Today at 3:00, Elizabeth Mitchell & You Are My Flower with very special guests Mates of State, at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst.  It’s just $6 at the door, benefiting the Northampton Community Music Center!

Tickets will be sold starting at about 2:30.

You can listen on demand any time you like at our page at WRSI.com.

Segment 1
TMBG – It’s Spare the Rock
-Ella ID
TMBG – Pictures of Pandas Painting
Sophie & Les Petits – Le requin Vegetarien
ID
Caroline Herring – Seasons
ID
Justin Roberts – All Eyes On You
Tom Waits – Way Down in the Hole

Segment 2
Michael Franti – Closer to the Sky
Frances England – Sleepyhead Mommy
ID/prep to rock
TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!
Paul Westerberg – Meet Me in the Meadow
Hipwaders – Educated Kid
Liz Phair & Doc Dauer – Everything’s Controlled by the Brain
ID

Segment 3
Mister G – Grilled Cheese
Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Kinder Words
ID
ScribbleMonster – All Ready to Go
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo – Opposite Day
ID
Parliament – Mothership Connection

Segment 4
ScribbleMonster – Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child
ID
Mates of State – Like U Crazy
Lunch Money – You and Me and a Bottle of Bubbles
ID
Elizabeth Mitchell – Jubilee
Steve Earle – Every Part of Me
ID
Nields – Anna Kick a Hole in the Sky

Segment 5
Cloud Cult – The Birth: You Were Born
Gourds – Fossil Contender
Artichoke – Darwin
ID
Beatles – Octopus’s Garden
Medeski, Martin & Wood – Let’s Go Everywhere

Segment 6
Trout Fishing in America – What I Want is a Proper Cup of Coffee
ID
Johnny Cash – I’ve Been Everywhere
Dan Zanes – All Around the Kitchen
Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper – Elvis is Everywhere
ID
TMBG – Science is Real
TMBG – Spare the Rock

Thanks to Lucky Diaz for the guest DJ set!

Listen on demand at our page at WRSI.com!

Segment 1
TMBG – It’s Spare the Rock
-Ella ID
TMBG – C is for Conifers
Hem – My Father’s Waltz
Buddie Emmons – Gravy Waltz
ID
Cat & a Bird – Surfer Turtle
Caspar Babypants – Speedy Centipede
ID

Segment 2
Asylum Street Spankers – Sidekick (live at the Iron Horse)
Robbie Schaefer – Fits Right In
ID/prep to rock
TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock
ScribbleMonster – Just Happy To Be Me
Verve Pipe – Complimentary Love
ID
Daddy a Go Go – Come On, Get Happy

Segment 3
Skankin’ Pickle – Onyonghasayo
CandyBand – Down By the Bay
ID
The Not-Its! – Cheetah the Buffalo
Recess Monkey – Invisible Friend
Generation X – Ready Steady Go
ID
Lucky Diaz – Like Never Before

Segment 4
ScribbleMonster – Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child
ID
Mister G- Bugs (world premiere)
Rudy Trubitt – Wear My Pajamas to School
Byrds – So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star
ID
Billy Kelly – Coney Island Washboard
Primate Fiasco – You Are My Sunshine
ID

Segment 5
Lucky Diaz Guest DJ set

Segment 6
ID
Brady Rymer – I Don’t Like Change
Booker T & Sharon Jones – Representing Memphis
ID
Elizabeth Mitchell – Lovely Day (Carle on 5/21)
Mates of State – Jellyman Kelly
ID
TMBG – Speed & Velocity
TMBG – Spare the Rock

(Man, I’ve been listening to a lot!)

Mister G – Bugs.  (In the interest of full disclosure, Ben’s a friend and I’ve helped him out scheduling shows, etc.  But I don’t have any financial interest in it.)  Most of the time, I shy away from artists who do much genre-hopping — jack of all trades, master of none and all that.  But Bugs goes all over the place — ska, bossa nova, rock, etc. — without feeling like it’s lurching randomly.  That’s largely because all of the songs have the steady presence of a skilled songwriter and the foundation of great performances (including Rani Arbo and others).  With this record, Mister G has managed to capture on CD the energy and engagement he has in his wildly popular live shows.  Circled tracks: “Bugs,” “Grilled Cheese,” “Snow Day,” “Shark in My Bathtub,” and “Pam the Pug.”  We’ll premiere “Bugs” on the show this Saturday.

Same deal as before — my very short thoughts on a few new things that have come in the mail, with notations of what track numbers got written down and circled, which is how I note which songs I’m most excited to hear on the radio machine.

