Austin City Limits Festival: Hey, We're Humid, Too!

The Austin City Limits Festival announced their 2006 lineup today and it includes kids music artists you might know such as Sara Hickman, Terri Hendrix, Joe McDermott, Imagination Movers, and Asheba.

Take that, Lollapalooza!

And just as with Lollapalooza, there are a good 30-40 other artists worth your time.

The 2006 edition will be held Sept. 15 - 17. And, as an ex-longtime resident of Austin, I can assure you that it could (OK, will) be just as humid as Chicago in early August. But the pace is much more relaxed. And you're right around the corner from Chuy's Barton Springs location...

(Of course, I post this knowing that the idea of families flying to Austin for the weekend for a concert festival is a bit, erm, far-fetched for all but the most devoted and affluent. But still.)

Review: Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang - Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang

Released in 2003, the debut self-titled CD from Los Angeles' Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang had its genesis in the 2000 movie Chuck and Buck.

Movies about stalking childhood friends 15 years later don't typically serve as the inspiration for forming a children's music band, but Beck drummer and music producer Joey Waronker asked unimonkered LA folk-rock singer Gwendolyn to contribute a song to the movie soundtrack -- out of that grew this entire album.

The entire album has the feel of a Saturday morning cartoon or kids' variety show. Gwendolyn sings with a somewhat high-pitched and nasally-pinched voice. In addition, there appear to be "characters" singing along on many of the songs (there are characters pictured on the CD case but the liner notes aren't clear). The entire thing just screams, "CUTE!"

As someone who tends to react allergically to cartoony voices and cuteness in general, I mentally prepared myself to actively dislike the album. It's a testament to the strength of the melodies and musical production that I can look past the characters' voices and focus on the melodic hooks.

Some of those hooks have lodged in my brain, and may never come out. "Anatomy" isn't much more than a spoken-word recitation of a whole bunch of body parts and their purpose, but the poppy chorus, "It's your anatomy," repeated nearly ad nauseum, is running through my head right now over and over. "Farm Animal Friends" has a nice loping country song feel to it. The song from Chuck and Buck, "Freedom of the Heart (Ooodily, Oodily)," isn't necessarily a kids' song, but it's got a kid-like feel and a very '70s pop sound and a chorus that goes "Oodily oodily oodily oodily oodily oodily fun fun fun." (I assure you, it's head-bopping.) The song "Little Monkey," for a character which appears to be an Elvis impersonator, has a suitably '50s Elvis-like sound. In addition to being catchy musically, the band (seven members in total) sounds good, too.

Lyrically, the 26-minute album deals squarely with typical preschooler concerns -- manners, sharing, washing, and bugs, among other things. The lyrics are direct ("Please" -- "When you say things with a smile / A little tiny inch becomes a mile / You can go far when you're cheerful / Because nobody likes someone who's tearful"). The earnest lyrics don't leave a lot of room for adult humor, but some sneaks in. (In the aforementioned "Anatomy," Gwendolyn mentions, "Hair / Everybody has hair / Well, except for my dad.")

Given the show-like approach of the music and lyrics, the album is most appropriate for kids aged 2 through 6. You can hear samples of music from their two albums and a full download of "Farm Animal Friends" here. You may want to double check that the characteristics of the CD I could see past you can see past, too. The album is available through their website or the usual online suspects.

Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang had all the hallmarks of being a CD I wasn't going to like at all, but very quickly it wore down my defenses. It's a fun little CD with great melodies that's likely to engage your kids. Recommended.

Train Songs

In honor of the release of Dan Zanes and Friends' Catch That Train! (review here), I thought I'd list a few songs about trains for kids.

(Note: references to the Island of Sodor will be summarily deleted.)

