I wish I could say that I bugged Caspar Babypants for a video for the song "The Stump Hotel" from his album I Found You! , but I'm not that prescient (although I'm willing to make a bad pun). This new video from Mukpuddy, though, puts to good use Chris Ballew's buggy narrative. Love the very happy banana slug pie.
Caspar Babypants - "The Stump Hotel" [YouTube]
When I was at Kindiefest this spring, specifically to do a presentation on great kindie music videos, I found out that Joanie Leeds had invested some money to do a music video.
Well, not a music video. Fourteen music videos, to be more accurate.
That's right -- thanks to the magic of Craigslist, every song except one from her forthcoming album Bandwagon (out June 25) will have a video. The first one, "I Love New York," debuted Sunday, and I'm pleased as punch to offer up the world premiere of the second video, for the album's title track, "Bandwagon." It's one of my favorite tracks from the album, and the foam-based stop-motion animation captures the good feelings from the group sing-along well. [And, no, I'm not just mentioning it because the animator is some guy named Stefan (Fernandez). ;-) ] Good stuff, no doubt.
Joanie Leeds - "Bandwagon" [YouTube]
Yes, I know that Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke have just released their newest album, Pleased To Meet You (and that I'd recommend it highly to you).
But there may be no KWMC song I hold in higher esteem than "The Rattling Can," off their debut album Rise and Shine (which I'd also recommend highly to you). From the first time I heard it, I loved its energy and the way it took the traditional and reinvigorated it.
So, yay, new video for the song! Simply animated by Wilde himself, but lots of fun. Make sure you stick around for the rare quark, rattling quark.
Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke - "The Rattling Can" [YouTube]
It's auteur phase of Recess Monkey's well-honored video career as for the first video off of their forthcoming Deep Sea Diver album they've stolen from, er, delivered an homage to the visual style of Wes Anderson.
I love Wes Anderson's movies (for the most part), so I mean that as high praise and admiration. Then again, Anderson is really just aping styles from the '60s, so if the boys from Seattle look like they're going through their Jacques Cousteau phase, maybe they're just going through a Jacques Cousteau phase.
Not sure where Cousteau (or Anderson) stand on rhythm-powered submersibles, though.
Recess Monkey - "Tambourine Submarine" [YouTube] (via RedTri.com)
As some of you know, I recently traveled out to Brooklyn for the annual Kindiefest conference featuring kids musicians, reviewers, radio folks, and others who spend time in the world of making music for and with kids and families. My purpose of traveling out to New York, aside from catching up in person with kindiefolk of all stripes, was to make a presentation titled "$9.99: Kindie Music Videos in the Age of YouTube."
So late Saturday afternoon, I stood in front of a very large screen and gave a very brief overview of the history of kids music videos. I also talked a little bit about kindie music video styles and outlets. I got to say "next slide" a lot. (For what it's worth, you can see the Powerpoint slides here.)
But all that was really just a prelude to the opportunity to show 13 great kindie music videos from the past 5 or 6 years, videos that show the diversity of approaches, budgets, and styles available to kids music artists. The one common denominator, I think, is that they all fully commit to telling a story, both about the song itself and the artist's overall vision. Nobody would ever confuse Eric Herman's "The Elephant Song" and its video with Captain Bogg & Salty's "Pieces of 8ight" video, but nobody would ever say that either video isn't exactly perfect for its associated song.
I can't show you the 14th video we showed just yet -- it was the world premiere of the video for "Spicy Kid" from Lunch Money. The video, which Molly Ledford described as being a cross between a Mentos ad and a scene from The Blues Brothers (a spot-on description, by the way), isn't up for public consumption yet. [Ed.: And now it is!] Here they are.
DidiPop's latest album Bunny in the Moon is released today, and as part of the hoopla (if one call it that for what is basically a lullaby album), she's commissioned a video for the title track. The title track is one of the album's highlights, and by enlisting Jon Izen, who previously also animated Renee & Jeremy's take on Coldplay's "Yellow," she got some animation worthy of the tune. Very sweet.
DidiPop - "Bunny in the Moon" [YouTube]
Zooglobble
Zooglobble helps you find kindie music -- news, videos, mp3s, reviews -- for your whole family.
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