"The 'Rockabye [Baby!]' series is designed for modern-music-minded parents who want to share songs like 'Paranoid Android' with their kids without scarring them for life."
-Spokesman-Review Spokane, WA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2007
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CUTTING EDGE MUSICIAN GIVES ROCKABYE BABY! SERIES A BIG THUMBS UP
The Crystal Method's Scott Kirkland and His Baby Son Jett
Revel in the Pleasures of Baby Rock's Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions Series
(Los Angeles) "Wow, this is really, really good." That was the immediate reaction by innovative electronic musician Scott Kirkland of The Crystal Method and his wife Brandi on their first hearing of Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Radiohead from Baby Rock Records. Now their ever-growing collection of Rockabye Baby! CDs play nightly in the nursery of their 14-month-old son Jett, never failing to soothe him off to sleep. Kirkland touts the albums on The Crystal Method's Los Angeles radio show and to every parent he knows or meets.
"It's definitely a nice collection to have," says the musician and new father. "The CDs make it a lot easier to put your kids to sleep. And they're the ultimate baby shower gift. Kids only wear baby clothes for a month or so and then they grow out of them. But these CDs will be played for years."
Ever since the Rockabye Baby! series debuted less than a year ago, the CDs have garnered rave reviews in the national media and the seal of approval from the child-rearing magazines Parents, Parenting, American Baby and Child. But the ultimate test comes when the baby meets the bassinet in the nursery. Few reviews for the kid-friendly instrumental albums of rock songs are better than the raves from one of the most influential musicians in the contemporary scene.
The Rockabye Baby! series lulls infants off to peaceful sleep and enchants parents who are rock music fans. "When I first got them, I was very encouraged by the idea and slightly skeptical that it could be done well," Kirkland recalls. "We received a lot of these typical cheesy lullaby CDs when our son Jett was born. We played those initially, but they were just so irritating that we didn't want to listen to them."
The Rockabye Baby! series had the totally opposite effect on Mom and Dad Kirkland. "We started playing Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Radiohead before our son was even ready for bed, and as we were listening to it, we kept saying, 'Wow, this is really, really good.' We listened to the CD from beginning to end while we played with our son, and then immediately reached for the other one we had (Lullaby Renditions of Coldplay). From that point on we have gotten as many of them as we can as soon as they come out."
"Our son doesn't go to bed without them," Kirkland says. "Most every single night when he goes to sleep — unless he's so tired that he doesn't need them — we play one of the Rockabye Baby! CDs." Mom and Dad also enjoy what they hear in the bedroom and on the baby monitor.
"We even take the albums on road trips with us. We recently went to visit my Mom in Las Vegas for the weekend. She has an intercom CD system in her house, and every night we just put a Rockabye Baby! CD in and played it for all of us. It's a little bit of home everywhere we go."
Kirkland has high praise for producer and musician Michael Armstrong, who created the Rockabye Baby! musical template and arranges, plays and records most of the albums. "They're all really well done. He does an excellent job of interpreting the songs and picking the right instruments and capturing the melody of the song. I love all the instruments that he uses, like glockenspiel and Mellotron. It's really organic. He's obviously an incredible musician with an amazing ear. I'd love to have him play a melody on one of our songs," says Kirkland.
Scott and Brandi Kirkland have even become a Dad and Mom word-of-mouth marketing team for Rockabye Baby! "Every time we run into parents we tell them about the series," he says. Kirkland also spun Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Tool on The Crystal Method's taste-making Friday night radio show, "Community Service," on L.A.'s Indie 103.1 radio station. "I played it while I talked about how cool it was."
The Crystal Method recently shared a bill with Tool on Australia's Big Day Out tour. Kirkland reports that Tool bassist Justin Chancellor had gotten the album and "was really impressed as well."
The Tool lullaby album also passes muster with an avid fan of the band. "We have a neighbor who loves Tool," he explains. "She came over and we were listening to it while we ate dinner, and she was like, 'I love this.' She went and got it, and now she listens to it in the morning when she goes to work to set herself in the right state of mind. And on the way home she listens to real Tool CDs to get all her anger out."
So far Kirkland has enjoyed every Rockabye Baby! album that he's heard. "The Cure and The Beach Boys are really good. And the most recent one I've gotten into is The Beatles. I was blown away by how good that one is." And he can't wait to hear every new one he gets.
Will a Rockabye Baby! influence show up on The Crystal Method's next CD? "You never know," Kirkland ponders. "I'm definitely inspired by what I hear. And for the last eight months I've heard nothing but Rockabye Baby! lullabies. It's definitely a possibility that one of those twinkling sounds might creep into my subconscious mind while recording the new album."
And Kirkland definitely likes the influence they have on his son. "Hopefully, one day in the future, five or 10 years from now, a Ramones track or Radiohead song will come on the radio, and he'll go, 'I know that song.'"
There are currently 19 Rockabye Baby! albums on the market featuring the songs of Coldplay, Metallica, Radiohead, Tool, Pink Floyd, The Cure, The Beach Boys, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Queens of the Stone Age, U2, The Ramones, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt, Bob Marley, The Beatles and Bjork. Coming are Rockabye Baby! albums of songs by Green Day, The Pixies, Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Prince, Kanye West, Stevie Wonder, Depeche Mode, Black Sabbath and more. Information on the Rockabye Baby! series and sound samples are available at: www.babyrockrecords.com.
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