Todd McHatton lives the life of a typical superhero, filled with love and joy and happiness. His formerly secret lair is a solar powered recording studio filled with puppets. He enjoys fruit, comic books, laughing, and dancing in circles with his children. His eyebrows are pointy. Grass Stained Twilight was his first collection of stories, pictures and poems (as far as you know) - It's also a pretty good album. His second record came out on July 21st, 2010. It's called "Sundays at the Rocket Park" and it's awesome. It made Time Out New York Kids Top 10 Albums of 2010 and OWTK’s Top 10 Albums of 2010. His newest record is "Galactic Champions of Joy" - released on September 21st, 2011 and it made Time Out New York Kids Top 10 Albums of 2011, About.com's list of the Top Albums of 2011, and OWTK's #1 Album of 2011.
Chris Ballew - the awesome force behind The Presidents of the United States of America and Caspar Babypants said this about "Sundays at the Rocket Park": "This new Todd McHatton album is trippy fantastical brilliant and expansive...like lost b-sides to a "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" single...this sounds like the inside of a child's fertile mind."
If you've visited mchatton.com you know you get lots of songs before the "official" versions come out. Usually they're a little, sometimes a lot, rougher versions - but they're usually completely rocking, so you've got that going for you.
A brief excerpt from the OWTK feature:
Todd McHatton isn't a name ever mentioned when discussing the best working songwriters for kids. I kinda think it should be. What the California native accomplishes with "Sundays at the Rocket Park" (and previously with his outstanding, free Christmas Songs EP) is rather remarkable; an entire full-length kiddie album easily capable of passing for a dense, moody, very hip indie rock CD - the kind of disc Stereogum or Pitchfork might gush over.
Kids Music That Rocks called Todd McHatton's, Grass Stained Twilight, a "popliciously psychedelic kids' album." "The Art of Irreverence" said about Todd McHatton's 2009 Holiday EP: "This is THE indie pop album of the season. It's been compared to The Flaming Lips and The Shins. In what world would you not want to obtain this EP immediately? You'll thank me later."
Read more...