Itty-Bitty Review: Move Over Lullabies... It's Time for Wake Up Songs! - The Flannery Brothers

Let's see if I can write the review for Move Over Lullabies... It's Time for Wake Up Songs!, the spring EP from Maine's Flannery Brothers, in less time than it takes to listen to the album itself - just 15 minutes. (A lot less than the amount of time I spun the disk, that's for sure.) It's a novel twist on the standard kids music trope, the lullaby album. That's right, with its bright yellow cover and a picture of a very friendly-looking dog on the back, it's an album designed to get your kids up and at 'em bright and early. If they listen to the disk before you have your coffee or yoga or morning routine of choice, you run the risk of premature grumpiness, because in less than 15 minutes, they will be excited for the day ("The Wake-Up Song"), grooving to a kazoo-playing dog ("In the Morning") and shaking like you've just given them their sixth latte ("Shake!" - a title which appears to be missing about four exclamation points). With the piano, guitar/bass, and drum trio, it's got a very sunny feel -- a little West Coast jazz for the kids. Kids ages 3 through 7 will most likely groove to the tracks here, a couple of which can be heard at the brothers' music player at their home page. I think preschool teachers will especially find a song or two on here worth incorporating into their morning routines. As for the rest of us, if this were 40 minutes long, the relentless cheerfulness might wear some folks down, but at 15 minutes in length, it's an excellent dose of orange juice for first thing in the morning. If that's what you need, this is for you. Recommended. Disclosure: I received a copy of the album for possible review. Also, I think it took me about 20 minutes to write this. Oh well.

Review: "Time Out To Rock" - The Not-Its!

There's not much secret to the appeal of Seattle's Not-Its -- take standard kid-friendly subjects like kindergarten friends, boo-boos, and fanciful trips to outer space, mix in crunchy alternative rock, and add a dash of visual style. Voila! The band had the formula down pretty much right out of the gate on their debut and on their follow-up Time Out To Rock they don't tinker with it much. There are hooks galore for the kids and parents to latch onto -- "Welcome To Our School" features a killer guitar riff, bouncy drums, sweet harmonies, and life lessons. It's a template the band duplicates through most of the album. It's proof, perhaps, that it's not so much the message of average kids music that drives parents bonkers as much as it is the often-poor delivery. I mean, being friendly to the new kid at school is at its heart obvious and a little preachy. But it's a song that stands up to repeated listening, which is more than can be said of a lot of other songs imparting life lessons. See also, for example, "Say It Loudly," which says as clearly (and loudly) as possible that people should speak up against bullies, or the mellow alt-rock of "Change My Luck." That last track is one of the album's last 3 songs, in which the band dials the rock back a bit, but for the most part this is an uptempo, bop-your-head-and-toes disk. As always, lead singer Sarah Shannon's clear and direct voice is a big asset to the band, not only on the rock tunes (the missing Heart kids song "Green Light, Go!") but also the gentler ones such as album closer "Hollow Tree." Kids ages 4 through 8 are most likely to appreciate the songs here. You can listen to a number of songs from the album here. (And I'd just like to say that I appreciate the high quality packaging, which makes it easy and appealing to give the album to others. While there's nothing particularly revolutionary about the Not-Its formula, they're still among the first that have successfully applied the '90s alt-rock musical template to kids music without going over the heads of the kids who are their primary audience. They rock, and that's enough for us. Definitely recommended. Disclosure: I was provided a copy of the album for possible review and also premiered one of the album tracks here on the website.

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: Funky Fresh and Sugar Free - Sugar Free Allstars

