It's fun to stay at the...

Despite my best efforts, my daughter can't stop singing "YMCA."

Check below for a whole lot of new songs (new songs from me, not new-new songs as in the the blog race of July 06, oh you know what I'm talking 'bout.)

More tomorrow—

Lollapalooza: Sleater K. >> Eels >> Peppers

Had a few hiccups last week (summer is here after all) and so I thought I'd make it up to y'all with a big ol' post. I'm checking out the list for Lollapalooza (not that I'm going, while I love the idea of music fests, I rarely like them in actuality) and while there is plenty of kid music offered, even some reasonable kid music, I am more inclined to dig into the "adult" bands and look for tunes the whole clan can enjoy.

Sleater-Kinney isn't a band I think of when I think kiddles, normally. But hey they got a few good ones that your kids can probably sink their baby teeth into. I've picked two tunes that work, especially recommended is "Little Babies" -- it's got counting, nonesense words, a singalong chorus, all the makings of a good family pop tune.

Eels have a zillion good ones for kids, from the fabulous Shrek tunes (I've posted at least one before) to the pastiche dance pop tunes of E's alter ego MC Honky and a lot of stuff in between. True, all his irony and subtleness and depression is lost on the kids, but really, that ain't a bad thing, exactly. All they hear in "Hey Man" is the upbeat backbeat and the groovy singalong swagger.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are at the top of this 199, oops, that's right, 2006 list. When I worked at a used record store in college (many years ago) I liked the Red Hot Chili Peppers well enough. I thought their cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "If You Want Me To Stay" was pretty awesome and put it on more than one gift mix tape. That song is just slinky. (Another successful slinky indie rock cover of a soul song? Urge Overkill's cover of Hot Chocolate's "Emma," but neither song is appropriate for the small ages crowd.) So what is? The two I picked, below, I think. If I missed a swear word, I'm sorry. I do believe these two are clean.

The Mp3s:

Sleater-Kinney, "Little Babies"
Sleater-Kinney, "Oh!"
Eels, "My Beloved Monster"
Eels, "Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)"
Eels, "Can't Help Falling in Love"
MC Honky, "Sonnet 3"
Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Yertle the Turtle"
Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Me and My Friends"

Bonus Slinky Songs:

Red Hot Chili Peppers, "If You Want Me To Stay"
Urge Overkill, "Emmaline"

And yippee, I've been alerted by two lovely blogging readers, Heather at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends and Boy Howdy at Not All Who Wander Are Lost that I was mentioned at the end of the SALON article on Kindie Rock! To read the article, click here. If you want to just see this blog mentioned (and oh yeah, download some tunes) go here. Thanks guys! And if you're new to this blog, well, golly gee, um, howdy!

Kidzapalooza

Yeah with a Z.

So Lollapalooza is going to be held in Chicago this year, on August 4th-6th. Essentially over my daughter's fifth birthday. Wish I could take her, I think she'd enjoy it. Of course, last time we took her to a music fest out of state, we suffered through allergies, heat exhaustion and whacked out bedtimes. And we saw nary a band.

So we're bringing the Lollapalooza to the blog. Of course Pitchfork's fest is the same weekend, and maybe they're having a kid's stage too, but I dunno. I will check into that. Maybe later I'll bring Pitchfork's fest to this blog, but they have their own, far bigger one, so well, maybe that makes no sense at all. At this here blog I thought I'd post on the various bands that will grace both the kid's stage and the various and sundry "other" stages. Because in general, I don't love the kid's music. I mean I like some of it, but what really makes me happy is when my daughter is shaking her booty to Wilco or Belle & Sebastian or the Raconteurs, just to name a few in-house faves. But more on that later. Today, kid's stage. The bands that will be performing at Lollapalooza on the kid's stage are as follows:

Peter DiStefano (Kid's music? Really? Isn't this the dude from Porno for Pyros?)
Justin Roberts
The Candy Band
Ella Jenkins (Official God-Mom of Kid's Music)
Q Brothers (I'm not convinced this is music)
The Blisters (Jeff Tweedy's son's band)
Asheba (Kid reggae)
Chutzpah (Jewish Rap, with a song entitled, "Super Jew")
ScribbleMonster (A fake monster made of scribbles fronts a band)

Plus, Kellee McQuinn and Kid Tribe (A dance "class" of sorts), the Alvin Ailey Dance Camp (ditto) and the now famous because of the movie, School of Rock kids.

