This video, the first from Holly Throsby's excellent album See!, is pretty much what I'd expect a live-action video from the album to look like -- cute normal-looking kids, rough around edges, but with stellar production values. And the crafty fishes (it is for "Fish and Mice" after all) look like something that every preschool should be attempting.
Holly Throsby - "Fish and Mice" [YouTube]
Video: "Lala Landing" - Heidi Hutchence
British artist Heidi Hutchence has a just-released album, Lala Landing, out, and now she's released her first video from the album. It's for the title track off the new disk, and as with her last video, while the song itself is OK to my ears (it's really just a preschool-targeted theme song, and those are always tricky), the video is a-DOR-able. (Say that last word in sort of a high-pitched voice, it'll make more sense.)
Heidi Hutchence - "Lala Landing" [YouTube]
Monday Morning Smile: "Tatooine" - Jeremy Messersmith
Ever since seeing him at SXSW this spring, I've been a big fan of Twin Cities musician Jeremy Messersmith, whose album The Reluctant Graveyard will end up near the top of my Top 10 list of non-kids-music related albums for 2010. And while I haven't had too many chances to mention him here on the site, this video for his song "Tatooine" definitely qualifies. At least, if your kid is at all a Star Wars fanatic. Eric Power sets Messersmith's lovely and lo-fi piano-accompanied Star Wars-inspired tune to the Star Wars Trilogy, illustrated via paper animation. The video justifiably went viral when it was released a couple months ago. Pay what you'd like for the track here (and you can do so for Messersmith's other albums), or simply watch it below.
Jeremy Messersmith - "Tatooine" [YouTube]
Video: "Wiggle Your La-De-Dah" - Ralph's World
The latest Ralph's World isn't terribly complicated or all that different from a lot of his other videos -- Ralph goofs, smiles, and sings while young kids goof, smile, and sing. And for those of us who prefer Ralph's songs geared at a slightly older audience, this song, a return to his early Ralph's World (and even perhaps his Wiggleworms) days, isn't our favorite off of All Around Ralph's World. But as a movement song for preschoolers, it's pretty great, and the country-tinged song features some nifty guitar work...
Ralph's World - "Wiggle Your La-De-Dah" [YouTube]
A Very Brooklyn Hanukkah
No sooner than I suggest that there wasn't much in the way of new Hanukkah music than I'm reminded of a couple YouTube videos and another song is released. Both releases, as it happens, come from Brooklyn and from folks who are, I'm pretty sure, not Jewish. But I think you'll like 'em regardless of whether you (or they) are lighting the menorah the week.
First up is Dan Zanes, who recorded a new track, "Ner Li" with collaborators Rob Friedman and Sonia De Los Santos. It's a Hanukkah song that Wikipedia reports as being popular in Israel. Zanes' version is characteristically lovely. Download it here.
Second up is Lloyd Miller from the Deedle Deedle Dees. He offers up another couple traditional tunes on his YouTube channel. Simple, but fun.
Lloyd Miller - "Oh Hanukkah!" [YouTube]
Lloyd's other video after the jump...
Video: "Happy Sad Silly Mad" - Jeremy Plays Guitar
Two complaints about "Happy Sad Silly Mad," the new video from Jeremy Plays Guitar's album Use Your Words:
1) the order of the emotions in the song is "happy, sad, mad, silly," not "happy, sad, silly, mad." Sheesh.
2) Also, the "mad" kids are, like, the least mad kids ever.
Other than that, I'm cool with it. "Doo, doo doo"s make everything cool.
Jeremy Plays Guitar - "Happy Sad Silly Mad" [YouTube]