(Last updated May 23, 2006)

"Catch That Train!" - off of Dan Zanes and Friends' (DZ&F) Catch That Train!, of course
"Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" - also try DZ&F's Catch That Train!
"Wabash Cannonball" - many, try DZ&F's House Party
"Guysborough Railway" - try DZ&F's Night Time
"Rock Island Line" - try DZ&F's Family Dance
A whole bunch of songs on DZ&F's Parades and Panoramas
"Freight Train" - try Elizabeth Mitchell's You Are My Flower, also (reader-recommended) on Enzo Garcia's Breakfast with Enzo
"Little Red Caboose" - many, try Elizabeth Mitchell and Lisa Loeb's Catch The Moon
"I've Been Working on the Railroad - many, try Laurie Berkner's version on Buzz Buzz
"New River Train" - try Raffi's New River Train
"Choo Choo Train" - try Ralph's World's debut Ralph's World
"The Little Engine That Could" - try the Hollow Trees' self-titled debut (sorry, Greg!)
-- Yosi also has a "Train Medley" on Under A Big Bright Yellow Umbrella that includes some (if not all) of the songs listed above.
-- Reader BethBC also notes that James Coffey has an entire CD of train-related songs called My Mama Was a Train.

I'm sure there are more, but this is a decent start -- if you post 'em in the comments, I'll add them above.

Song of the Day: Rockin' the Suburbs (from "Over the Hedge") - Ben Folds

Ben Folds has five songs on the soundtrack to the upcoming animated kids'movie Over the Hedge. The soundtrack, to be released tomorrow, includes "Rockin' the Suburbs."

I know what you're saying, you're saying "Rockin' the Suburbs?" Could there be a more inappropriate song for a kids' movie soundtrack? Was "Brick" somehow unavailable?

To be fair, Folds has written new lyrics for the song. In its original version, Folds takes aim at Limp Bizkit and their fans with lyrics such as

Let me tell ya'll what it's like
Being male, middle class and white
It's a b----, if you don't believe
Listen up to my new CD
Sham on

And it only gets more profane and more angry from there, until it ends in a fury of cheesy rap-metal. It all seemed a bit too much; making fun of Bizkit and the attitude of their fans (even at the time) was akin to shooting fish in a barrel. Sleepy fish in a barrel. It was overkill, perhaps, but amusing, and fully thought out in execution.

So now for this new movie, which tells the story of some timid wood animals facing an encroaching suburbia, Folds has turned his aim from 20-year-old white males to, er, soccer moms?

Let me tell y'all what it's like
Watching idol on a friday night
In a house built safe and sound
On indian burial ground
Sham on
(Rest of the lyrics are here)

From there, Folds turns his aim to cookie-cutter suburban development and how houses all look the same. It's as if he thought that five-year-old kids have a working knowledge of Jane Jacobs, enough to nod sagely at the critique. It's a song lobbed completely over the kids' heads at their parents, and, sadly, it's not telling us anything we don't know. (You either agree completely, or don't care at all.)

Now, the song also includes a bizarre voice-over by frequent Folds collaborator William Shatner, which must be in character (Shatner does have a part), as Shatner rails on and on in the persona of a slightly too nosy neighbor. Again, vaguely amusing for the adults, kinda odd for the kids. And, most strangely, the song ends in the same cheesy rap-metal that's part of the original, only now it's devoid of any context.

I really like Ben Folds, and I'm sure he was excited to help out with a kids' movie soundtrack (as he has at least one child of his own), but this is one song mostly likely over the he...ads.

You can check out the Over The Hedge soundtrack website (with radio) here. If you think I'm gonna link to a Limp Bizkit song, you're nuts, but if you go to the Ben Folds Five website and click on "Music," you can hear my favorite Folds song, "The Battle of Who Could Care Less."

This Week: Not Mellow

I was going to call this "Have You Never Been Mellow?," but any week which leads off with Ben Folds probably renders that description moot. Drop by this week for him and other artists, well-known and not.

Oh, and in case you missed it, here's my review of Dan Zanes and Friends' Catch That Train!, which is released tomorrow. Regular readers probably don't need to be convinced, but it's definitely worth your time and money.