Jazzy Ash Goes NPR

"Where y'at?" This is, according to several sources, a New Orleans way of saying "hello." So a big "Where y'at?" to all of you who've found your way to this website looking for information on Jazzy Ash, AKA Ashli Christoval, and her new album of New Orleans-inspired music Bon Voyage in the wake of hearing my review on NPR's All Things Considered. (While I've been to New Orleans a couple times, I claim no expertise in N'Awlins language and will stop forthwith.)

You can -- and should -- listen to that review on NPR, but if you'd like, you can read my original review (similar in many ways to the NPR review) as well as read some thoughts from Christoval herself on those two Ellas I talk about in my review -- Ella Jenkins and Ella Fitzgerald.

Regardless of you're a new listener or longtime reader, thanks for stopping by!

Video: "I Made a Mess" - They Might Be Giants

The unstoppable march towards They Might Be Giants' new kids album Why? continues. ("Time... is marching on...") Today's TMBG Dial-A-Song treat is "I Made a Mess" and while as with many TMBG songs, its thematically ambiguous lyrics could fit on an album for kids or adults, lines like "No matter how much I wash / It looks even messier than / It did before / I'm making it worse / By trying to clean it up" sure sound like kids' album to me.

The only thing that gives me pause is that the video is filled with public-domain video clips and while it's cute and totally worth your kids' time (and yours), the band has tended to commission brand new animation and film for its kids DVDs. Maybe this is a song that won't make the final cut for Why?, which means we're in for one fine time...

They Might Be Giants - "I Made a Mess" [YouTube]

Video: "Q and U" - The Bazillions

Quick - I have a question for you.

Has there ever been a band quite as educationally questioning as the Bazillions?

Y'know? Because this is a new video for "Q and U," off their album On The Bright Side? Get it?

Forget this, then. I'm quitting.

The Bazillions - "Q and U" [YouTube]

Review Two-Fer: Mister G's "Los Animales" and Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band's "Adelante"

The first wave of Spanish-language kids music was essentially created by Jose-Luis Orozco and Suni Paz, who've been recording music in Spanish for young children for decades. (They continue to do, and you'll be hearing more from them in the months to come, but not today.)

The second wave of Spanish-language kids music was in the late 2000s and early aughts when there were a number of Spanish-language albums whose primary purpose was to, well, teach Spanish. Songs about counting, about animals, about... well, the things a 4-year-old might be learning about. While some of these results were reasonably sophisticated in their production and songwriting, they often put the learning in the foreground, limiting their appeal if your family wasn't specifically trying to learn Spanish.

The third wave might have started almost concurrently with the second wave, but as opposed to the second wave, which has petered out, has gained strength. Rather than using music primarily as a tool for learning a language, this third wave uses Spanish-language music and musical styles because... it's fun to sing and write in those genres. Unsurprisingly, the results, musically, at least, have been better, as illustrated most recently by two releases from this summer.

The first of the two summer releases is from Massachusetts-based Mister G. For Mister G (aka Ben Gundersheimer), his music has gradually taken on a more bilingual bent, and his latest album, Los Animales, is his third such album (to go along with three other albums which are primarily in English).

As you might guess from the title and cover artwork, this new album takes animals as its focus -- elephants ("Siete Elefantes"), frogs ("La Rana") and dancing ants (the excellent "Baila como las hormigas") all make an appearance along with other members of the animal kingdom. Almost entirely in Spanish, some of the songs are simple enough lyrically that no translation is needed ("Siete Elefantes" is a counting song), but others need translation if you're not a Spanish speaker, so I hope that the lyrics and translations get posted to the website soon. (Hint, hint.)

Musically, some of the songs, like the folk-funk of the leadoff title track, or the Americana bent of "Vamanos," have familiar musical textures, but Gundersheiemer and his co-producers Noe Benitez and Emilio D. Miler take full advantage of the trio's many friends in the recording community who make music in the Latin and Hispanic worlds. Some of highlights are the soulful "La Rana" and "Una Jirafa en Mi Casa" and the salsa-drived "Baila como las hormigas" (roughly, "Dance with the Ants"). (You can stream the 22-minute album, most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7, here.) Recommended.

As for the Los Angeles-based Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band, they, too, have gradually discovered the joy of recording in Spanish. Adelante is their seventh album, and third primarily in Spanish. Their first Spanish-language album, ¡Fantastico!, featured re-translated versions of some of their shiny English-language pop hits (and was co-produced by Noe Benitez), while the follow-up Aquí, Allá featured original songs and a somewhat more traditional sound. (I called the music on Aquí, Allá "indie-jano," or indie + Tejano.)

