Pottermania!!!

Summer is always a really busy and massively fun season at the library. I don't have as much time to write reviews, but I do get to do stuff like host big ol' Harry Potter parties! I'm tellin' ya, my coworkers and our pages put in lots of extra hours to get ready for this day-before-Deathly Hallows release shindig, and our patrons had a great afternoon.

We had arts and crafts...

owls from the New Canaan Nature Center...

magician/author Bob Friedhoffer...

and, of course, "Pin the Tail on Dudley's Butt".

Fun was had by all!!!

Dancing about architecture

There's a famous quote about music journalism that goes, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture". It's origins are still hazy, the earliest written version gives Elvis Costello credit, while Martin Mull, Frank Zappa, and Steve Martin, among others, have been said to be the father of said pithy observation. At any rate, I love to read about music, about others' views on artists and styles, about one musician's critical look at another musician's body of work.

I was fortunate to have Dan Shorr come by and visit the Central Children's Room today with his family as they were passing through Midtown Manhattan. I mention this because, not only is Dan a super nice guy and a great songwriter/musician, he's been bitten by the writing bug lately. Check out the "News" section on his website, where he discusses Texas songwriters, musical authenticity, the lack of quality music on the radio, and writing kids' songs from a child's perspective.

It's great to see a kids' performer taking his craft seriously. You can be the goofiest guy on stage if you wanna, but children and their grownups really respect musicians who respect their audiences' musical sensibilities.

I didn't have my camera on me today, so here's a picture of Dan from Bill Childs' photo album of the Jalopy gig in Brooklyn.

***Sugar Free Allstars***

Who knew Oklahoma could be so funky? The two dudes from Norman, OK, who call themselves the Sugar Free Allstars lay down some stinky poo grooves with nothing but a Hammond B-3 and a drum set, showing that less is more on their first CD for kids, Dos Ninos. This here is a booty-shakin' affair, y'all, so open up the Toddler Time floor for some free form dancin'!

Organist and sax master Chris Wiser and drum thumper Rob (Dr. Rock) Martin have been at the SFA game for a while. Having met at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, the duo finally gelled as a musical twosome after the exit of guitarist Mike Satawake and original drummer Andy Moore. Three CDs into their career, the Sugar Free Allstars decided it was time to turn the kids on to their brand of Memphis soul, NOLA funk, and amusingly witty lyrics.

From the group chant chorus of "Bathtub Boy" to the vaudeville jaunt of "Petting Zoo", from the southern California funk of "It's P. Kitty Time" to the raging Deep Purple rock of "Banana Pudding", SFA let their unique style shine through on Dos Ninos, diverting nary a whit from their trademark sound. In fact, "He's OK (The Spider Song)" is a remake of a tune that originally appeared on SFA's eponymous debut CD back in 2001. Grandparents get a funktabulous shout out in the silly but sweet "Poppy and MeeMaw", and the appropriately titled instrumental "Stinky" will put a crick in yer neck, for sure. The album ends with "Buck Up Little Camper", a nostalgic diversion that sounds more like the closing song to one of those RKO westerns.

After you've listened to Dos Ninos, check out "Wichita" from Return of Dos Machos!, "Exercise the Demon" from Sugar Free Allstars, or "The Way That I Felt Today" from Dos Machos! Heck, just go ahead and get all their CDs, throw 'em in the player, and have a party. The kids'll love it, the grownups'll love it, and you'll probably grab a few of your neighbors' ears, as well.

***The Terrible Twos***

Finally, the "Smile" of Children's Music, the one that was forever coming out next month, snippets of which were heard here and there on the Internet ... does it live up to the hype? Yep, and lemme tell you why.

If you don't buy If You Ever See an Owl ... because of Matt Pryor's love of Beatle-esque chord changes and melodies, if you don't make this purchase for the "can't help but sing along" aspect of every song, if'n you don't plunk down yer hard-earned cash just to complete your Get Up Kids/New Amsterdams discography, then make this album part of your music collection for the following reason: this record contains a certified folk masterpiece that transcends time ... "A Rake, A Broom, A Mop, A Shovel" could be a direct descendant of Woody Guthrie's "Grassy Grass Grass" and Ella Jenkins' "Ten Green Bottles" in that the song's simplicity is what makes it brilliant. It's very difficult to write a good simple song. This little tidbit is guaranteed to be curated as part of some postmodern folk collection, for sure.

Good music is good music, and the Terrible Twos' debut boasts several top-notch pop tunes in "Ladybug", "When I Get to Eleven", "Pizza and Chocolate Milk", "We Can All Get Along with Dinosaurs", and the title tune. With four songs named for girls ("Heather in the Heather", "Vivian", "Caroline", and "Isabella") and another specifically about Pryor's son ("Littlest Houdini") the album is at the same time intimately personal and universally relevant. And the spirit of Schoolhouse Rock is called upon for "Math Stomp", a sooperdooper song about ... math, of course! Add the math mantra "Oneplusoneistwo" and the nightynight tune "Grumpy Bug", and you've got yerself a wonderfully entertaining album from top to bottom. And look for a follow-up album, tentatively titled Jerzy the Giant, sometime in the fall. Yay!

