Weinkauf Wakes Up With Lullabies

The return of live music has come with some unintended circumstances. They Might Be Giants' bassist Danny Weinkauf looked forward to the resumption of the band's delayed world tour, which finally got underway earlier this month. The tour lasted exactly one show – after which founding member John Flansburgh got into a car service for a ride home, and wound up in the hospital with multiple broken and fractured ribs. 

With the TMBG tour on hold, Weinkauf decided to expedite the release of LULLABIES, a seven-track EP featuring death metal... no, what do you think is in a children's music collection? The lush, laidback tracks include the father-to-child love song, "Reason For It All," which reminds us that "within your love, there's a reason for [everything]" and "Only One for Me" about wishing on a star.

Red Pants Band member Tina Kenny Jones provides vocals on the wistful "When We Fall Asleep (Anything Can Be)" and family members Michelle and Kai guest on  "Toy Town" and the Twin Peaks-esque "Counting Sheep," which sounds like an Angelo Badalamenti experiment. Sadness over a friend moving away is the main concern of the somber tone of "Toy Town," and there isn't much of a resolution. But kids are resilient and come to realize that there are times when we're just sad and that's the way things have to be.

LULLABIES constitutes a curio in the recording discography of Weinkauf (and his Red Pants Band compatriots). But it's an unexpected, dreamy pit stop in what must feel like a frustrating nightmare for an active musician about to embark on a full year's worth of live performances. Small wonder that Weinkauf wants to wake up in a brand new day – and take your kids along with him.

LULLABIES is available from Danny Weinkauf's website, Amazon, Apple Music, and Spotify.

Here is the video for his song, "Champion of the Spelling Bee":