Kids' Guide to the Globe

French Music Review: Dans Le Sous-Sol ("In The Basement") - Les Petites Tounes

Four guys: Claude, Carlos, Martin, and Rodolphe. 

Influences: South American (Carlos is originally from Chile), the Beatles, Hendrix, Alice Cooper, Yes, Genesis. 

Instruments: electric guitar, mandolin, kazoo, accordion, charango (a traditional South American stringed instrument). 

Put them all together.  Result: Canada's only rock band for kids.  Incredibly high energy fun, called "U2 for kids". 

I love this album.  Like all of the best stuff for kids, it draws on a bunch of musical styles that will appeal to adults as well.  The title song, "In The Basement", has a
hard driving, Beatles-garage-band sound, but is completely upbeat and fun:

Where can you go when you want to have fun?
In the basement, down in the basement
Where can you go when you want to laugh and dance?
In the basement, down in the basement

When you invite your friends
That's where you can play until midnight
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

This album is distinctive for its healthy dose of South American sounds.  Our current favorite is "Volando", which includes a few Spanish words mixed in with the French.  It's a beautiful song, but subtle and therefore difficult to really render into English.  A child imagines himself flying in his dreams:

He is gone, flying, like a bird in the sky
But I know he will return when I sleep again

I can climb in the clouds
When the sun rises, it takes off in the sky
Reminding me that it's just a dream

Everyone knows pirates are hot these days (the nice, goofy pirates, not the nasty real ones) and "Les Pirates" will feed your need for good pirate sounds.  Les Petites Tounes sound like they're having a blast as they grunt and growl pirate-style.

The captain has a hook, and a parrot friend
(The pirates, the pirates)
They frighten sailors with their hideous flag
(The pirates, the pirates)

We are the pirates
We're really scary
We steal jewels and treasure
And all the candy

 

Check out some of the video clips of Les Petites Tounes clowning around on their official website.  These guys seem to have fun in everything they do.

Liner notes include French lyrics.

French Music Review: Ma P'tite Poupoune ("My little dear") - Shilvi

I'm starting with Shilvi because this was my first French album. I adore all of the Shilvi's thus far - I currently own three.  Having said that, let me say right up front:

Shilvi is an acquired taste.

Shilvi is a little French Canadian girl, singing songs full of word play and delicious flights of fancy ("When The Sky Weeps", "The Big Elephant", "The Baby Robot").  The disc includes musical styles - jazz, various Latin rhythms - that keep it fun for adults as well as kids.  Much of it has a sweet, almost classical sound, but not at all cloying.  The lyrics are so clever that they elevate the whole album.

   

OK, OK, I'm Working On It

Kids' Guide To The Globe is under construction.  OK, I guess you can see that.  Do you have any idea how long I labored to get that little green Technorati widget to appear on my blog?  Oh wait, it isn't there...........   

AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh wait, it's back.

 

Guess I've got some things to iron out here.  But in the days to come, you can count on finding a bunch of cool French and German cds for kids. 

Got any good sources for Spanish music?  If so, leave a comment.  Because I'm just not all that thrilled with the stuff I'm turning up on Amazon.com. 

(Check out the link to Armonia, at right, a great Spanish music blog.  Do I know what she's talking about?  No.  But there's good stuff there.  Trust me.)