About this project

Hello!

Since the late 90s, Pinataland has been writing, recording and performing original songs that conjure the strangeness of history to life.

Our first full-length album, "Songs for the Forgotten Future Vol. I", presented a "secret history" of the last century and a half: an era of immigration, progress, flight, and dashed dreams. Volume II channeled folks like the jumper Sam Patch, the painter John Banvard, and the Inuit Minik to portray America's uneasy relationship with nature.

Now we've written a host of new tunes and are ready to record. This record will continue the historical theme with songs that explore seemingly disparate personalities like the revolutionary Thomas Paine, the scientist Robert Oppenheimer, and the boxer Jack Johnson. The sound? Think a Nashville-bound Kurt Weill writing the great American folk musical. On board will be singer Robin Aigner, drummer Bill Gerstel, violinist Deni Bonet, tubist Dave Hofstra, Pinataland founders Doug Stone and Dave Wechsler, and various special guests. Funding will go directly to paying some terrific musicians, and for studio time to record them.

So where does the title come from, "The Boy Scouts of Democracy"? In addition to being one of the new songs, legend has it that when Hitler once spoke of American GIs, he scoffed at their fighting ability, referring to them disparagingly as "boy scouts of democracy". This record is for anyone who found themselves at the center of a storm and found their way through, one way or the other.