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!