Music Monday - Kids Pop!

See?? I still do music stuff when I get the chance!

I've never claimed to have very sophisticated taste in music - I simply demand that it be GOOD.

Now, "Good" of course is a somewhat subjective term, but to me, it's just something I can typically recognize from any given 3 to 5 second snippet of a song. It's got to have a strong melody, and the chords have to progress nicely throughout each section of the song. (verse, chorus, bridge, etc) I absolutely can't stand songs where they just sit on one chord - or loop through the same set of chords - for the entire song. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard to me! Also, the recording quality has to be good for its time. Meaning, a classic Motown hit doesn't need to (and really shouldn't) sound like it was made in 2010, but anything recorded in the last 40 years had better have nice clear highs and a solid low end. And finally, I just have to like it. :)

So - now that I've established my personal criteria for good music, AND admitted that I'm not very highbrow about it, it shouldn't be a big surprise that I'm a sucker for the kids bands. From Musical Youth in the early '80s, Hanson in the '90s and the Jonas Brothers, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato today, the kids almost always seem to "get it" on all the main points. Now, it's rare (if ever) that they can pull it off for a whole album, but you're almost always guaranteed to get three or four good solid singles out of them before they start to grow up and decide that they need "credibility." (Miley Cyrus' latest effort, "Can't Be Tamed" is smack in the middle of this category.)

Anyway, last week Cindy, Kaylee and Danee all went over to the Tri-Cities to visit grandparents, leaving Ellysa and me home alone. Not surprisingly, Ellysa opted to spend the majority of her time at her boyfriend Dan's house, leaving me all by my lonesome. I did some basic housekeeping, ate some food, and then decided to get caught up on the latest music. I mainly do that through a service called "Promo Only" that I got hooked up with back in the '90s when I was producing the Friday Night PartyZone on C-89.5 FM. So with the house to myself, I loaded up the August CD, cranked up the volume, and turned on the Wii for some quality time with Dr. Mario.

Each Promo Only CD has 20-23 songs, and for the past few years, there are usually only 3 or 4 that really stand out to my ears... But this month's disc is LOADED with catchy, quality tunes! One in particular jumped out at me, to the point that I ran over to the computer to see what it was. The band was "Burnham" and the song was "Catch Me If You Can." Great sing-a-long power pop, which is one of my favorite styles! From listening to it, I assumed the singer was a girl... but then I noticed the last line in the chorus goes "You probably still think that I'm your man, but girl catch me if you can."

Huh? Wait... If that says what it sounded like it said, then this isn't very likely to be a Power Pop Chick Band, this must be a Power Pop Kids Band...? Really?? So I hit up the YouTube and did a little research - and sure enough, it's the Burnham brothers, with the youngest right up front with pre-growth-spurt chubby cheeks and everything. They look like they're having a blast, and I still loved the song!



Having solved the mystery of Burnham, I resumed the August disc of new releases, and just a few minutes later, I was off the couch again, looking to check on another song... And it was the latest from Hanson - I'd noticed it on the track listing, and kind of laughed, not expecting it to be anything to get excited about... but this song was GREAT! Fresh sounding, soulful, not at all like everything else out there... I'm not sure why, but I decided to look it up on YouTube as well, and was very pleasantly blown away by what I found... A direct, move-for-move tribute to one of my favorite movie musical numbers EVER: The Ray Charles "Shake A Tail Feather" number from The Blues Brothers! And the Hanson boys obviously have a strong love - even a reverence - for the original...

So as much as I like the kids bands while they're new and fresh, the sad fact is that they usually don't age well. It's very nice to see that Hanson has turned out what may be their best work ever, more than a decade after their last significant chart appearance!

As if that wasn't enough, a little more research informed me that Taylor Hanson, the keyboardist and lead singer, formed a Power Pop SuperGroup last year with the guitarist from Smashing Pumpkins, the drummer from Cheap Trick, and the bassist from Fountains of Wayne... And they're AWESOME!!! I was going to embed the video here, but it's disabled - so you have to actually go there to check them out. (click here!)

That's it for this week - I've got lots of great new music to get me through the next seven days, and beyond!