"My biggest fear as a parent," confesses a first-time father and YouTube documentarian, "was that I would have to spend the next several years of my life listening to Barney or The Wiggles." He was spared that fate, he says, by Dan Zanes, a Brooklynite folk-rocker who crafts children’s music that parents are equally mad for. On Dan Zanes and Friends’ 2006 Catch That Train! —probably the first “children’s music” disc you could pick up at Starbucks, thanks to a deal with the coffee juggernaut’s Hear Music entertainment division—Zanes’ friends include Nick Cave, The Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant and The Blind Boys of Alabama. When Zanes plays the National Hispanic Cultural Center this Wednesday, Feb. 6, his friends will be of the home-grown variety (I’m just not sure who, at this point). Bring the wee ones out for this concert. For once, it’s not overreaching to say the whole family will enjoy it. Cost is $15 advance, $20 at the door for adults, and $10 advance, $15 at the door for children under 12, through TicketMaster and the NHCC box office (with no service fee, 724-4771). The show starts at 6:30 p.m.
An All-Ages Slice Of Cheesecake
The non-bar-aged music supporters of Burque have had to sit out quite a few exciting developments in our scene this last year. If you’re not rounding the corner on 20 soon, at least you’ll get to wait another year with the 2008 New Mexico Rocks! Pinup Calendar Compilation CD in your stereo. The album will have an all-ages release party this Saturday, Feb. 2, at the Outpost Performance Space from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. The compilation features all 12 lady bands from the 2008 calendar, and the show is proffering four in-person examples— The Grave of Nobody’s Darling, Jenny Gamble, The Ya Ya Boom Project! and Holiday Sail. The show’s $5 cover includes a free calendar, and the CD will run you $5 more. As usual, all proceeds benefit APS music education—it’s like your paying yourself to rock.
Rock, Squawk And Roll
Sorry to break with the apparent under-21 theme of this week’s column, but Rocksquawk.com is throwing a decidedly over-21 showcase this Saturday, Feb. 2, at the Launchpad. Rock with Five Minute Sin, The Bellmont, Unusual Content, Botnix, Kronic Obsession, Mechanism Of Eve and Ishen Tree, then debate the finer points of music nerdery with Albuquerque’s best. $5 gets you in.
