Miscellaneous Goodness

• CoolMomPicks.com today has a review of Enzo Garcia, concluding: "There's something totally gratifying about having a kids CD that no one else knows about. Unless of course you're a San Francisco hipster parent." ...or unless, of course, you listen to our show, thanks to SF parent Deb who arranged for us to get Enzo's terrific CDs.


• Zooglobble points out a cool podcast by Justin Roberts, along with various other web places to see/hear his stuff.


• Speaking of SF kids' artists (we were, honest - Enzo Garcia is from SF), Zooglobble also reviews the Sippy Cups, a band we've been playing pretty often and will continue to play pretty often. My favorite kid-friendly edit of theirs is switching "I Wanna Be Sedated" to "I Wanna Be Elated."


• Speaking of fancy-schmancy podcasts (again, we were, honest), Monty Harper will be on NPR's "Open Mic" next Monday, July 3.


• The ever-more-lovely Mrs. Davis organized her music reviews. That allowed me to see this great Justin Roberts review (it is a bit of a surprise to find out how great he is) and that she hasn't reviewed Lunch Money, my favorite band of 2005. That should be remedied.


• Finally, I'll be at the They Might Be Giants show at Mohegan Sun this Saturday celebrating my birthday. It's a free 21+ show. If anyone's going to be there, send a note (show AT sparetherock DOT com).

Still working through probably 40 or 50 CDs waiting to be listened to. There will, no doubt, be some new music this week...so listen.

Playlist for 6-24-06

Archive is here.

They Might Be Giants - ZYX (Here Come the ABCs)
Silly Bus - Earth and Sun (Silly Bus)
Milkshake - Rainy Day (Bottle of Sunshine)
Danny Adlerman - It's Raining, It's Pouring (Live at VFR)
Spearhead - Hole in the Bucket
Yosi - Hole in the Ground (Under a Big Bright Yellow Umbrella)
--song ID
Brady Rymer - Dilly Dally Daisy (Every Day Is A Birthday)
Ben Rudnick & Friends - Silver & Gold (Live at WERS)
Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata 2000 (World Playground 2)
--song ID
NoMeansNo - Joy (The Worldhood of the World As Such)
Audrarox - Short Attention Span (AudraRox)
Scribblemonster - I Wish I Lived in Mighigan
Violent Femmes - Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah (Means I Love You) (Saturday Morning Cartoons Greatest Hits)
Dennis Caraher - The Elephant Played Electric Guitar (Dog Bone Town)
Candy Band - Get Up Already (LolliPunk)
Legal ID (8:57)
Prof. Presley - A New Constitution (History Rocks)
Campfire Kev - Cherry Chapstick Eatin' Girl (Campfire Kev Show)
--song ID
Milkshake interview
Frances England - Charlie Parker (Fascinating Creatures)
Buck Howdy - Giddyup! (Giddyup!)
Gourds - The Education Song (Heavy Ornamentals)
Ralph's World - The Banana Splits (Tra La La)
--song ID
Rebecca Frezza - It Wasn't Me (Tall and Small)
Prince - Starfish and Coffee (Sign O' The Times)
Bill Harley - Fifty Ways to Fool Your Mother (Play it Again) (for Rich)
The Quiet Ones - Invisible Trousers (Make Some Noise)
Monty Harper - Roundy Round (Take Me To Your Library)
--song ID
Miz B - Let It Rain (Raise the Brain)
Gear Daddies - The Zamboni Song (Billy's Live Bait)
Dan Zanes - Let's Shake (Catch That Train!)
--song ID
They Might Be Giants - LMNO (Here Come the ABCs)

Charity Holds Forth

Charity of Charity and the JAMband fame has an interesting guest post at the Lovely Mrs. Davis. Check it out.

Good stuff coming up on this week's show. And coming soon...virtual guest DJ sets from some of your favorite bands & singers!

Kidzapalooza Lineup

The full lineup for Kidzapalooza:

Perry Farrell with Peter DiStefano
The Candy Band
Justin Roberts
Ella Jenkins
Q Brothers
The Blisters
School of Rock
Chutzpah
ScribbleMonster
Asheba
Kellee McQuinn & KidTribe
Alvin Ailey Dance Camp

...and Lollapalooza:

Red Hot Chili Peppers
Kanye West
Manu Chao
Wilco
Death Cab For Cutie
The Raconteurs
The Flaming Lips
Ween
Queens of the Stone Age
The Shins
Common
Matisyahu
Ryan Adams
Umphrey's McGee
Sonic Youth
Violent Femmes
Ben Kweller
Thievery Corporation
Sleater-Kinney
Nickel Creek
Blues Traveler
Broken Social Scene
The New Pornographers
Iron & Wine
Poi Dog Pondering
The Secret Machines
eels
Panic! At the Disco
The Disco Biscuits
She Wants Revenge
The Dresden Dolls
Reverend Horton Heat
The Smoking Popes
Andrew Bird
Gnarls Barkley
Stars
Cursive
Blackalicious
Editors
Lyrics Born
Lady Sovereign
Hard-Fi
Calexico
Nada Surf
Feist
Aqualung
The Frames
The Hold Steady
The Go! Team
Mates of State
Pepper
Particle
The Redwalls
Mute Math
Wolfmother
Sparta
The Subways
Of Montreal
Blue October
Jeremy Enigk
Living Things
Sound Team
The M's
Hot Chip
The Benevento-Russo Duo
Matt Costa
The New Amsterdams
deadboy & the Elephantmen
30 Seconds to Mars
Rainer Maria
Cold War Kids
Sybris
Anathallo
Burden Brothers
What Made Milwaukee Famous
Manishevitz
Husky Rescue
Towers of London
Ohmega Watts
Boy Kill Boy
Jim Noir
The Standard
Be Your Own Pet
Elvis Perkins
Trevor Hall
Midlake
Sa-Ra
Assasins
Kelley Stoltz
Kill Hannah
Katie Todd Band
Cameron McGill and What Army
The Bon Mots
Lanz
Moses Mayfield
Makeshifte
Catfish Haven
Jon McLaughlin
Musical Outfits
St. James
The Brickheadz

Any loyal listener should feel free to pay for our airfare.

Saturday at the Eric Carle Museum

Wow, what a fun day at the Eric Carle Museum!

As we came in, we saw SteveSongs getting their pictures taken and got one ourselves (click on any picture to see a bigger version):



Then we got to chat with Lisa and Mikal from Milkshake. Ella was a little shy about Mikal, so that explains the distance:




Lisa sung part of a song from their album that will come out this fall, so be sure to listen next week for it!

Then we went and saw SteveSongs play a terrific set:





And then Milkshake played:





And who got to be the "Da Da Da" sign-holdin' guy during "Happy Songs"?





Hey, that's me!

And then they played their new baseball song:



...and Ella got to be the pitcher!







And then came the Love Train, with Ella at the front...





...and Liam bringing up pretty close to the rear:



Thanks to the kind folks at the Eric Carle Museum, SteveSongs, and Milkshake for being so nice and playing great sets. We sure enjoyed the day and hope others did too!

Playlist for 6/17/2006

Whoo-hoo! SteveSongs in studio and both SteveSongs and Milkshake live at the Eric Carle Museum later today!

Archive is here.

They Might Be Giants - E Eats Everything (Here Come the ABCs)
Asheba - Amahlittle Pumpkin (Children are the Sunshine)
Kevin Kammeraad - Pumpkin Belly (The Tomato Collection)
Charity & the JAMband - Cake (Rock Your Socks Off)
ScribbleMonster - Beautiful Day (Chocolate Milk)
SteveSongs - Marvelous Day (Marvelous Day!)
Milkshake - School (Bottle of Sunshine)
--song ID
Miz B - Raise the Brain (Raise the Brain)
Throwing Muses - Counting Backwards (EP)
Rebecca Frezza - Tall and Small (Tall and Small)
Dan Schorr - Like I Don't Have Ears (On the Side of My Head) (Every Word I Say Is True)
Chris Lynch - London Bridge (Down by the Riverside)
--song ID/PSA (Children of Tibet)
Replacements - Cruella de Ville (Stay Awake)
Pencilhead & the Playground Punks - Free (Punk Salad)
Built to Spill - Big Dipper (There's Nothing Wrong With Love)
Professor Presley - Find a Cause (History Rocks)
Teacher & The Rockbots - Supply & Demand (World)
Muppets - Wild Thing
--song ID
Lunch Money - Yes We Have Rhythm (Silly Reflection)
Dennis Caraher - Little Bit Late (Dog Bone Town)
Big Star - Thank You Friends (Columbia)
Monty Harper - Paws Claws Tales & Scales (Paws Claws Scales & Tales)
Gwendolyn & The Good Time Gang - Freedom of the Heart (Ooodily, Ooodily) (s/t)
Mr. Ray - I'd Be A Dinosaur (Start Dreaming) (id)
Frances England - Daddy-O (Fascinating Creatures)
Terrible Twos - When I Get To Eleven (If You Ever See An Owl)
Brady Rymer - Keep Up With You
Hipwaders - Twitchy (Hipwaders)

SteveSongs live in studio:
-Opposite Day
-On a Flying Guitar
-Gravity

Ticklefish - Backyard Safari
Justin Roberts - More Than Just A Minute
They Might Be Giants - Free To Be You And Me

Reminder: SteveSongs in Studio Saturday, Milkshake & SteveSongs at Eric Carle Museum!

What a great weekend this is going to be.

Saturday morning, SteveSongs will be live in-studio at around 9:30 to chat and hopefully play some songs. If you don't know Steve's music, you need to; it's great, and we're thrilled he'll be visiting. (Unfortunately, we'll be sans Ella in the morning.)