It's widely known that the Terrible Twos are the New Amsterdams, so give it to those guys for recording an album of great tunes that can be appreciated by any age. In fact, the best way to describe the whole project would be to quote Pryor from the Vagrant Records website: "I'm just an artist who made some music children like". Let's hope more musicians follow his lead.

***Tinariwen***

Recently I attended a program called "Voices for the Earth throughout the World" at the United Nations Plaza, a program of music presented by children of many nationalities from NYC area schools and daycares. There I picked up an issue of the United Nations Environment Programme magazine, TUNZA, which featured an article on a truly amazing band.

Tinariwen are a group of nomadic Touaregs from northeastern Mali who originally formed in one of Muammar Qadhafi's rebel camps in the early 80s. Their name means "empty spaces" and that's the feeling you get when you listen to their music: it's sorta like Mississippi Blues filtered through hot Saharan sands. Actually, they sound like what Page and Plant were shooting for on their No Quarter album, only dustier, more of-the-earth.

Aman Iman (which translates to "Water is Life") is Tinariwen's third album, and it continues their exploration of musical links between Arabic rhythms and a blues backbeat, between traditional flutes and droning guitar licks, between ancient isolation and the modern world. Explore their website and check out their history and their beliefs and causes. Mesmerizing rock from a brilliant, deeply political, cosmically mysterious band.

Black and White

I've been a fan of rock & roll history for many years now, and I sometimes like to think I know everything, that's right, everything about popular music from the past 50 years or so. Well, I also enjoy finding new information ... it keeps me humble.

I knew Three Dog Night performed songs written by Harry Nilsson, Paul Williams, Hoyt Axton, Randy Newman, and other contemporary tunesmiths, but I never really looked into the origins of the song "Black and White". While digging through the music collection here at Donnell, I came across this picture book published by the Ward Ritchie Press from L.A. in 1966. David Arkin's lyrics and Earl Robinson's music were originally published as a song in 1956, a tune that celebrated desegregation specifically and the Civil Rights Movement in general. Arkin decided to illustrate the song himself ten years later with simple black and white pencil drawings and, at the end of the story, sparse splashes of color.

The version of "Black and White" we are most familiar with was made popular first by British reggae band Greyhound in 1971, and then more famously by Three Dog Night in 1972. You have to admit, when it comes on the radio, this joyous song is pretty hard not to sing along with. But Arkin's original lyrics are powerful and uplifting, telling the story of (as the subtitle states) "the freedom to go to school together". This is a rare, wonderful gem. Come on by the Donnell Central Children's Room and give it a gander. I'll listen for your voices singing along with the book.

***Gustafer Yellowgold***

So much has already been said by so many reviewers about this wonderful, wonderful project, there's really nothing left to say about the re-release. Wait, lemme say this: if there is ANY possibility of seeing Morgan Taylor's live multimedia presentation of the Gustafer Yellowgold story, you MUST go. I've seen grown men crying with joy at the end of "New Blue Star" when all the children in the audience are blissfully singing "Neeeeeeeww Bluuuuuuue Staaaaar!!!" Absolutely heavenly.

And with the new release you get two additional songs: "A Cooler World", which could be Taylor thinking ahead to the possibility of an animated series, because this little ditty succinctly encapsulates everything Gustaferish within a perfect pop tune; and "Rocket Shoes", a typically wistful Taylor tune that fits right in with the feel of the older songs. Both have been available for a while on the Gustafer website, but it's nice to have them incorporated into the total storyline and CD/DVD package.

Here's what I had to say about the original DVD-only release:

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

As you sit reading this review, I feel sorry for you, I truly do. For you see, friends, the minutes you waste eyeballing these pitifully mundane comments are minutes you could be digging this mindblowingly awesome DVD. This stuff is so far ahead of typical kids' entertainment, everyone else might as well give up. OK, allow me to back up and let you in on what all this proselytizing is about.

Illustrator/songwriter Morgan Taylor, originally from Dayton, Ohio, currently a Lower East Side resident, is the creator of Gustafer Yellowgold, a character from the Sun who befriends otherwise friendless beings like a flightless pterodactyl, a crying green bee, a dragon who makes his home in a fireplace, and an eel. Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World is the soundtrack of their intertwining lives, filled with stories of friendship, loneliness, loss, death, and love. But these subjects are dealt with in such a subdued manner that you don't so much read the lyrics or hear the music, you feel them, you understand the emotions channeled through the songs, you empathize with the characters.

The eight songs on the DVD are iconographically illustrated with Morgan's simple and colorful drawings, enclosed within a square wooden frame, and lyrics to each stanza appear on the frame as each song flows by. The DVD also includes wordless versions of all the songs so you and your little ones can sing along with "I'm From the Sun", "Your Eel", "New Blue Star", and the rest of the joyous tunes and aching melodies.

After having opened for bands such as the Polyphonic Spree and Wilco, Morgan is currently performing the Gustafer Yellowgold music locally, playing live as the images from the DVD are projected onto a screen. If you live near NYC, go see the show. If you live anywhere else in the world, come see the show. If you are of this universe, buy the DVD and share it with everyone you know.