Something caught my ear. Future Hits

It’s funny when life comes full circle.  Last year the first time I heard of a band called Future Hits is when they were co-billing with Little Miss Ann at the Hideout.  I was unable to attend that show and around that same time I found out that there was a music teacher in my kids school teaching songwriting. Imagine my surprise when I found out they were in fact the same person.  Matt Baron.  I discovered this at my kids school when they were hosting a parents night.  We had a nice conversation about the school, networking and music in general. I then ran into Matt again at KindieComm which was a great time (Thanks again Kathy and Robert!). There I acquired a copy of the new CD Today is Forever which is really quite good, bilingual and like nothing else in the kindie world. I would describe it as Bryn Ferry meets The Cure with hints of Elvis Costello. It’s full of moods and pianos and heavy drum beats and bass with electric guitars twanging about. It’s a whole lot of rocking fun.  Then all the songs repeat in Spanish.  So not only do the kids get super cool songs they get a bilingual experience as well.  We tend to play either the English half or the Spanish Half. That’s up to you. Future Hits has a album you should get. Go buy this CD and support an independent artist today!

Mister G’s easy cool (bilingual) groove comes to town… and a song I wish I had written.

One of the coolest things you learn about Mister G (Ben Gundersheimer) is that his learning Spanish was not learned in the family because it was the first language. Nor did he learn for altruistic reasons or it was an easy grade.  No he learned Spanish because his dream was to play music and be a Big League Baseball Player.  He thought it would come in handy while he was playing in the majors to communicate with his Hispanic teammates.  Well the baseball dream didn’t make it past college but he did give the old indie music scene a try and that worked until it didn’t. So he went back to school to get a Masters in Early Childhood education.  Along the way he started writing songs for kids, released a CD and then on his honeymoon in Columbia (he brought the guitar) he had an epiphany about playing for Hispanic Children as well! That Spanish education was about to come in handy. Musically this is a really great sounding CD with simple traditional acoustic sound and amazing percussion choices.  My favorite song is Cuento .  It’s a simple song about a child asking for a story.  Lyrically simple the layers of percussion are really amazing (Kudos to Enguie Castrillo).  They are  focused without being forceful.  The easy guitar rhythm  starts the ride and the percussionist takes you home. It qualifies as a song I wish I had written.  When I asked what the idea behind the acoustic guitar and the different percussion choices Mister G stated that he wanted the CD to be tenable (for live shows) with just his guitar and he was looking for an authentic flavor.  Well I’d say he certainly achieved his goals on this one.  If your lucky enough to to be free this Saturday, November 9th at 11am go to Schubas. I suggest you click the link, buy some tickets and go check him out!!!  Buy a CD as well by clicking on the CD pic.