Okay, so I like Ella Jenkins for her old-school cool folk tunes and her completely bitchin' deep-throated voice that sounds wise and kind and heavenly. I've never been the Justin Roberts fan. I just don't get it, but I know some of you do. Perhaps those who do should tell me which songs to listen to because thus far, I haven't heard anything I want to hear again. (Sorry!) I did see he has performed at Chicago's own Hoot Night with such wondrous performers as Kelly Hogan and Nora O'Connor. In fact, so does Scribble Monster (or rather, Scribble Monster's backing band, the Shysters.)

The Blisters are the pre-teen band featured in that Quaker Oats commercial that's floating around and are none other than Jeff Tweedy's sons and their friends. Cute. I think.

So that leaves the Candy Band. I may have posted a song or two before. They're funny, and for me, if you're gonna be a "kid's band" this is sort of the way to do it: loud, energetic, simple and fun. Oh yeah, and I like that they're chicks.

Candy Band, "Skip to My Lou"
Candy Band, "Spiderman"

There are way more songs and videos for the Candy Band on their website.
For some Shysters' / Scribble Monster songs, visit the music page on their website.
For some Chutzpah clips visit their web page.

Lollapalooza's Kidzapalooza Website - Children under 10 are free.

PS- Since I mentioned her birthday, I might as well ask you: got any good ideas for a party? I have been entertaining the idea of a Tuesdayapalooza. You know, get a few bands, throw an outdoor concert dance party. But oh, the work. Thoughts? Anyone, anyone?

And I'm spent a lot

The aformention and promised indie rock. Course, it's not all that indie, and none of it's new, but my promises are always empty.

Let's discuss: The Blur song is the infamous anthemic "woo hoo" song. It seems apropos now as I'm sure somewhere, someplace it's playing in honor of some national soccer team. It's got head-bopping, it's got a singable chorus of nonsense, what more do you need to make 'em happy? An early Rilo Kiley track from the Initial Friend EP. Oh how I love this song. Simple, silly, light and airy and yet full of Jenny Lewis-sass. Not the masterful band they became but good nonetheless. Yeah there is a bit about getting naked, but you know what, my daughter literally does that a lot and it's just fine in the confines of our home. The community pool? Well that's another story entirely. I think I posted this Nellie McKay song before but oh well. It's a good one, a fam favorite. There is barking. Sparks? What can I say, songs about monsters work, even these kinds of monsters. It just makes me think of Valley Girl. Ah, Nick Cage's trianglular shaped patch of chest hair, I knew yee well. Saw that flick only about 48 times when I was in high school. And lastly, my daughter's favorite song, by her (and my) favorite band, but this one is singalong style, solo and live from the Letters to Santa Benefit that Jennings at rbally.net has been posting. Let me just say now, he's good that rbally guy and these tracks just make me so freaking happy, even when I'm spent. So, go check out his fabulous blog.

Blur, "Song 2"
Rilo Kiley, "The Frug"
Nellie McKay, "The Dog Song" (m4a)
Sparks, "Eaten By The Monster of Love"
Jeff Tweedy, "Magazine Called Sunset"

Also, fyi, I'm working on my superclea site and my yer little sister blog. I'm actually combining them and right now, it's a mess, so excuse me, pardon me, I'll let you know when it's working. On an only marginally related note, my book and I got a write up in the Bratz magazine. This bums me out to no end. Yep, that's my press. Woo hoo indeed. Please buy my book, I apparently need help.

But Where is Leather Tuscadero?

Many a blogger have been writing about their bargain bin CDs. I picked this one up recently for a couple of bucks and it's fun. Not great. But fun.

It was the title that caught my eye-- Teen Town U.S.A. I write predominantly for teens in my real life and I just have such a weird pull to anything teen. But these throwback teen comps are usually rife with Frankie and Annette or the same damn twelve songs that played on AM radio when I was a kid. This one actually features a few early recordings by a couple of guys who became famous. The Beach Boys perform as Kenny and the Cadets and Paul Simon as Jerry Landis. Neither is ground-breaking or astonishing, but they're reasonable sock hop type tunes to dance the night away. The rest is made up of lots of other folks that weren't even one hit wonders because these songs were never hits. Still it's a silly lil' slice of Happy Days Americana. My fave? Oh definitely Jerry Landis, aka Paul Simon's ridiculous "Lone Teen Ranger." Hey, it made it to #97 on the pop charts!

