Review: Rocksteady - Josh and the Jamtones

Josh and the Jamtones Rocksteady album cover

Kids music is generally not a field for the low-energy musician.  Maybe it's the coffee right before the 10 AM gig, maybe it's the bright morning sunlight, maybe it's the incredible bundles of energy that are your favorite 4- or 7-year-old, but whatever the reason, artists with calm approaches like Elizabeth Mitchell or Raffi stand out for their comparative rarity.

Still, in a field of high energy performers, Boston's Josh and the Jamtones stand out.  Live, they bring it on like few kids' musicians do, mixed with a lot of stage banter and interplay between leader Josh Shriber, drummer Patrick Hanlin, and the rest of the band.  On record, their music had captured some of the energy and some of the humor, but hadn't fully translated their live concert experience to the home listener.

Until now.

The band's new album Rocksteady takes that energy and humor, wraps it in a ska-pop package, and sends it out into the world, ready to sweep up everyone in its path and deposit them gently on the living room rug, worn out from forty minutes of dancing (with occasional comedic skit breaks).  This is an album, after all, whose first full song, "Race U," almost literally ends with the singers pantomiming that they're out of breath.  There are a dozen or so songs here, mostly revved up ska tracks, with very little purpose other than to move the feet and bodies of whoever can hear the music.  Sure, there's some call-and-response on the title track and some shouts-out to classic tracks like "Sloop John B" and Toots and the Maytals' "Monkeyman" (both of them featuring Jesse Wagner from the Aggrolites).  But really this is just a straight-ahead piece of entertainment, no learning necessary.  (Other songs of note: Secret Agent 23 Skidoo joining in on the AutoTune-d "I Love You" and the totally rocking "Tailfeather.")

The album will be most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 8.  You watch videos for a number of their songs at the band's YouTube channel.

Have I made it clear enough that Rocksteady is a party, through and through?  Because it is, enough so that your kids probably won't even need that lullaby album to fall asleep to after dancing like crazy.  Definitely recommended.

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

Interview: Josh Shriber and Patrick Hanlin (Josh and the Jamtones)

If your family has never seen Josh and the Jamtones live, then it's possible you have a realistic view of a "high energy" concert.  If you have seen the Boston-area ska/punk/rock kids' band, however, your definition of "high energy" is entirely unrealistic.  The band BRINGS IT, and in addition to being very danceable, they've got a great sense of humor.

The band released ROCKSTEADY, their latest album, last week.  The new album captures that live energy (and some humor) for those fans who can't catch the band live.  I talked with bandleader Josh Shriber and drummer/producer Patrick Hanlin about the origins of the band, the interaction between the live shows and recording music, and being the only guy in Music Together.

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Zooglobble: What are your first musical memories?

Josh Shriber: I remember taking road trips -- listening to the Beatles and Billy Joel when I was 12, driving from Mississippi to Indiana

Patrick Hanlin: Playing piano in kindergarten.  Oh, and listening to Simon and Garfunkel in the backseat of the car on road trips.  "Feelin' Groovy."

Josh: We totally agree on "Feelin' Groovy."

What was your musical background?

Josh: Early on, my grandma had a baby grand piano, and I'd play on that at her house -- then she convinced my mom to move it to my house.  I took years of piano lessons.  I always loved practicing and playing -- the classical music I put up a little bit of fight against -- but I played everything.

I'd go to summer camp and Jewish summer camp, and at temple I was always watching the song leader.  That was my first way of performing, picking up a guitar in front of a group, going up front.

Josh Shriber of Josh and the Jamtones

As a cantor?

Josh: No, I never wanted to be a clergy member as a cantor.  But in the [Jewish] reform movement, the song leader teaches the songs, leads the group in singing.  Making a living [doing that] wasn't on my mind until I realized that there was money in doing that, and I could do that in the morning, leaving the evenings free for other music.

When did that change -- when did you start to move full-time into kids music?

So I'd do the temple thing on Sunday, plus another couple hours during the week, and I'd think, "How can I find forty hours a week of this?"  So I went to a local preschool, and I started to do Music Together.  That was great, though the Music Together leaders would sometimes say, "play a little less guitar."

Yeah, we did several sessions of Music Together with our kids, and it's definitely not a performer's showcase.

Josh: Right, but the moms were happy to hear someone.  There weren't many guys doing that -- I'd be the only guy except for the janitor.  I think some parents thought it was cool to have [their] sons see a guy singing.

