It's a Monty Python reference, having to do an "ex-parrot." (Go ahead and Google it.) The blog's not dead -- I'm off for some (mostly) R&R and (a little) business. Expect more posts later next week. In case you missed it, make sure you read the ScribbleMonster report from Kidzapalooza and the report from Jackie Schimmel (from Justin Roberts' band) below that. I got pictures of the musicians, too, but Blogger was balky. Have fun. Rock on with your bad selves. Or good selves. Whatever.
Hello, I Must Be Going
This Week: All That Jazz
It's the Fourth of July week here in the United States, and I thought I'd spend all week celebrating the country's founding by looking at that most American of art forms, jazz. Not to get all Ken Burns on you, of course, but it's a great musical form that's been a little overlooked, kid-wise. Good stuff. (And for those of you who turn a tin ear to Ella Fitzgerald and the alto sax, don't worry, I'll bring the rock again next week.)
Welcome Interstate Managers, er, Salon Readers
Welcome to those of you finding us because of the Salon article on "kindie rockers". (Welcome also, as always, to people looking for downloads of and lyrics to "Great Big World," from Hoodwinked. I still can't help you with those, despite your insistent pleas.) Thanks, Salon, for the link, and for posting some fabulous mp3s from said rockers. (Scott Lamb's article is worth sitting through the Honda ad non-subscribers will have to watch in order to read the article -- it's a nice summing up of the current state of kids' music.)
If you're new to the site, I encourage you to look around -- links to other kids'-music-related blogs as well as to every full album review (including Justin Roberts, Dan Zanes, Laurie Berkner, and Milkshake) can be found on the right. If you're wondering what to get that 4-year-old nephew for his birthday, check out my page of album recommendations by age. I treat kids' music the way any parent who really likes music would -- with my own set of interests but with an understanding that perhaps not every song off Spoon's Gimme Fiction is going to appeal to my 5-year-old (let alone my 1-year-old).
There's so much great kids' music being made, and not just by the rockers mentioned in the article who have made their way to kids' TV screens. Dig in -- you're bound to find something you and the kids in your life will really like.
Saturday AM edit: You know, I could actually help readers "dig in" if I specifically mentioned a few artists and albums that readers might not be familiar with if they're only sticking to the TV/Noggin crowd. No disrespect meant to the Noggin crowd -- Zanes, Roberts, and TMBG, in particular, are all among my favorites kids' artists -- but these four albums are tremendous, too.
Silly Reflection, by Lunch Money (review)
If You Ever See An Owl, by the Terrible Twos (review)
Fascinating Creatures, by Francis England (review)
Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World DVD, by Morgan Taylor (review)
This Week: More Thematic Drift
More cool stuff coming up this week -- reviews, interviews, and the like -- but no coherent theme, except perhaps a broadening of the site's scope to look at albums released before, say, seven minutes ago.
If you missed my reviews of Keith Munslow's Accidentally (on purpose) and Josephine Cameron's Close Your Eyes, check 'em out. The latter is the first "Review in Brief" here on the site, designed to get to the point with fewer semi-obscure references. And thanks, too, to Fran for linking to my article on things I'd like to see more and less of in kids' music.
Thanks as always for reading, e-mailing, submitting, and commenting.
Links: Father of Two
A few links to toss out the day before Father's Day. See if you can guess the common theme.
Bill, father of two, has SteveSongs in studio and has pictures of them and Milkshake to prove it. (Yeah, yeah, SteveSongs was prerecorded...)
Chag, father of two, has an amusing dadblog at Cynical Dad. In the all-important sports-world scoreboard, his affinity for the Yankees (a negative for me) is far outweighed by his affinity for the North Carolina Tar Heels (big thumbs up).
Thanks also to Brady Rymer, father of two, who mentioned my interview with him in his newsletter this week. (Sign up at his homepage.)
Oh, and I, father of two, have updated my "Songs for Dads" post.
Enjoy your Father's Day, y'all, father or not.
