When I was a kid, for a year or so I was a member of Billy Joel's fan club. For, like, $10, I got a copy of his newsletter, The Root Beer Rag, and a vague feeling of being slightly ripped off.
So now, when a kids music band posts a live video on the Internet for free, I feel much better.
We've mentioned Seattle's The Not-Its! before, but now they're starting to play live. They've just posted a live video from the inside of a West Seattle ice cream store.
I dig the synchronized claps.
The Not-Its! - "B.A.T.H."
The Not-Its! play "B.A.T.H". live at Full Tilt Ice Cream
New Music from TMBG: The Sun Is A Miasma of Incandescant Plasma
Details come trickling out about They Might Be Giants' forthcoming kids music album Here Comes Science (which, as I've said before, is not the most scintillating of titles to my ears, but hey, they're the creative folks).
This time, the source is Bill and Ella from Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child. Ella (with help from her friend Sam) interviewed John and John Friday and, among other things, found out a lot about Nikola Tesla while telling John and John even more about Benjamin Franklin. All about the Benjamins, indeed. (And Sam's question about "Dr. Worm" produces quite a nugget, too.) In all, well worth the 12 minutes.
Bill also noted that their adult show Friday night included a new song from the upcoming Here Comes Science CD -- "The Sun Is A Miasma of Incandescent Plasma," a response song to their own cover of "Why Does the Sun Shine?"
In rooting around YouTube, it appears they've been playing this song for a little while now, but here's TMBG doing the song in Northampton...
They Might Be Giants - "Why Does the Sun Really Shine? (The Sun Is a Miasma of Incadescent Plasma)"
Bob Dylan Does Kids'....
... literature. Not kids music.
Not new news, but Bob Dylan has got a kids' book coming out tomorrow titled Forever Young. It really seems to be illustrator Paul Rogers' bag, since the text seems to consist of nothing but the lyrics to Dylan's classic song.
Anyway, since trailers for kids books are all the rage now, here's the trailer for the book so you can decide if the illustrations are plunking down your hard-earned dollars for.
Oh, and just because I'm snarky...
Video: "We Are One" - Renee and Jeremy
New video this morning from LA's Renee and Jeremy. It's a little different from most kids music videos in that it's actually a benefit video, raising awareness for the anti-poverty organization Action Aid. The video is for "We Are One" from their debut It's A Big World!. The video, which features a lot of smiling kids, is simple, but I think it does what it was intended to do. It might even hold your kids' attention for 3 minutes.
Renee and Jeremy - "We Are One"
New Jimmies Videos To Feature Green Screens and Robots With Mad Skillz
I know, I know, I talk about The Jimmies a lot. So even though their videos are awesome, and they've posted incomplete clips of two more videos on their website, I wasn't going to post anything here. "Cool To Be Uncool" is a fun song and will feature a bunch of green-screen and wind machine technology, but it could wait. "Soaper the Scaredy-Bot" is a live video, and features an appearance by the title character, but is, well, just a live video.
And then Soaper started tap-dancing.
Go to the Jimmies' video page now for the next week to see. (And, yeah, Ashley told me about it, but I'd forgotten.)
A Whole Slew of Uncle Rock Videos
Fresh off his Austin Kiddie Limits weekend, Uncle Rock is coming out with his first DVD -- Number 1 DVD: Live From Kidtopia & Video Arcade -- very soon, and has posted a whole bunch of video clips from the DVD on his YouTube page. The DVD will feature 30 minutes of his live show from Kidtopia; 5 videos, including the great "Picnic in the Graveyard" and two new videos ("Playin' Possum" and "Nothin' Doin'"); and some extras. Look for it on sale in January.
Anyway, here's one of my favorite Uncle Rock tracks performed live, with another live video and one of those new videos after the jump. (More at his YouTube page.)
Uncle Rock - "It's Hot! (Don't Touch It!)"