ScribbleMonster & His Pals – Look Both Ways.  ScribbleJim’s obsession with Sesame Street is well-known — a huge part of the guest DJ sets he’s done for us have always been obscure songs from the show, which means he’s a very specific and hilarious type of hipster — so this is, as I thought someone said (but I can’t find now), the record ScribbleMonster was born (spawned? created by a mad scientist?) to record. And it is exactly the right kind of insane genius.  The arrangements are terrific and the song selections excellent.  Circled songs: “Sesame Street Theme,” “Five People In My Family,” “Good Morning, Mister Sun,” “Clink, Clank,” “Stop!,” “I Want To Hold Your Ear,” “Just Happy To Be Me,” “Loud And Soft,” and “Thirty-Two Cracks In The Sidewalk.”  And the last three got arrows, too.  (And I wrote down every single track for getting airplay eventually.)  Love this record.

Rudy Trubitt, Wear My Pajamas to School.  Rudy of the on-hiatus Sippy Cups wrote virtually all of my favorite songs from that band, and this advance single is another in the line of super catchy guitar pop songs.  We’ll play it on the show this Saturday (dare I call it a world premiere?) and I can’t wait for more.

Cat and a Bird, Cat and a Bird.  Intricately layered jazzy stuff featuring violin, upright bass, and a bunch of other sorta random sounds (and the lovely voice of Emily Chimiak), this CD has gotten a lot of attention.  Live at KindieFest, they took a different tack, with two violins and a 12-string guitar, and it worked in a totally different (but still good) way, with much of that being based on the strength of the songs.  They’ll be at the Green River Festival this summer.  Circled tracks: “Bee Jive,” “Cat and a Bird,” “Lion and the Challengers,” “Night Owl,” and “I Wanna Be Like You.”

Totally psyched to be able to announce the addition of very special guests Mates of State to the Elizabeth Mitchell & You Are My Flower show on May 21 at the Eric Carle Museum.  To make the schedule work, we’ve shifted the show to 3:00 p.m. that day.

So for part of the trip to and from KindieFest, I finally listened to some records all in a row — these days, I do a lot more sampling than full-record-listens.  So, a few thoughts on some recent releases below.  I like all three of the ones up today a lot — they’re fairly different from each other, but each does exactly what I think the artists were trying to do.

A note: When I’m listening to music for airplay consideration, I write down all of the track numbers I would be up for playing at some point, and circle those numbers of songs I really like.  (And then a few will get arrows or exclamation points.  It’s complex.)  So I’ll note the tracks I circled below too.

Recess Monkey – Flying! First off, great illustrations from local hero Jarrett J. Krosoczka, and a terrific overall concept and theme.  And Drew totally rocks the shiny tights.  Produced by Tor Hyams (who is, full disclosure, one of my business partners in KindieFest), it’s a great-sounding record with the reliably insanely catchy pop songs.  Circled tracks: “Day Job,” “Covered in Band Aids,” “My Valentine,” “Your Favorite Book,” and “Invisible Friend” (which features Molly Ledford in a guest appearance that does sound of a piece with the song, something I talked about on my collaboration panel).

Billy Kelly – The Family Garden.  More than his earlier stuff, this sounds more like a band (which I guess makes sense, since I don’t think he had a band as such last time around).  Eclectic in themes, goofy as all get-out, and utterly authentic and sincere (but not treacly).  Circled tracks: “The Family Garden,” “Why Is the Moon Following Me?,” “We Could Be Pen Pals” (another Molly Ledford visit, this one maybe a little less perfectly integrated but still lovely), “Scootdootdoodlydoo,” “It’s Close Enough,” “The Happy Happy Whistling Song” (my notes here remind me to play it next to an Andrew Bird song), and “The Invention of the Straw.”

Brady Rymer – Love Me For Who I Am.  I so like three of the first four songs on this record that I found the second half a little bit of a letdown, at least on the first listen.  But boy, those first four — especially “I Don’t Like Change” — I like a lot. (That one got an arrow next to it.)  Rootsy, performed in a way that feels somehow simultaneously impeccably performed and loose.  I was surprised then to hear that the drums on the record are pre-recorded loops (read more about his decision to use them at Dadnabbit, a site you should be reading constantly, incidentally).  Technology!  Plastics!  Whatever, it works here.  Circled songs: “Love Me For Who I Am,” “Picky Eater,” the aforementioned “I Don’t Like Change,” and “Soft Things” (featuring Laurie Berkner in a smart guest spot).

I’ve got some more CDs I listened to ready — including ScribbleMonster‘s insane genius Look Both Ways, but they’re all at the studio and I’m at home.  So I’ll try to write a little about those soon, and to do this a little more regularly, since, at least for now, I’m not doing any other family music writing.