The last time the LA band of pop-rockers Egg hooked up with kid-hop star Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, the result was the very winning "I Like Fruit". Now the two of them are back together once more and it's just as fun, methinks. Egg brings the ska, Skidoo brings the hip-hop, and both parts will have the family bouncing, if not their whole bodies then at least their heads.
The genesis of the song? In return for Egg mastermind Jeff Fuller giving 23 Skidoo "I Like Fruit" to remix as he'd like, Skidoo gave Fuller an idea to write for Egg - "Look both ways. Not just at street corners but in life." Fuller returned the song back to Skidoo, which he cut up and used parts from for his upcoming single "Road Trip." That's collaboration. (And "Look Both Ways" will also end up on the next Egg disk as well.)
Anyway, however you, er, look at it, here for a limited time, courtesy of Egg, you can stream download it (just send an e-mail to "lookbothways AT eggmusic DOT net," which is an autoreply address that'll get you the URL to download the track). Enjoy.
Egg w/ Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "Look Both Ways"
On to Day 3 of the Austin City Limits Festival 2009, or at least the Austin Kiddie Limits stage. (If you missed it, read my thoughts and watch YouTube from Days 1 and 2 here and here.
So remember all that rain from Saturday? Remember the nice green grass the city had installed with C3's money with great fanfare?
It wasn't, like, Glastonbury mud, but it was deep enough in some places that, as Gwyneth noted to me, it felt like it could suck the shoes right off.
Anyway, after meandering through the media area and (ever-so-briefly) the Artists' Lounge (cleaner than the media area, and with ice cream), we (Miss Mary Mack and I) headed to see Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears from backstage. Saw Bill and his family up there. Jammed to the last few songs of the set. Made our way through the mud to the AKL stage. There we saw Ralph's World play their second set of the festival. Ralph Covert has a pretty tight band at this point, and he's got his live act down pat...
Ralph's World - "The Rhyming Circus"
Ralph's World - "Dumptruck"
Ralph's World - "Sunny Day Rainy Day Anytime Band" (particularly apropos for the weekend, always a good set closer)
After Ralph, Romeo and the guys from BBoy City came on and did their stuff, which is pretty incredible and has been each year. Might have been Miss Mary Mack's favorite part of the festival...
(Check out this last one. Oh my.)
At this point, it was either fight the mud and crowds to catch the second half of the B-52s' set or stick around at AKL. And while I'd've been willing, asking Miss Mary Mack to do that before a long series of transportation options that would park us back home 5 hours later was too much.
Of course, at least we got to see another Secret Agent 23 Skidoo set...
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "Boogieman"
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "The Whalephant" (new, unreleased track)
And then we skidaddled across the mud, onto the shuttle bus, into the car, and after many more transportation changes, made it back home. I'm not finished yet with my AKL/ACL thoughts -- more to come...
I know, I know -- I was so diligent about posting my thoughts about Day 1 of the Austin City Limits Festival 2009 (or at least the Austin Kiddie Limits portion thereof).
And now it's a full 48 hours later after Saturday's Day 2 mudfest, and I still haven't posted my thoughts. So let's get moving, eh?
We did get an earlier start on Saturday morning, and found a parking spot fairly quickly, but even so, we pretty much only caught the last 2 songs of Mr. Leebot's AKL debut. Lee was energetic, trying to get the rained-upon crowd moving.
Did I forget to mention it was raining? That it rained for, oh, most of Saturday? That I would still prefer my music festivals rainy and cool than hot and dry? Well, I would.
Mr. Leebot - "Robot Dance"
As I noted to Lee later that weekend, although it was raining for his set, nobody was flinging mud at him a la Green Day circa Woodstock '94.
Then it was time to get lunch, so we moved out to the Food Court (mmmm... cones from Hudson's on the Bend) and, desirous to get out of the rain, after we ate we went to the Wildflower Center stage, which besides having a really good set of artists has a solid roof. We enjoyed 30 minutes of a (not literally) roof-raising set from the Gospel group the Soul Stirrers (Sam Cooke's old band), then made our way back to the AKL stage.
Walking back to the AKL stage from behind the stage, you would have been forgiven if you thought that it was a guest artist set. The music from Quinn Sullivan did not sound like it should be coming from someone who could have gotten in free with a paying adult. Not kids music, but pretty amazing. Packed crowd, and when Sullivan said, "This was cool -- I hope I get to do this next year," I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought, "Yeah, on one of the other, bigger stages."
Then we stuck around for Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, who I was eager to see. Skidoo brought a full compliment for the show including his daughter Saki, performing on stage and not fazed in the least by the crowd out there. Good set, though I'm wondering if maybe the bass was a bit loud -- as we left after the set early so that my wife and the kids could go home early with the Official Brother of Zooglobble, we could hear "Gotta Be Me"... from about a third of a mile away.
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "I Like Fruit"
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "Sleepover"
After I came back across the bridge after dropping off my family with my brother, I was hoping to see more, but Lunch Money's set had started late, and between that and the rain, traipsing off throughout the rest of the festival seemed more of a pain than was worthwhile considering I had to leave shortly for another engagement.
