Newborn: The Binkees

I'm not suggesting that everybody starting out in kids music send me an e-mail that describes the music they're making as "The Boogers with a west coast bent," but when I get such an e-mail, that's a good way to get me to listen.

Even better, I think that's a pretty darn good description for the music of The Binkees. With a blast of punk air that to me that does have a lot of echoes of West Coast bands like Green Day, their self-titled debut album mixes covers of traditional kid favorites ("This Old Man," The More We Get Together") with some originals ("Night Light," "The Green Stuff"). Unlike some albums which take traditional kids' songs and run them through a genre blender, resulting in something that sounds like a challenge completed, this sounds like an actual album, with plenty of diversity in the tracks' musical approaches. (Their take on "Michael Finnegan," which cycles through several different musical styles, is about the only one I've ever heard that's held my interest through that repetitive song.) Ten solid songs in twenty minutes, that's how it's done.

The band is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and guitarist and lead singer Toño Ramirez notes that much of the album was recorded at Hyde Street Studios, which has recorded a ton of California rock and punk bands, including the Grateful Dead, the Dead Kennedys, Green Day, Cake, and more. Don't know if The Binkees will have as long a career as those bands, but based on their debut, I hope there's at least a little more music to come. The Boogers should be glad to welcome The Binkees to their corner of the kindie playground.

You can stream the entire album here or on Spotify via the widget below.

Video: "Beep Beep Beep" - Dan Vapid (World Premiere!)

Mike Park's Fun Fun Records keeps truckin' along with music for kids -- in this case, almost literally. The label's latest family release, its seventh, is from pop-punker Dan Vapid (who's also played in Screeching Weasel). The album's called All Wound Up, and I'm pleased to world-premiere the album's leadoff track and single, "Beep Beep Beep." It's barely a minute long, but I'd be wary of playing the song in a traffic jam for your favorite kindergartner lest she get too wound up.

Luckily, you're not driving while you're all watching a YouTube video, so you can just enjoy the sketching from Gilbert Armendariz.

All Wound Up is released September 9, but you can preorder it here today.

Dan Vapid - "Beep Beep" [YouTube]

Itty-Bitty Review: We All Shine - Play Date

For whatever reason, kindie pop-punk has tended not to be nearly as boundary-pushing as its adult counterpart. I'm not expecting every song to be about challenging or countercultural notions, but more of this subgenre covers familiar topics than I'd expect.

Play Date, the duo of Greg Attonito and Shanti Wintergate, is no different. On their new album We All Shine, they tackle a song about colors (er, "Colors") and four variations of public service announcements for "Fruits & Vegetables." The musical packaging is novel (it's a PSA as delivered by circus barker), but the notions are common fare. More intriguing to me, then, are the songs that break those familiar molds to varying degrees. "Ninja Pajamas" is about, well, stealthy pajamas, but brings in Minneapolis hip-hop artist P.O.S to rap some of the lyrics. "Cardboard Box" rocks hardest, and follow the "show, don't tell" dictum -- by listing all the different things the box can be, it more effectively demonstrates the power of imagination. And sometimes all you need is a simple story song, like the grunge-pop of "Stevie the Fox," which kicks off the album.

The 41-minute album will have most appeal to kids ages 3 through 7. We All Shine fits the kindie pop-punk mold quite nicely, with an ear for crunchy melody. Come for the songs about fruits and vegetables, stay for the songs about ninja pajamas.

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

How I Got Here: Danny Adamson, the Not-Its! (The Cure, Joni Mitchell)

Danny Adamson, guitarist for the sartorially superior Seattle pop-punkers The Not-Its, sometimes jokes about wanting to rock kids' faces off at upcoming shows. Thus, it might surprise you to learn that when asked to write about an album that influenced him for our "How I Got Here" series, he picked an album by Joni Mitchell. And also one by the Cure (who, I will note for the record, played the loudest show I've ever been to, at any rate).

