biographical info
SLATE:
Composing children's music is tricky stuff. It's hard enough to come up with a song that kids will like, but you also have to make sure it won't drive their parents bats. The Vancouver band Duplex! solves this problem by bridging the generation gap: Five of them are in their 20s or 30s, but they also include an 11-year-old, a 12-year-old, and a 3-year-old (the xylophonist Abe Caruso). Everybody writes songs and sings on their debut, Ablum (it rhymes with "pablum")—that's leader Veda Hille crooning "Mr. Slim," an ode to an itinerant neighborhood kitty—and the results are sweet, daffy, and utterly charming. If younger listeners don't quite get why it's funny that "Yr Mama" includes a bit that goes "gabba gabba, we accept you, we accept you, one of us," or why their parents are getting wistful over a cover of Schoolhouse Rock's "Figure 8," well, grown-ups are entitled to a few mysteries.
lineup
Saoirse Soley age 11: elec. gtr, organ, nose trumpet, kielbasa
Abe Caruso age 3: xylophone, harmonica, rattles
Annie Wilkinson age 37: bass, Barry's Melodica
Justin Kellam age 32: drums, percussion. dog
Matt Caruso age 35: guitar, mandolin, fake marimba
Shaun Brodie age 25: trumpet, euphonium, tambourine
Sierra Terhoch age 11: piano, fake strings, maracas
Veda Hille age 35: piano, organ, casio, fake choir, gtr