Matt Vogel is a Sesame Street puppeteer best known to Muppet geeks as being the “understudy” for Big Bird. But he’s also a rocker, and his band is called The Mighty Weaklings. The band (including Michael Ray Escamilla on rhythm guitar, Bob D’Haene on lead guitar, BJ Hemann on drums, Tim McCracken on keyboards, and Vogel on bass guitar and lead vocals) has a new album out now — a “rock album for kids” called You Can’t Rock Sittin’ Down. Today I’m going to talk about the album, then come back here on Friday for an interview with Matt Vogel himself. (Note from the future: Click here to read our interview!)
I don’t have any offspring, so I don’t really know what the current state of kids’ music is like, but the iTunes store tells me that their best-selling children’s album is Kidz Bop 14, which features children singing pop songs like “Teardrops on My Guitar,” “Feels Like Tonight,” and “Bleeding Love.” That’s… pretty unfortunate, which is why it’s a good thing there are artists like the Mighty Weaklings. I’m pretty sure I would have loved You Can’t Rock Sittin’ Down if I’d had it when I was seven years old.
Things kick off with “Keep It Weak,” a song that introduces the band (“Some call us mighty/Others call us weak/We call us Mighty Weaklings”), encourages the listeners to play along with their air guitars, and presents the concept of “keeping it weak.” I can’t exactly explain what that means, but it seems to involve jamming out. Thus the Mighty Weaklings ensure that a generation of children will be totally confused as to the meaning of the word “weak,” but who cares about kids anyway, right?
I’m always a sucker for audience participation, so when the band requests that I help them by shouting the word “WEAK!” I have no choice but to oblige. It causes some embarrassment on the bus, let me tell ya. I bet that old lady sitting next to me jumped three whole feet in the air…
Right away it’s obvious that you’re not listening to the Wiggles. Not that I have anything against the Wiggles — I think Captain Feathersword is a true hero — but the Mighty Weaklings are a rock band. They just happen to be a rock band that does songs about sharing, learning to ride a bike, and flying in a real rocket ship.
My favorite song on the album is “Grumpy Song.” It’s no secret that children, in addition to being very poor drivers, often get cranky. Rather than telling kids to cheer up and stop being grumpy, the Weaklings encourage them to let themselves be grumpy for a while if that’s how they really feel — and maybe they’ll feel better tomorrow. Expressing emotions is a theme that has been covered many times on Sesame Street, and there are several other instances on this album where the band imparts wisdom that will be familiar to Sesame fans.
Sesame Street is full of friendly monsters — this CD has a happy, peppy song called “The Monster Under My Bed.” Sesame Street pummels kids with the message that sharing can be fun — the CD includes a track called “It’s Sunny When You Share” (Get it? It’s a pun on a popular singing duo kids have never heard of!), which was co-written by Matt Vogel’s Sesame colleague Joey Mazzarino.
Oh, and that “Grumpy Song” I mentioned? It features Mr. Jerry Nelson doing some spoken interludes, and the the result is that it sounds like Grover’s Fat Blue customer is on the album. “Usually I’m a pretty happy-go-lucky fellow,” he says, “but when I get grumpy, it’s a whole different enchilada!”
So basically, I’m going to go ahead and say that most people who like both Sesame Street and rock ‘n’ roll will like this album. There are two songs in a row that are more subdued, “Bug Town” and “Super Hero,” which could potentially cause some young attention spans to drift. On the other hand, those songs are about insects and having super powers, and as far as I know, today’s little tykes and toddlers and tiddlywinks still like those things.
I wouldn’t hesitate to give You Can’t Rock Sittin’ Down to a kid, as long as the kid wasn’t a big jerk. And I hope the Mighty Weaklings keep making new music… after all, somebody has to undo the damage done by Kidz Bop.
You Can’t Rock Sittin’ Down can be purchased on CDBaby.com, or in digital form at the iTunes Store.
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by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com