But this isn't some fancy late-minute conversion -- check out his bio, he lists Mitchell and the Cure among his top 5 favorite artists there, too.

So read on for Adamson's stories of how the Cure saved his life (or at least from getting beat up) and singing along with Joni and how those helped him rawk melodically.

Which band or artist is your favorite of all time? Growing up, that was always the question asked. Since people could never choose just one, I started altering the question to “What are your top 5 bands or artists of all time?” This gained far better results, as people could no longer pull the “I’m so eclectic and well rounded, how can I possibly choose only one when I like soooo many styles of music?” card. This served me well at parties during my 20’s. Now I don’t ask, because I am stuck in the 80’s and 90’s and find that I no longer recognize bands that people list. I am lazy about discovering new music these days and find if you put on a Wilco album in a social setting, 95% of people will be generally pleased.

On to my attempt to sound interesting and eclectic! I wish I could write about 5 albums that influenced me musically, but nobody wants to read that much from a guy who’s not even the lead singer of The Not-Its! So I will limit myself to two, one which was huge in my world at the time I first started playing guitar in the 8th grade - The Cure's Head On The Door - and another album that made me realize that it’s actually a good thing to “try” to sing as well as you can (rather than just get by or do the punk rock screamy thing) - Joni Mitchell's Blue.

The Cure had many albums that were influential to me, and you can definitely make the case that my musical style leans toward their guitar heavy (less synth), earlier stuff, but Head On The Door was their first album that I obtained (would have said “purchased” but I probably stole that cassette as I was a sticky-fingered, hooligan in 8th grade). I was a skater kid back then, not the “gothed out” type of fan, but The Cure influenced me in many ways…. There may or may not be VHS video footage somewhere out there of me holding a magazine page photo of Robert Smith’s face with the mouth cut out, lip-syncing to the song “The Catch.” In junior high, just wearing a The Cure shirt once saved me from getting my ass kicked. I threw something at a car and the hot pursuit ended with the car full of 20 something year olds catching me (don’t ask me how that happened?) and letting me off STRICTLY because of that shirt!

Anyway, that album was something new, that didn’t sound like pop music, or the poorly produced skate rock compilations I had received via my subscription to Thrasher skateboarding magazine. I just liked how Head On The Door (and most of their other albums) sounded. I wouldn’t say it is their best album, but definitely my favorite and most influential, as it just got me at the right time. It was fun to try to figure their songs out on guitar. Something about bands from across the pond felt cool to my friends and me. Nobody at our suburban Seattle junior high was listening to The Cure or The Smiths and it felt nice to have something from far away that felt like our own. Still to this day I put my boys to bed by playing guitar and often songs by The Cure make it into the rotation.

I started playing in punk bands in 10th grade in 1991. I played guitar, my good friend also played guitar and a new buddy played bass. We eventually found someone who played drums but still nobody could or would sing. I started singing by default because nobody else was willing. I was not good and confidence took years to establish. I had a girlfriend with a hint of granola in her. She owned some fleece, a pair of Birkenstocks, and pounded me down with the obnoxious crooning of Joni Mitchell. I fought it hard with Fugazi and Superchunk, (which I believe she still loves today) but both sides triumphed in that battle as Joni Mitchell’s album Blue worked its way into my hard wired system.

That album and girlfriend both went away - the album for a few years and the girl forever - until I picked up Blue (purchased this one) on vinyl in 1997 or so. I lived with 4 guys in a dude/party house near the University of Washington at the time. A typical scene for one of my roommates to find when rolling home would be hearing Joni Mitchell blaring from my room with a giant speaker hauled into the bathroom, speaker wire stretched across the hall, and me screeching the high falsetto sounds of JM from the shower. I was singing along due to its obvious genius as it grew on me, but also because I was actually trying to get better at singing. Eventually I could sort of keep up with her and learned that breathing correctly and weird stuff like that were important elements to singing well. With the album Blue, I really think you can feel the energy and emotion she put into the album (which I don’t usually say because how the heck do I know what went down in that studio?), but it’s tough to ignore when it’s just one person and her guitar or piano. Pretty awesome.

