Another month, another new track from Mista Cookie Jar. This time, it's "The Way We Gets Down," and it's a celebratory track jazzy/hip-hop hybrid with a hint of New Orleans in the mix (perfect for Mardi Gras, right?). With lyrics like, "Hi to all my hybrids / maximizing hyphens / Duck-billed platypi / confounding bio-science / Oh, what a riot! / It's categorically defying," it's very much in MCJ's wheelhouse.
Mista Cookie Jar - "The Way We Gets Down" [Bandcamp]
Based on the lyrics and video for "Gravy Insane," the brand new song from Gustafer Yellowgold, perhaps the follow-up to the excellent Gustafer Yellowgold's Wisdom Tooth of Wisdom will explore slightly darker paths. The song recounts how Gustafer's forest friends become gravy gluttons, keeping in line with the Gusta-verse's previously established food obsessions ("I Jump on Cake," anyone?).
Then again, reminders that bats can't drive cars are inherently humorous, IMO.
Gustafer Yellowgold - "Gravy Insane" [YouTube]
There aren't a lot of musical niches that haven't been invaded by the kids music world, but glam rock is one of the more sparsely used genres.
I really dig, though, the brand new song "Neon Nursery" from Buni Kimono, which is the brainchild of Boston-area musicians Gabrielle Brennan and Jake Brennan, who co-wrote and performed the song as a "passion project" for their son's first birthday. The birthday party had a "record release" theme, so OF COURSE they wrote his first single. (I mean, right?)
It's just a fun song, which you can stream and download for free below. Here's hoping there's a second song and no sophomore slump. (They've only got a year to write and record the follow-up, right?)
Buni Kimono - "Neon Nursery" [Bandcamp]
Two books, two very different celebrations of two very different men from Candlewick Press. Or how very different were they?
Jubilee! features the subtitle One Man's Big, Bold, and Very, Very Loud Celebration of Peace, and from that wordy subtitle you may not be surprised that the book focuses on a story from the last part of the nineteenth century, when florid descriptions ruled the day. Author Alicia Potter recounts the story of Irish-born bandleader Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, creator of the National Peace Jubilee in 1869, which he conceived of to celebrate the return of peace at the end of the Civil War.
I was completely unaware of Gilmore and his Jubilee, and so I found that Potter does a good job of maintaining narrative tension in the story. If you, too, are unfamiliar, after reading the story you might wonder why, as it involved the construction of a building (the Temple of Peace) which stood 500 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 100 feet tall at its highest point. Or you might be amazed that a concert featuring a thousand musicians (including a hundred firemen hammering time on anvils) and ten thousand singers has faded from historical view. Potter's text is accompanied by clear, detailed illustrations from Matt Tavares, who nicely captures both the small-scale scenes (Gilmore, awake at night from worry about whether the concert will come off) and the very large-scale scenes.
Jubilee! will be most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9 (the text itself is probably more for kids in 2nd grade on up, but the pictures make it appropriate for reading to those younger than that). While the Jubilee itself was a celebration of peace, this book is a celebration of grand plans and the ability of music to capture the imaginations of tens of thousands of people.
America has long been a nation of immigrants who've fully embraced, and been embraced by, their new country -- see Gilmore, above -- but does that apply to those who visit from other planets? Two-time Caldecott Medal winner Chris Raschka's new book The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra captures in impressionistic illustrations the life of Herman P. "Sunny" Blount. If you know Blount, you probably know him as Sun Ra, the musician and poet (among other things) who claimed that he was from Saturn.
As Raschka writes in the start of the book, "No one comes from Saturn. And yet. If he did come from Saturn, it would explain so much." The story Raschka tells is of a person who fully embraced life and the many opportunities in America. He played piano, leading his own ensemble before leaving high school, and was one of the first musicians to use electronic keyboards. His band, the Arkestra, made its own clothes.
If it seems like Ra was a little out of the mainstream, you'd be right, and Rashka's text celebrates that "follow your own drummer" path without glossing over the difficulties (one of my favorite lines in the book: "One disadvantage of coming from Saturn, though, was that Sun Ra could never really understand or care too much about money. The New York landlords, on the other hand, did, and kicked the Arkestra out…"). Raschka's watercolor and ink illustrations contain riots of color and feel true to life even if they aren't completely faithful to "real life." This artistic choice is perfect for Sun Ra, known for his eclectic jazz compositions.
The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra will appeal most to readers ages 6 through 10. It's not a huge book, dimensions-wise, and the swirls of color rather than precise drawings may make this book better enjoyed side-by-side than shared with a classroom of kids for optimal appreciation.
Both these books celebrate musical heroes whose names will be unfamiliar to kids and probably their parents. In their own distinct ways, they honor the memories of these two visionaries. Recommended.
Note: I received copies of both books for possible review.
First off, no, that's not a misprint -- the sixth Gustafer Yellowgold album really is called Gustafer Yellowgold's Wisdom Tooth of Widsom. The extra "wisdom" is for, er, wisdom.