Lunch Money worked harder than probably any other band at working through the "this is what you do in this song to be interactive" motions. Here they solicited foods that did the kids wrong, right, and had never been tried. You sort of take for granted that people know how to act at concerts, but those are learned traits, and it's just as important to learn the rock show rules of the road than the children's theatre rules of the road.
Lunch Money - "Ate Too Much of My Favorite Food"
If I have one regret from the Lunch Money sets it's that I didn't hear them play many of their quieter songs. Having said that, live, the band rocks harder than on record. Watch out Rush, the band's looking to claim your power trio crown.
Sad to have missed Milkshake's second set (though I did hear a song as I dashed back at one point to collect our stuff) and Ralph's World first set. Not to worry, though, Ralph was playing Sunday....
I originally reviewedEasy, the debut from Secret Agent 23 Skidoo last spring. As much as I liked it then, I think I still underestimated its ongoing appeal. With its re-mastered rerelease on Happiness Records and the addition of 3 new tracks, I thought I'd update the review...
I know that the kids' music genre is flowering when less popular subgenres such as kids' hip-hop or kids' country are starting to bubble up. I especially know that that's the case when those genres start producing albums that aren't just "kids songs done in a [fill-in-genre-name] style," but fully realized albums on their own.
Case in point: Easy, the debut kids' CD from Asheville, North Carolina's Secret Agent 23 Skidoo. He spends a lot of time rapping and playing with the music collective GFE as Agent 23, but who adopts the cool-kids name Secret Agent 23 Skidoo. From start to finish, the album is totally geared at kids in its subject matter but is not dumbed down one bit in the creativity of its beats and melody. On its strongest tracks (and there are a number of them), Skidoo blends smooth rapping with occasionally eclectic instrumentation ("Luck" features nice banjo work) and an all-positive message.
Sometimes that message is a little more overt -- "Luck" raps about how we make our own luck by knowing what it is we want; "Gotta Be Me" is about how everyone should have their own style, and that's OK. If the message is a bit direct, it's delivered with precision and flowing words. (Even his 5-year-old daughter Saki (AKA MC Fireworks) gets in on the act, very smoothly trading lines with her dad on "Family Tree.")
Perhaps even better are his songs that take a more imaginary bent. "Hot Lava" so completely nails the 7-year-old feeling of pretending on the fly (don't touch the floor! -- it's hot lava! -- jump from couch to couch!) that I'm not sure there is a better kids' song about the power of imagination. Songs about dragons, mermaids, and robots feature in the mix, too. It's very much story-telling with a compelling musical background.
I'm going to peg the messages and stories here as geared primarily for kids ages 4 through 9. You can hear samples of a number of the songs at the album's CDBaby page or "Gotta Be Me" and "Luck" and "The Last Dragon" here.
As for the re-release, it's been remastered with some new beats and tweaked artwork, but the chief reason to get the new album (or at least hit up iTunes) if you already have the original release are the new tracks. "Robots Can't Cry" is about the experience of being human in words that 6-year-olds will understand. "I Like Fruit" is so catchy it renders everyone within earshot incapable of not shouting "I like fruit" along with the chorus. (MC Fireworks and DJ Bootysattva fill in for Egg's Jeff Fuller on this version.) "Boogie Man," about mastering fears, might be my least favorite of the three new tracks, but that just means it's merely good.
The list of really good kids' hip-hop albums is very short. Not only does Easy go to the top of that list, it deserves to find a lot of fans among people who don't consider themselves big hip-hop fans. It's a really good CD, period -- lots of fun and certainly worthy of repeated spins. A year later, the album still holds up, and the new songs just make it that much better. Highly recommended.
Please tell me -- where can I find a branded ViewMaster? Because Secret Agent 23 Skidoo has one of his very own, here in this new video for "Family Tree," which also features a brief hip-hop lesson from 23, lots of rhymes from Saki, and probably the coolest school bus vibe ever.
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "Family Tree"
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo'sawesome debut kids CD Easy is being re-released this week with three brand new tracks, including "Robots Can't Cry," which Jeff from Out With The Kids captured on video live from Philly this weekend. Great chorus, great end line, great robot-work from Skidoo's kid Saki.
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "Robots Can't Cry" (Live)
The last time the LA band of pop-rockers Egg hooked up with kid-hop star Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, the result was the very winning "I Like Fruit". Now the two of them are back together once more and it's just as fun, methinks. Egg brings the ska, Skidoo brings the hip-hop, and both parts will have the family bouncing, if not their whole bodies then at least their heads.
The genesis of the song? In return for Egg mastermind Jeff Fuller giving 23 Skidoo "I Like Fruit" to remix as he'd like, Skidoo gave Fuller an idea to write for Egg - "Look both ways. Not just at street corners but in life." Fuller returned the song back to Skidoo, which he cut up and used parts from for his upcoming single "Road Trip." That's collaboration. (And "Look Both Ways" will also end up on the next Egg disk as well.)
Anyway, however you, er, look at it, here for a limited time, courtesy of Egg, you can 
I 
