Flannery Brothers

Nominate "Love Songs for Silly Things" for Best Kids' Album!

2010-06-03T14:54:00.001-04:00

Hello Flanclub,

It's rare that we send out mass e-mails, but this is too cool!

Around this time last year, we counted on you to vote for us in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, and with your overwhelming support we were able to pull of a big win.

Now, "Love Songs for Silly Things" is up for Best Kids' Album on Nickelodeon's Parents Connect Website, and we need your help again.

Visit:

http://www.parentsconnect.com/parents-picks/best-parents-picks-kids-music-cd?xrs=pp10-social-badge-parents-picks-kids-music-cd-PRODUCT-flannery-brothers&hl=flannery-brothers#flannery-brothers

Please take the time to register (it's easy!), and you can vote every day for the next two weeks.

We aren't as big as some of the acts on there, but we've got a lot of heart. If you vote often I think we might have a chance.

Thank you so much for your time and support.

Mike and Dan

Rivers' Family Meltdown and Chicago-Sun Times!

2010-03-31T08:51:00.001-04:00

We played at the River's Family Meltdown last weekend in Massachusetts.
Here's what Jeff Giles from Dadnabbit.com had to say:

The Flannery Brothers, who ended up with the somewhat thankless task of playing “The Lounge Stage” at 3 PM, but turned lemons into lemonade by working the crowd like they were playing Madison Square Garden. Dressed in bright colors and wedged into that tiny space, the Flannery Brothers proved they aren’t just a lot of fun on CD, but they’re an impressively tight live act, delivering note-perfect renditions of tracks like “Rutabaga” and “Best Pillow in the World” that brought an ear-to-ear grin to my tired face and reduced my daughter to giggling fits. (At one point, singer/tambourine rocker Dan Flannery sashayed down the gym mats and into the hall, prompting her to shout “He’s leaving!” in hysterics.) It was, in a word, marvelous, and I only hope the Flannerys end up on the main stage next year, because they’re stars just waiting to be connected with their audience.

Read the whole article here @http://dadnabbit.com/meltdown-2010-looking-back/

Thanks for the great write-up Jeff!

Also, The Chicago Sun-Times picked up a review of "Move Over Lullabies... It's Time for Wake-Up Songs" written by Kimberly over at SheScribes.com. How cool!

In other news, we are working really hard on our next album! They are my favorite songs yet!

Broccoli & Rock n' Roll,

- Dan

The Reviews are in for "Wake-Up Songs!"

2010-03-26T18:36:00.002-04:00

Boston Children's Music!

Dadnabbit!

Babies Gotta Have It!

Be sure to pick up the album in our new store @ http://www.flannerybrothers.com!

Flannery Brothers win in the 2009 Boston Children's Music Awards

2010-01-15T13:44:00.003-05:00

The Flannery Brothers were awarded Best Kids' Album in the 2009 Boston Children's Music Awards for "Love Songs for Silly Things." We also won in the "Best Live Performance" category! Very excited to be a part of the award program's first year.

Visit http://www.bostonchildrensmusic.com to read the review and see the other winners!

"To Be A Tree" now available on iTunes

2009-11-21T14:39:00.004-05:00

Our song, "To Be A Tree" is now up on iTunes.

Get your copy here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/to-be-tree/id340087889

Enjoy!

-The Flannery Brothers

Flannery Brothers win a MOM'S BEST AWARD

2009-11-19T13:23:00.006-05:00

Our debut album, "Love Songs for Silly Things" just received a 2009 Mom's Best Award. Thank you to all of the reviewers, we are very excited!

Review:
'Love Songs for Silly Things' CD is comprised of catchy tunes written, recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by The Flannery Brothers. Topics cover things that apply to everyday life to increase children’s engagement and curiosity with the world around them. Tracks like 'Broccoli Yet,’ ‘Best Pillow in the World’ and ‘Rutabaga’ deal with subjects that people of all ages can relate to. Kids love to listen to the album on repeat, making long car rides easier and more enjoyable. To date, there has been an overwhelming positive response from children, parents, and teachers across the state of Maine where the Flannery Brothers are based.

“I think this product was great! It had my son dancing around.”

