Afterschool Special: The Terrible Twos in Concert (Presented by Zooglobble)

The Terrible Twos are releasing their new album Jerzy the Giant next week (have you heard it yet?) and to mark the occasion, they're doing some touring the next couple months. At the same time, chief Two (Number One Two?) Matt Pryor is also releasing his first solo record, Confidence Man and to mark the occasion, he's doing some touring the next couple months. Coincidence? Who cares! There's a show in Phoenix! Presented by Zooglobble (a phrase which I still can't say without chuckling a little). On Wednesday, August 20th, at 6 PM (doors open at 5:30) at downtown Phoenix's Modified Arts, you'll get to see the Terrible Twos in a special early show. It will be energetic, fun, and no small party. Tickets are $5, $3 for the kiddos. Other Terrible Twos dates after the jump.

World Premiere: Stream the New Terrible Twos (Jerzy the Giant)

Oh, boy, am I geeked about this. The Terrible Twos' great new album Jerzy the Giant is out next Tuesday the 29th on Vagrant Records and if you don't want wait for my review, or want to see what the fuss is all about, or just want to listen to the album, have I got a deal for you. Vagrant Records is allowing me to world premiere the stream of the entire album, and I wouldn't have said yes if I didn't think a lot of you were going to love it. Just click on a song track below to get started. Might I suggest #1 ("Old Man Miller")?... (And go forth and explore that player, it'll even allow you to post it on your own website -- or your kid's if you're that type of family.)

You can preorder the album here or here.

Back To Austin

It's true, folks, we'll be heading back to Austin in late September for this year's Austin City Limits Festival, and in particular, the Austin Kiddie Limits stage. Now I can engage in my own schedule-balancing as I try to figure out how to maximize my time at the AKL stage while not missing good shows elsewhere around the festival and simultaneously making sure my daughter is having a good time and not getting too tired. That's right, Miss Mary Mack will be joining me again, and I'm hoping she'll help her dad out a little more this year, what with her new-found experience as a returning festival-goer. We'll be staying with the Official Brother, Sister-in-Law, and Nephew of Zooglobble, since the Official Mom of Zooglobble will be out of town that weekend. We'll also be flying into Austin instead of Dallas, thereby saving us 3 hours of driving each. Yay! And, no, I am not the secret replacement for Brian Eno in David Byrne's set (probably my most-anticipated non-AKL set). But wait, there's more!

And Away They Go...

So Daron, Jack, and Drew are off on their million-mile cross-country Recess-Monkey-ish ciruit of the United States, and it turns out that if you head on over to Spare the Rock occasionally you'll get to hear the boys blogging their way around the country. No word if they'll eventually produce Hamlet at random, but at the very least you'll find out about their adventures as they make their way to Phoenix. That's right! Phoenix, people! Remember? I told you they're playing Phoenix -- Sunday, August 3rd, 3 PM. Modified Arts in downtown Phoenix. Do not miss this show! Don't make me use more exclamation points!

A Bad Day, Indeed

So by now I'm sure most of you have heard about Barenaked Ladies' guitarist Steven Page's, erm, difficulties. I thought about posting something, then decided against it, mostly because although you, the comfortably adult reader, probably had heard about it, your kids hadn't, and probably wouldn't. So it didn't really seem to, you know, affect you. But I thought the band pulling out of their Aug. 22-24 appearance at the Disney Music Block Party Tour at the Nassau Coliseum merited at least a mention...

Six Little Ducks Across the Pond (Readers Who Need Readers)

It's time once again for kids music's most irregularly scheduled feature -- that's right, it's time for Readers Who Need Readers. Readers Who Need Readers is that wonderful post where becuase I'm unable to provide a fully useful answer to a correspondent, I open the floor up to you, dear readers, to fill in my knowledge gap. This time we're answering a request from a Belgian resident who's says...

I'm trying to find good (English) music for my children of 1 and 3...and it's really hard to find anything else than noisy BBC "head, shoulders, feet & toes" type CD's. So I've started searching the net and have read already several of your reviews, thanks! But for various reasons I'm also looking for a source/reviews for British/UK based groups and musicians. No offence meant to you or American artists though!!!

There have been some good UK albums, but they've all been from "adult" artists making one-off albums (Colours Are Brighter collection, Saint Etienne, etc.). And although I've come across a few UK-based kids' musicians, none of them have particularly interested me. So help a bloke out -- any suggestions, either for Zooglobble-UK sites or for particular artists/albums you and your family particularly enjoy?