If you're going to title your second kids' CD Funky Fresh and Sugar Free, you better bring at least a modicum of funk, am I right? Luckily, Oklahoma's Sugar Free Allstars meet that test. The heart of the music is still Chris Wiser's Hammond B3 organ and Rob "Dr. Rock" Martin's drums, but they've opened up a little more on this disk, with Wiser occasionally playing sax or bass, and Dr. Rock pulling out the theremin. If there's nothing on the album as instantaneously memorable as "Bathtub Boy" from their debut, this new album is much more consistent -- heck, just better -- overall. "Rock Awesome!" is actually the least funky track on the disk (though kids may get into the call-and-response) and "The Train Beat Song" I think works much better live than it does on the album. But the eight songs in the middle are solid tracks -- I'm particularly fond of "Little Red Wagon" -- and Wiser's sense of humor is evident on the silly "SFA Disco Dance Party" and the stroll-down-memory-lane "6th Grade Band." (Note: not my memory lane. Sixth grade orchestra is muuuuuch less interesting.) With the aspirational exception of "6th Grade Band," kids ages 3 through 7 are most likely to enjoy the songs here. (You can stream the whole album using the player below.) Funky Fresh and Sugar Free is sweet, but your kids may even lose some calories overall dancing to the music. Recommended.

Disclosure: I was provided a copy of the album for possible review.

Review: "The Final Funktier" - Recess Monkey

If you go over the 3 1/2-year archival history regarding Seattle trio Recess Monkey on this website, you'll see a gradual progression from "hey, these guys put out a fun album" to, well, "the heart of kids music today." I said that because the band has worked its way into national exposure through talent, hard work, and a recognition that working together will get them further than going it alone. But it's also because over the past 4+ years, they've released 5 solid albums, the latest of which, The Final Funktier, was released this week. The guys all seem too nice to have sold their soul to the devil for the ability to write and record catchy, danceable, and just plain fun songs, but whatever they've done, they haven't lost their touch one bit on the new record. As you might guess from the title, it's a more danceable album than previous efforts -- "Moon Boots" and "Booster Seat" are just a couple of the songs that will probably get your kids and you up off the floor shaking your, er, boots. The band once drew their inspiration from the Beatles, but now their pop-rock confections are more diverse, source-wise. "The Galax Sea" throws in some strings, "Constellation Conga" is, well, a gentle little conga, and several songs sound like they were recorded by the secret love children of the Go-Go's and Devo. (I'd also note that the band's commitment to the kids music scene is pretty big, with no less than 7 different kids musicians or bands making appearances on the disk.) The album is also -- loosely -- space-based, though the album is less likely to inspire your kid to beg you for a telescope than it will to have them ask you for a stand-up microphone to practice their jokes. The lyric matter is right down the early elementary school alley -- little brothers ("My Brother is a Satellite"), robots ("How Do You Build a Robot?"), and aliens ("Ukulalien"). And everywhere it's leavened by a second-grade sense of humor that will make the kids giggle. (OK, maybe not "One Tiny Light," the sweet album closer.) The 34-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9. You can hear samples at the album's CD Baby page, or full tracks at the band's website. So, yeah, at this point Recess Monkey is a machine. A finely-tuned kids-music-hit-making machine. The Final Funktier is as good as anything they've done, maybe the best. They may not inspire the next generation of astronauts, but they may have a better chance than anyone else to inspire the next generation of kids musicians. Which I think is just as important. Highly recommended. Disclosure: The band provided me a copy of the album for possible review. And I streamed "Constellation Conga" as a world premiere.

Itty-Bitty Review: The Monkey Dance: All the Kids Are Doin' It! - The Sweet Colleens

Based in the Twin Cities, The Sweet Colleens normally play Celtic-flavored roots music for adults, but they've branched out on The Monkey Dance: All the Kids Are Doin' It!, their first album for kids. It's a hodge-podge of styles, from the more rockin' title track and the especially fun Cajun'-tinged "No Beans, No Brownie" (the chorus soon to come to a home near you), to the more traditional "The Terrible Twos Step" and "Who's My Pretty Baby?" (Covering Woody Guthrie will usually earn you bonus points 'round these parts.) Though the Minneapolis Youth Chorus sounds great on a number of the tracks, they also sound a little out of place on the album -- I'd've rather heard the band tear through another traditional roots piece to get the kids dancin'. The album will be most appropriate for kids ages 2 through 7. You can hear a few of the songs from the 41-minute album at the band's new Myspace page. For a first kids' album, The Monkey Dance is pretty decent -- some fun tunes, good musicianship, and a willingness to get playful. I'm recommending this for fans of roots rock. And I think if the band decides to record their second album for families and figures out what they really want to do, look out -- it could be seriously good.