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One of the many wonderful things about music is that it doesn’t disappear. You can discover and enjoy music 20 years after it peaked in popularity and it can open a whole new world for you. Especially nowadays with so many platforms at our fingertips, it’s easier than ever to be exposed to “new” music. Even if it’s just new to you!

While continuing my investigative work into tunes for kiddos, I came across They Might Be Giants. The name sounded familiar, and after a quick search I realized that TMBG is a very well-established rock band. They formed in 1982 as a duo, eventually expanded to a full band, and released 22 studio albums. I did not recognize a single song, but as I skimmed their catalog, I liked what I heard.

Even though TMBG was highly successful in the alt-rock scene, selling millions of records worldwide, they fell into a bit of a creative rut. Anyone in a creative role understands this! You feel like you hit a brick wall and the harder you try to make magic happen again the more painful it is. People have all sorts of ways to dig themselves out of a rut, and in the case of They Might Be Giants, they chose children’s music to get their creativity flowing again.

Lucky us, because it’s good stuff!

TMBG has now created 5 albums of fantastic family music. I love how much they incorporate science and math into their themes, often bluntly describing the reality in a fun way (“What is a Shooting Star” is a great example of this). When music is enjoyable and teaches my kids something new, and makes them dance their wiggles out, it’s a huge win.

My favorite song by far is “Clap Your Hands” which is lyrically so simple, but the instrumentation reminds me of Cake (the band) and I love Cake. As well as cake.

We also rock out to “I am a Paleontologist” which is an upbeat ska-influenced song all about…..being a paleontologist!

“It’s like pieces of a puzzle that I love to try and solve. It’s so fun to think about How a species has evolved.”

The other evening my husband and I were discussing how much we like the show Friends, and how we were going to watch the Reunion on HBO Max later that evening. My daughter asked us to tell her all about the show and describe the characters. When we got to Ross, we noted his profession as a Paleontologist and she said, “Like that song!”. We then proceeded to re-enact the “PIVOT” scene for her and we all had a chuckle.

We’re big dinosaur fans in our house. We often refer to my toddler son as a wild dinosaur child because he’s basically a velociraptor. He likes to make screechy sounds sometimes for a laugh, and also runs at very high speeds directly into people for ferocious hugs.

Here is a dinosaur face hug in action:

If you’re looking for bluntly educational, fun, upbeat, songs to add to your family playlist, try rocking out to They Might Be Giants.

Added to the Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2zSepKr6XwE6xrmknGW57i?si=UwPF1Bi_SOCveRfrXDyZDw&dl_branc

Thanks for reading!