“When I played this CD in the car my daughter was dancing in her seat!”

“This CD was easier to listen to and more entertaining than other children’s CD’s I own.”

Visit http://www.momsbestaward.com/winnersSummer09.php to check out all of this year's winners!

New Flannery Brothers Review and Give Away!

2009-11-10T23:30:00.000-05:00

Visit Babies Gotta Have It for your chance to win "Love Songs for Silly Things"

Thanks for the great review Wendy!

http://babiesgottahaveit.com/?p=1453

Flannery Brothers CD Giveaway!

2009-10-23T23:16:00.001-04:00

The blog, Gidget Goes Home has a new review up of "Love Songs for Silly Things" and they are running a CD giveaway too!

Take a look @ http://gidgetgoeshome.com/

Also, there is a new download page on our website where we have our own song giveaway including a new track about Autumn that isn't on the CD.

Visit our homepage, http://flannerybrothers.com and click on the Maracas!

Enjoy!

Flannery Brothers Interview - BostonChildrensMusic.com

2009-10-15T16:33:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Amber from Boston Children's Music for the interview!

Flannery Brothers Interview

by AMBER on OCTOBER 15, 2009

in INTERVIEWS

Mike, Dan, & Jonathan dressed up as vegetables.

Playing music for kids is a completely different experience than playing music for adults. Kids are “honest,” says Mike Flannery. They don’t care how many awards you’ve won or what the reviews say about you. They just want you to rock.

And The Flannery Brothers, a kids’ band based in Bangor, Maine, and comprised of Dan and Mike Flannery, certainly do rock (even when they’re dressed up as vegetables). Their debut album, Love Songs for Silly Things, is one of the best we’ve heard this year.

So of course I was thrilled when they played a free show at our local library and I got the chance to sit down with them and ask them a few questions…

Boston Children’s Music: We love the Rutabaga song and I thought it would be fun to cook rutabaga for dinner, but I have no idea what to do with them. Do you actually eat them? How do you cook them?

Dan: Rutabaga’s in the store are big ugly things because they chop the really beautiful green parts off and then they cover them in wax, so nobody wants to eat them. But rutabagas at the farm come with a huge luscious green top and aren’t covered in wax. I actually didn’t think of the wax version when I wrote the song. I do eat them a lot in the fall and winter because they’re root vegetables and store well. I put them in stew with other root vegetables.

Mike: Actually, if you roast them, they caramelize a little bit, which is really nice.

Dan: The best way to see a rutabaga is at the farm. And they’re a fall vegetable so they’d be available now.

BCM: OK. So how do you make Dilly Beans?

Mike: Well, it’s a Maine delicacy…

Dan: It’s not necessarily Maine specific.

Mike: I never met a dilly bean before I moved to Maine.

Dan: My first one was in Connecticut.

Mike: They’re string beans that are treated sort of like pickles, but there’s a higher garlic content.

BCM: So you can buy them at the store?

Dan: Well, the right store. And at the bottom of the dilly bean jar in the brine they’ll put hot peppers and garlic and other spices so they have a little kick to them.

Mike: They’re really good. They’re crunchy.

Dan: When I moved to Maine, I rode my bicycle from New York city to Maine to make the decision to move there…

BCM: Wait, you rode your bike from New York to Maine?

Dan: I did.

Mike: To Bangor Maine, which is up there.

[My] overall goal is just to increase children’s level of engagement and curiosity with the world around them…. I sing about being a person.
-Dan Flannery

Dan: On the way I camped in Connecticut and there was a group of old folks camping in the lot next to me. They saw me roll in on my bike and I was exhausted so they invited me over for dinner.

They told me they have a canning party every year and pickle tons and tons of dilly beans and they gave me a jar. And I was so amazed by them and said, “I am going to show these to Mike.”

So I tried to ride to Maine with them, but by the time I got there I think there were only three beans left, because they are that good.

BCM: How long have you guys been playing music together?

Mike: Twenty-two, twenty-three years?

Dan: I was four and you were eight.

Mike: So we started playing approximately twenty-two years ago.

BCM: Was that music any good?

Dan: Well, for four and eight, yeah, it was pretty good.

Mike: As the Flannery Brothers we’re coming up on about a year of live shows.