Then later on in the day, MilkShake will be playing two sets (11:00 and 3:00) and SteveSongs will be playing one set (1:30) at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, along with all sorts of amazing other activities. We'll all be there for at least the SteveSongs set and the second Milkshake set, so keep an eye out for us!

We'll be talking with MilkShake when we're over at the event and will play the interview (probably) next week. Hopefully we'll get them to at least sing a few bars of the album "Play" they're working on now for an October release.

Plus -- new music this week from at least Pencilhead and the Playground Punks, Miz B, and Asheba!

Saturday Comes Several Days Early

We won't be on live on Saturday as we'll be at our friends' commitment ceremony in sunny Minnesota. So we'll be playing an edited archive from January. (Took out the references to events that happened then and added in three bonus songs.) We'll be back live on Saturday, June 17. Remember to go see SteveSongs and Milkshake at the Eric Carle Museum on the 17th, and this Saturday the 10th, go see the Deedle Deedle Dees at Mass MoCA!

The archive for this week's show is here.

Rock on completely, please.

Hi, Cool Mom Picks Newsletter Readers

I'm not technically a mom, nor am I that cool (promise, I've been known to wear long socks with shorts), but still, it sure was nice of the CoolMomPicks.com newsletter to give our little show a plug!

I rather like the picture Dena took of Ella and me for it:



I have also always wanted to be on a "cult radio show favorite," and if Ella knew what it meant, I'm sure she'd have always wanted to be on one too.

Also, the t-shirt I'm wearing is the work of Chank Diesel, an artist in Minneapolis (who was at Macalester College around the time Dena and I were there).

We had him do this painting when Liam was born:



He's great. He's probably best-known for his extremely cool fonts, which I guarantee you have seen even if you don't know it. So go give him money for art or fonts.

Playlist for 6-3-06

Archive is here.

Legal ID (8:00)
They Might Be Giants - Dr. Worm (Severe Tire Damage)
Daniel Schorr - They Tell Me I'm Gonna Be President (Every Word I Say Is True)
Lunch Money - Umbrella (Silly Reflection)
Dan Zanes - Loch Lomond (Catch That Train!)
Monty Harper - Eleanor Gerbil (Paws Claws Scales & Tales)
Aura Msimang - Langa Mo (African Playground)
Parker Bent - 26 Letters (I Am Your New Music Teacher)
--song ID
Gwendolyn & the Good Time Gang - Anatomy
Suburbs - Rattle My Bones
Scribblemonster & His Pals - Scrub A Dub (Best of Friends)
Enzo Garcia - Sambalele (LMNO Music)
--song ID
Thunderlords - Old Man Olaf (Noisy Songs for Noisy Kids)
Dick Dale - Miserlou
Campfire Kev - Cheese Stands Alone (The Campfire Kev Show)
Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper - Elvis is Everywhere
Kermit the Frog & Miss Piggy - She Drives Me Crazy
Bzots - Two Months Security Deposit
Vandals - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Legal ID (9:02)
Professor Presley - A New Constitution
--song ID
SteveSongs - No Good Toys (Little Superman)
Milkshake - Woo-Woo (Bottle of Sunshine)
Deedle Deedle Dees - Stand Up Straight (Let It Dee)
Peter Alsop - What If? (Pluggin' Away)
REM - We Walk (Murmur)
--song ID
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - This Land Is Your Land
Earth Wind & Fire - Shining Star
Happy Monster - Hey Diddle Diddle (Rhythm with Rhymes)
Ben Folds Five - Theme from Dr. Pyser (Whatever and Ever Amen)
Wilson Lake & the Rock Bass - Kersplash
Erin Lee Kelly & Marci Applebaum - Haircut Song (Someone's Gotta Wanna Play)
Michael Franti - Firefly
Justin Roberts - Dad Caught Stars (Not Naptime)
--song ID
They Might Be Giants - Alphabet Lost and Found (Here Come the ABCs)

Bands That Should Do Kids' Stuff

Some brief thoughts on bands that I would like to record a kid-friendly song or two.

Soul Asylum: Anyone who can write "Who is the hound at the downtown dog pound, who speaks English when the watchman's not in sight?" could do a fun kids' song.

Mates of State: Ella loves all of their stuff, they have a baby, so why not do an EP?

Replacements/Paul Westerberg: As with Soul Asylum (and, yes, I did grow up in the Twin Cities), when you can write lyrics like Westerberg can, you should be doing stuff for kids.

Ben Folds: The Over the Hedge thing doesn't count.

Old 97's: Good heavens, I would like it if they would do something I could play on the show, but virtually everything they do is not quite...appropriate.

Cake: Again, the kids love it, but it's not quite right for the show.

So...who else? Comments are open, and more to come.

Edit: And indeed, there's more in the comments. Go and enjoy and share.