***Stephen Cohen***

A red-jacketed band of half-human, half-animal musicians comes marching down the street, accompanied by a couple of oversized birds ... what an awesome introduction to Stephen Cohen's Here Comes the Band! With a smoky-voiced delivery, vocal phrasing a little like Rickie Lee Jones, and an intimate coffee house presentation, Portland resident Stephen Cohen whams, tickles, and strums the strings of his guitar, which acts as much a percussion instrument as a keeper of melody, intertwined with the tinkles, knocks, and wobbles of his handmade musical gear. Rhythms are suspended and sometimes done away with entirely in several songs, tying together everything in a cohesive dream-like collection of thoughts put to music. Sound too heavy for a kids' album? Au contraire, my little ones, for that's the amazing thing about this CD: yer tiny kids can sing right along with every single song on the album, while grownups can bask in the glow of Cohen's musical inventiveness. Even though Cohen has been recording since 1979, Here Comes the Band is his first album specifically for kids.

Soon-to-be Toddler Time classics include the mantra-like "Give Me That Toy!", the boppity "Mr. Knickerbocker" and "Baseball, Baseball". The controlled chaos of "The Elephant Walk" mirrors, coincidentally, sounds produced by bands of the Elephant 6 collective (Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, etc.), while the ethereal "Rain, Rain, Rain" fully utilizes Cohen's self-created percussion inventions. The three-part thread "Here Comes the Band / There Goes the Band / Sleepy Dreams (of the Band)" that runs through the CD gives Cohen a chance to name check his old group, the Talk Talk Band. By using a few tunes culled from some of his grownup albums, real life and fiction and Many Hats, Cohen shows his trust in kids' taste and intelligence. He's not making music for children, but just making music.

Not only do you get Cohen's wonderful songs, the CD is also packaged with a lyrics booklet full of artwork by Christopher Shotola-Hardt, instructions on making your own instruments, and explanations of everyone's duties in the making of a CD ("The producer chooses the songs..."). Check out more of Cohen's work, it's pretty inspiring and amazing.

***Chucky Woodbine***

A classic reborn! Years ago, Auburn University's student radio station, WEGL, was adamantly anti-commercial. During my senior year, I remember hearing this lo-fi, herkity jerkity, melodic song called "Double Feature" about, I think, monsters and secret messages on cereal boxes. Now, that memory would have completely faded into the ether of collegehood if not for ... TAH DAH! ... the reissue of Chucky Woodbine's Misleading.

This quartet from Massachussets made a cassette-only version of Misleading back in the late-80s that included songs about woodland creatures, bullies, and some weird guy named Fred Villari. Throw in a couple of instrumentals and a punk song called "Roadkill" (chorus: "Roadkill! Roadkill!"), and you have an amusingly silly, inventive, do-it-yourselfer worthy of way more exposure than it got.

Is this kids' music? I dunno, is "Yellow Submarine", or pretty much everything Jonathan Richman ever recorded? My point is that kids are smart and have incredibly varied tastes, so anything that seems entertaining and is a little off the beaten path (i.e. - doesn't come with tie-in merchandise) should be readily introduced to kids. Go ahead, let them hear what's out there and they'll decide what they like. If your upper-elementary kid is into quirky music, is thinking about starting a band, or just likes to decipher sometimes impenetrable lyrics, he'll dig Chucky Woodbine.

***Rockosaurus Rex***

HELL YES!!! Tired of hearing toy piano versions of your favorite Toddler Time classics? Prepare your preschoolers to have their faces rocked off by "Wheels On the Bus"; "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"; and "This Old Man" as performed by our favorite prehistoric metal gods, Rockosaurus Rex!

All you grownups will probably get a bigger kick out of this musical project from Austin, Texas, than your young'uns, but hey! crank it up and see what they think. "All the Pretty Little Horses" is given a heavy dose of Metallica, while "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is all Anthrax'ed out. In fact, quit reading this and head for the Rockosaurus Rex website immediately, so the rockin' can commence. There are plenty of clips from The Big Bang! to which one can thrust one's fist into the air.

