One final reminder: you have until tonight to enter our contest to win Freedom In A Box, the great new album from The Deedle Deedle Dees, for your local library or school. Not only will they get a new occasionally historically-themed album (and associated coloring book), Lloyd Miller (Ulysses Dee) will write (and record for the randomly-selected winner) an acoustic song on a historical event or person of your choosing. Who knows, maybe it'll be so inspired that it'll end up on the Dees' next album.
And then you can give that album to your local library or school. Enter now to win.
Review in Brief: ABC-sides - Uncle Widget
I like deadlines. Be it at work or trying to finish a review, it usually helps me to have a due date, however artificial, staring me in the face.
The same principle underlies the RPM Challenge, which challenged musicians to "record an album in 28 days, just because you can." It was a response to the 2007 challenge that led South Carolina musician Bryan Murdaugh to complete his second Uncle Widget CD, ABC-sides.
Murdaugh must work well faced with deadlines, too, because there are some pretty good cuts here. The leadoff track "Snack Time" has a nice Jack Johnson-goes-electronica feel while "Tickle Monster" relies on the riff from Golden Smog's "Corvette." The songs' themes will be familiar to any preschooler (or their parents) -- the titles alone ("Why," "Makin' a Mess," "Ready To Grow Up," for example) are a pretty clear indication of the concerns here.
One downside of such a quick turnaround time is that there might not be enough time to polish up the songs. Murdaugh plays all the music on the album, including programming the keyboards, drum loops, and occasional bleeps and bloops. (The press release name-checking The Postal Service is dead-on.) Some of the tracks with a more minimalist feel, such as "Ready To Grow Up," work OK, but others, such as "Rockinghorse Cowboy" just sound underproduced. (And the two more obvious message songs on the CD, "I Need To Share" and "I Wanna Help" fall into this latter category, which makes the message harder to endure.) The downside of the RPM Challenge is that it precluded taking another month or two, which could have been used to polish these songs either lyrically or musically.
Given the fairly direct topical aim at late-preschool-age kids, the 33-minute CD is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 6. You can hear samples from all the tracks at the album's CD Baby page or "Makin' a Mess" at Uncle Widget's homepage. [And, for those who care, it currently comes produced on a CD-R. Not a big deal to some, but might be to a few.]
While this is by no means a perfect CD, ABC-sides contains some really good songs. A lot of artists would be lucky to write and record that many good songs in a month. Given the opportunity to fine-tune his songs, Bryan Murdaugh's next Uncle Widget CD (the forthcoming Uncle Widget... Goes To First Grade) is probably one worth watching out for.Review: If You Ever See An Owl - The Terrible Twos
I posted my review of If You Ever See An Owl from The Terrible Twos nearly a year ago. I've had a long time to think about the record, and given that time, I haven't changed my opinion one bit -- it's a fabulous record, a hoot (pun intended) for kids and adults alike. It's getting its long-awaited national release on Vagrant/Poquito Records next week so I thought this was a good time to reprint (and update) my review.
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The Terrible Twos are a side project once removed. Singer-songwriter Matt Pryor, of the emo band the Get Up Kids, formed the New Amsterdams as a side project with a more alt-country sound. With The Terrible Twos (the New Amsterdams to a man), Pryor has shifted his subject matter back maybe 15 years, targeting the young nieces and nephews of the New Amsterdams fans.
And with If You Ever See An Owl, Pryor and his band have crafted an album that will entertain those nieces and nephews along with their parents and aunts and uncles. Melodically, it's reminiscent of alt-country/Americana-pop artists like the Old 97s, Rhett Miller, and early Ryan Adams, with some Death Cab for Cutie and hints of Wilco thrown in for good measure. (Obviously, it's most like the New Amsterdams themselves.) Acoustic rock of tempos both fast and slow, melodies wrapping their way around your brain. The uptempo "When I Get To Eleven," about a boy's acceptance of growing older, makes counting to 11 a lot more fun than it has any right to be. The love song to a little girl named "Vivian" is worthy of lovesick Miller or Adams. And "A Rake, A Broom, A Mop, A Shovel," just like They Might Be Giants' "Violin" turns a very angular song into something enjoyable.
Lyrically, the 32-minute album covers ground familiar to many kindergarteners -- math, burping and being polite, the problems of a birthday too close to Christmas ("Caroline, don't worry about birthday time / Don't think that on 22 / There's none for you / It's just not true" on the shiny "Caroline"). It's unclear if Barney was the inspiration for "We Can All Get Along With Dinosaurs," but a purple dinosaur stars in a treacle-free song about tolerance. Elsewhere the lyrics target the parents as much as the kids (the disappearing baby of "The Little Houdini," the kid in the driving "Pizza and Chocolate Milk" who says "Don't try to force me to eat vegetables I hate / You may think I'm kidding / That I won't win / If I keep screaming you'll cave in.") But throughout the album there runs a feeling of love and affection for the subject matter (and kids who serve as the inspiration) that distinguishes the album from many others.
Kids aged 4 through 10 are most likely to enjoy the subject matter and the occasionally slow-paced song. The Terrible Twos' e-card lets you listen to "Ladybug," "When I Get To Eleven," and "We Can All Get Along With Dinosaurs," while their Myspace page has "Ladybug" and three more songs. (Oh, and you can listen to samples of all the songs here.)
