An enchanting mix of stark yet meandering dream pop that traverses indie rock territory akin to '90s Australian AM radio – not to mention the sexy, slinky sax riffage interspersed throughout (courtesy of Hugo Lee), The Money War's second single of 2021 is 'Miles Away'.
The wife-husband duo of Carmen and Dylan Ollivierre, 2020 saw the pair release their sophomore album ('Morning People'), sign a global publishing deal with Mirror Music / BGM and have a baby."'Miles Away' is about being disconnected from somebody that you love – in more of an emotional way than the literal sense," Carmen says.
"It's about that disheartening feeling you have when somebody close to you doesn't seem to be on the same page or can't understand your perspective on things."
Here, the pair list five kids shows that grown-ups will find equally enjoyable. "We had a baby last year and now naturally our TV is occupied mostly by kids shows. Here are five of our favourites that even the adults will like."
'SpongeBob SquarePants'
Dylan: I was never really into SpongeBob as a kid; it always felt a little dark and weird in comparison to the lightness and fun of something like 'Rug Rats'.It makes sense because now when I watch it I can't help but think that SpongeBob is basically a big stoner. What a trippy show. You just have to watch the opening theme to get an idea of the crazy world that SpongeBob and co live in.
I love imagining what was going through the creators heads at the time of making these shows. Surely they get a kick out of including these overtones that only adults will pick up on – in the case of SpongeBob, it feels much more like obvious drug references than an overtone.
'Kiri and Lou'
Carmen: 'Kiri and Lou' is a gorgeous stop-motion animation created using hand-crafted clay creatures in a forest cut out of paper. One of the characters is voiced by Jemaine Clement from 'Flight Of The Conchords', and I love the way he embodies the gentle, dopey elephant-like creature, Lou.I genuinely struggle to pick a favourite episode because every one of them is adorable but some of the classic moments include the bird trio singing "look before you poo" in a beautiful three-part harmony and the one where Kiri, the feisty little dinosaur, finds herself dancing uncontrollably every time she hears music and she gets worried that something is wrong with her because she has this 'funny feeling' in her body.
'Sesame Street'
Carmen: 'Sesame Street' is an all-time classic that is hard to beat. I love how quirky all the characters are. There's always a few celebrity cameos and adult parodies thrown in there, like the Donald Grump appearance or Elmo reading the steamy 'Fifty Shades Of Oatmeal'.Also, their songs are actually great and so creative; they probably have a team of songwriters behind those. Some kids shows seems to recycle melodies like Mary Had A Little Lamb with different lyrics for different topics, but the 'Sesame Street' writers really come up with some unique stuff.
We've found ourselves naturally writing a few kids ditties ourselves since our son was born and Dylan has a hit called 'The Dad And Jacky Song', which I'm sure will get cut at some point.
Anyway, I'm getting off topic here – but maybe The Money War will release a kids album one day and it'll all be thanks to 'Sesame Street'.
'Yo Gabba Gabba!'
Dylan: I was introduced to 'Yo Gabba' a few years ago by a friend, long before we had a kid. I remember being at their house and their kids were watching this show and I was like "woah, The Shins are on this kids show!" The adults were more into it than the kids were.I've seen episodes with heaps of bands I love like The Roots, The Flaming lips, Of Montreal and heaps more. Our son seems to like heavier sounding songs and isn't really into nursery rhymes at the moment, so it's cool that there is a show with some edgy-sounding songs for kids.
'Power Rangers'
Dylan: It might just be that it's super nostalgic for me.When I was a kid I really wanted to be a Power Ranger. I once saw what I thought was Tommy the green (white) ranger drive past our house and was convinced that my mum had organised him to come to my birthday party the next day. I was heartbroken when he didn't turn up.
Anyway, I still get a kick out of watching it. There's a great soundtrack too.
