Face-melting Kids   

Welcome to Vol. 7 of Face-Melting Kids, our semi-regular series on child prodigies who rock.

Well he's not a kid any more, but Derek Trucks was just 13 years old and opening for the Allman Brothers Band when this video was shot.

Now I'm no guitar expert, but I'm pretty sure he rips his SG a new one as he covers Layla then opens it up for a really nice jam here at Walnut Creek on July 4, 1993.

Happy to say he's still melting faces today, with a full Summer of appearances including a just-announced spot on the opening night lineup for this year's All Good Music Festival July 8-11 in West Virgina.

When I first featured McLovins back in December, they were still riding the buzz from their great cover of YEM. Since then, this power-trio of two high school sophomores and one middle-schooler have been steadily picking up steam.

Among other accomplishments, they had a live show seeded on etree [flac | stream | mp3], appeared on their local news in Connecticut, and were written-up on RollingStone.com’s rock & roll blog “The Smoking Section.”

To top it off, McLovins are booked to play Gathering of the Vibes in July, and I have a feeling that's not the only place on the festival circuit you'll be able to catch them (and their parents) this summer.

The video above is a new original tune, DYNNE. Unlike their other new tune which starts off pretty chill, this one rips from beginning to end. It's a cool blend of Jambay and RHCP and is just further proof of McLovins promise.

BONUS: For anyone who went to Brown between '92 and '95, this song reminds me of Martha Dumptruck a bit. That was a tight college band.

I reached out to Drumlovin' (er, Jake) to see what he had to say about the new tune. He tells me it's pronounced “din,” and the wacky spelling is a reference to the children's adventure novel Phantom Tollbooth — a modern fairy tale upon which McLovins new album will be based.

From what I gather on Wikipedia, the character Awful DYNNE is a genie formed of blue smoke who goes around collecting noises for Dr. Kakofounous A. Dischord, a scientist who enjoys creating horrible sounds like “a blindfolded octopus unwrap[ping] a cellophane-covered bathtub.”

Seriously, a psychedelic concept album from a group a teenagers. Color me impressed.

Welcome to Vol. 6 of Face-Melting Kids, our semi-regular series on child prodigies who rock.

I love stories like this. On November 30th, power trio “Call Logan,” comprised of two high school sophomores and one middle-schooler from Connecticut, posted a great cover of You Enjoy Myself on YouTube.

Within a few days, the video made the rounds on countless Phish message boards and blogs, and there was universal agreement on two things.

First, these kids play damn well.

There is a level of musical maturity here that amazes the heck out of me.
— OldManAP

Second, and perhaps more importantly, the bass player looks like McLovin from Superbad! And on further inspection, the guitar player does too!

The band's new-found fans clamored for the band to change their name and pay homage to their duo of McLovin dopplegangers. Phantasy Tour and the comment thread on YouTube were lit up with pleas for the new name… McLovins.

In what I believe will turn out to be a brilliant marketing move, the band decided to oblige their fans, officially changing their name. And McLovins were born!

Now McLovins aim to please, you see, so they didn't stop at just a simple name change.

They followed it up with a few solid originals, one of which was entitled Purple Trees (PT) in honor of their new friends on Phantasy Tour. I'm not a huge fan of that tune, but I am a huge fan of one of the other originals, Guillotine Machine (watch it up above).

Guillotine Machine melts-face. It has a funky beginning, more than a few interesting transitions (like the one at 2:50 to 3:15), and it resolves into a total shredfest at the end.

I'd love to see McLovins add a keyboard player to round out their sound, but I think they'll be going places either way.

See more child prodigies like McLovins right here on Jamtopia.

Welcome to Vol. 5 of Face-Melting Kids, our semi-regular series on child prodigies who rock.

Sungha Jung is a pocket-sized reincarnation of Michael Hedges — not much bigger than his guitar but with fingerstyle chops that seem to be channeled from beyond.

Though he's composed some of his own tunes, the video here is something a little more familiar. It's an 11-year-old Sungha ripping up a mellifluous, heavily syncopated arrangement of Come Together by Michael Chapdelaine.

My dream is to become a professional acoustic fingerstyle guitarist.

Pretty sure that dream will “come together” for you any day little man. Just don't stop doing what you're doing!

See more child prodigies like Sungha right here on Jamtopia.

Welcome to Vol. 4 of Face-Melting Kids, our semi-regular series on child prodigies who rock.

Part 2: You Enjoy Myself (continued)

Welcome to Vol. 3 of Face-Melting Kids, our semi-regular series on child prodigies who rock.

This is just brilliant. Departure, a group of 17 year-old kids from Atlanta, bust-out a 15 minute rendition of You Enjoy Myself at their High School for Homecoming 2007. And it's pretty spot-on, complete with trampolines, vocal jam, the works.

It's also a nice tribute to Phish if you ask me, considering these guys were only 13 when they disbanded.

Keep up the great work fellas!

You Enjoy Myself appears on Phish's Live at MSG New Year's Eve 1995 disc.

See more child prodigies like Departure right here on Jamtopia.