When I was picking out a track for your listening pleasure from the upcoming Duplex album Worser, I was tempted to pick one of the more rockin' tracks. Heck, I even uploaded one of 'em. (And if you need to listen to one of the more rockin' tracks, I have it on good authority that Bill may have one on this weekend's show.)
But it was this track, "Alive!," that I kept thinking about. It's a lot more swirling than most kids tracks. It's also beautiful. Streaming with permission from Veda Hille, it's...
Duplex - "Alive!"
Listen To This: "Happy Mother's Day" - The Harmonica Pocket
This is either the last song you'll need for Mother's Day 2009 or the first one you'll need for Mother's Day 2010 -- "Happy Mother's Day" from Seattle's Harmonica Pocket. A sweet little love song.
(Pssst... here's another song for your listening pleasure: Woody Guthrie's "Little Sacka Sugar". Think of it as the gift the mom gives back to her kids.)
Listen To This: "David's Mandolin" - Elizabeth Mitchell
New music from Elizabeth Mitchell!
It's an original tune called "David's Mandolin," and it's 2:50 of sweetness. It's a Mother's Day gift, though really it's a gift from a mother to a child, perhaps.
Don't delay in listening, though -- after the weekend, it "goes back into hiding," as Mitchell puts it. Listen to it at Mitchell's Myspace page.
Listen To This: "High Roller" - Hullabaloo (plus a shot at fame if not fortune)
San Diego-area band Hullabaloo has been particularly prolific over the past few years, releasing 3 albums in about 3 years, plus a DVD. Now they're prepping they're latest disk, High Roller, and they've posted the title track at their music page. It's an appealing 2-minute country/folk track with a hint of blues thrown in that includes the phrase "rolling on 3-point-5 inch wheels," which made me laugh.
Besides the track itself, you also have the chance to have your wee one's face grace the new album cover. Go here for instructions on how to enter, but the gist of it is that you'll submit a picture of your kid to the band's Facebook page. Then I, along with Warren and Ryan Loyko (Rattle-N-Roll birth announcements), will each pick a semi-finalist face from all the entries, leading to an online vote to pick the winner. Entries are due May 15th. Will it be as iconic as Paul Simonon slamming his guitar on the London Calling cover? We shall see....
The Barry Louis Polisar Tribute Album: Potentially Awesome
No, that's not the name -- it's my verdict.
I've known for awhile of the tribute album consisting of Barry Louis Polisar covers, produced by Polisar's son Evan Aaron Cohen of the Radioactive Chicken Heads. But now it's got a name -- We're Not Kidding -- and, more importantly for the purposes of this website, songs for your listening pleasure.
I use that phrase "listening pleasure" advisedly, because the songs I've spun thus far have been uniformly winning. I started out with the familiar names -- Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke, Elizabeth Street, Tor Hyams, Ham & Burger, The Boogers -- and all of those tunes worth the time. (Check out the electric guitar on Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke track.) And then I moved to the unfamliar, the top of the page. After 4 songs, some fabulous, none less than interesting, that's when I realized that this could be, well, potentially awesome.
A 2-CD set could be too much Barry Lou, but the combination of Polisar's songwriting with the varied musical approaches and high quality production (never Polisar's strength) make me very eager to hear the final product, set to be released this year.
Listen To This: Tres Leches
The wave of lullaby albums that swept over us last year has receded, but there are still a few albums coming out. One that I have hopes for is the upcoming debut kids' CD from New York a capella trio Tres Leches, Tres Leches: Songs, Chants & Lullabies for All Our Relations.
I prefer the album's alternate (older) title -- Zzzz: Lullabies and Music to Wind Down To -- the name (if not the music) is zippier and gives a better indication of why you and your family might give it a spin. The music on their myspace page features English-language and non-English-language tracks and for those of you who are looking to add to their collection of Ellipsis Arts and Planet Sleeps lullaby disks, I think you'll want to keep your eyes open (or closed) for this.
