The Jellydots begins with Doug Snyder. Doug grew up in the seventies and eighties in a small rural mountain town in New Mexico. He sang in local school choirs from age 6 to 13. At age 14 Doug began studying the guitar and by 17 was fronting his first band with a cover of “Just Like Heaven,” by the Cure.
Doug began giving guitar lessons in 1999, and by late 2001 had built up a large enough clientele to quit his day job as an academic advisor in the Department of English at the University of Texas at Austin. Since day one, many of his students have been kids aged 7 to 17. One of Doug’s specialties as a teacher is songwriting. He teaches kids how to write songs by co-writing songs with them. Mr. Cookie and Race Cars Go were both co-written by a then 7-year-old Sean DeVere.
By March 2002, it became clear that a CD of these collaborative songs was in order. Doug hot-rodded his cassette recorder 4-track, on the advice of Jim Wilson, and recorded all the songs at his home in Blanco, Texas for the Jellydots first album “Music is Cool.” A lovely CD release party was held at Austin’s The Hideout theatre space where a sold-out audience enjoyed performances of the songs featuring Doug and some of his students (Eliza Walton, Will Rice, Jason Callahan).
In 2003, a five piece version of the band featuring Shawn Jones (bass), Gray Parsons (drums), Karla Manzur (vocals, guitar), and Hollie Thomas (keys) rocked the crowd at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. In the Summer of 2004 the dots brought their poppy fun sound to the Kerrville Folk Festival for 2 packed performances. In the early Winter of 2004 Doug and Karla released “Sleepin’” a lullaby CD designed to help people of all ages sleep.
In June of 2006, The Jellydots featuring Shawn Jones (The Lovely Sparrows) and Gray Parsons (Chrisitan Hicks, Michelle Shocked) went into the studio and recorded “Hey You Kids!” The disc was released in the fall of 2006 to wide praise and excellent sales.
In December of that same year The Jellydots were mentioned on NPR's All Things Considered. What followed was a landslide of interest in the band.
In May of 2008, the Dots released "Changing Skies" on Atlanta's Pokey Pup Records. This album was geared toward older kids.
Summer 2009 promises a new release entitled "Jelly Jukebox" on which The Jellydots will tackle soul, rap and reggae and a national release of "Sleepin"
The Jellydots have played the Austin City Limits festival twice, The Tricycle Music Festival, and numerous other shows around the country. They are a world-class band you can't afford to miss.
Now go get on your bike. You look like you could use some fresh air.
Booking:
Contact our agent at
thejellydots@gmail.com
The Jellydots have just finished a 12 song album called Changing Skies.
You can listen to the whole thing and buy it here:
CD Baby
Changing Skies Deluxe edition digital release plus extras! Exclusively at The Pokey Pup:
Reviews for Changing Skies
Zooglobble:
In the comparatively small world of kids music, I'm not sure there's been an album that has shook up the genre recently as much as the Jellydots' debut CD Hey You Kids!. At time it rocked, other times it was gently sweet, but it seemed to resonate with parents who might never have given the genre a second thought.
So how exactly does one follow up such a standout release? You pretty much have two choices -- follow the template exactly, or throw away the mold. For Doug Snyder, chief Jellydot, the answer was more the latter than the former and you can hear the results on Changing Skies, the followup CD currently available in digital formats and available on physical CDs in the not-too-distant future for old fogeys like me.
How is it different? Well, the primary difference is that the subject matter is definitely geared towards older kids. It's not that Hey You Kids! was necessarily a perfect album for a 3-year-old -- it was definitely more for 6-year-olds and older. But songs about dropped cookies and going to camp, and treating each other with respect were definitely for kids. On the new album, though, Snyder often writes songs about 14-year-olds, or even their older siblings. "Remember Me" is a beautiful song which conjures up every memory you never had about a tenth-grade romance with a girl who moved away. "Art School Girl" is a dryly humorous reggae-tinged track about a young woman who moves away from Austin because she thinks life will be more exciting elsewhere and ends up working in Starbucks. Your 3-year-old might bop her head to the tune, but won't really care about the lyrics.
