I talked to Dan Zanes very briefly at KindieFest 2009, and he was pleasant as he's been every time I've met him, but did he mention anything about The Fine Friends Are Here, his upcoming DVD? Nosiree. Even though the live DVD (featuring Dan and his current band playing 14 songs) was filmed where we were talking, Brooklyn's Jalopy Theatre. Also including three new videos and a lot of other goodies, I think this is going to be a fun collection for the tens of thousands of folks who've seen him live over the past year or two. (Though how they managed to fit cameras in amongst the bands on Jalopy's tiny stage is a mystery to me...)
We Are The Not-Its, and We'd Like To Show You Album Art
Skating in with their new album later this summer (you'll understand what I mean in a moment) are Seattle's The Not-Its. We've been talking about them for almost a year now, but now their debut album We Are The Not-Its is just about ready to go. Besides the music, what I like about the band is that while I know they've been pushing to get the album out to the world, it hasn't been at the expense of other things, like album art. For their debut they partnered with Seattle design firm Invisible Creature for the album art, and it looks reeeeeallly cool.
Track listing and album art (the skating reference will become self-evident) after the jump.
They Might Be Giants: The Little League Team
This, my friends, is a Genius Idea. I mean, as Flansy says, "If a pizza parlor or a super market can sponsor a team, why can't a rock band?" So now a Little League team in Seattle (named They Might Be Giants, natch) is outfitted with a whole bunch of No!-themed bright yellow t-shirts. What's better is that They Might Be Giants will make the same offer to 10 other teams (go to the link above for further details).
Almost makes me wish we played t-ball in the 116-degree summer heat here in Phoenix. Obligatory TMBG/kids/baseball-related video after the jump.
Sing Along With Lloyd
That would be Lloyd Miller of the Brooklyn band The Deedle Deedle Dees. I'm a big fan of the Dees, of course, for many reasons -- they rock, they're lots of fun in concert, and they know how to craft educational songs you'll listen to for purely un-educational reasons (hint: they craft actual stories). Also, they're a great bunch of guys.
It probably won't come as much of a surprise to you, then, that Miller doesn't just write original songs about historical figures, but he's also a collector of old songs. Miller merges those two aspects of his musical life on a set of mp3s he's posted to his Bandcamp page. They're songs from the 2009 edition of his annual Mother's Day singalong. Says Miller:
I recorded these tracks so that my bandmates for the event could learn the tunes. Like all the recordings on this page, these recordings are very raw. But I kind of like them. I thought I might as well put them online so everyone could have them.In days of old (ie, 10 years ago? 5 years ago?), artists like Miller would have held on to them for a decade then released them on a B-sides/rarities collection. Now they get posted online for your free streaming or downloading enjoyment. I'll re-empasize Lloyd's point -- these are definitely lo-fi recordings (midway through one track on his Nature Babies collection from last year, his phone starts ringing) and shouldn't be considered final products or actual releases. And he has an occasionally uneasy relationship with some of the songs (Miller, on his bluesy "Wheels on the Bus" from Sing Along With Lloyd -- "'Wheels on the Bus' is lame. I never liked it and I still don't. Even so, my daughter only wanted this song before bed for about a year and a half."). But they're still interesting to listen to for various reasons -- the singalong disk is great for parents wondering how to inject a little variety into songs they sing on a daily basis. But it's the new stuff I'm going to post below...
Readers Who Need Readers: Baa Baa Buckle My Shoe
It's time for another edition of "Readers Who Need Readers," in which the Zooglobble hive mind helps one of our own track long-lost songs...
1998 -- bell bottoms were the rage, people loved Grease in the theatres, and a little comic strip named Garfield made its debut.
Oh, wait, that was 1978. 1998 was the year we spent a lot of time thinking about President Clinton and arguing over whether Shakespeare in Love or Saving Private Ryan was the better movie. (To my neighbor's chagrin, I firmly believe the former, although the latter isn't without its moments.) It's also the year a Zooglobble reader spent some time listening to a couple songs lost to the mists of time... She writes:
I’ve been searching for a couple of children’s songs that I used to play for my son (about 1998-1999). One was a version of “Baa Baa Black Sheep” – but it was just music and animal sounds (plus a cow bell or two), no lyrics. The other song was called (I think) “Buckle My Shoe Rap” and featured a rapper and a kid rapper. I thought it might be LL Cool J, but all my searches have been in vain.So how about it? I'm stumped... it could be anything, and since it predates my immersion into the genre by a couple years, it's not in my collection. (I've got a number of pre-2000 albums, just not these.) Can anyone help?
Video: "Little Broken Truck" (Live) - Caspar Babypants
I'm posting this live video of Chris Ballew, er, Caspar Babypants, playing "Little Broken Truck" live at Seattle's Town Hall for two reasons:
1. It shows how compelling a little shaker and a little harmonica can be (reminder to self: sometimes simple is OK)
2. Ballew's daughter Josie singing her parts while swinging her elbows from side to side, just because I totally see Miss Mary Mack in her. Not that she does the elbows swinging thing, but it's that attitude...
Oh, and "Frederick Babyshirt" and "Josephine Babyhat" - hah!