Itty-Bitty Review: "Rock-N-Roll Recess" - The Bazillions

It's taken a little while, but the Twin Cities' family music scene is finally starting to catch up with its adult scene in terms of vibrancy. With Bunny Clogs, the Okee Dokee Brothers, the Sweet Colleens, and now The Bazillions, there's new musical life for Minnesota's under-10 set and their families. The Bazillions are the underaged alter ego of Minneapolis powerpop band The Humbugs and the Bazillions' debut Rock-N-Roll Recess is every bit as sunny as their nighttime band's name isn't. This is the most straightforward kids power pop album this side of ScribbleMonster. Songs about macaroni and cheese ("Mac-n-cheese," natch), grammar ("Preposition"), not to mention both a good morning and goodbye song, songwriter Adam Marshall has given us janglier Fountains of Wayne (or, perhaps, Semisonic) wrapped up up in typical grade schooler concerns. Not every song is a winner (or should've ended at 1:45 instead of going on another couple minutes), but "Super Sonic Rocket Bike" and "Tommy Got In Trouble" are two great songs, worthy of great kid-popsters like Justin Roberts. "Career Day" and "It's A Mess" are also strong tracks. The 30-minute album (plus karaoke versions of "Rocket Bike" and "Tommy") will appeal most to kids ages 5 through 9. You can listen to some songs at the band's Myspace page or samples at the album's CDBaby page. Rock-N-Roll Recess is a solid debut album -- if you're thinking that Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend wouldn't be the best album to play over and over to your kindergartener, this might fit the bill. Recommended.

Video: "Stuff" / "Me and My Ice Cream Cone" - Snacks

I mentioned Snacks a couple days ago in my big DVD review and had some kind words to say for their Snacks the DVD offering. The problem with doing a brief review of a DVD is that it's hard to give you a sense of the songs and visuals. Unless you go to YouTube. So, enjoy. It's lo-fi, but done well. Snacks - "Stuff" [YouTube]

Not just one, but two, more videos (a little more poppy) from the DVD after the jump.

Video: "Black Hole in My Room" - Recess Monkey

I can't say that the video for "Black Hole in My Room" from Recess Monkey's The Final Funktier is all that specifically related to the song itself. It does feature, however, an over tooth-pasted drummer, fancy editing techniques, and a lovable Alf doll. So, on the whole, a big Daron Henry-provided thumbs up. Recess Monkey - "Black Hole in My Room" [YouTube]

Review Two-Fer: "Rock & Roll Playground" / "Jazz Playground" - Various Artists (Putumayo)

Ah, Putumayo Kids, you compiler and purveyor of music from around the world, you must be running out of themes, right? Rock & Roll Playground? Isn't there another region of the world you need to unearth some musical treasures from? What's next - Pop Playground? Hip-Hop Playground? (Actually, please get on that, stat.) Most regular readers have heard many of these tracks (or at least the artists), but credit Putumayo for having the sense to string 'em together in a happy-happy pop-rock mixtape with few if any duds. For example, Taj Mahal -> Dan Zanes -> Charity and the JAMband = win. (Or, Rhythm Child -> Rosie Flores -> Uncle Rock = win.) Best for kids ages 3 through 8 (samples here), you could probably put together your own 34-minute playlist, but why bother when they've already done the work for you? Recommended.

Having said all that, Jazz Playground is my favorite of all the Putumayo "Playground" series disks, and that's saying something. The nature of jazz is such that it covers lots of styles and permits fresh interpretations of songs we've heard dozens if not hundreds of times before, and as a result, there's a nice mix of new and old, providing new perspectives -- and isn't that one of the major points of the Putumayo concept anyway? The album deftly navigates the line between over-reliance on English language voices (which you can get anywhere) and non-English language songs (which can be hard for English speakers to fully appreciate, no matter how funky the liner notes are). Beyond that, it's just plain fun through and through, from Zooglobble favorite Lewis Franco & the Missing Cats doing his swing original "Stomp, Stomp" to Chris McKhool's fiddle-based take on "Spider-Man" to the Latin jazz of Jose Conde's "Cumbamba." And on down the line. Best for kids ages 2 through 8, the 31-minute album (again, samples here) goes onto my shortlist of essential jazz-for-kids albums. Definitely recommended.

Itty-Bitty Review: "The Best of The Laurie Berkner Band" - The Laurie Berkner Band

Why such a tiny review for such a big superstar as Laurie Berkner? Because it's a greatest hits disk, the future of which is somewhat in doubt in the mp3 era. After all, if your family are superfans, you'll get it just for the three new-to-CD tracks, including rerecordings of "Pig on Her Head" and "Moon Moon Moon," both previously seen on video, and the new track "Open Your Heart." (There's a deluxe edition as well, featuring four videos, including a previously-unreleased one for "Mouse in My Toolbox," which is similar in scope to Berkner's other Nick videos. You superfans will probably want that version.) The rest of you? You might just download the extra tracks from the album you don't have (there are no more than four from any particular album). But that obscures just how important a songwriter and performer Berkner is for the pre-K set. As a whole, it's a solidly constructed disk, with no major omissions -- I personally would've included more tracks from her debut Whaddaya Think of That?, but all the big tracks are here. And over the roughly 15 years or so Berkner's been performing for kids she's compiled a catalog of songs that would be the envy of just about any kids' musician. "We Are the Dinosaurs" is a stone-cold kids' classic, for example, one that works equally well performed live by a band and performed by your preschooler's teacher. "Moon Moon Moon" is the only lullaby written in the past hundred years that I actually sing to my kids. And "Victor Vito" is cheesy, dorky, and stuck in your brain for the next week now that I've mentioned it. And so on. While other artists slowly slide up to the 4-to-8-year-old age range, Berkner's continued to make music -- darn good music -- for preschoolers. So while I'm not sure many regular readers actually need The Best of The Laure Berkner Band! given the relative lack of new songs, as a collection of some of the best original music for preschoolers of the past twenty years, it's highly recommended. (Disclosure: I was provided a copy of the regular edition of the album for possible review.)

Review: DVDs for Road Trips

I saw "for road trips" not because these are travel-themed but because there are seven of them. Seven seems like enough to get through at least a day or two of your drive across or through the country. Let's get to it, then.

I don't think the guys in Seattle's Recess Monkey actually sleep. They already release more CDs than just about anybody else, and now they're cranking out a DVD a year, too. Like their first volume, Field Trips with Recess Monkey Episodes 5-8 features a combination of band "field trips" (Sirius-XM studios, Ella Childs at Spare the Rock, illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka), live shows, and their stellar videos. The videos are the highlight of the DVD ("The Teens" and "Sack Lunch" in particular) -- should episodes 9 through 12 be in the works (knowing the trio, they probably are), the band should consider creating a menu that'll allow viewers to just access the videos. Recommended.

The Nields' Organic Farm DVD is, as you'd expect, an appealingly low-fi (dare I say "organic") affair. It's mostly a collection of tunes recorded in front of a live audience, and features the Nields singing a number of hits from their two family albums. As they were on record, the Nields sisters are joined by their father on a few songs. Among the non-live tracks are a couple songs showing how a parent or teacher might use a song as a simple teaching tool. It's a nice little bonus treat. Recommended.