Monday Morning Smile: Candela y Los Supremos - "El Desalojo del Piojo"

I've featured the work of Candela y Los Supremos here on the site before, but I will be honest that it is hard for me to get past the language barrier -- singing in nothing but Spanish (or perhaps Portugese) makes it difficult for me to properly evaluate.

The music is infectious pop, though, so I'm gonna post this video, the leadoff single from the band's brand new album Animaladas (out tomorrow, Oct. 16, in Spain, and a week later worldwide, I believe).  It's for the song, "El Desalojo del Piojo," which roughly translates to "The Eviction of the Louse."  That translation makes the constant hair-mussing of 7-year-old Candela make a lot more sense.

If you want to listen to more, PlayGround has you covered.

Candela y Los Supremos - "El Desalojo del Piojo" [YouTube]

Video: "Dance Like a Monster" - Play Date

Halloween is more than a month away, but I guess it's time to start thinking about the holiday. (If, unlike me, you're a big fan of it.)

Play Date certainly are, as they've just released their first video from their forthcoming debut Imagination, the seasonally appropriate "Dance Like a Monster."  It's kinda of a combination of public-access TV, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!, and the Unfrozen Caveman sketches from Saturday Night Live.  (With a small amount of "Danger, Will Robinson!" thrown into the mix.)  Pretty sure this'll be a hit with the kids.

Play Date - "Dance Like a Monster" [YouTube]

Video: "The Owl and the Pussycat" - Heidi Swedberg

Heidi Swedberg and Daniel Ward are heading to China in a couple weeks to do some playing and teaching for Ohana Ukuleles -- a sweet gig if you can get it, right?  In any case, to help with promotion, they've produced a simple video of Swedberg and Ward playing their rendition of "The Owl and the Pussycat," recorded but not (yet) released on an album amidst many ukuleles in an Ohana warehouse.  The odd setting for a video is appropriate, I think, for Swedberg's slightly mysterious reading of Edward Lear's poem.

Heidi Swedberg (with Daniel Ward) - "The Owl and the Pussycat" [YouTube]

Video: "Arctic Fox" - Elska

I wouldn't say that a lot happens in this video for "Arctic Fox," from Elska's brand-new album Middle of Nowhere.  But is it cute?  Oh, but yes.  (If the fox looks slightly akin to those in the Wes Anderson film The Fantastic Mr. Fox, that's because Elska's slumber-disturbing canid was animated by Andy Biddle, who also worked on the movie.)

Elska - "Arctic Fox" [YouTube]

Video: "Robots on the Dance Floor" - RhymeZwell

This, friends, is why you might want to consider a Kickstarter campaign to make your next video.  Because this video for "Robots on the Dance Floor," the lead single from RhymeZwell's second album Bigfoot Stomp, Kickstarted last year, looks fantastic.  It's funky and shiny, and as long as you don't think the ending has a little bit of a Terminator vibe, pretty happy.  (Like it? Kickstart the next video.)

RhymeZwell - "Robots on the Dance Floor" [YouTube]

Video: "I'm Thinking of an Animal" - Billy Kelly

Billy Kelly and public television.  Now that's what I'm talkin' about, man!  He's a triple threat -- he sings, he draws, and he's willing to kiss a stuffed-animal giraffe on video.

For this last component, we have public television station WXXI in Rochester, New York to thank for being crazy enough to agree to Kelly's proposal for a series of 1-minute videos based on his song "I'm Thinking of an Animal."  The song, from his 2011 disk The Family Garden, gets chopped up here into four segments -- I'm highlighting my favorite, but you can see all four at the link above.  Can I just say that I love, love, love Kelly Knox's Bucknell University Dancing Dancers?

Billy Kelly - "I'm Thinking of an Animal (that's really tall)" [YouTube]