One of my favourite new musical finds for Monkeytail and Wellington has been The Jimmies. I knew I was onto something special when the first email I received from them was signed "yours, in jimmies".
I find their songs so catchy and fun and easy to learn, which is important when your kids love to sing along too. The Jimmies strike me as being nothing but childish fun, which is right up Monkeytail and Wellington's alley, so I thought I'd ask Ashley Albert, lead singer in The Jimmies a few Jimmie'esk questions to find out what makes them tick.
V: Roll call - who are The Jimmies?
A: The Jimmies are, um, mostly just me.
At one point, I had this utopian vision of having a cohesive rock-n- roll band- the kind that we could make a super-juicy "Behind The Music" about...but in the end, it's shaped up to be easier to have a great bunch of guys who play with me on a regular basis...My drummer Dan's been with me almost the whole time, but is also in the show “Stomp” and has a few other projects as well...At some point, I'd love it if we organically evolved into a core unit and certainly, if we end up on a TV show somewhere, that'll happen whether we like it or not. But I think I’ll always be the big boss…turns out, I’m VERY good at it.
V: Why are you called The Jimmies?
A: In certain parts of the Northeastern US, "jimmies" refers to the "sprinkles" you put on ice cream, cupcakes, broccoli...all the good stuff. And the jimmies only job (in both the dessert AND the musical arenas) is just to add a little extra fun to everything. I like that idea a lot.
V: I was corrected the other day for not knowing what a "wrunkle" is by my 3yr old. Is there any other Jimmies speak I should be up with to win me some cred?
A: Well, you should definitely know that "La Vaca con sombrero is just a cow with a hat".
Hmmmm…what else…we have a song called "Huptsha- Huptsha" which, in my family, means "hurry up". I really did grow up saying it and we use it on the road all of the time (probably because we’re always in a rush).We also made up the term "Bunco" after we ran into several instances where one person thought they were waiting on the other person and all the while, the other person was waiting on THEM. So now, when we're ready to go, we say "Bunco!" and that means "Hey, no rush, but I'm ready when you are".
And a “Googlie Mooglie” is a drink that my grandfather always makes when someone has a cold (that’s really his voice on the CD!) It has hot milk, butter, sugar and a raw egg in it- but I left the part about the raw egg out of the song, because I didn’t want kids asking their parents to make them one!
V: Why do you think this new kind if kids music, or Kindie Rock (I just love that term) is becoming so popular?
A: Parents are busy people and for a long time, I think the only way for them to easily find new music for kids was on TV…and independent kid’s artists were confined to their own hometowns; only a very select group of “in-the-know” parents dug them up… But within the past few years, I feel like the internet has really opened up the door and made a lot more choices accessible to a larger group of parents. That, plus, while the big box stores (like Wal-mart and Target here in the states) are actually shrinking their music shelves, intrepid specialty stores (like Monkeytail & Wellington!) work hard to bring kindie rock to the masses…
V: Being a part of The Jimmies looks like loads of fun. How do you come up with this stuff?
A: I happen to live a pretty ridiculous life to begin with…I just try to work in as many opportunities to snack and play the slide whistle as I can. I’m pretty sure, in my past life, I was a third grader.
V: What’s next for the Jimmies?
A: Well, I’m about to go into the studio to record our next album “Every Day’s A Holiday” (I’m hoping to make some sort of accompanying calendar with a different holiday for every day of the year-which, I have a feeling, is gonna be a project all its own).
AND after 2 gruelingly-fun years of production, I’m happy to report that our DVD, “Trying Funny Stuff” is actually being sent off to the printers THIS week! It’s gonna have all 6 videos (one, which we haven’t released yet, for our XM/Sirius radio #1 hit “What’s That Sound?”), a 45 minute live rock-concert extravaganza, karaoke videos, a behind-the-scenes “film-101” documentary and a few other fancy- schmancy surprises. I’m sort of irrationally excited about the whole thing.
Thanks Ashley, I think your entitled to be irrationally excited about the DVD, I think I am a little too! I'll keep everyone posted on when it's available and hopefully when its in my hot little hands, stay tuned....
Here is a sample of Make Your Own Someday, The Jimmies first album. Press play to listen...
You can get Make Your Own Someday at Monkeytail and Wellington here... don't forget it's FREE shipping on all Happnin' Tunes during May!
And Finally, the bit you've been waiting for..... to Win a copy of Make Your Own Someday, tell me in 25 words or less the different words your kids have come up with for body parts OR the most creative way you've come up with to get your kids to eat broccoli!Submit your responses via comments to this blog post or email to vicki@monkeytailandwellington.com.au by Friday 8th May. Our panel of randomly selected judges (OK me ;-) will select the most creative and fun answer and announce the winner over the weekend.
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