But in a good way.
News from MTV that Luscious Jackson -- best known for their 1996 album Fever In Fever Out -- will release a kids' album in the not-too-distant future. Frontwoman Jill Cunniff told MTV.com that they're seeking a label for the album. (Hello, Little Monster Records, are you listening?) In addition, they'll be performing "family concerts where parents can come with their kids, because a lot of our fans have kids now."
Now if only the Beastie Boys would do a kids' album.
(Thanks to Bill and the Pokey Pup for the heads-up.)
News: Stephin Merritt To Release Kids' Music CD, Tour
Someone who's both a reader and reviewee of this site pointed out this Pitchfork article from late yesterday which notes that Stephin Merritt (through his side project the Gothic Archies) will be releasing a CD to accompany the Lemony Snicket books. The Tragic Treasury: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events will be released Oct. 10 (not 13th as in the article) and include 13 tracks, one for each book in the series (previously released on the audiobooks), plus 2 new bonus tracks.
Merritt and Snicket (who looks suspiciously like author Daniel Handler) will be making musical appearances in bookstores across the country in October and November.
Merritt is a prolific artist (he's a man whose Magnetic Fields group once released a triple-CD album entitled 69 Love Songs -- the title described it perfectly), so I'm curious to see how he'll do with the discipline imposed by set texts.
Follow-up: Link to Nonesuch's album page, stream of 3 songs from the album.
More follow-up: Kelly at Big A little a has a link to an... odd Stephin Merritt - Lemony Snicket interview in the Guardian.
Please Release Me: September 2006 Edition
After a busy August calendar, things slow down a little bit in September:
Sept. 1: Mommy Says No! - Asylum Street Spankers (thanks, Bill, for the heads up)
Sept. 5: Snowdance - Erin Lee & Marci
Sept. 12: My Best Day (live album) - Trout Fishing in America
Sept. 12: Bright Spaces 2 - Various Artists (Dan Zanes-compiled benefit album)
And of course, there are always August releases I missed and October releases to look forward to.
Things That I Like
#453 - Welcome to Ralph's World CD/DVD available for pre-order.
Set to be released October 3, Amazon has the track listing as follows...
Disc: 1
1. Fee Fi Fo Fum
2. Puppy Dog
3. Dance Around
4. The Coffee Song
5. The Mighty Worm
6. Things That I Like
7. With A Friend (The Pooh Song)
8. Dinosaur Rumble
9. Peggy’s Pie Parlor Polka
10. All I Want To Do Is Play
11. At The Bottom Of The Sea
12. Animal Friends
13. Surfin’ In My Imagination
14. Happy Lemons
15. Riding With No Hands
16. EXCLUSIVE AMAZON BONUS TRACK: Sunny Day Rainy Day Anytime Band (Oooh, check out the awesome near-monopolistic power of Amazon.com! All hail Amazon.com!)
There will be plenty of time to offer opinions on the track selection (what else is there to review on what is -- sort of, in part -- a greatest hits collection), but they did pick a great leadoff track.
This 2nd disk would appear to be a disk of videos.
Disc: 2
1. Things That I Like
2. Dance Around
3. Dinosaur Rumble
4. Surfin’ In My Imagination
5. Mighty Worm
6. Puppy Dog
7. EXCLUSIVE AMAZON BONUS VIDEO: Happy Lemons (All hail Amazon.com!)
I think they're also releasing a separate DVD package (with more videos), but there's no pre-order for that yet.
Please Release Me: August 2006 Edition
I skipped July, didn't I? Slacker. Well, it would've been a short list (at the time, anyway). But August? August is shaping up as a little more crowded...
August 1: Go Baby Go - Baby Loves Jazz (Various Artists)
August 1: If I Could Be... - Meredith Brooks
August 8: A World of Music - Toucan Jam
August 8: What's Eatin' Yosi? - Yosi (national release)
August 22: Marvelous Day - Stevesongs (re-release on Rounder Records -- say that three times fast)
August 29: You Are My Little Bird - Elizabeth Mitchell (on Smithsonian Folkways)
But wait, there's more!
September will see the release of new stuff from Trout Fishing in America and ScribbleMonster (maybe).
And then there's October, October 3rd in particular, which is shaping up to be a very crowded release date. The third album from Milkshake, Play. [Edit: I've been told the album may come out just a leeeetle bit later.] The third album from The Sippy Cups, which has, hands-down, the best kids' music album name of the year, Electric Storyland. And the DVD/CD release from Ralph's World, Welcome to Ralph's World. Actually, I've seen that listed on various e-tailers' sites as both 10/3 and 10/10, so it could be either. We shall see...
Please Release Me: June 2006 Edition
The list of June 2006 children's music-related releases is pretty slim, at least compared to May 2006. So now that all the kids (except those in those newfangled "year-round" schools) are on summer vacation, the labels are, too? Ah, well...
June 6 - Cars Soundtrack -- Hey, it's got Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, and Randy Newman. That's enough to at least be worth further investigation. (To listen to 1-minute samples of each song, go here and click on "Music" up on the right-hand side.)
June 20 - Eric Herman - Snow Day. Releasing an album titled "Snow Day" on essentially the first day of summer is just cruel to those of us living in Phoenix. Setting that aside, you can listen to random tracks off all of Herman's CDs here.
July 5 - Rebecca Frezza - Tall and Small. Yeah, it's a July release, not June. Sue me, it was a short list.
Lots of stuff coming up this summer and into the fall.