Due to unspecified release issues, the album was for a long time only available at New Amsterdams shows. I can only think of Wilco's troubles in getting their terrific album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot released after getting dropped by their own label. It took a great deal of effort before the album saw the light of day and attracted great praise, perhaps more than it otherwise would have. If You Ever See An Owl deserves not only a release but lots of fanfare to accompany that release, because this is an album that's going to make lots of kids and parents very happy. Now that it has the national release it richly deserves, let the happiness commence. Highly recommended.KidVid Tournament 2007 Champion: "Pieces of 8ight" - Captain Bogg & Salty
After a furious day and a half of voting from more than 100 readers, we have a winner in our first (and probably not last) KidVid Tournament:
PIECES OF 8IGHT! from Captain Bogg & Salty
Frances England's "Tricycle" put up a good fight, but when you've got one of that video's stars, England's son Liam, voting for the competition, well, you know you're facing an unstoppable force.
So the heartiest of congratulations from this landlubber to Captain Bogg's crew and to all the artists whose videos have amused us here the past few weeks. You have acquitted yourself admirably. I cannot offer you pieces of 8ight, but I can offer you my admiration.
I will be randomly selecting a winner from the voters in the final and asking which CD they'd like to receive.
Now, for one last time, your KidVid Tournament 2007 champion, "Pieces of 8ight," from Captain Bogg & Salty:
(And because what tournament would be complete without "One Shining Moment"?)
KidVid Tournament 2007 Reminder: VOTE!
If you haven't voted yet (and, frankly, with the number of times I've posted this, how could you not), go here and do so.
Lots of pirate talk, lots of tricycles, and a relative minimum of trash talk. (Heck, Frances and Captain Bogg voted for each other's videos, so, really, no put-downs needed.) Plus, you could win a free copy of one of the finalists' CDs.
Avoid scurvy, win the Tour de France in your underpants, and vote now.
Baseball Songs (Updated)
It's Tuesday, and my baseball team is undefeated. So it's not too late for me to update my list of baseball songs. But first...
My very first major league baseball game(s) were watching the Minnesota Twins in the Metrodome (for School Crossing Guard Day(s). Really). So I was excited to hear The Hold Steady have recorded "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (download at their Myspace page). It's exactly what you'd expect a Hold Steady version of the song to sound like -- half-spoken/half-sung, massive guitar solo. It's also got a shout-out to the Metrodome, which is fine, but maybe Craig and the boys aren't getting the Minnesota papers in Brooklyn -- the Twins are getting a new (open-air) stadium. (Watch MTV's video of Finn recording vocals here.)
It's also a good time to mention Ben Rudnick and Friends' new sampler album The Challenger Baseball Song and Other Hits, proceeds of which will go to benefit the Challenger Division of Little League Baseball. The title track is a zippy Rudnick-ian jam, and the other tracks are a good selection of the band's music. Learn more and listen to sound clips here and here.
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There are very few sports-related children's songs that come to mind. I can understand why, as sports like football and hockey require a lot of equipment and are typically for older kids (this is especially the case for football). Basketball and baseball are easier to play, perhaps -- less equipment, introduced at an earlier age. Since the major sports typically become mostly a spectator sport as we grow up, perhaps it's good that there isn't much children's music about sports since a song about watching other people do something is kinda depressing as a kids' song. (It does make me think that the genre of children's soccer songs is a niche waiting to be filled.)
Here goes:
-- "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (well, duh) -- try Wiggleworms Love You, from the Old Town School of Folk Music (nicely bipartisan, cheering for both the Cubs and White Sox)
-- "Baseball Dreams" -- off At the Bottom of the Sea, by Ralph's World (Cubs all the way in this one)
-- "I'm Gonna Catch You" -- off Under a Shady Tree, by Laurie Berkner (it has one relevant line -- "So I jumped into Saturday / And I had a baseball batter-day" -- yeah, I'm really reachin' here)
-- "Centerfield" -- off Centerfield, by John Fogerty (not kids' music, but a great song anyway). See also Visqueen's rendition on the forthcoming Desoto Records kidscomp Play!
-- "Talkin' Baseball -- off countless albums by Steve Cashman, who just re-records and updates his song -- baseball history lesson in 3 minutes
-- "Big Train" -- off the RTT's Turn It Up Mommy!. About Walter "Big Train" Johnson. I'd probably disagree that he's the best pitcher ever, but that's another blog. Good song.
-- "Right Field" -- Peter, Paul and Mary.
-- "Cryin' in the Dugout" -- off Daddy-A-Go-Go's upcoming Eat Every Bean and Pea on Your Plate album. A humorous song -- "Baseball Dreams" played for laughs instead of nostalgia.
-- "The Greatest" -- Kenny Rogers.
-- "Roll Around" -- Peter Himmelman, off of his My Lemonade Stand CD. A fun, rollicking song about a baseball who retires, then comes back to his calling.
-- "Baseball" -- Milkshake, off Play!. Guest-starring Cal Ripkin, Jr.
-- "The Challenger Baseball Song" -- Ben Rudnick and Friends. All about the Challenger Division of Little League, for kids with mental and physical disabilities.
-- "Baseball, Baseball" -- Stephen Cohen, off Here Comes the Band. [Good call, Gwyneth!]
And finally, an artist reviewed here on this very site wrote me to suggest four more songs, including at least one I'm miffed I forgot... the comments in quotes are the artist's, not mine.
-- "Catfish" -- off Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series. I am unfamiliar with this one. But it's Dylan.
-- "Joe DiMaggio’s Done it Again" -– Wilco and Billy Bragg, from their Mermaid Ave Vol. 2
-- "A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request" –- Steve Goodman – "Classic, and very funny." See "Talkin' Baseball," above.
-- "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" -- Brave Combo - "two very cool versions... wacky and fun." It's Brave Combo, how could it not be fun?
If any of you have more suggestions (or can point me to a family-friendly soccer song), leave me a comment.