Really I'm gonna post some indie rock tomorrow.

Bobby Reed, "High School USA"
Jimmy Jordan, "Tick Tock"
Kenny & the Cadets, "Barbie"
Jimmy Johnson, "Lone Ranger"
Jerry Landis, "Lone Teen Ranger"

The rest of the CD is more of the same. On Yeaah! Records out of the UK, circa the late 90s.

Not a real green dress, that's cruel.

I'm not really a Barenaked Ladies fan. In fact, this CD is my husband's which makes me laugh. Like, did he really like this band at some point? And yet, the million dollars song is pretty sweet. And great for the little ones. I just can't get over the bad haircuts. The oversized Geoffrey Beene glasses. The berets (Okay so there aren't any in the above pictures, you'll have to trust me, they wore them.) Didn't Brandon Walsh have something to do with these guys?

Speaking of bad haircuts, what's up with the soccer 'do? We've been watching the World Cup and I just can't get over the bleached blonde, shaved sides thing. And it's just the latest in a long line of historically bad hair-dos. Anyway, they make me laugh repeatedly. Almost as much as the names of some of the soccer players, but they don't have control over that. They're paying their hairdresser's good money. They so need some Nick A. action.

Barenaked Ladies, "If I Had a $1000000"
Barenaked Ladies, "I Love You"

One more for the "I Love You" files.

I'll get back to the indie rock soon. Meanwhile, Jennings over at rbally.net continues to make my heart sing: he's posted the second of his six part post of Jeff Tweedy solo shows for charity. Lovely and amazing.

Alas, no "We Are the Champions"

I won't say another word about it today.

In other news... I'm old.

How old? My birthday is around the corner and let's just say, for my Homecoming Dance, the theme was Styx's "Come Sail Away." Yeah, old. Care to guess?

In honor of that dance wherein I wore a Laura Ashley seafoam green (with a frosted sheen) off-the-shoulder number and had my bi-level hair blown out as straight as a Jew fro will go in Hollywood, Florida, I give you... Styx for Kids.

Okay only Mr. Roboto counts. But I'll throw in "Come Sail Away" for good measure.

Styx, "Mr. Roboto"
Styx, "Come Sail Away"

Thank you Michelle for sending me these. I think.

World Cup Fever

This is for the husband whom I love very much. He would give most anything to be in Germany right now, watching the first US game, but alas, he can't even go to the bar at nine AM with all his friends because it's Daddy Day at Preschool and they're having a donut tea party right now. What a guy. He didn't even flinch when I said I could maybe get him out of it.

Air Miami, "World Cup Fever" (Holland Mix)

More non-related World Cup songs later. (That is unless US take the CR. Then I may need to go into Queen "We Are the Champions" mode or something.)

She was kissed by an Angel

Blogger down. Blogger up. EZ Archive down. Blogger down. Urgh. Blogger up. EZ Archive still down. Blogger down. Arghh.

Also found among the dust bunnies: Cocktail Mix Swinging Singles, Vol. 3, a Rhino production. Here are few of the drunk songs that are fun-fun-fun for dancing 'round the house. I like the big band pop tunes of this era, they have drama and pomp and verve. Ignore all the alcohol and gambling references and these are good times for the little ones. And don't worry, when Della here sings about a Tramp, the kids are thinking Disney dog.

Count Basie & Tony Bennet, "Are You Having Any Fun?"
Stan Kenton, "Tequila"
Della Reese, "The Lady is A Tramp" (my favorite version of this song)
Diana Dors, "Come By Sunday"
Peggy Lee, "Heart (Corazon)"

I think this CD may be out of print. It's a fun one.

My computer lives!

Sure the keys on the right side, like the return and the delete, stick a bit and take an extra beat to pop back into their original place, but hey, I can live with that. That's what my baby looks like, to the right, only mine has an all-over tinge of brown and the faint smell of Columbian coffee fields. Just enough to make me salivate and crave a cup every time I sit down to type.

Working on a project right now and what with Blogger down for hours earlier, I am gonna have to do a little teeny tiny post. Tomorrow's will be much bigger.

