New Music from Johnny Bregar

Dragonfly.jpg It's been a little while since we've heard from Seattle's Johnny Bregar, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been busy, and he's got a new album out to prove it. On Election Day (Tuesday, Nov. 4th), he'll be dropping his third CD, Dragonfly. Check out that sweet cover art by Kelly Angelovic. Here's the track listing...

New Wee Hairy Beasties For The Holidays

Word from Sally Timms (AKA Monkey Double-Dippey) that the Wee Hairy Beasties will have not one but two albums coming out in the next 2-3 months. The first is Creepy Lullabies, a double 7" single which will be released Oct. 14 on their own, new Wee Beatz Records and credited to -- get this -- the "Wee Scary Beasties." Ha! Timms promises "songs about lonely vampires, monsters busting a move, and a... veggie-patch dweller named Pumpkinhead." It's on vinyl, but there will be digital downloads available for those of us who aren't hip enough to have kept their record player. (You know what, they totally need to start releasing kids' songs on this kind of vinyl.) The second album is a Christmas/holidays-themed album, which I believe will bypass the vinyl stage. Because I love you guys, I'm gonna give you some recently-recorded Wee Hairy Beastie YouTubage... And one more "Wild Thing"...

Celebrate Inauguration Day With Robbert Bobbert

I don't know the political leanings of Robert Schneider of The Apples in Stereo, but Little Monster Records will be releasing his debut children's music album as Robbert Bobbert -- Robbert Bobbert & The Bubble Machine on January 20th, 2009. That's right, Inauguration Day. No word if Barack Obama or John McCain (or, for those of you a little more third-party-ish, Bob Barr or Ralph Nader) will ask Schneider to play the inauguration balls, though perhaps "We R Super Heroes" (track 2) might be appropriate. The album will also be available for the holidays via digital distribution on November 28, 2008, thereby making the "Fall 2008" claim reported earlier this year reasonably accurate. Here's the tracklisting...

ACL Fest (Austin Kiddie Limits) 2008: The Festival in Video

As I'm starting to wrap up coverage of the 2008 Austin City Limits Festival and the Austin Kiddie Limits stage, I thought it might be nice to add some video to go along with the pictures and words I've been posting. So read on ahead for a whole bunch of sights and sounds (simultaneously) from this weekend's activities. Not just the usual suspects -- the Jimmies and Uncle Rock and Buck Howdy -- but also some other artists and other stages...

ACL Fest (Austin Kiddie Limits) 2008: Day 3 Report

AbigailWashburnACL08.jpgAfter two days of hanging around mostly with Miss Mary Mack at the Austin Kiddie Limits stage (not to mention the Family Music Meltdown 2), I thought it was important that she experience some other genres of music in other parts of Zilker Park. So after getting to the park after noon, we went over to the AT&T stage on the east side of the park to catch Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck. I thought she might dig the violin and banjo action. It was also early enough in the day that I felt like I could put her on my shoulders without offending the people behind me (because, at 12:30, I could still get close enough to feel, well, close, even at the back of the non-chair-sitting crowd). Washburn has spent a number of years in China, and so when she sang Chinese folk songs in a bluegrass arrangement, it didn't sound anywhere near as pretentious as you might think reading that description. In fact, it sounded, well, cool. But by about halfway through their set, we were getting hungry, so we left as the quartet riffed their way through "Eleanor Rigby."

ACL Fest (Austin Kiddie Limits) 2008: Day 2 Report

UncleRockACL08Day2.jpgWe made it! To Day 2! After a nice breakfast/brunch with the family, Miss Mary Mack headed back out to downtown Austin, snagged a shuttle, and made it to Zilker Park in time for most of Uncle Rock's Saturday set. I figured that since Saturday would involve not only ACL but also aftershows (i.e., Family Music Meltdown 2), we could get there a little late. Unfortunately that meant missing Jambo's set, but since we'd seen him Friday (not to mention last year), I figured that'd be OK. Uncle Rock's set contained some music from yesterday's set (the superhero medley, for example), but also some new stuff (compared to Friday), but because I'm not the assiduous set list chronicler that Gwyneth is, I couldn't tell you what that new stuff was. Here he is performing with Abu from the Lannaya Dance Troupe that's been showing off African dance during the breaks all weekend. He did wear his big black shirt, which, I gotta tell you, must have helped him sweat off a bunch of fluid, because it was slightly warmer Saturday...