Spare the Rock Records to Release Science Fair

May 02

Family Music Release to Support Girls’ Science & Engineering Education

On July 3, Spare the Rock Records will release Science Fair, eighteen exclusive tracks themed around and benefiting science and engineering education for girls.  The album will feature new and exclusive music from artists including Mates of StateLaura VeirsMoona Luna (Pistolera‘s kids’ music incarnation), Elizabeth MitchellFrances England,WunmiBabe the Blue Ox, and many more.  (The track listing is below.)

Extensive research shows that girls, from rural areas to the suburbs to the inner cities, aren’t getting the foundational education they need to get into science fields when they grow up, and so women are significantly underrepresented in science-related fields.  The same research shows that girls are persistently given the message — explicitly or implicitly — that they can’t do science.  Science Fair will be part of changing that, both through the message of the record itself and through the financial contributions it will generate, supporting Girls Inc.’s programs improving girls’ science education.

Science Fair will be the second release from Spare the Rock Records.  In 2010, in response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the label released Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti, a benefit for the Haitian People’s Support Project.  Many Hands brought together nearly two dozen artists, including Dan ZanesPete SeegerThey Might Be Giants,Elizabeth MitchellJonathan CoultonLunch Money, and many more.  Many Hands, named the best family music release of 2010 by Amazon and other sources, has raised $50,000 for Haitian relief.

Science Fair has as producers Elizabeth Mitchell, Molly Ledford (Lunch Money), Dean Jones (Dog on Fleas), and Bill Childs (owner of Spare the Rock Records).  Cover art was donated by El Lohse (http://artbyel.com).  Songs cover myriad subjects, from Marie Curie to butterflies to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

As with Many Hands, after-tax profits will be donated, with Girls Inc.’s science education program the beneficiary.  The release will be available in physical form (distributed by E1) and digitally (at all the usual places).

Tracks (final sequence)

  1. Babe the Blue Ox – Surfin’ Minnesota
  2. Moona Luna – H2O
  3. The Deedle Deedle Dees and IMPACT Repertory Theatre – Time Machine
  4. Frances England – Goldilocks Zone
  5. The Nields – Butterfly Zone
  6. Laura Veirs – Little Black Rock
  7. Elizabeth Mitchell – Phytoplankton
  8. Mates of State – I Am a Scientist
  9. Wunmi – Rainbow
  10. Cat & a Bird – Constellation Bound
  11. Lunch Money – To Be a Fossil
  12. MC Fireworks (with Secret Agent 23 Skidoo) – Rocket Science
  13. Renee & Jeremy – (I Wanna Be Like) Madam Curie
  14. Rachel Loshak – Oh Girl (with John Munson)
  15. Alison Faith Levy & Rudy Trubitt – Deja Vu
  16. Lori Henriques – Heisenberg’s Aha!
  17. Barbara Brousal – I Wonder
  18. Ashley Albert – The Science Fair.

PR Contacts: Stephanie Mayers, stephanie@sparetherock.com, 347-735-0736, or Bill Childs, bill.childs@me.com, 413-387-7267.

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2012-04-28 Playlist

Apr 28

Listen any time you like at our page at WRSI.com!

Segment 1
TMBG – It’s Spare the Rock
ID
TMBG – They Got Lost
Your Imaginary Friend – Oh My!
ID
Mo Phillips – All Okay
Deedle Deedle Dees – Party Girl
ID
Okee Dokee Brothers – Along for the Ride (with Rachel Loshak)

Segment 2
Frances England – You & Me
Steve Weeks – If I Were a Cup
ID/prep to rock
TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!
Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Kinder Words
ScribbleMonster – Good Morning, Mister Sun
ID
The Minutemen – #1 Hit Song

Segment 3
Ellen & Matt – It’s Love
Cornershop – What Did the Hippie Have In His Bag?
ID
The Quiet Ones – Polar Bear
Great Lake Swimmers – See You on the Moon!
ID
Recess Monkey – Bouncy House

Segment 4
ScribbleMonster – Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child
ID
The Band – Life is a Carnival
Elizabeth Mitchell – Keep on the Sunny Side
ID
Renee & Jeremy – Give It Away
Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem – I’ll Fly Away
ID

Segment 5
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo – Brainstorm
Alchemystics – What We Need (Spread Hope)
ID
Baby Loves Hip-Hop – Tell Me More
Michael Franti – Say Hey
ID
Asylum Street Spankers – Sliver

Segment 6
ID
Dog on Fleas – Just Another Finger
Lucky Diaz – Lines and Dots
White Stripes – My Doorbell
ID
Alison Faith Levy – One More Cupcake
ID
TMBG – She Thinks She’s Edith Head
TMBG – Spare the Rock

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Playlist for 4/21/2012

Apr 21

Listen on-demand any time you like at our page at WRSI.com!

Segment 1
TMBG – It’s Spare the Rock
ID
TMBG – Apartment 4
Gustafer Yellowgold – New is the New Old
Aretha Franklin – Let It Be
ID
Heidi Swedberg – Froggie Went A-Courtin’
Emily Curtis – We Belong
ID

Segment 2
Dan Zanes – Water for the Elephants
Elizabeth Mitchell – Jubilee
ID/prep to rock
TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!
Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song
Kid Koala – Fruit Belt
Board of Education – Why Is Dad So Mad?
ID
The Quiet Ones – How Fast Can You Run?