The album isn't totally a missing My So-Called Life soundtrack -- "Big Swingset," for example, is about, well, a swingset and moves briskly in 7/4 time (a meter which, I assure you, is not found on most pop-rock albums), while "Sad Robot" is a slower track about a robot who'd much rather be zooming through space. And for those of you who loved the lullabies at the end of the first CD, Snyder doesn't disappoint here, either -- "When You Were Born" and "Pretty Little Baby" evoke Paul Simon and Elliott Smith in tenderness. So, yeah, there are some songs for the youngsters, but the overall vibe is for kids older than them.
I'm going to peg the primary audience here at ages 9 and up. You can listen to samples and purchase the CD at CDBaby or hear a couple songs at the Jellydots' Myspace page. (Order it at iTunes here.)
In its own way, Changing Skies an experiment in creating a different path for family music, one that attempts to include all family members in the musical journey. Dan Zanes has blazed this trail most successfully, but with this album, deliberately or not, Doug Snyder is seeing whether or not a more rock-based approach might also work. I'm not sure everybody in a family will like all the tracks equally, but I'm pretty sure at least somebody will like each track in turn. And I definitely think the adults who liked Hey You Kids! will like this new one, too. Recommended.
Here's 2006's breakout hit:
"Hey You Kids!" at The Pokey Pup
Here's an album I did in 2000:
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The reviews are on their way/they've got lots to say.
Reviews for "Hey You Kids!: (2006)
The Austin Chronicle
When Austinite Doug Snyder's young guitar students didn't want to play the standards, he wrote songs with them instead. "Race Cars Go" and "Bicycle" are straight-ahead rock, the latter an ebullient power-pop anthem that's as fun as playing hooky on a sunny day. The rest of Hey You Kids! tries on different modes – "Mr. Cookie" is slinky ska, embellished with kazoo and toy piano, while "Lake Rules" champions outdoor play with reggae – so it doesn't feel quite organically whole, but it follows the appropriate kids-album trajectory: transitioning gradually toward bedtime songs. Of these, the closer, "My Blanket," is as tender and sincere as anything in mom's Elliott Smith collection, an influence Snyder wears proudly in his songwriting and whispery voice. From the deceptively simple animal paean "Ralph the Cat" emerges a heartbreaking bridge: "I wish you could stay small forever, but everything must grow." This is way beyond Kid Rhino. (Saturday, March 17, Town Lake Stage @ Auditorium Shores, 1:15pm)
+three stars+
We made 7 in the
Fids and Kamily Poll's Top 16 Albums of 2006
"7: Hey You Kids! - The Jellydots
No album this year had a better opening song than Hey You Kids! from the Austin, Texas-based Jellydots. “Bicycle,” evoking the joy of being on a bike, whether you’re a kid or a grownup, is simply an exquisite song from start to finish. And who hasn’t wanted to ride a bicycle on the sea or in the sky? "
Zooglobble:
".Hey You Kids! is a fine showcase for Doug Snyder's abundant songwriting skills and voice and the adept musicianship of the trio. If you have any affinity for power-pop and indie-pop, you need to check out this album. It's too good to let Austin have all the fun."
Children's Music That Rocks
“.A band so good it's a shame they're not pop stars, but, luckily for kids' music fans, are guaranteed to be h-u-g-e within the next year. If you need a musical peg upon which to hang this unique hat, think Jason Falkner playing Schoolhouse Rock songs with Elliot Smith's writing help.”
Parent: Wise Austin Magazine
“.The Jellydots’ musical style is similar to They Might be Giants—fun and upbeat with odd but interesting lyrics. We can’t wait to see the dance/exercise video that the band plans to release to accompany this CD.”
For full text of reviews click on the above links.
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