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.

A Conversation with Ashton Allen of Rabbit!

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If there’s one thing a diehard music fan loves to complain about, it’s lack of variety. It’s less of a problem now than it used to be, but during the monoculture era, anyone who wasn’t into the latest craze really had no choice but to wait it out while the music press, Top 40 radio, and MTV bombarded listeners with more of the same.

Now that we all have free Pandora, plenty of iPod storage, and the ability to share our Spotify playlists with all our social network friends, we can be as eclectic as we wanna be — but as it turns out, we’re still creatures of habit at heart. Much as we might like to brag about shuffle mode taking us from Anthrax to Coltrane to Britney Spears (post-ironically enjoyed, of course), deep down, we want to know which slot each of those artists fits into. When bands are genuinely eclectic, it scares us a little. We want to know, as Faith No More once shouted, “What is it?”

Enter Ashton Allen, Devin Moore, Emma Jean Branch, and Yara — a.k.a. Rabbit!, the resolutely adorable indie-pop quartet whose last full-length release, Connect the Dots, was a family favorite here at Dadnabbit HQ (my review is here). The band didn’t market the album as a “kids’ music” release, and as far as I knew, they weren’t a “kids’ music” band — which is why, the first time I listened to their new release, Go For It, I had no idea anything was different about Rabbit! this time around. (Dirty Dadnabbit secret: I tend not to read press releases.)

But something is different. And nothing is different, actually. Wait, let me explain: Without exactly seeming to mean to do it, Rabbit! has bounded into the kindiesphere with the same cheerful abandon that’s always made their music so sweetly addictive — and they’ve done it without really making a kids’ album at all. Where most artists court the family scene by adjusting their sound, Rabbit! has watched the scene come to them. These are songs equally enjoyable by toddlers, tweens, parents, and non-breeding indie-pop hipsters. It’s really pretty impressive, and I wanted to talk to Rabbit! co-founder Ashton Allen about the band’s journey. Continue reading →

A Conversation with Trout Fishing in America

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For more than three decades now, Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet — otherwise known as Trout Fishing in America — have entertained audiences of all ages with their artfully seasoned blend of roots rock, traditional folk, and anything else they decide to stuff in their musical grab bag. As longtime fans know, it’s a mixture that lends itself naturally to family music — the band has been releasing CDs for kids alongside their “regular” albums since the early ’90s.

With the release of the first Trout Fishing in America book/CD combo, My Name Is Chicken Joe, in 2009, Grimwood and Idlet seem to have started a whole new franchise for themselves. Chicken Joe, the farm-dwelling cat who sleeps in a henhouse, has returned with a new adventure: Chicken Joe Forgets Something Important, which bundles an album of brand new family tunes alongside another beautifully illustrated hardcover book. It’s a really lovely package, and to welcome Chicken Joe back to our shelves, we knew we had to talk to Keith and Ezra about the project.

Happy new release day! What kind of response are you seeing so far?

Keith: So far, it’s been fun. We just put out this little video thing that came out on YouTube and stuff, and it’s doing really well.

Ezra: The local station came out and filmed piece on us earlier this week — that was pretty nice, too.

Chicken Joe Forgets Something Important features more new songs than the last book, right?

Ezra: Absolutely. From beginning to end, the songs were written with the story in mind — and we also wrote the story by narrating and taking on different characters, which was a lot of fun. It was territory we had never explored before.

Keith: We’re working on doing it as a performance piece, where we read it by becoming the characters. As we read it, we play the music in the background, and we take on those characters. We’re going to be doing it as part of the kids’ show, which should be a lot of fun. Continue reading →

A Conversation with Stephen and Bonnie Ward Simon

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Judging from the sales numbers, most of us don’t think about classical music very often these days — and when we do, we tend to think of it as stuff for grown-ups. But kids can — and often do — love classical just as much as anything by Dan Zanes or Justin Roberts. Songs don’t endure for hundreds of years without being able to stand on their own, after all.

Nevertheless, classical could definitely use a family-friendly outreach effort, and for years now, it’s been getting it from Stephen and Bonnie Ward Simon, the couple behind the Stories in Music series that helps tell the tales behind some enduring classics — including “Peter and the Wolf,” “Swan Lake,” and now, with their latest release, Handel’s “Water Music.”

Adding entertaining narration — and occasionally lyrics — to the music, the series informs budding classical fans (and their parents) about the lives of the composers, the stories behind the songs, and the historical context of it all. It’s educational and it’s fun, and we knew we had to get the Simons on the phone for a chat about My Name Is Handel. Our conversation follows.

Let’s start off by talking about the Stories in Music series in general, and how it started.

Bonnie: Well, it came out of the series we did at the Kennedy Center. In fact, the whole idea of doing concerts for parents and children — or, as we like to call it, multi-generational education — came from a two-fold issue. One was that, when I became director of the Washington Chamber Symphony, we noticed a void in the audience between the ages of, say, 30 and 45. Where are they and why don’t they come? As a fellow parent, I said, “Well, they’re tired.” They come home from work, they do homework with their kids…you know. So we wanted to give parents something fun they could do with their children. Continue reading →