BCM: Is there any sibling rivalry?

Dan: I don’t think so. There’s sibling constructive criticism.

Mike: It’s actually been a really good process. We’ve been working together for a couple years and we act less like siblings and more like friends now.

Dan: We’re actually really on the same wave length. We say the same things at the same time a lot and that really helps when playing music. Sometimes I get things wrong, like today I switched verses in a song, but Mike just sang along. He got it. He knew what was going on.

Mike: And we collaborated on all the songs on the album. Dan and I just sat in my studio in Bangor and hashed out every note in every song.

BCM: Love Songs for Silly Things has won a lot of awards. Are you handling the promotion of the CD yourself?

Mike: Dan is a promoting machine.

Dan: It’s tough. I do all the graphic design and I learned how to program websites just to make our website, which is sculpted entirely out of clay. I also do all the artwork and marketing. It’s all do-it-yourself. I made the shirts, too. But it’s really rewarding.

BCM: The children’s music market is so big right now. Can it be hard to get your music heard?

Dan: In Maine, that’s not the case. So we’re actually very lucky to be in Maine. There isn’t a lot of competition. But reaching out past Maine has been difficult.

Mike: We got a lot of news coverage during the John Lennon Songwriting Contest because we needed to drum up votes. We were on the local Bangor news four or five times during the course of the contest. We’ve been in all the papers.

Dan: It’s definitely worked to our advantage to be in Maine.

BCM: What’s the best thing about performing for kids?

Mike: They’re honest.

BCM: Is that good or bad?

Mike: It’s great. You know if something is working.

Dan: …or not.

Mike: But most of the time what we do works. And we never come with a set list, because you never know what the energy level is going to be.

So if it’s time to get moving, we’ll play Jump Up and Down, if it’s time to calm down we’ll playBroccoli Yet. There’s a lot of back and forth. It’s not like at a rock show where you play at the audience, we’re playing with the audience.

Dan: And kids dance. There’s a lot of dancing.

BCM: Do you have an overall message you try to get across through your music?

Dan: I think the overall goal is just to increase children’s level of engagement and curiosity with the world around them.

Mike: When we go to write a song it’s always about something that gets us excited.

Dan: My rule is that if it doesn’t apply to me as an adult, then I won’t write about it for kids. I think there’s an inherent dishonesty in that. I don’t ride the school bus, for example, so I won’t write about missing the bus. I sing about being a person.

BCM: Any plans for new projects?

Dan: We’re developing a new website called makeupsongs.com where kids send in their song ideas and then we’ll take those topics and develop video shorts online where we explore those subject matters and then write a song about it.

So if a kid wants to hear a song about popcorn, then Mike might go to a farm and talk to the farmer to learn how corn becomes popcorn, and Jonathan, our drummer, will go to the movie theatre and eat ten huge boxes of popcorn and totally immerse himself in the world of popcorn.

We want to have as much of a collaboration as possible with our audience.

Mike: And we’ve already started working on another CD.

Dan: I’ve also written some songs for an EP called Move Over Lullabies, It’s Time for the Wakeup Songs. It’ll be four or five songs designed to get you up in the morning.

BCM: Sounds like you’ve got a lot of new things planned, but they all work together. Do you think you have a defining style? How would you define your music style?

Mike: Fun.

Dan: We’ve been called the Grateful Dead for little kids. I think the band’s writing style is very Harry-Nilsson-like. I also get a lot of inspiration from Jonathan Richman.

Mike: Oh yeah! Jonathan Richman!

Dan: I’d say that if we had to define ourselves, we’re “Jonathan Richman approved fun rock and roll for kids.”

Mike: But we don’t know if he’d approve.

Dan: He does.

Mike: Okay.

Dan: I’ve seen him play before. He approves.

The Flannery Brothers are playing at Halloween Town Boston on Saturday, October 24th at 11:30 and 2:30 (on the Library Stage). Don’t miss it!

You can learn more about The Flannery Brothers shows and CDs by visiting their website: www.FlanneryBrothers.com.

Review Round-Up

2009-10-13T17:30:00.001-04:00

"Love Songs for Silly Things" is getting great reviews.

Follow the links below to check some of them out.