So my preschool and private lessons grew, to the point where I was hiring other teachers, and after a couple years of Music Together, I branched out on my own.  I was incorporating other original music of my own, and rented space to incorporate all things I was doing.  Pat had come in by then as a teacher.

Pat: The program grew really fast -- now it's JamBaby, JamKids, drama classes.  Every semester -- and semesters are four times a year -- we'd do a CD featuring new songs.  So after 3 years we had 100 songs.

Then we started getting asked to do gigs.  The Jammin' With You band became the Jamtones.  The Jamtones are now different -- not educational, just entertainment.

I had never engineered a band before in my life -- now I've done about 30 albums.

Josh and the Jamtones

Is there a change from focusing on the daily classes and doing stuff with the band?

Josh: They all feed each other.  People who attend a Jamtones show may sign up for class; the biggest promotion for Jamtones shows are in our center.  The classes are me with a guitar, while the Jamtones shows are some 2-piece gigs, but generally guitar-drum-bass, sometimes steel drums.  It's always good to practice songs -- get the extra rep, get better and try new songs.

How did the new album come about -- were these new songs?

Pat: Last year, we put out Fall, Winter 1, Winter 2, and Spring [semester] albums, physical CDs for the class.  But for the Jamtones, once [the] Bear Hunt [album] came out, we thought our demographic wasn't 2-4 years old.  So we went crazy with the cheese whiz -- we had new songs we wanted to put on a slammin' ska record.

Josh: About a quarter of these we'd work on in class.

Any favorite memories from recording?

Pat: I remember tracking the best bass player in the city.  I wrote horn parts, which is something I hadn't done before.

Josh: We collaborated with Jesse [Wagner] from the Aggrolites.  We collaborated with [Secret Agent 23] Skidoo -- he's awesome.

Pat: We'd work hard during the day, let loose at night, have a couple beers.  The beatboxing was fun.

Recording with other artists, we've started to think about developing JamHouse Records [with other artists].

What do you enjoy more -- recording songs or playing live?

Josh: Both are exciting -- writing and recording songs that new, you're working on your own, and you hope it's going to explode.  The audience is where we get energy -- we've played in front of 600 kids or more.  [It's fun] to see parents whip out their phones to take pictures because the kids are going nuts.

Pat: One wouldn't be as fun without the other... One year I played on the Warped Tour, and playing 45 minutes a day, 7 days a week, that got boring.  When you've got that balance between recording and playing live, that's really great.

What's next for the band?

Pat: World domination! [Laughs] Lots of videos -- after we did the Kickstarter [for Bear Hunt]. we got names of 40-50 animators.  We love our video content, now we want to put out a show with them.  We want to develop other acts.

This [new] record came out 18 months after Bear Hunt -- we don't want to wait that long for the next album.

Josh: This is our first summer working with [booker] Rebecca Allison, and she's great -- we've got lots of shows.

Pat: We want more places for classes.  Lots of stuff going on, we're busy, that's how we like it.

Photo credits: Eric Barry

Itty-Bitty Review: Bear Hunt! - Josh and the Jamtones

Those of you who've seen Josh and the Jamtones in concert know that to call them high-energy is to underestimate the degree of enthusiasm they bring to a live gig.  The band Brings It.

You can hear a lot of that energy on Bear Hunt!, the third album from the Boston-area band.  The exclamation at the end of "Everybody Dance!" isn't window-dressing, it's a near command, and those kids who are still standing after that song probably won't make it through the next song, the just-as-energetic "Pirate's Life."  ("Snow Day" and the  similarly amped.)  The band gets an assist from occasional Dan Zanes collaborator Father Goose, an appropriate guest artist given the band's reggae and roots rock tendencies, on a couple tracks -- who knew "Swing Low" was a song about coming home from school?

I am not generally a big skit fan, and while Josh Shriber and chief musical collaborator Patrick Hanlin, generate quite a few laughs in their 4 skits that reenact in a skewed way the classic "Bear Hunt" song, devoting about 40% of their album's 44 minute run time to the skits takes away a lot of the energy generated by the songs themselves.  They felt more appropriate for live show banter.  (Judge for yourself, perhaps, by listening to the stream of four of the songs album, best for kids ages 3 through 7, below.)

Josh and the Jamtones are definitely a band to watch as their live shows have attracted a lot of attention.  The music on Bear Hunt!  doesn't try anything new, but is given a bit of flash and shine and if it doesn't make your family laugh, at the very least it's probably gonna make you dance.  Recommended

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