This Week: Actual Music Reviews!

Lo-fi! Country! Movie soundtracks! And, of course, Dan Zanes!

In the wake of replying to dozens of e-mails while the entire family got sick with various unpleasant ailments, my reviews of music took a back seat this week. But we're feeling better (mostly) and ready to rock this week. (Except when we're not.) Stay tuned, and thanks for reading.

Jamarama Reviews, Part Two

A few weeks back, I searched for some reviews of Jamarama's West Coast swing. An extensive newspaper review turned up nothing, but a few blogs provided a little bit of coverage. Since then, Jamarama had six more dates and completed their spring tour (no further dates have been announced).

The list of reviews on these second set of dates is once again slim and unfortunately none of them are nearly as interesting as, say, a behind-the-scenes view of the tour. Still, one takes what one can get... and, you know, the only one that goes into more detail than "Dan Zanes is awesome" in the midst of a whole bunch of stuff utterly irrelevant to this blog is Fran's review of the Dallas show. Lots of pictures.

I tried, people...

Baby, You Look Faaaaabulous

Ah, yes, late nights at nightclubs. Getting home at 4 AM.

OK, I never really did that, and I get up at 4 AM now to deal with a 9-month-old who's cutting teeth and recovering from a stomach flu simultaneously. But it's always fun to reminisce about the good old days that never were, including going out to discos.

Except now I can. If I, er, live in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boulder, and San Francisco, all of which have hosted or will soon host Baby Loves Disco events.

The concept?

DJs. Discos. Diaper changing stations.

That's right, now you can get loose on the dance floor with your very own kids dancing to (what I assume would include) tunes such as "Love Train," "Boogie Oogie Oogie," and -- why not? -- "Play That Funky Music." [Edit: Here's a sample playlist. None of the above, but "Ring My Bell," "Shake Your Groove Thing," and, yes, "I Will Survive."]

The sensible parent in me says, do we really want 4-year-olds to dance to disco music, which is not always the most child-friendly, lyrically? The fun guy in me says, this sounds like a lot of fun, and I bet my daughter would love it, too, assuming she wasn't too overwhelmed by the sheer visual and audio stimuli.

(Hat tip to the Semi-Official Ralph's World Message Board for the link.)

*****

Today I was also going to post something about Chica-go-go, which a kind reader alerted me to. It had a very Pancake Mountain-like vibe which intrigued me. (It also appeared that half of the Bloodshot Recordings label has appeared on the show.)

But in case of blog-mind-meld, Clea beat me to it, and wrote more than I would've anyway. So go there instead.

DVD Review: All Around the Kitchen! - Dan Zanes and Friends

Let me begin by saying, for the benefit of the newcomers to the site, that I if were trapped on a desert island with an iPod, and could pick just one children and family music artist to listen to (their kids' music only), it would probably be Dan Zanes. In part, this is a matter of material -- he's released 4 kids' albums and another 2 albums easily categorized as family music, so that's 6 albums right there. (Why limit yourself to just a couple albums?) But more importantly, to help me stave off going all Tom Hanks on the volleyball for as long as possible, Zanes' albums are eminently sane, hummable, and hopeful. They're albums I have no problem listening to when the kids are nowhere around.

Which brings us to his 2005 DVD release, All Around the Kitchen!. The DVD is a collection of his videos for Noggin and Sesame Street, along with some concert footage. Let's start with the videos. There are six of them, and by far my favorite is the Sandy Girls' rendition of "Go Down Emmanuel Road," which is an animated video for Sesame Street that shows the numbers one through five to nice anthropomorphic (numero-morphic?) effect. "Hello, Hello" for Noggin, is also animated (looking much like the Zanes/Donald Saaf book on which it's based). The other two Noggin videos are reminiscent of the Laurie Berkner videos -- the band acting goofy in front of a white background with shots of kids acting goofy in front of a white background. The final video, "Wanderin'," consists of concert footage and reminded me most of all those concert-footage videos by hair metal bands in the '80s (think Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive"). I doubt my kids will make that association, though... So that's six videos, 15 minutes, and your kids will probably like them.

The concert... well, I liked the concert, filmed at NYC's venerable Knitting Factory club in late 2004. The sound is great. It's well-filmed. But I don't know how much kids will love it. There are a number of crowd reaction shots where the kids are just sitting there, looking sort of like the audience in the Beatles' first Ed Sullivan Show appearance that wasn't crying uncontrollably. They're entranced, but they're not quite sure to make of 5 or 6 people up on stage making such a large sound. And so your kids may have the same reaction. They may get up to move more when Father Goose makes an appearance for the last 3 or 4 songs; in seeing the concert, I have a much better appreciation for what he brings to the band. The concert, then, is 9 songs, 30 minutes, and your kids' mileage may vary.

