Wee Hairy Beasties
Issue #30
Animal Crackers (Bloodshot)
By Anna Breshears
Published: December 1st, 2006 | 12:00am
Many parents, many of whom might read this very magazine, would agree that most “kid’s music” is largely unoriginal and potentially suicide-inducing. The Wee Hairy Beasties bridge the divide between two camps: one that assumes children’s music must be repetitive and overly simplistic; the other that all music is for kiddos, from Johnny Cash to the Ramones. By creating a boot-stomping collection of country and blues tunes featuring stellar musicianship as well as silly, frequently witty lyrics about a menagerie of animals, the Beasties make music for little guys that’s not only listenable, it’s downright likeable.
The band features an impressive roster of well-known Bloodshot Records artists including Jon Langford (Mekons, Waco Brothers), Kelly Hogan (Rock*A*Teens, Neko Case), Sally Timms (Mekons), and high-octane instrumentalists Devil In A Woodpile. The tunes on Animal Crackers are all highly entertaining from the old-time, kazoo-heavy swing of “Ragtime Duck” to the rambling “Road Safety Song,” which moves like a truck over a dusty back road. The blues shuffle of “I’m An A.N.T.” is a clever reworking of Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy” into a near-spiritual meditation on the life of your picnic’s worst enemy. Don’t worry, Waters’ line, “I can make love to you woman / In five minutes time,” is reworked to “You can leave your crumbs in the kitchen / We just can’t resist.” In “Cyril the Karaoke Squirrel,” the narrative about the highly competitive and often dangerous world of karaoke will most likely go over the heads of the younger set, but is a truly refreshing jaunt for us old folks.
With Animal Crackers, the Wee Hairy Beasties give everyone a reason to listen, no matter what their age.
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