A Green Day for Jersey's Jumpin' Jamie

Children's music sounds so simple yet conversely it can be frustratingly difficult. As They Might Be Giants opined on Marc Maron's podcast recently, there's a lot of stuff out there that's not very good. Let me therefore state that Jumpin' Jamie has managed to traverse the difficult pathway between simple and difficult. His debut CD, KOOKIE, delivers power-pop, parody, and positivity in equal measure.


Jamie uses Green Day's iconic DOOKIE as a jumping-off point, with lots of hard rock guitars behind songs like "Back to the Future" (a recap of the film), "Words," and "A Ghost in My House." Contemporary pop artists utilize different co-writers and production teams behind virtually every track on their CDs. Somehow, Jamie has employed a similar technique on KOOKIE, with five producers, including Danny Weinkauf and Marty Bellar (TMBG).

There are also a stunning 40 (!) guest stars listed on the CD, although the vast majority appear on "I Wanna Be Healthy," such as Peter Tork (The Monkees), Patricia Quinn (Rocky Horror Picture Show), and a bevy of kid's music stars I won't offend by offering a partial listing. Yes, there's a dino song as well, "The Rise and Fall of Argentinosaurus" (put that one in your spell-check).

Children's music has the ability to offer messages about adults while winking at their kids. I've seen this done countless times in my decade-plus by too many artists to mention. Jamie attempts it as well, with mixed returns. "I Wanna Be Healthy" rests at the top end of the spectrum, while "Coffee" lands with a thunk:

Why do adults drink coffee?
They watch football and they place their bets.
They do unhealthy things like smoke cigarettes.
They loves taxes and more things that are bland.
I guess some things I just don't understand.

"Coffee" comes off more as a scold that an amusing fable. As the protagonist's parents smoke and gamble, the only thing they don't mix some booze in with their caffeine. Given a choice, I would recommend "The Coffee Song" by Ralph's World. Okay, point successfully beaten into the ground.

Jamie Theurich's "day job" is as dinosaur troubadour (yes, it's a thing) at New Jersey's popular Field Station: Dinosaurs theme park. As such, he's intimately familiar with what works in front of audiences comprised of, well, who knows what, for any given performance. That's not a bad jumping-off point. And Jamie is certainly jumpin' for greener pastures with KOOKIE.

KOOKIE is available on June 1 from Jumpin' Jamie's website, Amazon, and iTunes.

Here is the video for Jamie's song, "Back to the Future":

Babypants Brings Beatles Back for Tots

"The Beatles have been done to death."

"I know they were the greatest band, for their time, but what could they say that's relevant today?"

"Another Beatles CD aimed at kids? Have they no shame!"

Against nearly-unsurmountable odds, Caspar Babypants (the prolific Chris Ballew, late of the Presidents of the United States of America) has taken the challenge and released BABY BEATLES, a collection of the rock band's tunes reimagined for kids.

I won't be linking to any videos from this collection. Apple Music is happy to collect its royalties for song performance but the cost of proper licensing (according to Ballew) is prohibitive. But that was the easiest obstacle to overcome. There are 2-3 generations of adults with preconceived notions of how "their Beatles" sound. And in order to win over the hearts and minds of pre-adolescents, a recording artist must go through their parents' wallets.

When you think about it, children should have the least problems with Beatles covers. After all, how well would they know the original versions? And they might prefer a cover version, especially if it's performed by one of their favorite artists (imagine Raffi singing "Octopus's Garden"). That's one of the songs included here, along with "All Together Now," "Yellow Submarine," and "Penny Lane." So don't worry – you know the material. It's all in the presentation.

Ballew is all about deconstructing the Beatles and presenting them as pure children's songs. I'm not talking about the Monkees, crystalizing the first two years of the Beatles career in an endless tribute. These are children's songs that just happen to have been performed by the Beatles, some about 50 years ago.

It's oddly appropriate that "Cry Baby Cry" is repurposed here as a gentle child-calming lullaby. And let's not forget the "it's so obvious" inclusion of "Your Mother Should Know."

Ballew did a lot of research into the Beatles and was amazed that they produced such a diverse body of work despite being pressured to record and release as much material as possible, while dealing with day-to-day lives and their surrounding media frenzy. I'm amazed that Ballew has produced as much children's music as he has in just a few, short years – birthing them at the rate of one CD every nine months. No wonder he "took a break" with a labor of love. Well, I shelled out $95 per ticket to take my older son to see Sir Paul McCartney earlier this summer. For a fraction of that amount, you can bring BABY BEATLES home for your kids.

BABY BEATLES is available from Caspar Babypants' website link to CDBABY, Amazon, and iTunes.

Here is the video from the 2013 song, "Stump Hotel":