The fact that there is a genre of music called “kindie rock” speaks volumes about the cottage entertainment industry that has formed around today’s preschoolers, and the now-constant stream of kids’ bands, trendy playspaces and blockbuster, animated films made to please parents as much as their offspring. Author and musician Wesley Stace has taken up this phenomenon of kids’ music in his latest novel, Wonderkid, which follows frontman Blake Lear through his band’s rise as kindie rockers and subsequent fall as he begins to act as childish as his audience. Narrated through the eyes of his son while the band tours the country, there are Almost Famous-like undertones, and musicians and authors from Peter Buck to Joshua Ferris are piling on the praise. To celebrate its launch, Stace and Dan Zanes, the granddaddy of cool kid’s music, will play together after the Greenlight Bookstore reading on Friday.