Segment 3
Little Richard – Get Down With It
Alison Faith Levy – Itsy Bitsy Spider
ID
King Curtis – Memphis Soul Stew
Dog on Fleas – If You Wanna Dance Say Yeah!
ID
Recess Monkey – Human Cannonball

Segment 4
ScribbleMonster – Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child
ID
Lucky Diaz – On My Bike (World Premiere!)
Pink Floyd – Bike
The Pop-Ups! – Box of Crayons
ID
Cathy & Marcy w/ Christylez Bacon – Soup, Soup

Segment 5
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo – Magic Beans
Chuck Womack & the Sweet Souls – Ham Hocks & Beans
ID
Flannery Brothers – One Wasn’t Enough
Jonathan Richman – Ice Cream Man
ID
Thermals – Saints

Segment 6
Asylum Street Spankers – Think About Your Troubles
Cloud Cult – Help
ID
Frank Turner – I Still Believe
Justin Roberts – Never Getting Lost
ID
TMBG – Science is Real
TMBG – Spare the Rock

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Playlist for 4/14/2012 – guest hosts the Belmontes!

Apr 14

Listen any old time you like at our page at WRSI.com!

1 Songs from movies we like
-TMBG: Seven
-Dan Zanes “Tomorrow”
-Annie “Hard Knock Life”
-Neil Diamond “Turn on Your Heart light”
-My Morning Jacket ”Our World”
-The Riverbottom Nightmare Band
2 Songs to learn things by and are you prepared for hair me
-The Kelly Family “Ain’t Gonna Pee Pee My Bed”
-Interjections:Schoolhouse Rock songs
-Preamble Schoolhouse Rock
-50 States song Wakko from Animaniacs
Prepared to Rock
-KISS “God Gave Rock & Roll To You”
3 Songs about being different
-The Darkness |”I Believe in a Thing Called Love”
-I’m From Barcelona “Just Because It’s Different”
-Secret Agent 23 Skiddoo
-Sesame Street Mobity Mosley’s Months
-The Trashmen Surfin Bird/Family Guy

4 Song of Love and Unicorns and Pixies
-Ronnettes Be My Baby
-Ramones Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
-Erasure “Always” Song from Robot Unicorn Attack
-Pixies “La La Love You”

5 Song in other languages and that sound like they are from other planets
-Joe Hisaishi Studio Ghibli “Country Road”
-Ana Tijoux “La Bala”
-Feist “A Commotion”
-Rubblebucket “Came Out Of A Lady”

6 Stooges and Stuff
-Three Stooges “Swinging The Alphabet”
-The Stooges “No Fun”
-Gregory Brothers “Double Rainbow”
-Whitney Houston “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”
TMBG

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You could buy our house.

Apr 11

As I announced a while ago, we’re moving to Austin this summer.  Our house, in the center of Florence, is now on the market and I think it’s just lovely.  So maybe you should buy it?  I think yes.

You can see a description and a bunch of pictures of it here, and there will be an open house this Sunday (April 15) from 1 to 3.  We’re represented by Natasha Yakovlev of The Murphy’s Realtors; e-mail her for  additional information or call 413-320-9864.

Seriously, we adore the house and the neighborhood.  We wish we could move both to Texas.  If you’re potentially in the market for a house in the Pioneer Valley, it might work for you.

In  more show-related news, I hope to have more specifics about how the show will continue after the move.  Soon.

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2012-04-07 Playlist

Apr 07

Listen any time at our page at WRSI.com!

Segment 1
TMBG – It’s Spare the Rock
ID
TMBG – Alphabet Lost and Found
Kathleen Edwards – Alphabet Produce
Tom Chapin – Farmer’s Market Good
ID
Uncle Rock – Very Good Question
Dog on Fleas – Beautiful World

Segment 2
Robyn Hitchcock – I Often Dream of Trains
Caspar Babypants – Eleanor the Elegant Elephant
ID/prep to rock
TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!
The Ting Tings – That’s Not My Name
The Not-Its! – I’ve Got a Goat
ID
The Board of Education – Eight Is a Number

Segment 3
The Hipwaders – Educated Kid
Decemberists – Sons and Daughters
ID
Ellen & Matt – Tickle Bug
Jonathan Richman – Road Runner
Billy Kelly – Springtime: It’s My Favorite
ID

Segment 4
ScribbleMonster – Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child
ID
Mo Phillips – Toes
Deedle Deedle Dees – Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga
ID
Medeski Martin & Wood – Where’s the Music?
Sly & the Family Stone – Dance to the Music

Segment 5
Princess Katie & Racer Steve – Tiny Cool
Gillian Hills – Zou Bisou Bisou
Keith Munslow – Spork
ID
Royal Order of Chords & Keys – Punk Rock One Sock live in-studio
Brian Vogan – Firefighter
ID
Okee Dokee Brothers – Can You Canoe?

Segment 6
The Pop Ups – Pop Up City
Pointer Sisters – Yes We Can Can
ID
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo – Have Fun
Dan Zanes – Jump Up
ID
TMBG – Birdhouse in Your Soul
TMBG – Spare the Rock

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Green River Festival Meltdown Stage!

Apr 03

We’ll be back at the Green River Festival again this year — July 14-15 — with the best in family music.  We’ll be joining in the celebration of Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday (we’ll have some special surprises to announce between now and then), along with a generally amazing lineup.  Check out who we’ve confirmed so far:

  • Sarah Lee & Guthrie & Johnny Irion
  • Mister G
  • Flannery Brothers
  • Sweetback Sisters
  • Deedle Deedle Dees
  • Alastair Moock & Friends
  • Eloise the Great
  • Uncle Rock
  • Dog on Fleas
  • Royal Order of Chords and Keys

And, as in past years, we’ll have the Meltdown Stay Up Late Stage (or something like that), with other acts into the evening, including:

  • Session Americana
  • Sun Parade
  • Peter Mulvey
  • Lake Street Dive
  • Frost Heaves (CD release show)
  • Alchemystics

Details, including the schedules, soon…

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