Weekly Summary (9/23/13 - 9/29/13)

World Premiere: "Lishy Lou and Lucky Too" Theme Song

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It's been a very busy year for Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band.  Not only did they release the Spanish-language album Fantastico! earlier this year, they've got a second album, Lishy Lou and Lucky Too , set for release next week.

Oh, did I mention that the album is the aural, radio show analogue to a hoped-for Lishy Lou and Lucky Too TV show?

Like I said, very busy.

But although it's all coming out now, Alisha Gaddis -- AKA "Lishy Lou" -- says that she and Lucky "were quietly and crazily working on all this for over a year."

Although Gaddis that she does most of the funny writing in the family ("Lucky is always the head of songwriting and all things musical"), they had some help for the new album.  In addition to having Michael Farkas help Gaddis and Diaz out with songs for the album, writer Chris McGowan wrote the Laugh-In   bits for the album.  McGowan and write Rebecca Leib also wrote a lot of writing for their other project (the TV show).

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As for the TV show, Gaddis says they "really want to expose kids to the classic live action television that we grew up with - I Love Lucy, Pee Wee's Playhouse, The Monkees - but with a modern twist."  (The fantastical characters in the picture above are all introduced on the Lishy Lou and Lucky Too website.)  One reason for the TV show, she says, is that "We want to entertain the kids in the Midwest or the far Pacific Northwest (and all those places in between) that we don't get to see face to face otherwise."

Asked whether it's easier or harder to write comedy for children, Gaddis says: 

I think it is just as difficult to write comedy for children as it is for adults.  You must always play to an audience's strengths, integrity and intelligence (at least that is what we believe).  Kids are clever sponges who deserve the best.  That is what we really try to give them.

So here, then, is the world premiere of the video for the Lishy Lou and Lucky Too TV show.

Video: "Thingamajig" - Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band

Everyone who's heard "Thingamajig" off Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band's upcoming Lishy Lou and Lucky Too!  disk out October 1 has gone gaga, nutso, flipperteejiberty over the song celebrating words real and just off the tip of our tongues.

There is now a brand-spankin' new video to go along with the song, and it's just as bright and spangly as the song itself.  Not only is it a fine introduction to the album, it also appears that it's a fine introduction to a new TV show featuring Lucky and Alisha and the rest of the band.  Lishy Lou and Lucky Too has its own website, and the Google cache of the site reveals that it's a live-action TV show where they "live together in a magical treehouse with all sorts of friends and guests that visit them from time to time."  Consider me intrigued.  Feel free to spin the song (and download for free for the price of a tweet or a link until Aug. 24) here.

Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band - "Thingamajig" [YouTube]

Concert Recap: Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band (Phoenix, August 2012)

On an August weekend in Phoenix, there's generally only one requirement for any activity:

Air conditioning.

But it also helps if you can play and listen to music.

Los Angeles' Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band made the trek out from the coast to play a couple sets at the Children's Museum of Phoenix on August 20, and since I help book the series, I was definitely eager to see 'em play.

One thing CMOP has started to do is put a few of the shows in their large atrium.  What it does is let a lot more people see a show at any particular point in time (that picture there doesn't quite capture the dozens more outside of the frame), or just let the people playing in the 3-story-tall Schuff-Perini Climber (which you can see just a very small portion of at the top left) hear music while they scamper around.  It would be a bad setting for a solo artist playing an acoustic set, but for the more active rock and pop shows, the kinetic and vocal energy helps encourage the kids who are there in front to move around and dance.  I think if artists are willing to accept the less-than-distraction-free environment it can be a fun show.

I'm a big fan of Lucky, of course, and he and wife/co-band member Alisha Gaddis made a fair amount of noise considering it was just a duo.  I was particularly impressed by the kick-suitcase Diaz had fashioned to give his songs a little bit of extra "oomph."

Anyways, here's a clip of the band playing "Lemonade Stand" off their latest album A Potluck.

Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band - "Lemonade Stand" (Live at the Children's Museum of Phoenix) [YouTube]