If you’ve been at all unlucky, you’ve seen commercials for Kidz Bop. This sort of phenomenon seems to reoccur every couple of years or so, just like the whole Now That’s What I Call Music! compilation fad that never quite goes away (over 60 CDs and still going): take a bunch of hits off the top 40, scrub the songs clean of anything remotely suggestive or offensive, and then have kids sing the lyrics over a cheesy karaokefied backing track. There is a certain creepiness to hearing a chorus of seven-year-olds belt out “Oops! …I Did It Again” or “Hot In Herre” that defies proper description, bu most of the time a Kidz Bop version of a song is basically what you’d expect: some way-too-cheerful kids singing along to the likes of No Doubt and Incubus.

Maybe it’s just because some of us still remember when Modest Mouse wrote songs like “Dramamine,” but “Float On” seems like a left-field choice for Kidz Bop. Are there really a lot of kids who listen to alt-rock? Was “Float On” actually that popular with the tykes? Because I don’t think anyone would’ve thought Modest Mouse had potential with the under-12 set ten years ago. What’s especially strange about the Kidz Bop version is that it’s actually not that different from the original. Somehow the chorus of small children blends in with the song and only occasionally sounds like the mindfuck it appears to be on paper.

Um, that’s about all I had to say on the Kidz Bop phenomenon. Now back to your regularly scheduled slate of cover versions.