Keep On Rockin' in the Wee World
by A Nice Mare On Elm Street
"A funny thing happens when you hear Daddy a Go Go for the first time, whether it's on this disc or any of the four preceding it: You can't help but wonder with mounting incredulity and a creeping sense of indignity how it is that this dude's not huge. John Boydston, who writes and records all his songs somewhere in the recesses of his crawling-with-kids suburban home is a master of the ridiculous. Between carpool rounds and hockey drills, he dreams up songs about pink flamingos named Floyd (get it? Pink Floyd?) who get tangled up with manatees called Hugh (Hugh-manatee, from the song "Pink Floyd Saves Hugh Manatee"), impossibly exasperating siblings ("He'll bother you more than a 25-pound mosquito/He'll scare you more than a broccoli burrito," from "Irritation Man"), and the losing-est baseball team since Billy Bob Thornton mixed it up with the Bad News Bears ("Cryin' in the Dugout"). Where his true brilliance emerges, though, is in his jangly, loose-limbed, California-sunny rock-pop. The Jammys don't have a kids' music category yet, but that's only because they haven't taken Daddy Boydston for a spin in the station wagon. Beans and peas be damned, Daddy a Go Go whips up his own kind of sustenance. Anybody with kids over age three ought to line up at the buffet table. -- Amazon.com, Tammy La Gorce
"What separates Daddy A Go Go’s John Boydston from the rest of the alt-kids pack is his unfettered willingness to rock: While many (if not most) others in his field seem to do so tentatively, fearful of offending tender ears, this Atlanta-based father seems to know intuitively that rock is practically encoded into kids’ DNA; as a result, he has always embraced power chords and driving rhythms with glee. This latest LP finds Boydston inhabiting largely familiar territory. The best (and funniest) track is undoubtedly the almost-toddler anthem “For Those About to Walk, We Salute You.” Other highlights include an ode to self, “Dads who Rock” and the amusing “Irritation Man.” A cover of Spinal tap’s "Listen To the Flower People" is a welcome surprise. Despite a slightly superfluous reworking of the Ramones’ "Blitzkrieg Bop" and a puzzling instrumental version of "To Sir, With Love" Eat Every Bean once again has Boydston redefining "kiddie-rock." -- Jem Aswad, TIME OUT NY KIDS May/June 2006
