Crowdfunding, Part 3: Matt Clark Does It...

A few weeks back, I highlighted the attempt by Portland, Oregon's Matt Clark to use Kickstarter, a "crowd-sourcing" site which puts folks under a deadline to raise funds from fans for a wide variety of projects. Matt's project was to record the follow-up to Clark's debut, Funny Little Fella -- he was looking for $3,000 for mixing, mastering, and duplicating. Well, as you can see from the fancy widget below, Clark made his goal. I'm posting this for two reasons: 1) Yay, Matt. 2) For other musicians considering this route, the details on how people chose to fund the project -- i.e., at what levels -- I think are useful reading. You'll actually have to click on the widget below to see that, but I found it interesting that folks bypassed the cheaper reward levels and were only interested in the higher levels. In other words, if you're gonna get somebody invested in you... make 'em invest.

Songs For Gardening and Farming

Today they’re breaking ground on the south lawn of the White House for a vegetable garden, per Michelle Obama, and involving local school children in the planting, maintaining and harvesting: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/19/white-house-kitchen-garde_n_177121.html This garden will grow organic produce to be used in the White House kitchen. How cool is that??? Obviously, they are trying to set a national example for all of us to follow. I was thinking it might be nice if you opened a list of garden-related or veggie-related or good-food related songs for today, or some day, in celebration of spring and this new direction. Songs I can think of off the top o’ my head: The Lonely Tomato—Central Services Board of Education Hey All You Farmers—Johnny Bregar, Hootenanny From Scratch—Justin Roberts, Pop Fly Mr. Bell’s Garden—Raffi, Bananaphone Snacktime—BNL Poetry in Nature: One last plug... Springtime is when local farmers need sign ups for their summer CSA programs. Our CSA farm share (we sign up to get a bag of fresh, organic veggies every week) is one of the things I most look forward to in the summer. If you're in Maine, please take a moment to check out my friend Reba's organic CSA. If you're in another part of the country and want to find a farm share, or if you just want to learn about how CSAs work, please check out my recent blog post about Community Supported Agriculture.

Share: "There Is No Away" - Uncle Rock

UncleRockACL.jpgI don't talk a lot about Earth Day here at Zooglobble, not because I hate the Earth ("dude, what a loser planet that is") but because much of the Earth Day-related music that crosses my desk is dull, tuneless, and/or unbearably preachy. One of the exceptions is Uncle Rock's "There Is No Away," a graceful waltz about the permanence of trash featuring stringed accompaniment and Elizabeth Mitchell. I suppose Robert could sing the classifieds accompanied by strings and Elizabeth Mitchell and and I'd probably write about it here, but the gracefulness of the song helps keep it away from the "unbearably preachy" camp. (It fits well within the big picture of the latest Uncle Rock album, er, The Big Picture, which has a few more songs with an environmental awareness.) Even better, for a limited time, you can download the mp3 for free from Uncle Rock's homepage. Mp3s are mostly waste-free after all (more so, I suppose, if you're solar-powered).

Imagination Movers Season 3 Set! (For, er, 2011, Maybe?)

Imagination Movers PHOTO3.jpgIt was a little dicey there for awhile -- you could tell from Facebook that the fans at least were getting restless (and nervous) -- but it's official -- Season 3 of the Imagination Movers' self-titled Disney Channel show is going to happen. Here's an article from Variety discussing the move -- it notes that production will start back up in New Orleans in June and that the production order includes a concert special, a first for the band on Disney. (And, yeah, there's another album coming out on June 8.) Even though Seasons 1 and 2 started in the fall of 2008 and 2009, with a June production start, I'm guessing that fall 2010 may be hard to accomplish. What the article doesn't mention is Nancy Kanter (Senior VP of Programming for Playhouse Disney) saying (in the press release) that Season Three "will expand the Movers world beyond the Idea Warehouse and will include more surprise visitors and guest stars." So there you go -- perhaps they'll start going the Yo Gabba Gabba! route and inviting a whole bunch of guest stars from the real world. Come to think of it, maybe the Movers should challenge the folks at YGG -- which just started its third season -- to a friendly rumble. Or maybe a pickup basketball game. I think the guys have the moves, but Brobee et al. got height, and you can't teach height.

Because I'm All About Kids Music Battles to the Death

Really, why stop with kids music videos? You may remember last year, when Gustafer Yellowgold (AKA Morgan Taylor) faced off against the Flannery Brothers for supremacy in the 2008 edition of the John Lennon Songwriting Competition. (The Flannery Brothers took that round, and they really haven't stopped to breathe since.) Well, the battle of the bands is back, this year featuring Australian Kate Rowe and her song "Space Rabbits of Brocklevoons" against Lanny Sherwin and his tune "A Cappella" from his 2009 album Meltdown!. "Apples and oranges" is an appropriate phrase here, because Rowe's song is a silly story song while Sherwin's is a very meta (but effective) song about, well, singing a cappella. As for me, I vote Sherwin, but it's not an easy call. Should you care to make your voice heard, you can vote here once a day through April 27th. Vote early, vote often. A couple other points worth mentioning while we're on the subject of songwriting competitions and this one in particular... 1) You could put together a nice little compilation of free mp3s from those available on the site -- besides last year's and this year's championship battles, you can find tracks from Princess Katie and Racer Steve, more from Gustafer Yellowgold, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Eric Herman ("The Elephant Song"!), Kristin Andreassen, and more. 2) The International Songwriting Competition also has a kids music competition -- oddly enough their list of finalists for the category doesn't include any crossover with the Lennon competition. There's music there from Jon Samson, Bill Harley, and Andrew Queen. (But when I say "music there," I don't really mean that. No mp3s. In this particular equation, John Lennon > International.)

Monday Morning Smile: "Crayola Doesn't Make a Color For Your Eyes"

Isn't it still morning in, like, Hawaii? I told you before about Kristin Andreassen's fantabulous song "Crayola Doesn't Make a Color For Your Eyes." Did you know there's a video? You do now. Therefore, you are required to watch. Kristin Andreassen - "Crayola Doesn't Make a Color For Your Eyes" [YouTube]