No More Songs About Sleep and Fire
(Parasol)
The college music scene has changed a lot since the Poster Children started playing music in 1987. The alternative rock scene inflated in the early 1990s, and popped by five years later. Nirvana came and went, the hip alt-rock bands waned in popularity (Pearl Jam), broke up (The Pixies), jumped genres (Radiohead), or became one of the countless bands who turned out to be less interesting then we thought (Hole, Oasis). Through all of this, the Poster Children have kept playing the same new wave influenced post-punk music the Champaign-Urbana unit have played for nearly 20 years through numerous line-ups and a number of labels.
And it's starting to pay off for a second time. If the cult of Hot Hot Heat and Rapture fans showed hipsters anything, it was that new wave was still in need of revival. But for all the originality in The Rapture's throwback rock, the Poster Children beat them to using Gang of Four as a reference point. Nine years since the half smash hit, half under-appreciated Junior Citizen became a staple of the post Nirvana alternative culture, the Poster Children have released an album which shows that the aging quartet still can compete with the new wave of bands recording new wave records.
No More Songs About Sleep and Fire is the band's first new release in four years, but is their best since 1997's RTFM. A titular nod to the Talking Heads' More Songs about Shelter and Food, the album is played with a refreshing sense of urgency. From the addictive energy of the lead-track \Jane"" to the politicized ""Flag"" and ""The Leader,"" the Poster Children pull as much youthful life out of fewer chords as any post punk band.
Part Gang of Four, part Pixies, half new wave, half post punk, the Poster Children can add one more duality - the songwriting of a veteran and the energy of a rookie. No More Songs About Sleep and Fire puts another success in the career of the Poster Children.
-Joe Uchill
Act Your Age
(Moon Man)
Over the past five years the world of music has been overpopulated with ambitious youth attempting to achieve fame and fortune. But recently the local California scene has produced a group of youngsters that has capture the hearts of many - The Kids of Widney High
The Kids are students enrolled in a songwriting class at Widney High, a special education school in Los Angeles. Many of the kids are autistic, suffer from cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. Others are blind, deaf or permanently bound to wheelchairs. The
group started in 1988 and changes as the students come and go from Widney. Michael Monagan, a special-ed teacher who was interested to see if the students at Widney High could compose music, conceived the idea for the band. As Monagan began to craft his teaching technique, his students gradually began to catch on and display a previously unrealized talent from a surprising group of students.
The Kids write and sing all original songs, and are backed by a band consisting of Vince Licassi on guitar, Judy Rudin playing harmonica, Tony Bollas at drums, Spero Anthony on bass, and Michael Monagan on guitar. They have built a respectable cult following That includes other musicians to the tune of Smokey Robinson, Marilyn Manson, and Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys. Even more impressive are their past gigs at the Palace, the Viper Room, and the House of Blues in Los Angeles. The ensemble has released three albums to date, and their newest, Act Your Age will officially be released on February 24th.
Act Your Age has the potential to surprise even the most insular of listeners. While the lyrics are certainly not complex, the album combines an array of musical genres to craft a cadenced and quite catchy series of songs. The first track, ""Life Without the Cow"" is suggestive of folk-style country, while ""Act Your Age"" is reminiscent of rhythmic reggae. The Kids even create Calypso on track four, ""Two Faces of Fidel"" and attempt a rockabilly song on the tenth track, ""Santa's in a Wheelchair.""
Still, the moderate success of the Kids of Widney High raises the important question, ""Are people laughing with them or at them?"" With celebrities like Howard Stern interested in the Kids, do people really enjoy the music, or are they simply gaining amusement at the expense of the mentally handicapped? The next song on your iPod probably isn't ""I Make My Teacher's Mad"" by the Kids of Widney High; and frankly, Act Your Age likely won't be shooting up the billboard charts anytime soon. In fact, some people may really be laughing at them. Whether or not that may be, the Kids at Widney High clearly enjoy making music. They not only create an uplifting escape from much of the horrific sounds that currently plague today's music industry, but also prove that music can and does have the power to change people's lives.
-Anthony Endelman