Make sure to read their bio, have fun with the whole concept, and unite the world through metal. Like the Rockosaurus Rex creed says, "They have come to rock the children of Earth". Amen.

***2006 Top Twenty Albums***

If anyone is interested, here are my picks for the top 20 kids' albums of roughly 2006. My criteria were:

1. Would I, as an adult, be willing to listen to this CD over and over?
2. Is this artist presenting anything new?
3. If there are cover songs on the CD, are they performed in a unique way?
4. Does it rock?

And here they are:


Number Twenty : Electric Storyland - The Sippy Cups
Number Nineteen : Every Word I Say is True - Daniel Schorr
Number Eighteen : Plays Well with Others - Uncle Rock
Number Seventeen : World - Teacher and the Rockbots
Number Sixteen : Prelude to Mutiny - Captain Bogg & Salty
Number Fifteen : Josh Levine for Kids - Josh Levine
Number Fourteen : Eat Every Bean and Pea on your Plate - Daddy a Go Go
Number Thirteen : Rockin' in the Forest with Farmer Jason - Farmer Jason
Number Twelve : LMNO Music-Pink - Enzo Garcia
Number Eleven : Best Friends - Ellen and Matt
Number Ten : Stories from Duke Puddintown - Greg Loop
Number Nine : Jim Gill Sings Moving Rhymes for Modern Times - Jim Gill
Number Eight : The Hollow Trees - The Hollow Trees
Number Seven : ACTIVATE! - Joel Caithamer
Number Six : You Are My Little Bird - Elizabeth Mitchell
Number Five : STARBOY Soundtrack - Lee Feldman
Number Four : The Great Adventures of Mr. David - Mr. David
Number Three : Fascinating Creatures - Frances England
Number Two : When I Grow Up - dog on fleas
Number One : "Hey You Kids!" - The Jellydots

***Jason Falkner***

What happens when a new baby comes into your life? Well, you stumble through your work day in a proud, drowsy stupor; you marvel at the awesomeness of your newly-constituted family unit; and you end up not giving a crap about stuff like kids' record reviews. So, after taking three weeks off when our son was born, and in the midst of another three as my wife goes back to work, I have fallen way behind on what's going on in the world of children's music.

An old bandmate recently reminded me of this CD, though, as he and his wife had a baby in September and wondered if I had reviewed, or even heard, the album. Now, as a band we collectively worshipped the Beatles and deeply admired the work of Jason Falkner, a musician I've mentioned a few times in past reviews. The combination of the two couldn't possibly miss, I thought, and I was right. BUT the resulting CD, Bedtime with the Beatles, released on Sony Wonder in 2001, sounded nothing like I had imagined. Falkner is somewhat famous for his "wall-of-sound" production, so I expected jaunty, finger-poppin' Beatles instrumentals. Falkner, however, decided to slow everything down, keep it all relaxed, and turn in a truly inspired lullaby album.

Most songs are pretty faithful to the originals, with material chosen from A Hard Day's Night, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, the "White Album", and Let It Be. But Falkner uses just the right amount of ambient sounds and personal touches in decorating his lovingly recreated instrumental versions of Beatles classics to make the songs unique. The clavinet runs during "Blackbird" and the small swells of strings at the end of "Michelle" will catch your ear; and at a lullaby's pace, you can really hear the beauty of the melodies in "And I Love Her" and "Here There and Everywhere".

Bedtime with the Beatles has been road tested, as well: my wife and I play the CD every night during our little one's bathtime, and he really digs it. It makes the whole end-of-the-night routine a very soothing experience for everyone (plus, it's hard not to sing along quietly to all the songs). A must have for all new parents (the CD is available in blue and pink), for Beatles fans, and for music lovers in general. Beautiful stuff.