For those of you looking for an overview of Zanes' kids music, this isn't perfect, because 10 of the 15 songs come from Zanes' first two albums, with just 5 songs from his other four albums. Having said that, he hasn't changed his musical style much, and if you like the music on the DVD, you should definitely check out all his CDs. You can see a couple of his videos, including "Hello, Hello," here. It's a good DVD, but I recommend the videos more than the concert, at least for the kids.

Now... if I had a video iPod, would I choose Dan Zanes or They Might Be Giants? Hmmmmm...

Everything I Haven't Already Said

Tomorrow, I'll get back to the music, but a few more things I wanted to mention.

First, thanks for all the e-mails you've sent and blog comments you've left. I really appreciate all the artist suggestions (some I've heard of, some I haven't), CD submission requests, and compliments on the interview. (I was even somebody's driveway moment!) Please keep them all coming -- even if you don't agree with me, as long as you do it respectfully, I'm not going to delete the comments.

Second, thanks to Melissa Block and NPR for asking me to do the interview. It was really lots of fun, and, yes, I realize how lucky I am to have the opportunity.

Finally, well, let me start this way...

Nobody understands me,
though memmily blitt each day.
Nobody understands me,
but I guess zooglobble that way.

-- from "Nobody Understands Me," by Sandra Boynton and Michael Ford, from Philadelphia Chickens

In my original "Welcome" post from last week, someone left the following comment:

This all confuses me a bit. For me, as a parent, I take pleasure in seeing my child move to and sing with and enjoy music. The idea that I would want to pull my hair out because my child is taking pleasure in music by listening to the same track over and over (music that I perhaps don't enjoy well because, gee-I have 20 years of musical intake on my child) is ridiculous. I have a fear that the current kids music revolution (aka, "you will like it too!") is going to lead to a musically narrow-minded generation. Music programs are being cut across the country, and we have kids listening to hip hop and rock because their parents can't stand music that is really suitable for their ears AND for their development, World instruments, classical instruments, music that allows space to move and express oneself in a way that children should, is all being overshadowed by the notion that parents should like the same music as children who are generations younger than them. Its a silly thought if you ask me. When your child is 20 and listening to music you think is utterly horrible then you can say what you think about their taste. To say you hope to have a kid with better taste in music baffles me. They are kids! Do you also hope they have better taste in fashion? Hairstyle? Coffee? Wine? Let kids be kids and get the basics then develop their tastes. At 4 years old, take pleasure in their pleasure. To do otherwise would be selfish.

Now, when somebody tells you something you agree with (or 90% with) in a tone that suggests that you completely disagree, one wonders if, like Boynton and Ford's narrator, it's the speaker that's the problem.

So at the risk of further not being clear, let me state a few things that I might not have previously made clear here (or in the very tightly-edited 5 minutes on NPR).

1) Kids should listen to a broad range of music, including "world instruments, classical instruments, music that allows space to move and express oneself in a way that children should" -- could not agree more. Just because there aren't many reviews of world music or classical music albums on the website should not be construed as a lack of endorsement on my part for those types of music. We play those CDs for our kids, too, and I play violin and piano for my kids. (That's not even getting into singing, which we do constantly, in varying degrees of tunefulness.) I just don't have the critical vocabulary to talk about many of those CDs constructively. So that's why you're more likely to reviews of children's rock, folk, and pop music here.
2) Parents should take pleasure in seeing their children move to and sing with and enjoy music -- could not agree more. It's hard sometimes for me to turn off the CD player in the car or at home and just sing with my kids. But it's just as important to me that they sing and hear me or my wife sing as it is to hear musicians who are really good at it. And watching my daughter master a song (she's almost got "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music) or dance goofily gives me a wonderful feeling.
3) "To say you hope to have a kid with better taste in music baffles me." -- Nowhere have I ever said that I wanted a kid to have better taste in music. In fact, I agree with you 100%, and said so just last week. Trying to cultivate in your child a particular taste in music is a fool's errand, in my opinion (to say nothing of its appropriateness).
4) The one place I would disagree with the author is the implication that the parental enjoyment of the music is irrelevant. I firmly believe that it is possible to find age- and developmentally-appropriate music that both parents and children can enjoy (or, at least, that the children can enjoy and the parents will tolerate for long periods of time). I think I've reviewed a number of those CDs here. And I also believe that it is important that kids see their own parents enjoying their own music. If that means slipping in a Wilco or Matthew Sweet CD into the CD changer, so be it.

I mentioned this before, but I do encourage new readers to explore the links on the sidebar to find some different perspectives on children and family music. Devon has similar musical tastes, but has a more pedagogical perspective at Head, Shoulders, Knees, and all that.... Bill also has similar musical tastes, but a much larger CD collection, and plays them on his radio show at Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child. For a slightly more rockist approach, try The Lovely Mrs. Davis Tells You What To Think; for a definitely more rockist approach, try (Sm)All Ages. Plenty of good reading and musical suggestions.

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OK, enough about me. Tomorrow: Dan Zanes.