C6 and Mummio's Music Roundup Part 2!

Welcome to another edition of C6 and Mummio's MUSIC ROUNDUP! (For Part 1, click away!) Here are a few more CDs and DVDs that have been keeping us singin' an' a-dancin' an' a-clappin' an' a-swayin' lately!

I have written before about how much we love Captain Bogg and Salty. The CD "Pegleg Tango" is one of C6's favorites. The tracks "Pieces of 8eight" and "Nellie The Elephant" are absolute gems. I love that the spoken intro to "Nellie the Elephant" is lifted from the intro to U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday". ("There's been a lot of talk about this song. Maybe too much talk. This is not a rebel song. This song is Nellie. The. Ellie. Phant.") I would love to hear the Dropkick Murphys perform these songs! Though, the Captain and his crew do rock out most mightily. This CD makes a fine soundtrack for all your pirate-y activities. It is so very swashbuckly! Highly recommended!


We have been fans of the compilation CD The Bottle Let Me Down for quite awhile now. It still enjoys a lot of airtime here, which is always a plus.The songs on this CD have a distinct retro feel to me. There's a lot of twang! Bluegrass! Rockabilly! Old Timey-ness! Why does it seem to me there's so much country-ish kids music? I'm learning to tolerate the twang. But I digress. There's a lot of nostalgic coolness as well - remember the song "Senor El Gato"? How 'bout "On Top of Spaghetti"? There's a sassy-n-sexyish version of "Rubber Ducky" by Kelly Hogan. Also included is an old fave of mine "The Crawdad Song" - C6 goes completely nuts (in a good way) during the mandolin and violin solos. I love that song! "Yougittaline and I'llgittapole, honey! Yougittaline and I'llgetapole, babe!" There are a lot of songs that are new to me, including "Funky Butt" which has been in heavy HEAVY rotation here. It is not a funk song - it is more of an old time New Orleans-ish style. It's about a...funky butt. "Open up the window, let the funk right out." HAhrHA! Potty humor! There is lots to love on this album - something for everyone. You can listen to some samples here.


Q: Are we not Devo? A: No, we are not Devo. We are Devo 2.0, or Dev2.o to be accurate. What the heck is this? It is Devo songs with kids singin' em. I got this last year for C6 and he enjoyed it a little bit, (liked watching the weird animations) but he wasn't exactly bowled over by it, so it went into hibernation for a little while. Until about a month ago, when he rediscovered it and wanted to watch and listen to it. All. The. Time.

So what is it, really? It is a CD and a DVD of 5 kids, between the ages of 10 and 13 "performing" Devo songs. They actually sing the songs, but fake-play the instruments (as far as I can tell). Devo (the original guys) recorded the music, slightly altered here and there to be more kid-friendly. (Although I have no idea why they changed the laugh in "Peekaboo" to an EVEN SCARIER laugh - and there's a creepy jester/clown character in the video to match - eek!) The lead singer is a girl who sings kind of in a low-ish register, and does a lot of fun, goofy moves. FUN! The drummer actually appears to know how to play drums. They seem to be having fun. The video is the kids "performing" in front of a videoscreen playing zany, very DEVO-ish animations. There are also some interviews and other materials, but to tell the truth, we haven't gotten that far, because C6 always wants to watch the performance part.

C6 is aaaaaalllllllll over this. We put on the CD in his room and he does his Devo ("Kid Devo" we call it) act. Yesterday, some of his stuffed animals became bandmates. He sings a little bit, and rocks out on his Wiggles guitar - or sometimes he'll be the keyboardist and set up his toy piano on a storage container so that it is the right height for "performing". His favorite tunes are "Uncontrollable Urge" and "Whip It". C6 genuinely LOVES this music. After we put C6 to bed at night, sometimes we'll hear him in his crib singing "Uncontrollable Urge": "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah YeahyeahyeahyeahyeahYEAH!" I've played him "Real Devo" and he liked it well enough, but not with the same vigor. Hmmm.


For The Kids is another compilation I got quite awhile ago that has been a hit with both of us. There are tracks by Billy Bragg, Cake, Ivy, Guster, Bleu - lots of good stuff on here! The collection starts off with "Mahna Mahna" performed by Cake - this is such a fun, classic tune! C6 always gets out the percussion box and we play along to this one, in particular. The next tune "La La La La Lemon" is another fave. Do you remember this one from Sesame Street? I loved this song as a lass - it was sung by Bert on Sesame Street, and is done here by "Barenaked Ladies". We usually skip track 3, not because we don't like the song - It is "Rainbow Connection" - a great tune! - but Sarah McLachlan totally turned it into a WICKED DOWNER. Of course, that is our opinion. You might like it. (Dixie Chicks do a sweet version of the song on the compilation "Mary Had A Little Amp", see below.) Guster is next with "I've Got To Be Clean", a hilarious song about keepin' clean. We got this CD long before C6 was talking, and he learned how to say "Dirt" listening to this song. (it is a backup vocal at one point). On track 5, Dan Zanes performs "WonderWheel", a fantastic tune about riding the ferris wheel and being with your friends. We like this one A LOT. Geesh, I didn't really intend to go through ALL the tunes on this album - there are so many good ones! Bleu rocks out on "Snow Day", and Ivy does a gorgeous version of "Sing". The coolest version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" I've ever heard is here, done by Chantal/Raine Maida. C6 liked this song so much, I'd sing this version to him at bedtime, and he'd sing along in parts. Awwwww.

It is really a great bunch of music!


I picked up Twink's "The Broken Record" a little while ago, and, truth be told, it hasn't had much play time yet. It is sometimes hard to pry C6 away from his old faves to listen to something new, so it hasn't really been put to the test yet. But I certainly dig it. This is a very bizarre CD! Is is kid's music? Hmmm. I don't know! It is snippets of vintage childrens music recordings remixed and set to beats. A review in Tape Op magazine summed it up as "Disturbing and beautiful at the same time". ExACTly!!!! Listen to a few exerpts here and here to hear for yourself. When I bought this CD, I had no idea the man behind Twink, Mike Langlie, is a Boston guy. Well ALL RIGHT!!! Hurrah!


And then there's Mary Had A Little Amp. There are only a couple of tracks on this CD that C6 enjoys. But C6 likes those songs so much that I wouldn't call this a bad value. His fave songs are "Sing Along" by The Blue Man Group and "We Walk" by REM. "Rainbow Connection" performed by the Dixie Chicks is nice. Madonna's "Little Star" is good. Moby's "Anchovie" kind of okay. The rest? Errrrr. Bonnie Raitt, Roseanne Cash, Nancy Wilson, Indigo Girls just ain't our cuppa o.j. It seems like an odd mix of artists, doesn't it???


I'm going to mention Dan Zanes again - since seeing the concert, C6 has been really into watching the DVD. I like that the DVD contains live footage from a show at the Knitting Factory in NYC as well as other videos - animation, the videos we first saw on Noggin back in the day (2005) and this one, for the song "Jump Up". Everyone's havin' a good time!



That's it for now!