BARNEY AND RAFFI, BEGONE!

KIDS JUST WANNA ROCK TO THE

PLAYFUL HEAVY METAL OF

THE THUNDERLORDS

 

Parents and Heavy Metal Fans Across America

Are Embracing Band's Debut CD ‘Noisy Songs for

Noisy Kids,' The First Kid's Metal Band

 

Blend of Supercharged Originals, Adaptations of

Classic Kiddie Songs and Classic Metal Tunes With

New Arrangements and Lyrics Comes With the Warning:

“Do Not Play At Naptime!”

 

Get lost, Raffi! Take a hike, Barney! Go plant a new crop, Veggie Tales! Tykes from ages 5-10 and up across America are having a helluva lot more fun rocking and rolling to Noisy Songs For Noisy Kids , the revolutionary debut CD by The Thunderlords—the world's first Kid's Metal Band. The brainchild of Alan Flores, a veteran punk and metal guitarist, bassist, writer, producer and, perhaps most importantly, devoted parent of two children, The Thunderlords play loud, heavy music with goofy, fun lyrics that everyone can enjoy…except maybe for those looking for peace and quiet.

Already a cult favorite with fans of classic heavy metal who are raising little future rockers of their own, Noisy Songs for Noisy Kids has spawned two satellite radio hits which are currently being played on the XM Radio Station XM Kids. “I Like Dirt” (an ode to kids getting dirty, taking a bath, and getting dirty again) and “Ice Cream Headache” (which warns not to eat too much or too fast) are also available for digital download on Apple itunes, Sony Connect and other internet outlets. “I Like Dirt” will also be featured in the video game “Tony Hawk's American Wasteland,” available for the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube on Oct. 18

Flores, who actually had the help of his five-year-old daughter Maya in writing the clever “Song About Nothing,” sets the first time listener up with a powerful challenge. “What would happen,” he asks, “if The Wiggles met Rob Zombie backstage at a Gwar concert and decided to form a band together?”

The best answers come from some of the parents who have been raving about how these nine quick, in your face, to the point tunes (all under two minutes, some less than one) are changing their lives and listening habits, and more importantly, those of their offspring. “Absolutely the heaviest, coolest and funniest metal kids band EVER!” enthuses MetalBabies (a website where you can buy metal clothes for your toddler).

“It's Puffenstuff meets GWAR! It's Clifford the Big Red dog on twenty chocolate bars!” Christy – Mother of 4 says, “We Love Dirt Too! ‘I Like Dirt' makes us think of our 2 year old. You must know him very well! Thank you for bringing some fun into our lives! Since finding you, Dad says ‘I Like Dirt!' probably 3 times a day.”

Another Metal Mom adds, “We love this CD, our one year old thinks it ROCKS! She starts dancing every time we play it. If we play it while she is eating she dances so hard that her highchair moves across the kitchen, and she's grinning the whole time.” There are scores of other fan reviews, but the following epitomizes the vibe that Flores—who appears with Maya on the album cover wearing Viking garb, in deference to “Table Manners For Vikings”—is aiming for:

“We have had trouble finding 'heavier' music for kids. I am a teacher's aide and one student really finds metal music soothing - but the challenge was finding appropriate metal music for a 5 year old. This CD was all we were looking for and more. It is fun, hilarious, and loud. Exactly what he likes. The other students enjoy it just as much. All the songs are written for children just twisted with metal music for a very unique style of children's music.”

From the late 80s through the 90s, Flores was a member of three successful (and very loud and aggressive) Los Angeles based bands, Guttersnipe (a thrash punk group that opened for Angry Samoans and recorded a 7” single called “Train Wreck in the Discotheque”), the metal-flavored Superhate and Half Eaten, a Morphine styled post punk/alt rock outfit featuring a female vocalist. The Thunderlords project was a way of reconciling this hardcore past—which included an intense appreciation for GWAR, the heavily costumed band who would splatter their audience in blood--with his parental responsibilities towards Maya and two year old Diego.

“The funny part of this is, from S.O.D.'s ‘Milk' to ‘I Like Food' by The Descendants and anything by The Dickies, a lot of old hardcore punk and metal bands did goofy, childish songs,” he says. “The only problem is, you wouldn't want your kids listening to it because of the language. And I know a lot of parents are annoyed by the sappy, patronizing nature of so much of what passes for children's music today. The idea of GWAR for Kids was born out of that growing frustration. There wasn't anything in the middle that young folks could enjoy and that wouldn't make their parents cringe. I wanted to make The Thunderlords a real metal band, only with silly lyrics that would be appropriate for all ages.

“Part of the vision involves big costume shows, with me getting out there in my Viking suit and performing live,” adds Flores, who plans to tour after completing The Thunderlords' follow-up project. “When I started writing these songs, I got in the mindset I remember being in when I was 18 and composing my first thrash punk tunes. But it was even more liberating because I could be even sillier with the lyrics. I designed Noisy Songs For Noisy Kids so that there would be a mix of metal versions of familiar kids songs, some original material and kids versions of more familiar metal songs. I like the element of surprise, which works well with little ones, too. The first song ‘Old Man Olaf,' based on ‘Old MacDonald,' has the Metallica vibe, starting slow in a classical vein before exploding into something heavy. When a notion for a song came to me, my only criteria was, what would kids like?”

Flores didn't have to go far for an immediate seal of approval from the two children he cares most about, Maya and Diego. When he played ‘Eat Vegetables' and ‘I Like Dirt' for them, Maya asked him to play them over and over. Diego banged his head to indicate that he liked the songs, and got mad when daddy shut them off. Then, in a true grass-roots market-testing move, Flores gave copies to a bunch of his friends who were parents of young children.

“Some were offended and didn't want their kids to hear it, but others got back to me and told me that their kids, including boys 12 and older, were listening to the songs nonstop and wanted to hear more!” Flores says. “I knew I was onto something. Then I went online and discovered a whole subculture of people who bought metal and punk T-shirts for their kids, along with other hybrid accessories like pacifiers with buck teeth and bibs with funny sayings on them.