Last night we spared darling C. the Grammy Awards and just hung around listening to some of our favorite CDs, hoping to get her addicted to those before she turns to kid's music, a genre which frankly frightens the life out of me. Nate is still working on his children's adaptations to his favorite Beastie Boys songs, and last night I played her Velvet Underground for the umpteenth time, trying to convince myself that they are mellow enough for bedtime.
I've been thinking about music a lot lately, especially since reading Sam Anderson's piece in Slate about his addiction to children's music. Warning in case you read it: don't be an idiot like me and click on the link to listen to "Victor Vito." I spent all weekend with just a few bars of it stuck in my head, and now (just as I had finally replaced it!) it's back again. Dammit! Anderson writes about these kid's songs as "earworms" (some German etymology brings us that term), and I must admit I tremble in fear of one day being unable to get one of the simpering Wiggles songs out of my head for real. I'm highly suggestible, and something of that magnitude could really ruin my life. Wanting to know what all the fuss was about, I had my sister play some Kanye West for me a while ago, and I still can't sit through a meeting about preset calendars (yes my job is that dull) without internally calling out "Holler we want presets! We want presents! Yeah!" with a little Jamie Foxx in the background.
Happily, my preverbal little daughter can't call out requests from the backseat in the same way my niece does: "Mommy, I want to listen to the princess song again." But that's not to say darling C. doesn't make her tastes known. This morning on the way to work I was playing a mix that had the Modern Skirts' "Seventeen Dirty Magazines," and every time it ended she started fussing and moaning loudly. All I had to do to get her to stop was start the song over again. Once, I swear she even hummed along.
So today I am obsessed with making some mixes for her that keep her happy and don't make me crazy, and I'm not talking about the whole Ralph's World or They Might Be Giants gig either. There will be a time when those groups will be the middle ground, the music she likes that doesn't make me crazy, and I'll accept that day when it comes (I read that Manu Chao has a new record for kids, and so I know we'll have some fun at that stage). But for now, before she can talk or ask for things by name, I want to do my best to delay the children's music phase as long as possible. So far my list of songs for mother and daughter includes Goober and the Peas, White Stripes, Golden Smog, Cat Power, The Be Good Tanyas, Hem (thanks to a little reminder of them from Dr. S which also makes me want to track down a version of "Fish Heads"), Beastie Boys (obviously), Blanche, Hole, Elliott Smith, Brazilian Girls, The Hentchmen, The Ramones, The Shins, The Free Design, PJ Harvey, Bjork, Slumber Party , Regina Spektor and a whole bunch of stuff from the Nuggests box set.
But I need more! Any suggestions??
3 comments:
Talking Heads, chica! Talking Heads! They're so loopy. I'd recommend "Stay Up Late," obviously.
I came out OK having been brought up partly on disco.
Also, I like Metric. And some Nouvelle Vague might be good, if you want her to learn neo bossa nova new wave. I go hit and miss with them. Treat her to some Luscious Jackson. And Dar Williams is good for more of the slow--"The One Who Knows" (I think it's the correct title) from The Beauty of the Rain is a very sweet mother/daughter song (at least as I read it), and I also love "Alleluia" from The Honesty Room, about what happens when punk kids go to heaven. There are many others I could suggest from her--"Closer to Me" and "I Saw a Bird Fly Away" are terrific.
"Genius of Love" would probably be good, but you might want to wait until you can explain that "We went insane when we took cocaine" is probably not good to sing in daycare.
How about some Pixies - "Here comes your man" perhaps??
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