DVD Review: Princess Katie and Racer Steve, “Revved Up and Ready to Rock!”

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Princess Katie & Racer Steve – Revved Up and Ready to Rock! (2008, RocketNYC)
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I’d never heard of Princess Katie and/or Racer Steve before my copy of Revved Up and Ready to Rock! arrived in the mail, but they apparently have quite a loyal following, and have released a pair of CDs (Fast & Feisty and Songs for the Coolest Kids), selected songs from which are collected on this live DVD.

Katie and Steve seem to have come to kids’ music the hard way — namely, after years spent fruitlessly trying to build careers in grown-up entertainment — and as a result, the PKRS aesthetic is pleasantly adult; because their move into this arena was gradual and organic, they use a smarter and more eclectic musical approach than some acts who self-consciously aim at the youth demographic. The Princess (nee Katie O’Sullivan) has a big, elastic voice, and doesn’t rely on cutesy antics to get across — then again, in a ball gown, corset, and tiara, she doesn’t need to; she’s got plenty of appeal for the kids (and, ahem, their dads). The band, led by Racer Steve (A.K.A. Steve Borne)’s lead guitar, hops nimbly between genres from song to song, mixing rock with jazz, swing, funk, and good-old fashioned uptempo pop. They have a horn section, too, which is more than most grown-up bands can afford. Best of both worlds, right?

The songs themselves are fun and varied, but none of them knocked me out, and after watching the DVD twice (largely without my daughter, who lost interest pretty quickly during both viewings), I can’t remember a single line or melody — but Revved Up and Ready to Rock!, like the songs themselves, seem pretty squarely aimed at the 5-8-year-old demographic, and both of us are outside that bubble. There’s no arguing with the energy of the show, however, or the way Princess Katie and Racer Steve smartly break things up between songs with an ongoing puppet show that deals with Katie’s wandering pet dragon.

The production values aren’t what you’d get from, say, a They Might Be Giants DVD, but they’re still impressively high; a number of cameras were used, and the editing cuts (a little too quickly, in my opinion) between angles during the songs. They even mix in a few special effects. For PKRS fans, especially those who have either been to a show or who are bummed out because they haven’t, it’ll be a wonderfully fun way to spend an hour. For the uninitated, it may be a little underwhelming, but that’s probably par for the course with something like this.

CD Review: “Yo Gabba Gabba!”

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Various Artists – Yo Gabba Gabba! (2008, Nickelodeon)
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For the record, I can’t watch this show — I want to punch DJ Lance Rock whenever he comes on the screen, with his big grin and all of his hand-talking — but I know when I’m beat, and for the last couple of months, my three-year-old has been obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba! Also, much as DJ Lance gives me the creeps, I have to admit that any children’s show that makes me stop in my tracks on the way to the shower and ask “Why is Elijah Wood dancing with a yellow robot and a bumpy red cyclops?” can’t be all bad.

If you have young children, you probably already know about Yo Gabba Gabba!, which has supplanted Jack’s Big Music Show as the hip, with-it kids’ show du jour, and a magnet for such unlikely guest stars as Wood, Biz Markie, Rahzel, Laila Ali, Tony Hawk, Sugarland, the Shins, and Mark Mothersbaugh. It’s utterly ridiculous, and easily the most unsettling form of children’s entertainment that I’ve laid eyes on since cowering in fear during an accidental late-night viewing of Boohbah. It’s also oddly addictive, which is why anyone with a YGG! fan in the house will want to run far, far away from the Yo Gabba Gabba! soundtrack album.

YOUR KIDS WILL LOVE IT.

First of all, it’s just a tiny little thing — less than half an hour in length.

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Second, the tracklisting is a genius blend of skits from the show (“Biz’s Beat of the Day”) and standalone songs. My favorite is the Salteens’ “Be Nice to Animals,” but there are a handful of non-annoying musical numbers, including the Little Ones’ “Hey, Won’t Somebody Come Out and Play” and the Roots’ “Lovely, Love My Family.” The end result is something your kids will clamor for over and over again, because it’s full of stuff they want to hear and it doesn’t last long enough to bore them.

I’m just warning you — if you give this to your children, prepare to surrender your radio for a period of several weeks. And prepare to find the songs stuck in your head at odd moments, or to hear and/or say the phrase “there’s a party in my tummy” far more often than you’d ever thought possible.

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Prepare also to possibly pay a visit to Target in search of some of the righteous YGG!-themed swag for sale, including the Muno-shaped talking guitar.

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Proceed with caution.

Book Review: Wendell Berry, “Whitefoot: A Story from the Center of the World”

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Wendell Berry – Whitefoot: A Story from the Center of the World (2009, Counterpoint)
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This is a beautiful little book, and the calmest, gentlest illustrated short story about a mouse fighting for its life against a terrible flood that you are ever likely to read.

That should come as no surprise to longtime fans and followers of Berry’s prolific output, which reflects the pride and commitment to tradition of his agrarian lifestyle.

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In his nonfiction work, Berry has argued for the merits of a philosophy he calls “solving for pattern,” which is a fancy way of saying that you should try to solve as many problems as possible at once – and do so in such a way as to minimize the likelihood of additional problems.

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It’s sort of a mouthful, but it’s a beautifully simple school of thought, and it resonates throughout Whitefoot‘s 60 pages. Berry’s placid text, which meshes wonderfully with Davis Te Selle’s beautiful pencil illustrations, follows the journey of a mouse named Whitefoot as she gathers food, builds a nest, and manages to survive a flood that carries her far beyond her home. She does this by doing as little as possible — in other words, by following her instincts. In a passage about something as simple as Whitefoot building her nest, Berry extols the virtues of simplicity and thrift:

She molded the cup of the next exactly to fit by pressing against it with her body. She made it snug. She did her work according to an ancient, honorable principle: Enough is enough. She worked and lived without extravagance and without waste. Her nest was a neat small cup the size of herself asleep.

He concludes the paragraph with the most beautiful phrase of all: “Her sleep was an act of faith and a giving of thanks.”

As you may be able to tell, Berry’s writing makes few concessions for younger audiences; to some parents, Whitefoot may seem impenetrably…adult. But I read it to my three-year-old, and she loved it — I’m sure she wasn’t able to absorb the subtext of Berry’s message, or perhaps even its broader themes, but she understood what was happening, and she absolutely loved the illustrations, squealing with delight every time we turned to another page with a picture of the adorable little mouse.

It isn’t as eye-catching as the work of Eric Carle or Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman, but it’s no less instructive, and it may very well stay with your young readers much longer — sort of along the lines of The Giving Tree, albeit lacking quite the emotional impact. Like I said: A beautiful little book.