Archive for March, 2010

  • CD Review: Debbie and Friends, “More Story Songs and Sing Alongs”

    Mar 19, 10 • In Music

    Debbie’s back, she’s brought her Friends, and she has More Story Songs and Sing Alongs! If you listened to the first volume, or if you’ve caught Debbie at one of her many well-received concerts over the last few years, you know what to expect — catchy, positive tunes, delivered with the same strong lines and bright colors you see in the album artwork. Debbie kicks off the new album with a song titled “So, So Happy,” and that about sums it up — this is cheerful music, focused on the best things about family, love, and growing up. Subjects include making silly faces for the camera (“Willy Won’t”), sports (“Home Run Ronnie”), achieving goals (“I Think I Can”), and friendship (“Until Next Time”), with a round of Simon Says thrown in for good measure (um,

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  • CD Review: Flannery Brothers, “Move Over Lullabies…It’s Time for Wake Up Songs!”

    Mar 18, 10 • In Music

    The Flannery Brothers’ debut CD, Love Songs for Silly Things, was a big hit in our house last year, and when I heard they had another disc on the way, I was filled with the kind of anticipation I don’t normally feel for Dadnabbit assignments. I mean, hey, I love kids’ music as much as the next guy, but if I get an e-mail telling me I have a new children’s CD on the way and something new from, say, K’naan or David Byrne…well, the kids’ stuff can wait. But as soon as I received my copy of Move Over Lullabies…It’s Time for Wake Up Songs!, I tore off the plastic and put the disc in the CD tray. With the Flannery Brothers performing the songs, and a title like that, how can you go

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  • CD Review: The Rubinoos, “Biff-Boff-Boing!”

    Mar 17, 10 • In Music

    Here, power pop fans, is what They Might Be Giants hath wrought. The Rubinoos have been around for decades, making solid records to tons of critical acclaim and little in the way of sales — a situation not unlike the one TMBG found themselves in when they decided to make the jump to the kids’ market, a.k.a. “paydirt.” This is not to say the Rubinoos’ debut children’s CD, Biff-Boff-Boing!, is a crass, commercially oriented move — just that, like TMBG, the Rubinoos are so ideally suited to younger audiences that you can’t help but wonder why it took them so long to get here. The Rubinoos have always occupied a spot on the more candy-coated end of the power pop spectrum, so they’re a more natural fit than, say, Cheap Trick; their music has never

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  • Blu-ray/DVD Reviews: “Castle in the Sky,” “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” and “Ponyo”

    Mar 17, 10 • In Movies

    His name is spoken in reverent tones by animation lovers, but as far as the wider American marketplace is concerned, Hayao Miyazaki barely exists; his 2009 release, Ponyo, probably played to fewer theaters than the asinine Fly Me to the Moon, and Ponyo received far and away the biggest U.S. push of any film in Miyazaki’s distinguished career. Now that I’ve lamented Miyazaki’s low commercial profile in the States, this is the spot where I’d traditionally take a shot at Disney and its marquee-crowding, female psyche-twisting princesses — but empires aren’t always evil, and as a case in point, here’s a lovely, Disney-sponsored series of Miyazaki reissues, crowned with Ponyo‘s Blu-ray debut. If you’ve never watched a Miyazaki film, it’s probably important to note that while not all of his movies are appropriate for young

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  • CD Review: Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem, “Ranky Tanky”

    Mar 7, 10 • In Music

    I’ll get right to the point: I love this album. A lot. I’d never heard Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem before Ranky Tanky arrived in my mailbox, but they’ve made themselves a fan for life, and I’m seeking out their albums for grown-ups as soon as I finish writing this review. You know what to expect as soon as you lay eyes on the brightly colored, hand-drawn look of the album cover, and when you flip open the CD, those first impressions are reinforced with a picture of the band riding on a trolley and wielding acoustic guitars, fiddles, ukuleles, and wide open smiles. A few inches to the right, and you’re looking at liner notes that include instrumental credits for bottles, jawharp, kalimba, kazoo, harmonium, and some truly weird stuff, like balloon and veggie

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