Parents' Choice Award

Monkeytail & Wellington

Dadnabbit

Chic Mom Magazine

The Bangor Daily News

Thanks to everyone who took the time to write about us! And thanks to the radio stations currently playing our songs:

XM Satellite - Kids' Place Live

Spare The Rock Spoil The Child

Gooney Birds Radio

WERU

Make Up Songs with The Flannery Brothers!

2009-10-09T21:13:00.001-04:00

If you have ever seen The Flannery Brothers play live, then you know that we love to make up songs. We've made up songs about trucks, worms, tomatoes, and strawberry juice to name a few. Your suggestions have been so great, that we've decided to launch a new website devoted entirely to your song ideas. E-mail us your song idea, and we might feature it in our new online web series all about songwriting.

E-mail your song ideas to makeupsongs@gmail.com.

Visit http://www.flannerybrothers.com/makeupsongs for more, including a free mp3 download of a brand new song.

"Love Songs for SIlly Things wins a Parent's Choice Award

2009-10-08T16:49:00.001-04:00

The Flannery Brothers' debut album, "Love Songs for Silly Things" has just received a Silver Honor in the 2009 Parent's Choice Awards!

A bit about the awards program:

Designed to help parents and caregivers of all achievements and backgrounds make informed decisions about which new products are right for their children, the Parents' Choice Awards is the nation's oldest nonprofit program created to recognize quality children's media. The Parents' Choice Awards program honors the best material for children: books, toys, music and storytelling, magazines, software, videogames, television and websites. Parents' Choice Foundation's panels of educators, scientists, performing artists, librarians, parents and, yes, kids themselves, identify the very best products for children of different ages and backgrounds, and of varied skill and interest levels.

What they had to say about our CD:

Strong vocals, harmonies, and instrumentation make Love Songs for Silly Things a CD worth listening. As the lyrics of the first track ask, "What does it take to make you shake?/ To make you dance?" With songs like "Best Pillow in the World," an upbeat and raucous tune, "Rutabaga," a snappy little doo-wop inspired song, "Broccoli Yet," a hopeful little number about that green vegetable that, in time, even your children may eat, and "Farmers Market," an a cappella story about riding your bike to the farmer's market, Love Songs for Silly Things is memorable, charming and fun.

If you still haven't purchased your copy of "Love Songs for Silly Things" you can get yours today at http://www.flannerybrothers.com or on iTunes.

The Flannery Brothers Win Grand Prize in John Lennon Songwriting Competition

2009-04-10T23:01:00.000-04:00

BANGOR — The Flannery Brothers of Bangor have won a grand prize in the children’s music category of the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Competition. It is the largest competition of its kind, and The Flannery Brothers’ song, “One Wasn’t Enough” was chosen from over 20,000 entries submitted from around the world.

As a grand prize winner, the song is now in the running for both the Lennon Award and the $20,000 Maxell Song of the Year. The Lennon Award is determined exclusively by popular vote.

Their debut album, “Love Songs for Silly Things” is still a work in progress, and the Flannery Brothers are just getting started as a touring act. Their competition is a well-known professional who has won numerous awards and was declared best children’s performer by New York Magazine in 2008.

Voting begins March 19 and continues until the end of April at http://www.jlsc.com/vote. Anyone can vote once a day, every day.

For more information about the Flannery Brothers, visit http://www.flannerybrothers.com. To hear the song and vote, please visit http://www.jlsc.com/vote.

The (big) kids are all right

2009-01-09T22:37:00.000-05:00

The Flannery Brothers are in the Bangor Daily News!! From the article:

Mike and Dan Flannery understand the concerns of the average first-grader. The Bangor-based brothers write songs for the kid with lots of things on his or her mind. Important things such as rutabagas, socks and pillows. The Flannery siblings have recorded several albums of music already, including their collaboration on “Mee Wee: Hip Hop For Kids” and Dan Flannery’s album “Show Me How You Dance,” a song from which, “The Crab Walk,” recently won a 2008 Children’s Music Web Award.

2008-11-01T22:25:00.000-04:00

The Flannery Brothers have won Best Song for School Age Children ages 5-12 from the Children's Music Web Awards!!

Listen to the Crab Walk here!!