The Candy Band is a punk rock band designed specifically to appeal to children. It is composed of four

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

area moms who were tired of what they deemed wimpy music for kids. Paula Messner sang for Vertical Pillows in the 1980s and then with Motor Dolls. She decided to find three other stay-at-home moms to form a band. In 2003 they formed The Candy Band, playing punk covers of nursery rhymes, movie themes and other children's favorites, along with original tunes.

Media attention

With influences including the

Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...

and

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

, they instantly attracted attention from ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', '' Blender'', XM Radio, '' Woman's Day'', ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'', ''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'', '' The Early Show'', and '' The Today Show''.

Performances

The band performed at schools, festivals, libraries, and sometimes at a bar. They were on Washington, D.C.'s ''

Pancake Mountain ''Pancake Mountain'' is a children's television show created by filmmaker Scott Stuckey (of the famous Stuckey's family). Described as an “alt-rock guerrilla kids' dance party, forged in the crucible of Washington, D.C. cable-access television ...

'' TV show, they were part of the Vans Warped Tour and they played the "Kidzapalooza" stage at Chicago's Lollapalooza festival in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010. They have both performed and recorded with the Detroit Symphony Civic Youth Orchestra and they appeared regularly at the Detroit Zoo.

Albums

Their first album, ''Candy Band'', was released in 2003. It was followed by ''More Candy'' in 2004, ''Lollipunk'' in 2005, and ''Calling All Kids'' in 2007. Their fifth album, ''High Five'', was recorded in 2009 at Rustbelt Studios, with engineer Al Sutton.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Candy Band, The American children's musical groups Punk rock groups from Michigan Musical groups from Detroit Musical groups established in 2003 2003 establishments in Michigan