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SONGS: 17, Lucky, Let Yourself Down, Going West, The Sliver Moon, Lucifer Jones, Dona Dona Dona, There We Are, Now You're Here, Something Happens, The Sure Thing, Blue Green World
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SONGS: Save the Day. Arielle, House, Living with Robots, Ship in a Bottle, Mission Gothic, Claims to Power, Frankenstein the Matchmaker, Look for Me (I Will Wait for You), Troublesome Sky
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SONGS: Proper Bagdad, Losertown, Nostradamus, Old Zeus, 5:00 at the Satellite, Death of a Cub Reporter, Our Time, House of Wax, Wherever I'm Gone, Must Be Art, Vaudeville
CLICK ON TITLE ABOVE TO BUY CDs SONGS: In the Dark, Fear of Little Men, Boogerman's Theme, Has Anybody Hear About the Blob?, Ghost Story, The Brat Machine. Prof. Haggard's Most Unusual Collection, Here Comes the Mummy!, Haunting School, Do the Monster, The Gruesome Groove, The Long and Curious Saga of Dr. Trulaine, Track Thirteen
Ira Marlowe was performing a free kids’ concert for a local non-profit when it first happened. “Play it again!” the kids yelled, “Play it again!” Surrounded by a horde of five-year-olds in the gym of a center for at-risk children, Marlowe launched into his song, “Ghost Story” for the third straight time. He’d already played “Haunting School”, his only other spooky composition, twice. “That’s when I first discovered how many kids love anything scary, spooky or gross. The edgier stuff holds their attention, challenges them; it doesn’t seem babyish.” Marlowe soon went to work on an entire CD collection of songs that go bump in the night: THE CHILLS—Creepy Songs for Courageous Kids, just released this September, 2009 on his Brainy Tunes label. Marlowe describes The Chills as, “An imaginary band of monsters, each a little different, each bringing something ghastly to the table. Think of them as an undead version of The Village People.” The truth behind their birth is more like Marlowe-as-mad-scientist: Working late hours, assembling his creature in the dim light of his garage/studio, playing almost all the instruments himself. While Marlowe was a little surprised at the appeal of spookier kids’ songs, he was even more surprised to find that no one else seemed to be writing them. “There’s a whole growth-industry of scary books for kids: Lemony Snicket, J.K. Rowling, the Goosebumps series, Twilight…. There are scary movies and scary video games, but when I Googled ‘scary music’ all I found were compilations with ‘Monster Mash’ and ‘Purple People Eater”, songs written forty years ago.” So he set to work. To be sure he was on the right track, he posted in-progress songs on the Brainy Tunes website, inviting Facebook friends around the world to test them on their children. “My songs about ’The Blob’ was preceded by some funny dialog. Kids loved that,” says Marlowe, “So I added numerous little scenes. Kids loved ‘The Boogerman,’ so I made him even more, uh, vivid.” Parents liked the educational aspects of the songs, sprinked with adult-level vocabulary. But the main thing Marlowe learned from his online focus group was that he needn’t worry about making the songs too scary. “Kids are tough these days,” he laughs. “All I kept hearing was, basically, ‘Bring it on!’” While children don’t seem that scared by the scary songs, early responses to The Chills show parents expressing relief. “My Facebook friends keep saying that once kids enter kindergarten, there’s already social pressure to stop listening to ‘baby music’,” Marlowe explains. “Kids start moving toward what older kids are listening to and that can mean metal, rap and punk, a lot of which is not exactly suitable for that age, at least lyrically. The Chills are just dark and edgy enough to seem cool to kids. And, of course, they rock!”
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SONGS: Zombie, A Most Unusual Neighbor, Cemetery, Know Your Bones (parts 1 & 2),
Boogerman’s Back, Green Green Slime, Thunder and Lightning, The Boy with Two Heads, The
17th of May, Mr. Stench, Cemetery Rap, Never Listen to Track 13.
