, but that would be a rather crass way of putting it, I suppose.)

For the moment, however, the number of DVDs is still more accurately a trickle rather than a flood. Musicians Jim Cosgrove and Eric Ode each released a DVD relatively recently, and it's worth a glance to see the results of some of the early settlers of the kids' music DVD field.
Missouri-based musician Jim Cosgrove has a fanbase of some sort, as a few of his fans have written me over the past couple years asking me to check out his music. Cosgrove has released six kids' CDs and this DVD, Mr. Stinky Feet's Road Trip Live, was released earlier this year. It was distributed by Jack Records, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers and the same label releasing comedy records by Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy.

I wish I could say that I understood what draws people to Cosgrove, but this 30-minute DVD, which is a filmed "live" performance (it appears to be specifically for the DVD), does him no favors. Only a few of the songs, such as "Little Red Wagon," generate any interest on repeated hearings. Perhaps kids might enjoy shouting "P.U.!" over and over in "Stinky Feet," but it gets tiring quickly. And Cosgrove's lengthy banter is mostly limited to explaining what people should be doing to interact with their songs. I'm not opposed to between-song banter, but it just seemed labored compared to, say, Trout Fishing in America, who could probably release a whole album of quality between-song banter.

Songs are targeted at kids ages 2 through 6. If you need to see for yourself, you can watch "Put Down the Binky" here. But I've just completely missed the Jim Cosgrove boat. I'm sure those of you who think I'm wrong will tell me exactly why...

Washington-based Eric Ode also has a number of kids' CDs (five) to his credit, plus a bunch of poetry anthologies. He released Welcome to the Workshop late last year.

I don't think this DVD works great, either, though I like it more than the Cosgrove DVD. It misses the mark not so much because the songs aren't good -- some of the songs, like "This Song Has No Elephants" and the rocking "Trash Can," are quite good. In this case, the quality of the 35-minute DVD itself doesn't always reflect quality of the songs. The video is a combination of interlude bits with a cat puppet named Scratch and videos of varying quality. The sound on the interlude bits sometimes drops way out, while the videos range from decent ("Trash Can" and "Worms," for example, could be in-show bits on some PBS show) to not very good ("Corner of a Cloud" is pretty boring).

This is one of the better videos and songs, the very meta "This Song Has No Elephants." If you don't like this, then you're definitely not going to like the rest of the DVD.

If you think Eric Ode smiles a lot in that video, you're right. The entire DVD is like that -- Ode is nothing if not genial. It's a completely safe DVD and songwriting approach, and so parents and kids looking for a bit of an edge, any edge, will probably find this too safe. It's probably most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8.

Watch a trailer here, the bluesy pop-rocker "I Love My Shoes" here, or the kid-poppy "At the Library" here.

Even though I can't really recommend Welcome to the Workshop, I think it shows promise for future DVD releases by Ode and his compatriots. And fans of Ode's CD output will probably find it a pleasant visual accompaniment.

But I think the bar for kids' music DVD releases, if not high now, probably will be considerably higher the next time both Cosgrove and Ode release a DVD.

Listen To This: Central Services Board of Education

What is in Seattle's water? Johnny Bregar, Recess Monkey, not to mention Eric Herman and Eric Ode... they're really approaching critical mass, kids-music-scene-wise.

And now there's Central Services Board of Education, an offshoot of the indie-pop band Central Services.

Go listen (and download, should you desire, and you likely will) their first four songs, which I'm going to describe as "Schoolhouse Rock!-meets-The-Shins." Or maybe "Ben-Folds-meets-Dr-Demento."

Or maybe "awesome."

With densely-packed wordplay and pop-cultural allusions, it's probably more for (or most appreciated by) kids ages 6 and older. My favorite track is "The Lonely Tomato," which somehow manages to be highly educational, metaphorical, and catchy all at the same time. All four tracks are worth checking out.

(And then go over to Central Services' myspace page while you're at it.)