Your Thoughts: The Muppets Green Album

[Drtooth]

I've tried listening to it for a third time...I just really do not like it at all. And I'm a huge music fan. And major props for mentioning They Might Be Giants!
OK Go, while I'm not into their sound, at least fits with the zanyness.
Most the bands listed are from the Blink 182 period, who even listens to that stuff? They might as well have put Bush, Silverchair, Limp Bizkit and Stone Temple Pilots on there.

Here's a list of bands I think would have been a million times more fitting:

Florence and the Machine
The B-52's
Devo
David Byrne
LCD Soundsystem
They Might Be Giants
MGMT
She And Him(Zoey Deschenel)
Katy Perry(hey, why not?)
Gorillaz
Bloc Party
Empire of the Sun
Justice
Two Door Cinema
The National
Arctic Monkeys
Mumford and Sons
The Decemberists
Silversun Pickups
Interpol
Editors
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Amanda Palmer
Franz Ferdinand
The Black Keys
Muse
Arcade Fire
Flaming Lips

Half these bands I don't even listen too, but I *know* music. This album would be selling like hot cakes if any number of these bands were on it.

Man... B52's covering the Muppet Show theme...

"IT'S TIME ...TO... MEET... THE.. MUPPETS... On THE MUPPET SHOW...TONI-I-I-I-IGHT!" (how do you type it to look like Fred's saying it?)

Yeah, I mean these bands are okay and all, but I wonder what other covers could have sounded like. Of course, there are worse bands and single musicians I could think of to cover anything. But if another Muppet cover happens, we need TMBG on it. Or even get the Barenaked Ladies back. They did a great job with La La La La Lemon...

 

[Phillip]

Read a fan's perspective on "Muppets: The Green Album" in DW McKim's review of the latest Muppet CD. Let us know your thoughts.

 

[beaker]

@Dr Tooth: Yeah there's still a lot of "comedic" type bands...or at least bands that dont take themselves too seriously besides Ok Go and Weezer. As mentioned They Might Be Giants, Barenaked Ladies, Bloodhound Gang, etc.

My theory is that Disney reps were pulling favors rather than thinking outside the box to what 1) would be a good fit 2) actually SELL and get people excited. Kids these days(not including fans of hot topic emo screamo or perry gaga bieber pop) want music with more substance than what people demanded in the 1990's and early 2000's. I go to big outdoor festivals, shows, etc. and I can't see how too many people could get excited over this cd outside of simply the Muppet brand stamped on it.

 

[quix]

So, I have to admit that while I'm a big Muppets fan, I don't have anything near the depth and breadth of knowledge that a lot of you guys have. As has been pointed out both here and in dwmckim's review there are a lot of wonderful covers of Muppet's songs already out there, so I was wondering (and perhaps this should be moved to a new topic, but) what are your favorite covers of Muppet songs? dwmckim mentioned Cake's 'Mahna Mahna' for example and Ray Charles 'It's Not Easy Bein' Green'. So, if you were to build your own Muppets cover album, what would be on it?

Thanks!

 

[Drtooth]

I couldnt agree more. If the point was to reintroduce classic songs of TMS/Emmet Otter/Muppet movies to new people, why use dated alt rock bands? They shoulda just rereleased the Muppets Magic and More album from 2002, an amazing cd that could have been expanded into a 2 cd or something.

@Dr Tooth: Yeah there's still a lot of "comedic" type bands...or at least bands that dont take themselves too seriously besides Ok Go and Weezer. As mentioned They Might Be Giants, Barenaked Ladies, Bloodhound Gang, etc.

That said, the date4ness of the bands is probably due in part that this CD was supposed to come out 2 years ago.

I'm 50/50 with cartoon/entertainment covers. I have that old Saturday Morning Cartoon's Greatest hits compilation from the 90's... some of the songs are really good, some are ehh. I wish they had a 1980's counterpart. I was a little disappointed by, but I still enjoyed Weird Al's cover of George of the Jungle (I expected it to be a song parody or a polka version or something...)

My favorite cartoon theme song cover band I can't even buy the CD's of...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSor0z9afUs

Sigh... half the stuff they do is only something I could appreciate anyway...

I'd love to hear an Animetal style cover of Muppet and Sesame Songs.

 

[frogboy4]

I couldnt agree more. If the point was to reintroduce classic songs of TMS/Emmet Otter/Muppet movies to new people, why use dated alt rock bands? They shoulda just rereleased the Muppets Magic and More album from 2002, an amazing cd that could have been expanded into a 2 cd or something.

@Dr Tooth: Yeah there's still a lot of "comedic" type bands...or at least bands that dont take themselves too seriously besides Ok Go and Weezer. As mentioned They Might Be Giants, Barenaked Ladies, Bloodhound Gang, etc.

My theory is that Disney reps were pulling favors rather than thinking outside the box to what 1) would be a good fit 2) actually SELL and get people excited. Kids these days(not including fans of hot topic emo screamo or perry gaga bieber pop) want music with more substance than what people demanded in the 1990's and early 2000's. I go to big outdoor festivals, shows, etc. and I can't see how too many people could get excited over this cd outside of simply the Muppet brand stamped on it.

I think this a fantastic and eclectic assortment of bands that seemed very interested in making Muppets music. OK Go has been one of my favorite bands for like 7 years now. I find They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies to be too on-the-nose for a project like this. I'd actually find their inclusion to be kind of icky and trying too hard. They're more suited to Sesame IMHO. Obviously there are some strong reactions to this and everybody has a different idea of who should have recorded what and how this could have been made better, but it's doing very well on its own. It's the right mix for this venture. To each their own taste. This album is trying to reach out to just the right market...and the numbers reflect that it IS doing just that at the moment. Maybe some sort of follow-up will have more in it for some fans.

By the way, unless you are intent on giving Apple your hard-earned money, buy this on Amazon for $2 cheaper. Itunes doesn't give you anything extra other than a lighter wallet this time out.

 

[Muppetfan44]

I admit that I had my doubts about this album but after listening to it a couple of times I really enjoy it. The only thing I really don't like is the background music chosen for Halfway Down the Stairs. Amy Lee is fantastic but that robotic/techno junk in the background makes it seem like she's on an acid trip or something and really doesn't do anything for the song.

I plan to write a comprehensive review of the album and post it somewhere in the next few days, will post the link

 

[Muppetfan44]

I will say this though, with the artists on the album and the variations of the songs, fans are either going to love or hate this album but it seems like more people are on the love side and many people who are huge fans of the artists and not fans of the muppets really seem to like the new songs so that's a plus.

 

[CalciferBoheme]

So Arcade Fire, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs/Karen O, James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem, MGMT, Vampire Weekend, Empire of the Sun, Flaming Lips, Phoenix, Mumford and Suns, Beirut, The Decemberists, Silversun Pickups, Animal Collective, etc were busy?

I guess I'm just don't see the 90's mall pop punk sound reflective of today's best artists.
Most these are dated sounding bands Hot Topic tweens were big into a decade ago. I actually cringed listening to "Movin Right Along", which is by far my favorite all time Muppet song.

I like a decent number of the artists on the album... But I would lose my mind if the ones you named had been on here. The possibilities are so endless... how can we make this happen?

 

[dwmckim]

A good first step would be to buy the album and allow the possibility of a follow-up to happen.