The follow-up to 2009’s Creepy Songs for Courageous Kids, this new release
further establishes The Chills’ claim as kings of “haunted rock”. Know Your Bones contains
thirteen well-crafted songs that are creepy, clever, funny and educational, often all at once.
Extremely adult-friendly, early listeners have drawn comparisons to Tom Waits, Edward Gorey,
Shel Silverstein, Monty Python, even Johnny Cash. Science teachers will love the title track, an
amusing anatomy lesson, and both teachers and parents will appreciate the cautionary tales
sprinkled throughout.
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SONGS: Molly the Moose, The Teasing Bird, Sandwich, Krinkledinks and Grodsnips,
There Once Was a Bagel, All About the Moon, Who You Are, Kangaroo, Joanie and the Genie,
The Planets’ Song, While You’re Sleeping, You Can Be a Robot (and clean your room)
Ira Marlowe’s first release on Brainy Tunes Records won the 2006 Parents’
Choice Silver Honor. It features 13 songs which are not only full of wonder and imagination,
but also challenging and educational. Titles include “Molly the Moose”, about a jailbreak from
the Bronx Zoo, “The Teasing Bird”, in which a nasty bird, weighed down by negativity, finds it
can no longer fly, “Krinkledinks and Grodsnips”, about tiny monsters who learn to co-exist
beneath a bathroom mat, and “There Once Was A Bagel”, in which a breakfast staple defies the
laws of both gravity and common sense. In addition are highly informative songs such as
“Kangaroo”, “All About the Moon” and “The Planets’ Song”. The Brainy Tunes philosophy is to
never condescend to kids but rather to challenge them, including bits of material just enough
over their heads to trigger questions and curiosity. Above all, we take pride in creating music
that parents will want to hear as often as their kids will want to play it.
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SONGS: Another Crazy Day, Monkey Dance, The Ballad of Pepe Pinto, Molly the Moose in
Hollywood, Lazy Dog, What in the World is a Dinosaur Doing in Denver?, 93 Million Miles, Such a Dizzy
Day, Bubble Times, Monty Miller (Smart Gorilla), Kindness, Cockatoo Blues, When I Sing, All the Colors
These 14 fun, colorful songs offer tastes of numerous musical styles--rock, folk, pop,
country, ska, funk and blues, as well as asides to African and Mexican traditions. Songwriter Ira
Marlowe refuses to condescend to kids and prefers to challenge them, with highly-visual narrative
songs that build vocabulary while stimulating a child’s imagination.
These “music-videos-without-the-video" include stories about a gorilla who learns to read, a jumping
bean who hops his way across North America, a family that encounters a Triceratops while
toy-shopping, a man driven batty by two talking birds, and, in the title track, an alien who must return
to a planet where everything is in black-and-white. Like Marlowe’s first Brainy Tunes release, The
Teasing Bird, (2006) it flies in the face of repetitive, dumbed-down kids music, offering a smart, funny
and refreshing alternative.
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SONGS: Rise and Shine, Crabwalk, Peanut Butter Pirates, Don’t Let the Dog Dig,
Molly the Moose on Mars, Soap Opera, Continents, 37 Kids in a Great Big Shoe,
Mermaid, Dream Time, Lullaby 2
This delightful Brainy Tunes release features 11 brand-new songs. Back by
popular demand is Molly the Moose, who this time travels to Mars and displays an aptitude
for science seldom seen in a land mammal of her size and stature. We meet the “Peanut
Butter Pirates”, a rowdy crew who sail the seas on a quest for ever more of “that precious
paste”. Kids will be on their backs in no time, doing the “Crabwalk”, then flipping over to
immitate that naughty puppy Potus in “Don’t Let the Dog Dig”. Like all Brainy Tunes CDs,
there are overtly instructive songs as well; “Soap Opera” is a fun-filled hygeine lesson, and
“Continents” teaches the seven land masses via an irresistibll funky groove. You‘ll also find
two soothing bedtime songs, and the beautiful tale of a girl who becomes a mermaid, but
misses her home on dry land.