5x7 Music Marathon: Mr. David's "Jump In The Jumpy House"

Jump In the Jumpy House
Mr. David, 2007

If Jonathan Richman, Roger Daltrey, and the Velvet Underground sat around in their basement and tried to imitate what the Monkees might have sounded like if they were stranded in the Ozarks subsisting on psychedelic mushrooms, there are probably people out there who would not want to hear the music that came out of that room. But if your elementary-schooler has a sense of humor that worries teachers and leaves peers scratching their heads, Mr. David (David Alexandrou) [website] will likely be a personal hero. Unlike many sharp-tongued kids' music antiheroes, Mr. David doesn't wear his sardonic humor on his sleeve, but sneaks up on you repeatedly in happy, jangly songs with lines sure to shock most and delight the few who remain. "Crocodiles Are Hungry," which conspiratorially invites kids to let animals out of their cages at the zoo, could be a "naughty" song in the spirit of Barry Louis Polisar, until he quickly twists out from his audience's grasp with lines like "Crocodiles eat little boys... just kidding," and he even plays the truly unreliable narrator sometimes, a trope almost unheard of in children's music (In "She's A Good Dog" he explains "She never hurt no one / She only draws blood when she's havin' fun"). If your kid would dig this, you're in safe hands.

Alexandrou keeps adult listeners on their toes, too, with an only half-suppressed penchant for sending up icons of past generations in imitations that will fly right over kids' heads but have adults snickering. The most literal audio sketch is "Them Devils," a very funny riff on Johnny Cash (""I keep my Bible on the passenger seat / Just in case he was thinking of burning my feet"). Jump In the Jumpy House may have you puzzling over whether Mr. David is writing highly sophisticated music for kids or very silly music for adults. We think he's doing both.

Top Tracks: Crocodiles Are Hungry / Jump in the Jumpy House / Them Devils

Buy it at: Amazon.com | CDBaby