While I was waiting for blogger to come back up, and stalling and procrastinating on that project I'm working on, I loaded a bunch of CDs that I just found this morning in the back of the stereo cabinet. Apparently, they fell back there eons ago and there they stayed amassing a large collection of adorable dust bunnies. So from these practically new old CDs come these gems, just right for your family's listening pleasure.

The Beatles, "I Me Mine"
The Beatles, "One After 909"
Joe Jackson, "Look Sharp!"
Michael Jackson, "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough"

I know, many of you are simply creeped out by the MJ in any form. I understand, but he still makes me wanna shake my rump.

I'm a freaking idiot

Dumped an entire cup of coffee on my open laptop today. That's what I get for swinging by Starbucks, someone's trying to teach me a lesson. It appears to be working, at least for now, as I type this. But who knows what the near future holds. I have backed everything up which is why I'm not in a fetal position sobbing violently.

Let's get on with this just in case Polly here poops out on me.

The Kinks. You know all about them. Ray Davies, his brother, rocking Brits who could really write a song when they wanted. Great for the kiddles. Sorry if I've posted any of these already, but they're so good twice is nice.

The Kinks, "Animal Farm"
The Kinks, "Have A Cuppa Tea"
The Kinks, "Picture Book"
The Kinks, "Big Sky"

Buy Ray Davies last CD. It's good.

Oh and speaking of buying stuff, this is the last day I'm gonna bug you for awhile. BUY MY BOOKS.

I Wanna Make My Own Clothes, By Clea Hantman
I Wanna Re-Do My Room, By Clea Hantman

It's a deal, really. Pages and pages of fun.

And I have ressurected my other blog for a bit. Yer Little Sister has the MP3s I captured from two Austin City Limits shows, one with the Flaming Lips and the other with Wilco. Did I mention the Flaming Lips one featured Chan Marshall on Black Sabbath's "War Pigs"? Oh yeah. I've got more coming throughout the week, provided my computer holds up.

Brought to you by the letter "O"

Today's songs have but one thing in common: the band's start with the letter "O." Make that two things: they are also enjoyed by my daughter.

Truth be told, my kid likes anything by the Old 97s and I think that might have something to do with the fact that it was the last show I saw with her in my belly. She was but weeks from her coming out party. I've posted an Of Montreal song before I think. This one is sweet like sugar. And lastly, Optigonally Yours was a band that consisted of Rob from Pinback and um, Goblin Cock and Pea Hicks on the optigan, a guy who has played with a lot of different bands / people over the years. They live in San Diego, like me. In case you don't know, the optigan is this sort of organ like thing that plays "discs" of recorded instruments somewhat crudely. It was made by Mattel, as in the people who brought you the Barbie. The result is a bit weird. The music, with Rob on vocals, is oh so childlike and kooky.

Optigonally Yours, "Mr. Wilson"
The Old 97s, "Big Brown Eyes"
Of Montreal, "Spoonful of Sugar"

More about: Optiganally Yours, Of Montreal, Old 97s

Also, congrats to Bill of Spare the Rock, who was chosen as "Cool Mom Dad of the Week." He seems like a pretty cool dad to me. I'm a fan.

The Rawking Refuses To Stop is a blog that I've been enjoying of late, mostly for the good tunes posted (Pipettes, the Bens, Radiohead, Phoenix just to name a few from this past week.) He has posted two classic Disney tunes recently.

In case you were wondering, and I'm quite sure you were, I did not win the chili cook-off. I tasted them all, mine was far superior. I was robbed. The block party also had a face painter, rock climbing wall, jumpy bounce house and stuff out to decorate your bike with. My daughter decorated her wagon and when she failed to receive a prize, she pouted, just like her mother. C'mon! It had bells hanging off the back like a little toddler wedding mobile. Genius.

And finally, my book is officially out tomorrow, but apparently people have received them already in the mail from pre-ordering so please, go do it. They really do make awesome summer gifts, they'll give the 9 thru 14 year olds of your life something productive to do with their time. Crafts that do not require a lot of money or big equipment. I tell them how to make clothes without a sewing machine for crying out loud. This is good stuff. There is also one more out at the same time, but alas Amazon doesn't have the picture posted for it. It's called "I Wanna Re-Do My Room" and it's crafts for your younger one's living space.



Buy my book (please.)

