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I know, interrupting KidVid Tournament 2010 for... a video? I promise, I'll get back to a more regular swing of news and reviews soon (sometimes the real world intervenes, though for all good reasons), but when The Telephone Company makes a video for my favorite song from Panda Brain!, then I'm all over it.
A fairly literal video translation. One can only wonder what the passengers on the passing trains must've been thinking as they saw the video shot...
The Telephone Company - "What Am I Gonna Do With This Baby?" [YouTube]
I could describe Panda Brain!, the looooong-awaited second album from Austin's Telephone Company with a series of blurb-ready mashups -- "Sonic Youth meets Shel Silverstein!" "Surrealism meets Seuss!" "They Might Be Giants for people who thought They Might Be Giants were always way too conventional." "The Telephone Company dial up a series of songs from your kid's subconscious!" -- but I prefer to focus on a couple of small details:
1. The liner notes give special thanks to Adam Jones, "whose tuba playing for 'Lumberjack' was not used to a technical error on that session. Pat [Healy] sang the tuba part instead later on a different version." Yes, this is the kind of album that doesn't just feature a tuba part, it features a guy singing a tuba part. 2. The opening lyrics from the insanely catchy cowbell-assisted pop tune "Booblegum" - "We get a lot of people asking us / What's the difference between Booblegum and bubble gum". The way the band creates a world that presumes that not only is "Booblegum" not made up, but people have been asking them about it constantly, kills me every time I listen to the song.
The genius of the duo - Pat Healy and Jason "Chef" Pittman - is mixing catchy pop hooks and often very simple arrangements with -- there is no other word for it -- utterly weird lyrics that make Shel Silverstein look like a regulatory rule-writer. The Kinks ripoff "I Know You're Having a Problem With Your Baby" follows the phrase "Don't leave your kids inside the car when it's hot hot hot hot hot" with "Who put this baby inside the refrigerator?" One of my favorite kids' songs of the year is "What Am I Gonna Do With This Baby," which in contrast to most of the songs that feature just Healy and Pittman on vocals, features a whole group of folks singing the chorus. It's beautiful in an utterly otherweirdly way (with one of the more straightforward lyrical narratives, about a hobo who doesn't know what to do with an abandoned baby but doesn't want to "hurt one hair on the top of his head"). And if you think they're going soft and normal on you, don't worry, the next song ("Curly Beard") features a guy named Joel who changes his name to "Curly Beard," hires pirates to start a car wash, and washes his beard to wash the cars. Yeah. I know.
Trying to figure out the target age range for the Telephone Company because I sometimes have the feeling it's the age range of Healy and Pittman, that they're writing for themselves, and if kids dig what they're doing, so much the better. But I'd guess that kids ages 4 through 8 are probably most likely to appreciate the absurdist narratives on the album. I don't have any sound clips to share, so I'd recommend this performance on the Everlasting Ghettoblaster radio show, with five songs featured on the new album.
I could go on and on about the album, but I think you get the point. I think the album may be just too out there for a number of readers. If this review doesn't drive you away, however, I think your family might find the Telephone Company's Panda Brain! one of those delightfully off-kilter albums that expand your family's notions of what music for kids can be and becomes a family favorite. Recommended.
Telephone Company PANDA BRAIN! Album Release Tomorrow at ACL... That is right. After 6 years of waiting, we are releasing the "Panda Brain!" cd tomorrow. We play ACL tomorrow, Friday, at 1:30pm.
I've written a lot about the Austin Kiddie Limits stage at this weekend's Austin City Limits Festival, but I'd be derelict if I didn't mention Family Music Meltdown 2, the show Bill and I are throwing early Saturday night at Ruta Maya Coffeehouse. Five great Austin bands for just five bucks. That's a great band per buck (or for free if you're an infant). Regardless of how you spell it, it will rock.
The set order will be as follows: Super Pal Universe (acoustic) Mr. Leebot Telephone Company Laura Freeman Joe McDermott and the Smart Little Creatures
There's no better excuse to keep your kiddos up late than to have 'em dancing 'til 9 PM. Heck, even if you can only stay for an hour or so, it's a heckuva deal. For more details on these fine Austin artists, read on... Super Pal Universe, the brainchild of the wonderful Sara Hickman, are a group of kids that rock out (seriously, I saw 'em at AKL last year, and they were loud). But for this show, they're gonna drop it down a notch and play acoustic. You can watch a bunch of videos of the band here, or watch the stop-motion video for their theme song below:
Mr. Leebot brings together the sounds of They Might Be Giants, Devo, and Diana Krall... uh, OK, just TMBG and Devo. He's also the creator of this program's name. Check out his tunes on his Myspace page or YouTube page, or just watch the live video of "Ants in my Pants" from the same Ruta Maya stage he'll playing Saturday...
I wish I could describe the Telephone Company's music, but it's, just, difficult. Surreal and fun. Go to their website to watch their video for "Mustache," or, if you'd prefer, watch the documentary below. They played this show last year, and we're glad to have 'em back!
Laura Freeman played this show last year, but this year I think she's also bringing along Heather Jarry, so I think there will be some puppetry involved. It's a bit too simplistic to call Laura's music folk music... but I'm feeling lazy at the moment. Check out this live version of the awesome "Orange":
And last but not least, Joe McDermott and the Smart Little Creatures. I've seen Joe play a couple times (including this show last year), and he's a great showman. His kids-pop music sounds great with the full band. The video below shows some snippets of Joe playing solo, but he and the band are a great way to end the night of music.
Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 10:15PM 
I could describe Panda Brain!, the looooong-awaited second album from Austin's 
