Not-Its!

Posted by Mari on December 15th, 2011

I’m in my car, minding my own business. There is music playing. I am singing along:

… run around, run-run around! Run around, run-run around! Run run run, run ‘til you’re chosen / make like a pop-pop-pop! Popsicle, frozen …

To this song:

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So what’s wrong with this picture?

Well, first of all it’s a children’s CD. And second of all? My kids are not in the car with me.

The lyrics are from Freeze Tag, the first track of the Tag, You’re It! CD by The Not-Its! and be warned, it’s infectious stuff.

This CD is the perfect storm of pop goodness for kids, and it’s everything that is great about pop music—catchy songs, lyrics that don’t make you have to explain things to your children, smart instrumentation—and nothing that is bad about pop music—such as inappropriate lyrics, tween singers dressed like strippers, etc.

Why is the music so good? It’s because of the incredible abilities of the band.

The Not-Its! are fronted by singer Sarah Shannon, who has street cred through her stint with the 90s indie band Velocity Girl. Rhythm guitarist and singer Danny Adamson spent his time in the 90s playing with Seattle-area punk bands. Bassist Nori Hoeft has a degree in ethnomusicology (a fast way of saying “the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts”), Tom Baisden is the lead guitarist and punk musician who doubles as a teacher for special needs kids and drummer Mike Bayer also teaches drums. I know; this is a group of interesting people who happen to also be really great musicians. Who make awesome music for kids. I love them.

Listen to all the songs and learn more about the band members on their website.

The band also just release some videos for their songs (found here (http://www.wearethenot-its.com/videos/index.html), that are worth checking out.

Tags: Freeze Tag, Tag, The Not-Its!, You're It!