RECESS MONKEY IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THIS EXCITING NEW DVD: episodes 5-8!
Embarking on yet another wild and wacky adventure, independent children’s recording group Recess Monkey has set a December 6 release for their second DVD, Field Trips with Recess Monkey (Monkey Mama, $20.00, run time 91 minutes). A companion piece to Recess Monkey’s new Field Trip CD, the Field Trips with Recess Monkey DVDs includes four fantastic, fun-filled episodes, each set in a different location in the group’s hometown of Seattle.
The three members of Recess Monkey are teachers who met while working at the same Seattle school. The trio’s genuine enthusiasm for a grad school project morphed into their 2005 debut release Welcome to Recess Monkey Town. This was followed by another popular (and zoologically correct) hit, Aminal House. The teachers (Jack Forman, Daron Henry, and Drew Holloway) made history with their next release, Wonderstuff, the first double CD children’s album produced from material generated at a kids’ summer camp workshop. Likewise, 2008’s Tabby Road and the newest Recess Monkey album, Field Trip, each came from real life children’s experiences.
Notes Jack Forman, “The episodes on Field Trips with Recess Monkey were inspired by the field trips we’ve taken with our classes at school. The DVD is part Magical Mystery Tour, part Mr. Rogers, and part Muppet Show, but it’s all based on the kids that we teach and our memories of being young. Our host, Mayor Monkey (our somewhat overbearing hand puppet band manager), keeps us moving as he sits at his miniature desk doing his best Walter Cronkite impression. We’ve included music videos for our songs "Sack Lunch, "Ice Pack," "The Teens," "Tiny Telephone," "New Shoes," "Centipede Pirate" and "Bubble Factory" along with performances from shows at Seattle's Vera Project, and more. The end result is kind of like American Bandstand meets This American Life. I think families will get a taste of the fun we had while making this DVD!”
Mothering magazine declared that Recess Monkey’s 2008 release, Tabby Road, “has a Beatles-esque feel, offering guitar-based rock songs with a slice of jazzy piano and sprinklings of well-placed synthesized samplings … You might just enjoy these songs about sleepovers, sandboxes, and sugar goblins as much as your kids do.” Time Out NY Kids enthused, “As its punny title suggests, this fourth album from a trio of Seattle schoolteachers is heavily influenced by the Beatles—more McCartney’s hummable melodies than Lennon’s psychedelic romps. With accessible, repetitive lyrics about sea monsters, Tonka trucks and loose teeth, the songs inspire little ones to sing along. And not only do the tunes fail to induce adult headaches, some even sound like the kind of retro hipster music you might hear in a Wes Anderson flick.” Tabby Road was a Parenting magazine “Our Fave This Month,” a KIWI magazine “Best of 2008,” and was one of the Christian Science Monitor’s Top Stocking Stuffers in its “Best of 2008 Holiday Gift Guide.”
According to kids’ music authority Stefan Shepherd (Zooglobble, NPR), the 2007 release, Wonderstuff, (a pioneering two-CD set written and performed by Recess Monkey and over 100 creative young music- and animal-loving friends), is “the best pop-rock musical since ‘Tommy’” and was “the year’s most ambitious kids’ music album.” NPR included Wonderstuff’ in its list of 10 Best Kids’ Albums for 2007. Kathy O’Connell, host of Kids Corner on Philadelphia’s WXPN-FM, chose Wonderstuff as one of her favorite albums of the year during a guest appearance on NPR’s Morning Edition, calling it “A brilliant, multilayered concept album of stories and songs heavily influenced by '60s rock. If Brian Wilson had written for kids, he would have created ‘The Pool,’ a song of yearning for time to pass while waiting to jump back in the water after lunch.”
School Library Journal wrote of Recess Monkey’s 2006 release, Aminal House (not a typo), “With fantastic vocals and instrumentation, Recess Monkey often sounds like a 60's band similar to Herman's Hermits … The lyrics tell fantastic stories that are fun and educational. This must-have album will be circulated again and again.” Wrote Children’s Music That Rocks, “Incredibly hooky chord changes and sophisticated arrangements elevate this CD far above yer average kids' album; and the spacious, in-the-same-room production is extremely well done. It's hard to believe this is an independent release! and a kids' album, at that! by three silly teachers! Lots of goofiness, lots of awesome songs, lots of fun. Recess time!”
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‘FIELD TRIPS WITH RECESS MONKEY’ EPISODE SYNOPSES:
Episode 5
Mayor Monkey goes on tour with the band!
"The Teens" video
"Knocktopus" live at The Vera Project
Meet MayMo Interview: Ella
"Aquarium" live at the Smith Tower
"Tiny Telephone" Video
Episode 6
Mayor Monkey goes to Washington D.C.!
"Sack Lunch" Video
"Centipede Pirate" Video
Meet MayMo: Mindy interview
"Haven't Got a Pet Yet" live at The Vera Project
"Dr. Wiggle" Live
Episode 7
Mayor Monkey takes a bite out of the Big Apple
"Ice Pack" Video
Meet MayMo: New York Public Library Lions Interview
Meet MayMo: Jarrett Krosoczka visit
"Marshmallow Farm" Live at the Vera Project
"Down Down Down" Live at The Vera Project
Episode 8
Mayor Monkey at home in Seattle and Portland
"New Shoes Video"
Nat and Flora Write a song!
"Bubble Factory Video"
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