Review: Ultramagnetic Universal Love Revolution - Mista Cookie Jar & the Chocolate Chips

Sometimes all you want is a lazy afternoon reading with your kid or playing Legos with them while rain gently falls outside.

This is not the album for those times.

Ultramagnetic Universal Love Revolution, the second album from Los Angeles' Mista Cookie Jar (and his backing band, the Chocolate Chips), is bright and shiny -- as chaotic a melange of sights, sounds, and smells as the boardwalk pier featured on the album's cover photo -- and intended to make you dance.

Just listen to the first track, "Inner Child Rock," and you'll have a pretty good idea whether the album is for you.  Mista Cookie Jar (AKA C.J. Pizarro) sings out his rapid fire lyrics while his daughter, 9-year-old Ava Flava, and Miss Mikyla chime in with background lyrics (their oft-repeated "We HEART you" is lodged in my brain for the next year at least), offset by the occasional "Let's get, let's get, let's get wild" bridge.  I find it nearly irresistible, but I admit that others might find it over the top.

There are some slightly less wild tracks -- in the liner notes for "Lover Not a Fighter," Pizarro said he "aimed to pilfer some of that Jackson 5 bubble gum-soul-funk-magic" and it's a worthy re-appropriation of the sound.  "Happy Place" is a sun-drenched groove that should be played loudly as the neighborhood kids jump around in the front yard slip-n-slide.  (If you or your kid want to double-down on the sonic craziness of "Inner Child Rock," I'd suggest tracks like "Lucas!" or "Best Day Ever EVER.") 

Lyrically... well, I think a sample from "Crystal Cave" illustrates where the lyrics sometimes go: "Inside ur heart there is a crystal cave / where the witches and the wizards invent their games. / They sew a string of sing-alongs / and tie them to the wings of swans / connectin' hearts to stars to cookie jars /in daisy-chain-trains!"  We are a long way away from songs about how to tie your shoe here, but it really fits in with the sound.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9.  You can listen to extended samples from the 43-minute album here.

As is the case with many good albums, Ultramagnetic Universal Love Revolution won't please everyone, and in fact some folks might downright dislike it.  But I think there are more than a handful of families who are going to absolutely adore the beats and rhymes and very palpable sense of love that pervades these dance tunes.  Me, I'm more in that second camp (and hope that everybody at least checks it out).  Recommended.

Review: A Potluck - Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band

Bright and sugary like a treat from a Parisian patisserie, here is A Potluck, the third (and second full-length) recording from Los Angeles-based Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band.

Diaz' songwriting strength has always been his knack for a catchy melody, the good pop hook reeling the listeners in.  The opening songs -- the Postal Service-aping "Lines and Dots," "On My Bike," and what sounds like a vocoder-assisted "Lemonade Stand" -- seem like they should be packaged with a diabetic warnings if listened too often on repeat, so sweet are the combination of the hooks, handclaps, and kindergarten-focused lyrics.  The rest of the pop-rock tracks from Diaz and his bandmate-now-wife Alisha Gaddis offer a little more sonic diversity ("Squirrelly the Squirrel," ska; "Monkey Jones," brass band; "Tres Ratones," a little Tex-Mex).

I wish some of the songs would be pared down (The run times for "Lil' Red Rooster" and "Lemonade Stand" of about three minutes could have been cut in half, creating quick, tart lemonade espressos of a song, for example).  And Diaz' lyrics have never been too multi-layered -- here they are as shiny as the music and with the exception of "Invisible Friend" don't really address kids' interior lives.  Which is fine, but if that's what you're looking for, you should move on.  Of course, if you or your kids want to dance or jump around the room -- something I'm all in favor of -- you are bound to find something here. (The songs on the 29-minute album are most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7.)

As I hope I've made clear, A Potluck won't change the world.  But it's a neat collection of some very nifty songs that should end up in your kids' rooms (or iPods) and Diaz's best family album to date.  Definitely recommended.

Review: A Little Love - Renee & Jeremy

Cover albums are, depending on one's perspective, the last refuge of scoundrels or a songwriter's tribute to classic songs.

Of course, that's an adult's perspective.  Such debates are nowhere to be found in kids' music, mostly because preschoolers don't truck in adults' notions of hipness and because the history of the genre has been one of handing down songs from generation to generation.  There's a reason why kids have been singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" for hundreds of years in dozens of languages -- it's because it's a damn good song.

And lullaby albums are especially susceptible to the cover treatment.  It's hard work crafting loving songs that are memorable (but not too memorable, because, hey, the kids are supposed to go to sleep).

One of the bands that have worked the lullaby seam quite well in recent years are the LA duo Renee & Jeremy.  Many of their chilled-out songs (especially on their debut It's a Big World) are mellow, modern gems of love.  So it was with a little trepidation I gave their new album A Little Love -- a collection of ten covers given a mostly down-tempo burnish -- a spin.  "They write a good song," I thought, "why would they want to record others'?"

Whatever their motivation, the resulting album highlights Renee & Jeremy's number one weapon in making parents weak at the knees and kids very relaxed -- their voices.  Jeremy Toback and Renee Stahl are the best vocal duo in kids' music, bar none, and it's the interplay and harmonies between them that turn what could otherwise be a collection of "why bother?" covers of overly familiar tunes into something much bigger.  "Daydream Believer," "Shiny Happy People," "Love" -- all songs I never needed to hear other than by their original artists, but which R&J give a sufficiently mellow spin and artfully draw out the lullaby-ish nature of the song to prove me wrong.  And in some cases, like their take on Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Give It Away" and Coldplay's "Yellow," they provide an entirely different perspective from the original, breathing new life into those songs.  Some of that is due to the arrangements, but much of the credit must go to duo's voices, which seem perfectly matched.

It's mostly a lullaby album (ages 0 through 5), but besides the parents, the 25-minute album will probably translate well to the toddlers' older siblings as a mellow-afternoon spin.  (You can listen to 90-second samples via the widget below.)

I expected to like A Little Love, but was surprised how much I ended up enjoying it.  It has nothing to do with the fact that they're covering songs of my musical childhood and everything to do with the fact that they're turning those songs into music of our collective childhood.  That, and the fact that I'm pretty sure I would buy an album of the duo singing anything, including the happy hour menu at TGI Friday's.  I actually have a lot of love for A Little Love.  Definitely recommended.

Video: "Happy Place" - Mista Cookie Jar & the Chocolate Chips

To call this video from Mista Cookie Jar and the Chocolate Chips sun-drenched understates the amount of sunshine that went into its making -- if it could convert the solar energy inside into electricity, it'd be a big enough carbon offset for an entire town.  It's for "Happy Place," the leadoff single from their new album Ultramagnetic Universal Love Revolution, out May 8th.  A lovely summer jam with a fun California-beach video to match.

Mista Cookie Jar & the Chocolate Chips - "Happy Place" [YouTube]

Video: "Yellow" - Renee & Jeremy

Renee & Jeremy's new album of covers A Little Love is out in a couple weeks.  It's good.  Really good.  (Stream some long-form samples at their website.)  But I can hear some hipsters saying, "Coldplay? Really?"

I'm sorry -- the LA duo (and Kindiefest showcaser's) cover of "Yellow" is gorgeous.  And their new video for the song, created by Jon Izen?  Just as much so.  If you don't like this, I feel sorry for you.

Renee & Jeremy - "Yellow" [YouTube via Huffington Post]