Itty-Bitty Review: Year-Round Sounds - The Hipwaders

For a reviewer, the beauty of releasing an album loosely themed around different seasonal activities is that regardless of when one gets around to reviewing it, it's still timely.

So let's give it up for the Hipwaders' Year-Round Sounds and its opening track "Mic Check."  Yes, it's literally a song about a mic check -- a short, sharp power-pop song that at 61 seconds packs more hooks in than most songs three times its length -- and not about the new year.  But of course it's a perfect way to start out the year, er, album.  (Perhaps they can conclude their next album with a song called "Mic Drop.")  And if you're looking for another alternative take on the New Year, that's followed up by "Kings & Queens," all about babies and again a perfectly appropriate "start of the year" song.  Onward through the year, covering spring (a cover of "Peter Cottontail" and the swirly "Gaia She Knows"), school ("The Books I Like To Read" and "Smile About"), plus Halloween and Christmas (including an appropriately Bakersfield-y cover of Buck Owens' lost Christmas classic "A Very Merry Christmas").  

The album is most appropriate for kids 4 through 9.  At 14 tracks and 30 minutes in length, the album flies by and if your family doesn't dig one of the songs (or if it's July and and you have no interest in their appropriately Bakersfield-y cover of any Christmas song), another one's coming up shortly.  (Listen to samples via the player at the bottom of this page.)  While it's not quite the classic that the Hipwaders' last album, The Golden State, is, Year-Round Sounds still satisfies.  Fans of the Hipwaders, power-pop, or of noting celebrations big and small will find a lot to like here.  Definitely recommended.

Note: I was given a copy of the album for possible review.

You Get a Present for Spare the Rock and Zooglobble's Birthday

So ten years ago this week, this humble little website was born (more on that a little bit later this week).  And nine years ago earlier this month a humble little radio show, Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child, first aired.  In that time, I've written hundreds of reviews and featured hundreds of reviews, while Bill Childs and his kids have played thousands of songs on air (and internet).  We've done lots of other stuff separately and together, and we each have new and exciting projects in the works, but my site has always been at the heart of what I do, and I'm sure Bill feels the same way about his show.

I thought it might be fun to celebrate both this site's birthday as well as Spare the Rock starting its tenth year on the air, something that might span a year's worth of time.  And, yes, Bill was very much onboard.

So we're pleased as punch to announce the first in a series of free kids music tracks for you to enjoy.  Bill and I are talking to some of our favorite kids' musicians, both those making music for kids even before we hopped onto the Internet as well as newer artists continuing to shake up the genre, asking them if they'd be willing to write a song to give away.

But in the spirit of collaboration Bill and I have often shared, we're asking them to write and record those songs with another kindie musician.

Our first track is called "When I'm Ten" and it's from Seattle-area bands and friends Recess Monkey and The Not-Its.  It's bit of a nod to the Not-Its' song "When I'm Five," but it's got a crunchiness (and slightly older perspective) all its own.  Recess Monkey bassist Jack Forman reports that "writing the tune with Drew [Holloway from Recess Monkey], Sarah [Shannon] and Danny [Adamson, both from the Not-Its] was totally organic - like we'd all been in a band for years."

Play the song below or download it -- for the next month only -- here.  [Sorry, the month has expired. Will the song ever resurface? Who knows????]

(Recess Monkey photo credit: Kevin Fry)