The Best Opera-Related Thing You'll See All Day

So Cory Cullinan, AKA Doctor Noize, has a Kickstarter project to raise money to record "Phineas McBoof Crashes the Symphony," which is a live show Cullinan is presenting to young audiences -- think Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" for the 21st century. 

Cullinan's got a little more than two weeks to raise money for the project, and I heartily encourage you to read my interview with him about the project over on the Bake Sale section of the site. 

But even if you don't do that -- and with comments like "Kids want to reach and challenge themselves to master Big Things.  To reach is the purest state of joy," you definitely should -- at least take 5 minutes or so and watch this video of a Phineas McBoof mini-opera.  It made me happy.  It's basically an advertisement (or at least proof-of-concept), but such an effective one.

Video: "Fill It Up" - Josh and the Jamtones

Isn't This Old House?  filmed in the Boston area?  Then perhaps this video, filmed during the "buildout" of the Josh and the Jamtones headquarters, could be part of a Very Special Kindie Edition of the home improvement show.  The video is for "Fill It Up," one of the appealing tracks on their new album Bear Hunt , and while it's simple, it shows the gregarious band being gregarious.

But, really, my chief reason for featuring the video is the paint brushes.  I would like to see more videos featuring the paint brushes, please.

Josh and the Jamtones - "Fill It Up" [YouTube] 

Weekly Summary (10/7/13 - 10/13/13)

Itty-Bitty Review: Block Party! - Poochamungas

In many John Joyce is a great example of the openness of the kindie scene.  The Chicago-area firefighter took some harmonica lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music, then guitar lessons, and then, eventually heading up Poochamungas, his kindie rock band.  Because Poochamungas is a side project, it's taken the band some time to record and release their second album, but the result, Block Party! , is finally here.

It's a step up from their first album in many ways.  The biggest strength of the album is the band's sound, which often has a driving bluesy sound reminiscent of Brady Rymer (kindie-wise) or Bruce Springsteen (erm, not kindie).  Songs like "Around the World" and "Till the Sun Goes Down" and bonus track "Imagination Train" -- three of the album's best tracks -- feature that sound.  (I also liked the arrangement on "Refrigerator Box.")  While Joyce has a genial demeanor that can work well live and on certain tracks, vocals are not his strength and so he wisely shares lead vocals with a number of his bandmates.  The song topics aren't much different from a lot of kindie records; the wistfulness of some tracks for bygone days ("Games We Played" and "My Favorite Summer Day"), however, may elude some of the younger listeners while appealing more to the parents.

The 34-minute album is targeted at kids ages 4 through 8.  While Block Party isn't without tracks that could appear on just about any kindie album, there are a number of good songs here that I think a number of families will appreciate; the album is recommended especially for families with classic rock bloodlines.  Joyce and his band have shown definite growth since their debut 3 years ago -- I'm interested to see where they are 3 years from now.

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

How I Got Here: Lucky Diaz (The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced)

With the recent release of Lishy Lou and Lucky Too, Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band continue their run of bright and poppy kids music for the 21st century.

And so, as often happens when I get these "How I Got Here" essays, I was a bit surprised when I got Diaz's recollection of discovering Are You Experienced  by The Jimi Hendrix Experience -- was I expecting something shinier, I don't know.  But I think one of the lessons I'm learning in doing these is that context is everything, and it doesn't take a lot for a piece of music to change your life.

********** 

One of the most vivid days of my childhood -- I believe it was a crisp early evening 1989, and for California, about as Fall as it gets -- I was riding my bike home from a friend's house.  In my back pocket was a Maxwell cassette tape (yes, I know let's all spare each other the- ‘man I'm so old comment’…) with the words "Are You Experienced" scribbled on it. My friend Ben had given it to me. He told me it was a guy named Jimi Hendrix and that I had to listen to him. Ben, already obsessed, had pilfered it from his father's pile of amazing cassettes and LP's which included Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, and the Beatles, among other epic things I had no clue about yet.

At the time, I thought very little about the tape, and to be honest, it must have laid on my nightstand for a couple of days. At this point, I had been learning the guitar for about a year. I was obsessed with Chuck Berry, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, and just about every guitar hero ever to roam the earth. Ironically, I was unaware of the greatest guitar slinger all. The man that defined the term.

I had heard the name Jimi Hendrix before, from my second cousin, April, who our family affectionately coined La Cuckoo. La Cuckoo was older than me by about ten or so years. As a young child, I remember her wearing a tie-dye shirt that sported Jimi Hendrix's iconic image. I once asked her who it was and she told me, Jim Hendrix. I said, "Who's that?" To which she replied, “One day he will blow your mind.”

My 8-year-old self had shrugged it off. I already didn't trust La Cuckoo. She once promised to make me a clown for Halloween. The memory of screaming my head off in horror as she spun me around to see myself in the mirror, only to discover that she instead painted me up to be Gene Simmons from KISS was still fresh. But I digress…

A few evenings later, I noticed the tape peeking out from under some comic books on my nightstand, and decided to finally give it a go. I put the tape in and pressed play.  The intro to " The Wind Cries Mary" began…

La Cuckoo was right.

Mind blown.

Never had I heard the guitar in such an incredible way. A chorus of voices. A true voice. Never had I heard the guitar sing, scream, yearn and expose. The hammer ons, the bends, the technique. Nothing like it now, and nothing like it since.

Song after song, more and more. The first piece of art I HEARD. A masterpiece of Mitch Mitchell on drums, Noel Redding on bass (or Jimi depending on historical accounts). A trio, creating a cacophony of organized insanity. Motown, the Blues, Pop, Jazz -- all of it. THIS WAS A BAND! There, in one vacuum of madness.

I sat there for what must have been three days of a long weekend, coming downstairs only for food and water. In my room, analyzing every second of that cassette tape over and over, side after side. Grabbing my guitar, trying to replicating what I heard, failing miserably, loving every moment of it. When I finally came up for air, I went to my local music shop looking for a Fender Stratocaster of my own.

I never stopped listening to that cassette.  I even packed the tape with me to take to music college.

I still am listening.

Never looking back, experienced. 

Newborn: Danny Lion (AKA Dan Flannery)

I usually reserve this "Newborn" series for artists fairly new to the kindie scene, but while the name Danny Lion is new, there's a fair bit of experience behind it. 

Chiefly, it's Dan Flannery, who as half of the Flannery Brothers with his brother Mike, has put out a handful of kids music albums over the past few years.   Unlike a lot of kids musicians, whose music's sweet spot age-wise tends to creep up slightly over time, in this new project Flannery moves the other direction, pitching his music at a slightly younger crowd, pretty much exclusively preschoolers.  Flannery reports that the songs were written while he was teaching preschool and getting a master's in child development.

But we're mostly just interested in the music, and the tracks you can listen to right now are simple (ukulele, bass, cajon, and that's it) and a whole bunch of fun.   That's good enough for me.  If you like the simple arrangements of toddler favorites like Caspar Babypants, or Old Town School of Folk Music Wiggleworms CDs, I think this merits your attention.