Space Balloons
Welcome To Balloononia
2011
“Hey buddy, want to hear a song about mustaches?”
“Yeah.”
If you want a mustache you gotta take care of it…
That’s how it started. My five year old thought a song about feeding and reading to your mustache was funny. He liked it so much he made me play it over and over and over. I couldn’t even play the rest of the Space Balloons EP, Welcome To Balloononia, for him. He just wanted to listen to the song about the mustache.
Then he started singing it around the house.
I did eventually convince him to listen to “Grapes”. He liked it.
I had made it clear that we were going to listen to the whole record (all three songs clocking in at just over four minutes), so “The Tale Of The Space Balloons” came on next. Oh boy. This intergalactic tale of balloons, lagoons and monsoons captivated him. I can’t even tell you how many times we listened to this song.* I have video of him singing this song in the car. If my son was a member of The Recording Academy, “The Tale Of The Space Balloons” would win the 2011 Grammy for Record Of The Year.**
Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola, who also happen to be Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (who sound nothing like Space Balloons) and integral parts of about a billion other projects (which vary in their degrees of Space Balloons similarity), seem to be onto something here. The kids dig it.
Where to get it:
* Well, actually, thanks to the wonders of the iTunes play count, I could tell you. Truth be told, I’m afraid to look.
** I predict “The Tale Of The Space Balloons” is a better song that whatever wins the actual award.