Friday came too soon. Don't get me wrong, I love the weekend, the relaxing two hour breakfasts, the fun little kiddle activities, the endless birthday parties... and this weekend is our neighborhood Chili Cook-Off. Yep, my neighborhood has a neighborhood Chili Cook-Off. And I only live 11 minutes from downtown, or so I keep reminding myself when I feel like I live in the nether reaches of the burbs. Now I haven't eaten meat in the last two months, but there are five pounds of pork butt in my fridge. I'm taking it this year.

Update on my life for all you keeping track:

* My kid is gonna stay at the school she's at and do kindergarten there. Yes, it's a private school. For one year, only, we hope. Send the hate mail on in, I deserve it.

* My book comes out in four days. You can pre-order it now. Now. And if you are the proud owner of a blog that reviews books on occasion and has an audience of parental types, let me know. I'll pass on your address to my publisher and get a book to you.

* I'll be eating meat this weekend.

Here's just two songs for the road. Kick out the jams--

Yann Tomita, "Doopee Time"
The Vandals, "Supercalifragilisticexpealodotious"

Was that one on the nationally televised spelling bee finals?? Because if so, I think I just lost.

MY Commercial Music (Pt. 2, sort of)

Like I said yesterday, I have freelanced for this agency that does a lot of Target stuff. I suppose they could be mad at me for writing about it here, to my oh couple of hundred readers (hee hee) but honestly I don't know if they will ever use me again. Not because I wasn't good. Of course I think I was good. But, well, you know the last time I was there it was for this roundtable of freelancers and in-house folk to brainstorm "big" campaign ideas. Now there was one guy, a freelancer, a copywriter, like me, but he was so the opposite of me. He was all jazz hands. He was fancy NYC retro suit guy. But when you washed the big words and smooth delivery away you were left with a whole lot of nothing. Still, the folks at the agency thought he was a freaking genius. And these are kind, smart people, but boy were they off base about this guy. We went back to the hotel and he proceeded to rip them all a new one about how gullible they were and dumb because he knew he was full o' crap. Me? I mostly kept quiet, took notes and turned them in after the meeting. But you know what? People. Don't. Read. Jazz hands win out every time.

They ended up hiring him full time and within a few months, he was gone. I don't know if he was fired or quit, I didn't pry. For all I know he still does freelance for them. For all I know he's the idiot who came up with Choxie.

My favorite part of the job, as you can imagine, was coming up with songs for my campaign ideas. They never took any of my suggestions for tunes though. Below are a few songs I picked for a previous holiday campaign (w/o using Christmas songs.)

This is just a sampling of the mountains of mix CDs I made for the agency. Oh and remember commercials only use 30 seconds (or less if they re-mix) of the song. So when Macy Gray sings "fine chocolate ass," well that doesn't need to be in the commercial, you know? Course maybe you don't want to play that one to your kids, but it goes by so fast, I doubt they will notice. Side note: we took our daughter to an all day concert thing and while we were waiting for Wilco to come on Macy was finishing. Now my daughter was two, and Macy let loose with a slew of expletives and my daughter's head whipped around so fast to pay attention to this bellowing pip-squeak voice spew colorful words and we thought, great, she's gonna learn her first curse word from Miss Gray. But they didn't stick. This song has such a joyous overall feel to it, even if only the last 20 seconds were used, it's just so damn celebratory.

Macy Gray, "Come Together"

More just happy soaring sounds that sound celebratory and uplifting. My kid sometimes likes Polyphonic Spree and sometimes finds it utterly annoying. I know a lot of people who feel that way about that band. I, however, love them. I think they really tug the same heartstrings that the original Coke song does (yesterday's New Seekers' track.)

Polyphonic Spree, "Have a Day" (Live on KCRW)

Another one that has the New Seekers schmaltz and yet is cool at the same time? This cover of "Sing" from Ivy. It was on a kid's CD a few years back and I just think it's beautiful. Have I posted this before? I think I have.

Ivy, "Sing"

And the last one, because this post is too long. Come the holidays I think that it's all about the smells and sights and sounds that really enhance the whole experience and bring it to the front and center of our lives. At least that was where I was going with a particular campaign idea I had and this is, of course, the song to bring it all home.

XTC, "Senses Working Overtime"

These aren't the songs I really pushed or thought were totally and completely right. I decided to hang on to those secretly for now, you know, in case they do call again. (Tee hee) Either that, or I'll wait and post them closer to Christmas!