***The Jellydots***

This is it, folks. You're looking at, and will soon be listening to, the future of Kids' Music. Like trying to find the horizon from the shore through a misty fog, genre lines have become so blurred that soon we can simply say, this is music. Period. The fact that this music can't be shoved into a specific category speaks volumes of the increasing confidence in kids' taste and intelligence, that you don't have to skimp on talent or effort just because it's an album for children. In fact, more and more artists are putting extra effort into children's music because of the fact that it's a kids' CD.

So, welcome to our world, Jellydots! a band so good it's a shame they're not pop stars, but, luckily for kids' music fans, are guaranteed to be h-u-g-e within the next year. If you need a musical peg upon which to hang this unique hat, think Jason Falkner playing Schoolhouse Rock songs with Elliot Smith's writing help ... and we'll come back to that later.

On "Hey You Kids!", yer gonna hear songs about the important minutia of childhood memories: a square of sunlight on the bedroom wall, the blue-green eyes of a new kitten, using both hands to eat a cookie, the longing plea for one more glass of water in order to stave off sleep. But hidden within these deceptively simple superpop kids' songs are messages of self-importance, of the assurance of being comforted, of retribution and its consequences, of the humanizing effect of connecting with others on a personal level, ... and all of this in a voice not heard since the Schoolhouse Rock series. Those writers, as well as Doug, have the innate ability to speak the thoughts of children in a child's own articulate voice, free-flowing and imaginative, full of wonder and with an eye for detail, details that are especially meaningful to children.

So, try to find a better pop song than "Bicycle", c'mon, I dare you; then discover the consequences of washing a cookie in the sink in "Mr. Cookie". Dig the instrumental bridge near the end of the title tune and try not to dance with glee; then groove to the Tuff Gong vibe of "Lake Rules", and relive the unabashed joy of a day on the water (with a wink at The Bee Gees).

Oh, the lyrical and musical brilliance of "I'm Not Ugly (You're Not Either)", a tune that verbally wraps around itself, and is most like a Schoolhouse Rock song than any other on the album. And I can totally see a crowd of Second-Graders going absolutely apeshit when they hear "Race Cars Go" rev up! The partying continues with "Three is a Magic Number" and its eyeball-blistering guitar solo.

The last four songs on the CD will soothe your little one into blissful slumber, including the impossibly beautiful "Captain Sleep", and the achingly sweet album-closer "My Blanket", whose lyrics include the lines: "Stellar bits and particles that make up you and me / We could float around and settle down inside a symphony / Some day, and that's where we would stay / You'll be E and I'll be A". Yes.

The Jellydots are actually the project of Doug Snyder, a musician and songwriter based in Austin, Texas, an appropriately creative home for a group like this. "Hey You Kids!" is more or less a compilation of Snyder's best tracks from the past few years, stemming from guitar instruction classes he conducts with children. And since the basic tracks (drums, bass, rhythm guitar) were recorded together, all the songs keep their "right there in the same room" feel (the drums are especially tasty). The three new tunes on "Hey You Kids!" - "Bicycle", "Captain Sleep" and a cover of the classic "Three is a Magic Number" - are beyond wonderful, and if that's the new stuff, who knows what this guy's capable of?!?

If you're anywhere near Texas, check out the Jellydots, it may be the last chance you have to see them play live before they become megapopular. They could equally rock the crowd at both the SXSW Music Festival and the World Cafe Kids' Stage. Explore the Jellydots MySpace site and check out their television performance, featuring David the Dancing Donkey. And while you're at it, buy five copies of "Hey You Kids!", give one to your local library, give three to your closest friends, and keep one for yourself and/or your little ones and play repeatedly. It'll make the world a more beautiful place.

Captain Bogg & Salty live at Donnell!

With hook hands aloft and landlubbers a-sway, Captain Bogg and Salty heartily entertained the crowd at the Donnell Central Children's Room yesterday. These guys are incredibly witty and engaging, so if you have a chance, go check out their live show. They are touring extensively this Fall, playing places as varied as children's libraries and well-known clubs, like Maxwell's in Hoboken.

Thanks again for a great show, guys!