I think most people would probably consider me a fairly straight-laced guy. Sure, I occasionally drive faster than the speed limit and go back for a second donut in the office lunchroom, but for the most part, I think "goody two-shoes" would not be a wholly inappropriate appellate for me.
Which gives you an indication of exactly why I'm not going to be posting a copy of new music from the Shins, people! You heard me, the Shins!
I totally understand one of the impluses behind mp3 and .rar blogs -- new music falls into your lap and all you want to do is share it with others. Preferably before anyone else does. But even though the record industry's approach to file-sharing seems somewhat... misguided... to me, I've always felt that the copyright holder should get to call the shots.
So that means I'm not going to post the 2-minute track from the Shins from the new Nick Jr. show Yo Gabba Gabba!.
Well, there is one other reason. Although it's a good track that sounds like the Shins (particularly a soaring la-la-la part near the end), it's not an awesome track. It's not even the best track on the 9-minute sampler CD I received. Perhaps at even just 2 minutes in length it's too long to convey a message which is -- literally -- "Sometimes you win / sometimes you lose / sometimes you win / sometimes you lose / But it's OK / you try again."
That honor of the sampler's best track goes to the LA band I'Kona, which turns in a strutting, funky 90-second song called "Hello, Goodbye" that G. Love would be proud to call his own.
The band Paco (whose lead singer Dominique Durand also sings in Ivy with Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger) turns in a nicely muted "Listen," which is about 180 degrees from the Aquabats' hyper "Pool Party." (Aquabats lead singer Christian Jacobs is also a co-creator of Yo Gabba Gabba!.)
The list of artists appearing on camera or turning in songs for the show is enough to keep music-minded parents intrigued -- Mya, Sugarland, Smoosh, Cornelius, the Postmarks, Dean & Britta, Jason Falkner, Low, Jason Lytle, Mark Kozelek, among others.
I have no idea how the on-camera appearances or videos will turn out. Nick Jr. reps have indicated that the Shins video will be posted to the Nick Jr./YGG website shortly, so you can judge that song for yourself. (And for those of you just wanting the CD, they're hoping to put one together sometime in the future.)
I've also seen the first episode, schedule to debut Monday, August 20th. But I'm gonna need a little time to process that one...
