My four-year old daughter is very aware of her father's obsessions.  She drew this for me at her daycare: an "I love you, Daddy" note with an album in the center.  This will find permanence on some wall in my record room. Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

My daughter is full of brain teasers. My wife and I were flung deeply into one not too long ago while my daughter was making a song request. A few weeks ago, my family and I drove to Cape May, New Jersey for a long weekend away. While my daughter napped, I managed to exercise some authority over the CD player and brandished my road weapon of choice: Rumble! The Best Of Link Wray . At some point while I was playing the CD, my daughter woke up. I expected to be ordered immediately to put something else on, but she listened and found some songs she really liked. But, Link Wray is best known for instrumentals, so the benefit of having words to cling to in case you need to explain what you want isn’t an option if you don't know a song's title, or you can capably belt out the tune. One song in particular she wanted to hear a lot and, before we figured it out, she referred to it as “Deppa, Deppa, Deppa.” Granted just skipping through the CD was all we had to do to find ...

Heard tUnE-yArDs yet? This morning my daughter, setting her spoon back into her bowl of Cocoa Krispies, walked up to me, climbed on the sofa and inched her head over to my laptop so she could view the screen.  Then she asked me to play her a song. "Which song?" She pondered for a second and then answered, "Oh...  Well, wast night I saw sumfing cool." "Yeah, and what was that?" "Yeah, with the kids in cwass woom and the dancing." She's had me play this video at least four times since last night. No Ripcord's Andrew Baer just posted a review for tUnE-yArDs new album, w h o k i l l .  You can find that here . Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

This weekend’s picks are such... Sunday morning, Feb. 21: Seu Jorge - The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions The folk isn’t happening with my daughter just yet. Absence of percussion or any sort of available rhythm seems to bore and confuse her. And though this album of Portuguese David Bowie covers is something I enjoy, within five seconds of “Rebel Rebel” she was back with... Jane’s Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual Before everyone gets all “child protective services” on my ass, I own the copy with the censored cover and, thusly, my daughter’s first exposure to the first amendment will have been from Jane’s Addiction . Thank you, PMRC. It wouldn’t have bothered her anyway. She would’ve pointed at the three naked statues and said, “boobies.” It would’ve been very matter-of-fact, with little damage involved. “Stop” inspired my wife and I to dance around with her. “Been Caught Stealing,” with its barking beginnings had her going, “Doggies...ruff, ruff.” Once the dance party was over...

Some may find this cute, and others stupid. Whatever... I think it's kind of cool. Lately, my daughter's grown somewhat of a fascination with my CD library, so much so that she's been routinely offering me CDs to play while asking, "Listen? Listen?" Understandably, as she picks at random, most of what I play holds her interest for 30 seconds before she's onto the next thing. As this is has been a constant for the last couple weeks, I'm going to list her picks for the week. Think of it as my Zappa / Moon "Valley Girl" collaboration series. Sunday morning, Feb. 14: Fu-Schnickens - Greatest Hits "La Schmooze" and "Ring The Alarm" amused her enough. She even danced a little bit, though, it was the jewel case that interested her most of all. I think the yellow cover caught her eye as she seemed to pick this one out twice in two weeks. Various Artists - No New York When she brought this to me I said, "Nah... you'r...