While I liked those two albums, Adelante, advances what Diaz is doing -- this album merges his unerring pop-hook sensibility with what happens to be Spanish-language lyrics. "Piñata Attack" is already a big hit, and features a sneaky surf-rock guitar line from Diaz himself, but that's hardly the only earworm on here. "Cuantos Tacos (The Taco Song)" deftly weaves Diaz's Spanish-language verses (featuring a lot of counting) with Alisha Gaddis' English-language counterpoints -- even if you know very little Spanish, her "That's a lot of tacos for a guy who wanted nachos" hook in the chorus gets the basic point of the song across. There's some updated '70s electronic funk ("Aquel Caracol"), hip-hop ("Guacamole Boy"), and new wave ("Cantaba La Rana" -- again with the frogs!).

While it's not entirely in Spanish -- there's more mixing of Spanish and English, some songs do need translation if you're not a Spanish speaker, so I hope that the lyrics and translations get posted to the website soon. (Hint, hint.) The 34-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9. Definitely recommended.

The third wave of Spanish-language kids music is really the wave in which an English-language family puts on an album not because they want to learn Spanish, but because it's fun or helps the child grow in a global sense. Both Los Animales and Adelante succeed on that score. Los Animales is more for the younger listener, Adelante is more for the pure dance party. I happen to like Adelante more, but that's mostly just personal musical preference. I'd be happy to have either of these albums pop up in a record rotation.

Note: I received copies of both albums for possible review.

Itty-Bitty Review: Plymouth Rockers - Rocknoceros

Plymouth Rockers by Rocknoceros album cover

Sufjan Stevens was merely trying to attract some media attention when he released Michigan and said he was going to record a song for every state, but it's still a great idea -- a series of albums featuring songs about every United State.

Washington, DC-area band Rocknoceros, celebrating 10 years of making music together, head into their second decade intending to succeed where Stevens merely joked. Inspired in part by Stevens' idea, their latest album Plymouth Rockers covers thirteen states, one river, and one general celebratory notion (a country-rock version of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America.")

Fifty states! What opportunity for musical exploration! And the trio do take advantage of it, featuring some island music ("Aloha," Hawaii, natch), bluegrass ("The Sunshine State," Florida), and some blues ("Louisiana") amidst the southern/country rock that's always been a genre staple. (Of special note, Williebob's nifty guitar work on their remastered version of "Texas.")

But of course if you're going to tackle one subject on an album, the key is whether it's interesting lyrically. At its best, the band gets at the states at a sideways angle -- the weather in "Would You Like To Visit Kansas?," the pirate sea shanty in "Mississippi River," and, in the album's best track, friendship in "I've Got Friends in New Jersey." (Not quite as sideways, though, as John Linnell's gloriously askew State Songs album.) The songs that are more travelogue in nature are duller in comparison. (If you go back to that interview, linked above, I think the band recognizes that they don't need every song to be that checklist of famous things in every state and that, it's probably better if it isn't.)

The songs will on the 37-minute album be of most interest to kids ages 5 through 9. Plymouth Rockers isn't a perfect album, and your kids probably won't ace their next geography quiz because of it. But as the leadoff to another 2 or 3 albums of state songs, it's a darn good introduction and collection of Rocknoceros-y pop tunes. Definitely recommended.

Note: I received a copy of the album for possible review.

Video: "Do the Math" - Ralph's World (World Premiere!)

Ralph's World Rocks and Reads album cover

Ralph Covert is a very busy man late this summer. He's curating the kids' stage at the first-ever Pilgrimage Festival in Franklin, Tennessee -- it's the last weekend in September and will feature Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Jazzy Ash, Laura Doherty, Farmer Jason and Ralph himself, of course. (Lots of parents will find the lineup not targeted at the kids pretty sweet, too.)

But beyond that, he's got a new album, Ralph's World Rocks and Reads, featuring a bunch of learning-friendly songs -- songs about reading, songs that have been turned into books, and my personal favorite, songs about math, with none more math-y than "Do the Math." And so I'm happy to present the world premiere of the animated video for "Do the Math." Personally, any song that talks about non-Euclidian geometry (and seems to do a decent job of describing it for 6-year-olds) is fine by me.

Ralph's World - "Do the Math" [YouTube]