Song of the Day: Spaghetti (Twist and Twirl) - Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer with Brave Combo

I heard "Spaghetti (Twist and Twirl)" today and I remembered how much I like the song.

So much so, that I've decided to start a "Song of the Day" series -- we'll see how long it stays "Song of the Day" before it becomes "Song of the Week" or "Song of the Lunar Cycle" -- and inaugurate it with this song.

To call Brave Combo a "polka band" seems to sell them short a bit -- they are a whirlwind of musical energy. Paired up with long-time children's music artists Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, their 2001 album All Wound Up! is a bundle of enthusiasm and lots of fun. Without a doubt, though, the standout track is the penultimate song, "Spaghetti (Twist and Twirl)." The song is about a chef at an Italian restaurant and his frustration with the kids who want nothing more from his talents than plain old spaghetti. Lyrically, it's amusing to the adults and empowering to the kids, who can sing "Spaghetti!" or "Twist and Twirl!"

But it's musically that this song really gets me. Its energy is infectious -- it's great for dancing foolishly with your kids. And sonically... for most of the song it's the bass line with the melody above it, a different melody each for the verses and the chorus and the bridge, and then near the end they sing the chorus and the bridge simultaneously. To top it all off, at the very end they add a fourth musical line out of nowhere but that fits perfectly.

Really, it reminds me of the New Pornographers' "The Laws Have Changed," one of my favorite songs, in the overlayering of musical themes. A whole album of songs like that would just leave me incapacitated for days afterward. It's best taken in limited doses.

You can hear a snippet of "Spaghetti (Twist and Twirl)" here. Links to audio and video of "The Laws Have Changed" are here.

Review: Curious George Soundtrack - Jack Johnson

I've never been a big Jack Johnson fan. Didn't dislike him, but just found his folky-guitar-based music too... languid for my tastes. As a result, I didn't necessarily have high hopes for his work on the soundtrack to the movie Curious George.

I needn't have worried. The Curious George soundtrack is a solid album of (mostly) children's music that appealed to me and will appeal to the kids.

The songs most likely to be enjoyed by adults and kids simultaneously are the ones where the band shakes off its (to put a negative spin on it) lethargy and really gets moving. The "3 R's," which rewrites "3 Is A Magic Number" into a celebration of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," is a full-out jam that is destined to become a classic children's song recording. "Jungle Gym" and "Upside Down" are a couple other songs that move briskly and entertainingly. (The cover of the White Stripes' "We're Going To Be Friends," like the movie itself, polishes off the sharper edges of the source material. It's OK, but not revelatory.)

Johnson had to walk a fine line between entertaining his adult fans and engaging the young viewers and listeners. When Johnson throws his adult listeners under the bus to focus on the kids, he's written some great children's songs. "The 3R's" and "The Sharing Song" are superb examples of this. On other tracks such as "Upside Down" and "People Watching," Johnson neatly straddles that child/adult line with lyrics that can be read on multiple levels. (And, indeed, "Upside Down" is getting played on all kinds of different stations.)

Where the album fails slightly as an album is with the slower, more wistful tracks. "Wrong Turn" is a lovely song, and in the movie itself, it works quite nicely. But lyrics like "And I would like you to know / Although it seems sad to say / This was only the worst hour of my day" do seem a bit heavy for the youngest kids. A couple other tracks fall into this category.

Reading back on this review, the tone is a bit harsher than my overall feelings about the album. It's a good album with a few great kids' songs, and unless you dislike Jack Johnson's music, you're going to like this album. It's best for kids 3 through 7 and it's available darn near everywhere.

And as for your kids, well, if they're anything like my daughter, they'll say, upon first listen of the CD at home, "Hey, that's the Curious George music!" When I asked if she remembered it from the movie, she said, "No, we heard that at preschool!" I have a feeling her classroom isn't the only one with a copy...

Spring Songs

Today was the first full day of spring. In most places, it's time for the onset of spring fever, but in the Arizona desert, it's a warning that the good times will soon come to an end. Temperate weather will soon be a distant memory. Our front flower bed can only go downhill from here.

I tried to find some songs about spring in my collection, but pretty much came up empty. Winter has no shortage of songs, as snow and the [pick-your-religion-winter-celebration] lend themselves to songwriting. The other three seasons have fewer songs (I can only think of Laurie Berkner's "What Falls in the Fall?" from Whaddaya Think Of That? as a specifically autumn-related song), but spring I think is particularly deficient. What happens in the spring? Not much visibly, compared to autumn (falling leaves) or summer (general goofing off).

