Author Archives: Jeff Giles

About Jeff Giles

Jeff Giles is the founder and editor-in-chief of Popdose and Dadnabbit, as well as an entertainment writer whose work can be seen at Rotten Tomatoes, Paste Magazine, and a number of other sites.

Groovy David, "Kiddie Lounge"

Groovy David Opens the ‘Kiddie Lounge’

Groovy David, "Kiddie Lounge"

Like the champagne room at your local gentlemen’s club, only with juice boxes and probably a little less crying, Groovy David‘s Kiddie Lounge is open for business as of today. For only $3.96, you get four — count ’em! — tracks of groovy Davidness, including “Ice Cream Sunday,” “Grandma Sally,” “I Lost My First Tooth,” and a cover of the jump blues classic “Barnyard Boogie.” Head on over to Amazon’s MP3 store to get your copy and enjoy what G. David describes as “Equal parts Michael Bublé, Frank Sinatra, and Curious George” and an album with “a smooth swinging sound that will dazzle the kids and tickle the parent’s fancy.”

Don’t have four bucks, but swimming in social media contacts? Groovy David has a program for you. It’s called Helping Hands, and it works like this: for every 10 email contacts you add to his list, he’ll send you two signed CDs. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got like 400 Facebook friends, and as soon as I finish posting this I’m going to sell them all out in exchange for a small mountain of discs. Can you put your friends in the stereo? No, you cannot. Can you listen to them in the car? Well, yes, but you probably don’t want to. I think you’ll agree that David has come up with an elegant — nay, groovy — solution. Just make sure you take advantage before the program ends on June 5.

Also! In honor of his new songs “Ice Cream Sunday” and “Grandma Sally,” Groovy David is asking kids to send in pictures of themselves having ice cream with their grandmothers. Ha ha, gramps! No ice cream for you! Entries will be voted on at the Groovy David Facebook page, and the top three winners will win prize packages that include “CDs, t-shirts, and puppets” in July, which is, of course, National Ice Cream Month.

Desert Island Discs with Lucky Diaz

If you had to go away for awhile and you could only take five of your favorite albums with you, which ones would you choose? Yes, we know it isn’t a fair question, but that hasn’t stopped us from asking music fans who happen to be recording artists in their own right. This edition of Desert Island Discs comes courtesy of Lucky Diaz, whose latest LP with the Family Jam Band, A Potluck, arrives May 8. You can preview the entire album right here at this link — after reading Lucky’s Desert Island picks, of course!

While this question is totally unfair…here is my feeble attempt at my desert island top five records:

The Beatles, Revolver

Let’s be honest, there’s no way to encapsulate the entire complexity of the Beatles in one album. But if one had to, I believe it would be this one. My daughter sings to “Yellow Submarine” the way I sang to “Good Day Sunshine” in the back seat of our family car. It’s been said “Here, There, Everywhere” is Paul’s favorite song he ever wrote. It’s certainly mine.

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

Before I ever visited New York City, it came to me via this album. I was a sophomore in high school when my band teacher (a trumpet player) lent me this album to take home. I never returned it. I finally understood the concept of an instrumentalist “singing” through their instrument. I felt New York. I felt Miles. Kind of Blue makes sadness beautiful.

The B-52’s, Cosmic Thing

Admittedly, I came to the B-52’s via my brother, who blasted “Rock Lobster” from his bedroom. He was obsessed with Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson. I believe we were 12 or so when Cosmic Thing was released. I had never heard a party before. Not only that, they looked like they came from mid-century outer space! “Love Shack” is still one of my all time favorite songs. I mean, you CAN’T help but move when you listen to it. Tin Roof Rusted!!!

Nirvana, Nirvana Unplugged

I suppose it’s my age, but Nirvana was my coming of age band. They heralded the Seattle sound that shaped my first bands, my first written songs, and my voice. We all wanted to be Kurt Cobain or Eddie Vedder. Here was a guy that couldn’t really sing or play a guitar that well — and he sounded amazing. I didn’t really know Bob Dylan yet, so Kurt was my first experience with a message and emotion really delivering a song. But not until this album did I really see how beautiful Kurt’s songs are. I believe this is the best Nirvana record ever recorded. “Dumb” WITH a string section! Brilliant.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced

People are often surprised to discover I’m a pretty serious guitar player. I spent a great deal of my youth cutting heads in blues jams where I grew up. Our records don’t have a lot of guitars on them. I always think the song comes first and rarely, if ever, do my songs ask for some epic guitar solo. I can honestly say when I first heard this album I couldn’t believe it was real. To this day, I’m mesmerized by Jimi. He’s what Miles is to the trumpet. I hear his voice in his playing. I want to play like Jimi. I want to perform like Jimi. Beautiful madness captured on tape played backwards.

Not a bad list of influences, right? See how they all came together to form A Potluck — coming May 8 to a store near you — in the album teaser clip below. And don’t forget to preview the whole record at this link. Enjoy!