Yes, that's a deliberate pose our favorite yellow alien from the sun is striking on the DVD cover, as the story inside deals with his search for wisdom.
As creator Morgan Taylor has run out of the original batch of songs that made up the first few Gustafer DVDs, individual DVDs have become more unified in structure, songs organized around a single principle. Wisdom Tooth of Wisdom is the first DVD, however, in which I felt like there was something at stake in the story. Rather than just illustrating a personality quirk (e.g., "I Jump on Cake," still a classic GY song), the songs here help move along a plot that sees Gustafer struggle with giving up something that's important to him and what the true source of wisdom is. His external journey -- finding the source of the titular tooth -- is matched by an interior journey.
Of course, the heart of any Gustafer DVD is still the music, and it's every bit as '70s-soft-rock-with-a-hint-power-poppy as ever. (That's a good thing, natch.) "Telephone Called" is a bit of Broadway jangle-pop, followed by the fuzzed-out and hand-clapped strains of XTC heard in "It Suits You." (Yes, the DVD case suggests that XTC reference, but darned if it doesn't hit the nail on the head.) One of my favorite tracks, "Toothloser," sounds to me like Billy Joel at his early '80s narrative best, with "Secret Fox" a wistful follow-up. Other strong tracks in "I Can't Feel My Face" (shout-out to Billy Shears!) and "Yawn," the first song I've heard that actually tries to be yawn-inducing. The music might have some odd lyrical references if you're not familiar with the video, but the music isn't dependent on the visuals for your enjoyment.
As always, the animation -- featuring Taylor's own art -- is minimal, more moving picture book, but it's the most technically-proficient video yet, often beautiful to look at. (There's a scene near the end where somebody's recording a meeting on a cell phone, and you can see the characters on the tiny phone's screen doing exactly what the actual characters are doing.) The videos themselves have some nice jokes for the adult (or smart kid) to appreciate in addition to the broad humor in many of them.
The video is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 10. You can watch a preview of the 41-minute DVD here. The DVD includes a couple bonus features (a 6- minute guitar lesson with Taylor for his hit "Cakenstein" and a 20-minute documentary about the making of the DVD) and more importantly, a 30-minute CD with all 10 songs from the video.
Now that Taylor has been living with Gustafer in his head and on the screen for more than a decade, he's had some time to stretch what he's going with the character and his world. This is all to the good, and makes me that much more excited about the next Gustafer video, already in the works. The music is definitely recommended, as good as ever, and the DVD is highly recommended, the best Gustafer Yellowgold video yet.
Note: I was provided a copy of the DVD/CD for possible review.
I think Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke are pretty awesome. From the very first time Wilde e-mailed me a link to some music that would eventually become their 2010 debut Rise and Shine, I've shouted their praises.
Of course, the New York-area duo have been slow, almost agonizingly so, in releasing music into the world. That 2010 album appeared three years after Wilde first posted his music, and since then they've just released one other full-length, the outstanding Pleased To Meet You, and a Christmas-themed EP.
High expectations plus long waiting period equals for me a recipe for potential disappointment with Animal Tales, the fall 2014 album from the duo. So if I say this is my least favorite KWMC album, you shouldn't interpret that as "it's a bad album." On the contrary - Animal Tales is very good. As you might expect from the album title and cover art, it's a themed album, a baker's dozen of songs about animals with varying amounts of lyrical similitude. "Bear Song" is a straightforward recitation of the different kinds of bears, while "Armando Armadillo" is a little more fanciful, a song that echoes traditional Mexican music and which gives the title character a wife, a dozen kids (all named), and a job (gardener at a nursery). The record's most abstract and least "factual" songs, which close out the album -- the instrumental "Hippo Dance" and the parable "Animal Island" -- are my favorites.
When I try to pinpoint why I didn't react quite as strongly to this album as I have their other work, the best explanation I can come up with is that it's definitely less raucous than their previous albums, with no rave-up song like "Favorite Names," "The Rattling Can," or "Bigga Bagga" in the mix. It's unfair, I know, to complain that this album is more Johnny Cash than Johnny Rotten just because our family (not just me) has found the punk side of KWMC the side that's stuck in our brains most often.
The album is most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9. You can listen to the 39-minute album here. And while the album packaging isn't as elaborate on their debut, that cover art from Wilde himself is again another argument for physical copies of music (or, perhaps, a vinyl-sized mp3 player/smartphone for listeners to explore the illustration).
Would I recommend Animal Tales as the entry point to Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke to a family unfamiliar with them? No, but that's only because the other two albums have wiggled their way into our families' consciousness so much and because this album gives the punk side of the duo short shrift. But would I recommend Animal Tales? Heck yeah. Definitely recommended.
Note: I received a copy of this album for possible review.
Zooglobble
Zooglobble helps you find kindie music -- news, videos, mp3s, reviews -- for your whole family.
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