New Project From The Apples In Stereo's Robert Schneider

by Robin Hilton

File this under "One We Missed." I was searching my backlog of emails today and came across a note about a new project from Apples In Stereo frontman Robert Schneider. It was dated Feb. 20. Doh!

It turns out that Schneider has a new album out under the name Robert Bobbert and The Bubble Machine. It's an appropriately cutesy moniker for an artist who's always had a healthy sense of play in his music. But in this case, it's particularly appropriate, because it's a project devoted entirely to music for kids.

"We R Super Heroes" from Robert Bobbert and The Bubble Machine (right-click or ctrl-click on 'download' image)

The new self-titled album from Robert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine isn't the first time Schneider has composed children's music. In 2007, he scored a cartoon short for Disney titled Flip-Flopped.

Robert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine is out on the Little Monster label. As his official album description puts it, "Robert Bobbert [is] a genius inventor of musical mayhem, [who] performs songs from his Beach Boys-inspired indie-rock songbook, whilst entertaining the masses."

It's really hard to find great music for kids. So much of it is madness-inducing to most parents, with never-ending rounds and squeaky voices. So it's very cool to see an artist like Schneider, who's a parent himself, take on the challenge. From what I've heard of the new music, he's managed to pull it off with a collection of upbeat songs that have infectious melodies and enough repetition to stick in kids' minds without parents losing theirs.

5:49 PM ET | 05- 1-2009 | permalink

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