Here, then, is a list of spring-ish songs. Flowers and bugs and a little rain. Rain isn't necessarily for spring alone, but we've gone without much rain this winter and spring and so it's a bit of wishful thinking.

Raffi, "Robin in the Rain" (Singable Songs for the Very Young)
Elizabeth Mitchell, "You Are My Flower" (You Are My Flower)
Laurie Berkner, "In the Clouds" (Buzz Buzz)
Elizabeth Mitchell, "Ladybug Picnic" (You Are My Sunshine)
Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell, "Butterfly" (Catch the Moon)
Ralph Covert, "The Ants Go Marching" (from Songs For Wiggleworms)
Dan Zanes and Dar Williams, "Wild Mountain Thyme" (Night Time!)
Dan Zanes, "On the Sunnyside of the Street" (Rocket Ship Beach)

I suppose there's always XTC's "Grass" or the Talking Heads' "(Nothing But) Flowers," but those aren't really for kids for assorted reasons, now are they?

Review: Wiggleworms Love You - Old Town School of Folk Music

In the mid-80s, the writer/director John Hughes produced Pretty in Pink, in which the less-than-upper-middle-class main character (played by Molly Ringwald, natch) has to decide romantically between her best friend Ducky and a boy from the "right side of the tracks." To many viewers' great chagrin -- how could you not pick Ducky! -- she picks the golden boy. A few years later, Hughes basically rewrote Pink as Some Kind of Wonderful and reversed the ending, with the main character picking his from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks best friend as his romantic partner. It's a much more satisfying ending.

What does this have to do with Wiggleworms Love You, the 2005 album from the Old Town School of Folk Music. OK, aside from the fact that both Hughes and the Old Town School are associated with Chicago. Well, this new album is sort of like the "golden boy" character with all the advantages compared to the poor original, Songs For Wiggleworms. The first album sounded like it was recorded in an actual Old Town classroom, with time constraints reminiscent of parent-teacher conferences. ("I'm sorry, it's 6:45, it's time for the Sweeneys.") Very few of the songs had anything more than voice and acoustic guitar.

This new album is greatly expanded sonically. It sounds much better, and the instrumentation is, on some tracks, surprisingly full. Percussion, bass, stringed instruments of all kinds (banjo, mandolin, fiddle) -- heck, there's an accordion on seven tracks. It sounds much more like a "folk music" album. (All of this may be the result of the fact that an honest-to-goodness record company, Bloodshot Records, released the CD.)

So why wouldn't you want this CD? Well, you would... if you already had Songs For Wiggleworms. The problem is that they already got most of the great tunes on the first CD. There are fewer of the great "oh, I'm gonna sing that to my young'uns" songs. There are maybe 12-15 songs that meet that criteria on the CD, or about 1/3 of the 42 songs on the album. The other songs are obscure to varying degrees, usually dependent on how familiar you are with the early Raffi oeuvre. (I can't believe I just used the phrase "Raffi oeuvre.") That's not to say that there aren't some great tracks on the album -- "If I Was a Bird," the meta-rave-up "Mama Don't Allow," and the tailfeather-shaking "Looby Loo" are three standouts. But unlike the first CD, on which the listener could sing virtually every song, many without the CD, this CD may be great to listen to but isn't necessarily as user-friendly for taking that out into the daily world with your child.

This sounds like a mixed review, but it's really not. It's just that I think the first album's ragged charm is just so perfect for its intended use that this more polished sequel slightly disappoints. If you already have Songs, I recommend Wiggleworms Love You wholeheartedly. If you don't, I think the first album is the better starting point. The CD is for children aged 0 through 6 and is available through the links above, plus the usual online suspects.

News: New They Might Be Giants Album This Spring

Via TV For Tots (which I've been following for awhile, and needs to be added to the sidebar soon) comes this article on music videos for kids.

I remember when "music videos for kids" meant "kids watching MTV." But I think we're probably way past that point, aren't we? (Remember A-Ha's "Take On Me?" I think I'd probably let my daughter watch that, even with the small bits of stylized violence. Maybe there's something on MTV or MTV2 today I'd be comfortable with. But that would require me to actually watch MTV or MTV2.)

In any case, besides the article itself, which is kind of interesting, there are a couple news bits buried within:

1) Yes, indeedley-doodley, Ralph's World has signed with Disney. Do I know how to read between the lines or what?
2) They Might Be Giants is preparing the follow-up to Here Come the ABCs entitled, naturally, Here Come the 1-2-3s. It'll be another CD/DVD combo.