For me, these two albums simply just sound good to me and hit me at that right time in my life. As I’m writing this, I’m finding it an interesting case study between albums that sound good and my association with music for children and families. I know many people relate to albums of their past by what the album said to them and how they emotionally connected with the lyrics. I’m quite the opposite. I could hear a song 5 times and still not really tell you what it’s all about. I just like it if a tune sounds good or has a nice harmony and I will always fall for an amazing little drum fill or hi-hat trick. So yes, the guy who has never paid attention to the deep meaning of love songs is now writing music for kids. I know kids are amazing, bright and full of potential, but what they really want is a good hook and a badass guitar riff.

Video: "Rock, Paper, Scissors" - The Not-Its!

Ah, now that it's nearly September, kids are back in school and settling disputes on the playground in the time-honored tradition of rock, paper, scissors. Seattle's The Not-Its! have an instructional video for your kids (for "Rock, Paper, Scissors," off their excellent 2013 release KidQuake!) that illustrates the game.

Plus: bonus devil's rock sign. Thankfully, the contest doesn't go full Sharks-Jets.

The Not-Its! - "Rock, Paper, Scissors" [YouTube]

Review: Pleased to Meet You - Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke

My appreciation for Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke is long-standing and deep. My review of Rise and Shine, their first album from early 2010, felt to me less like a review than a summary of everything the duo had done in the couple years or so leading up to the album.

And to some extent I feel a bit the same way about their brand-new second album, Pleased To Meet You. It's been more than 3 years in the making, obviously, but beyond that, some of this music ("Animal Alphabet", for example, or "Raised By Trolls" and "Chuckers") has made its way into the world during that time. So when I say that this album feels familiar, I can't always tell if that's because it actually is familiar or because KWMC have tapped into some timeless country-punk attitude.

In that review of their debut, I called the band (they're a quartet now, with a handful of guest artists, including producer Dean Jones, joining in) a "mix of Johnny Cash, Johnny Rotten, and Johnny Appleseed." Sometimes, as on the opening title track (whose structure as a counting song is disguised by the propulsive shuffling beat and the British born-Clarke's slight sneer of a voice), they mix them up on the same song. "Raised By Trolls" has a killer surf-rock guitar line, but the next track, "Wander Round the World" is a sweet and earnest bluegrass ode to travel.

If anything, Wilde and Clarke's songwriting has become even weirder. "Lazy Raisins" is a ska tune about some raisins doing nothing but lying in the sun (which makes sense, when you think about it). "King of the Town" is a rocker about a kid who bemoans his inexplicable election as head of the city until he makes some very sensible rules. That's followed by "Conversation," a mini-operatic rocker in the vein of the Who about a kid confused by the adult chatter at a party which features the line, "Please excuse me / I have to step outside / My bike is double-parked." And as mystifying that song is, I have no idea what "Bigga Bagga" is about other than silly wordplay and shouting "Oi!" a lot (as a result, I think it'll be a big hit with Little Boy Blue).

Which isn't to say that they can't be tender and linear -- "Take Ten" is a roots-rocker with layered harmonies that happens to be about frustration and taking a break. But kids will relate because it's willing to sound how kids (and, occasionally, adults) honestly feel -- "This is the stupidest planet in the entire universe / It's so dumb / It's not fair / I've had enough / And I just don't care / Count to ten / Start all over again."

The 45-minute album will be most appreciated by kids ages 3 through 8. You can listen to the entire album here. And of course the physical product includes illustrator Wilde's character-filled illustrations of assorted animals and people. (Visit the KWMC website for stories behind some of the surprising appearances on the album cover.)

If you've read this far, it shouldn't be any great surprise that I think Pleased To Meet You is fabulous, an energetic blend of Americana and punk, of empathy and third-grade snark. Fans of Rise and Shine should snap this up immediately, and the rest of you shouldn't delay much, either. Highly recommended.