I hear you saying, "You and your "news." You're all Justin Roberts Meltdown this, and Laurie Berkner Starbucks that! How 'bout mixing it up for a change?"
And you're right, I have neglected other artist news recently. My bad. So here you go, three (mostly) fresh tidbits of info for ya...
1. Brady Rymer's 4th album has been out for a month now. Every Day Is A Birthday was released on February 10, 2006 and in addition to the regular songs, the album also includes what is intriguingly referred to as a "collection of brain-teasing, creative musical activities at the end of the album." Sounds like it'd be not-so-hot shuffled on an iPod, but kinda cool with the kids. (Also, Rymer's website is really cool.)
2. Eric Herman is preparing his 3rd album Snow Day for a late spring/early summer 2006 release. Go to the link above for info on pre-orders. His site also has some computer games, which I hear are all the rage these days.
3. Finally, Monty Harper also has an album coming out this summer -- Paws, Claws, Scales & Tales will have songs revolving "around the themes of pets and reading." Though lyrics are available, I think I'd rather be surprised to see how many songs deal with reading pets.
So there you go.
News: Yet Another Children's Compilation Record
Definitely not "For the Kids Three!"
Paper Bag Records announced its new compilation of music for kids, "See You on the Moon," with a list that (for the most part) only an indie hipster could love. Let's face it, when a member from Low (Alan Sparhawk) is the fourth-most recognizable name on the list (after -- and there goes my indie cred -- Sufjan Stevens, Broken Social Scene, and Mark Kozelek), this isn't exactly KidzBop 9 we're talking about. It will be interesting to see whether any of these tracks actually speak to kids.
The CD is released March 21, 2006.
Here's the tracklist, for those of you obsessed with that sort of stuff.
01. Alan Sparhawk - Be Nice to People With Lice
02. Great Lake Swimmers - See You On The Moon!
03. Sufjan Stevens - The Friendly Beasts
04. Montag - Kiddo 1
05. Apostle of Hustle feat. The Husky's - 24 Robbers
06. Junior Boys - Max
07. Broken Social Scene - Puff The Magic Dragon
08. FemBots - Under The Bed
09. Montag - Kiddo 3
10. Glissandro 70 - Voices are Your Best Friend
11. Mark Kozelek - Leo and Luna
12. Detective Kalita - Baby Brother
13. Montag - Kiddo 2
14. Hot Chip - I Can't Wake Up
15. Kid Koala feat. Lederhosen Lucil - Fruit Belt
16. Montag - Bonne Nuit Etienne
17. Rosie Thomas - Faith's Silver Elephant
Thanks to Stereogum for the heads-up.
News: New Dan Zanes CD Coming This May
Dan Zanes has, without a doubt, the best kids' music e-mail newsletter going.
Or, at least, it's the fanciest-schmanciest.
Occasionally it even includes bits of news worth passing along. His e-mail earlier this week includes this note from Zanes (or his e.e. cummings-obsessed PR-person/webmaster):
"the new dz and friends family cd is finished! it's called catch that train! it will be released in mid may. in addition to that old gang of mine which includes: father goose, barbara, cynthia, colin, yoshi, wunmi, and the rubi theater company, there are guest appearances by: the blind boys of alabama, nick cave, the children of agape, the kronos quartet, and natalie merchant."
So there you go. Nick Cave doesn't really strike me as a children's music artist, but neither did Philip Glass, and that turned out wonderfully on House Party, so what do I know?
News: Laurie Berkner's New DVD and Coffee
I got an e-mail from Laurie Berkner the other day. Well, technically speaking, it probably came from her webmaster and not from Laurie herself, but still. It said that the new Laurie Berkner DVD, We Are the Laurie Berkner Band, would be released on February 14 and come packaged with a 5-song bonus CD (4 songs previously released). And that would have pretty much been the extent of this post, except that I found the following article from Billboard, via the Arizona Repubic.
In the article, we find out that...
1) Starbucks is co-releasing the DVD through its Hear Music division.
2) It'll be available at Starbucks stores.
3) Berkner's albums have sold a total of 359,000 copies.
4) The DVD will feature a song called "Mocha Mocha Grande Latte."
(OK, I was kidding on that last point.)
News: Justin Roberts To Release Meltdown!, Two More Albums
It's not that I'm so excited about the new Justin Roberts record, but his new CD Meltdown! does include the exclamation point at the end of the title. Judging by the search engine results that bring people to this website, there's definitely some interest in finding out more about the CD. Well, the CD now has a March 21, 2006 release date, album cover art, and track listing. (See the cover art and track listing here.)
Another interesting thing you can find out by going to the above link is that Roberts has released another couple albums with his musical partner Liam Davis. Why Not Sea Monsters: Songs from the Hebrew Scriptures and Why Not Sea Monsters: Songs from the New Testament are the albums -- the titles seem fairly explanatory. (My favorite song title from the two CDs? "Nothing Much in Tarshish.") Although part of the website indicates the CDs were released in December 2005, the individual album pages don't actually allow you to, er, order the CDs, so perhaps that's jumping the gun a bit.
In any case, Justin Roberts fans (and I'm one of them) will have a lot of Roberts music to choose from in 2006.
News: Justin Roberts Preparing Early 2006 Release
There was a nice little article in Friday's Chicago Tribune on Justin Roberts' approach to preparing for a concert. Since he often sings in the morning, he "relies heavily on caffeine, starting his morning with a bowl of cereal with soy milk and several shots of espresso," a pre-concert routine that is, I suspect, not that of a typical rocker's.
The article notes that he's currently recording songs for his next album, Meltdown!, for an early 2006 release.
