I've long been a fan of the TV show Pancake Mountain, which combines a subversive take on commercial culture with a whole bunch of cool musicians wrapped in a kid-friendly packaging and hosted by a goat puppet. (I love Rufus.)
Anyway, perhaps seeing the success of Yo Gabba Gabba! gave the creators of PM pause, because they've now started a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising enough funds to produce a proper pilot for shopping around to networks. (I always thought they were legit before, but I guess I'm a poor judge of that.)
It'll take a lot of coin -- $50,000, to be precise -- but I think they might just make it. Pledges get you DVDs, t-shirts, and at pledges of $250 or more, a "Little Rufus" hand puppet. Anyway, here's their pledge video. One more video of a fun musical performance (David Bowie, eat your heart out) after the jump.
The Ketchup Report, Vol. 5
Back with another list of random notes from around the kids music world...
-- I'm a fan of Symphony Space's Just Kidding series, even 3,000 miles away, but I don't typically talk about single shows in that or any series. Having said that, I have it on good authority that Elizabeth Mitchell is planning on attending the Lunch Money Just Kidding concert on Saturday, January 29 (at 11 AM) and make a "guest appearance" for some songs. NYC fans, I expect you to be there -- not to be missed, I'm telling you.
-- Continuing in the category of single shows meriting mention, if you're not tired out after the Lunch Money show (or if you're busy that morning), there's another show in NYC that afternoon. It's an event called "KIDS ROCK!" -- it's a big 'ol benefit concert for KIDS NEED A MELODY, which provides developmental music classes to young children living in the shelter system. It's also Saturday the 29th (from 1 to 4 PM) at Crash Mansion in the Bowery in NYC. It's hosted by Bob McGrath and will feature performances by Rebecca Frezza and Big Truck, Suzi Shelton with guitarist Steve Elliot, Jeremy Plays Guitar, The Fuzzy Lemons, Joanie Leeds, and Baze and His Silly Friends. Not bad, eh?
-- Moving out of the city (sort of), word from Florida's Mr. Richard that he's leading David Weinstone's Music For Aardvarks classes in Orlando. Mr. Richard isn't the first kindie musicians with his own career to participate in these types of classes. Audra Tsanos has done MFA classes in NYC for years, Rebecca Frezza got her start doing Music Together, and Enzo Garcia is another. But Mr. Richard, who's definitely on the shortlist for the title of hardest-working guy in kids music, may be the first to join those types of classes after starting his own, independent kindie career.
-- I noted this on Facebook yesterday, but the first video from Moona Luna is up. You can watch the currently exclusive video here (or just go straight to YouTube here).
-- Frances England has a whole bunch of creative resolutions (designed very, er, creatively of course) and not only that she's pulled in a bunch of creative resolutions from folks like Caspar Babypants, Drew from Recess Monkey, Joe from the Okee Dokee Brothers and lots, lots more. Worth a perusal.
-- Finally, in the category of self-promotion, Australian newspaper The Age dips its toes into the world of Australian kindie music and picks out the two best, Holly Throbsy and The Mudcakes. (It also cites this site, but not in a policeman-sort-of-way. The good way.)
Video: "K-I-D-S" - Luv Clowns
There are certain kids musicians which make families all warm and snuggly inside, filled with love and grace.
And then there are Memphis' Luv Clowns, who last December strolled through the Memphis Christmas Parade... without, as best I can tell, having permission to do so. Watch as the Luv Clowns play "K-I-D-S" as they stroll through the parade, interacting with the youngsters walking along, then get denied entry to FedEx Arena by the police at the end. Every genre needs its subversives -- Luv Clowns are (one of) ours. (Remember, you can pick up a free mp3 of the track here.)
Luv Clowns - "K-I-D-S" [YouTube]
Listen To This: "Sing With Me" - Haley Bonar
It made my list of 2010's best kids music albums, but in my review of Haley Bonar's Sing With Me EP, I couldn't provide listening links. Bonar's now rectified that -- you can stream the whole darn thing:
And, what's this? Another new album from Bonar?
Video: "Green Light, Go!" - The Not-Its
The latest video from Seattle's Not-Its crams in a little chit-chat, primping, driving, and gratuitous slo-mo mugging at the Seattle Center before wrapping up one of 2010's hardest-rocking kindie songs. Takes barely 2 minutes - perfect for even the most short-attention-spanned amongst your family.
The Not-Its - "Green Light, Go!" [YouTube]
Billboard 2010 Top Kids Albums Announced: Like Another World
I know that people sometimes criticize the Grammys for being not quite attuned to the "real world," especially in the genre categories, but most readers of this site would probably look at this year's list of kids music nominees as being more familiar and representative of the year in family music than the list of Top Kid Audio (as Billboard calls it).
The Top 25 list is headed up by Kidz Bop 18 and followed up by... er... Kidz Bop 17. Kidz Bop gets a total of 4 albums on the list. Disney gets a stunning 15 albums on the list, including 3 Hannah Montana-related disks (one being a karaoke disk). Add a couple Nick/Viacom show soundtracks, the Chipmunks, Charlie Brown Christmas, a Cedarmont Kids album, and a no-name collection of kids' Christmas sing-along songs, and what you're left with in terms of what you might think of as an actual independent artist hitting the charts is, er, nothing.
Now that's not entirely true. One of those Nick/Viacom soundtracks is Music Is Awesome, Vol. 2, the Yo Gabba Gabba! collection, though it could be argued that that's just a college rock album marketed slightly differently. The other album is They Might Be Giants' Here Comes Science album, which has spent a whopping 52 non-consecutive weeks on the Kid Audio chart since its release in September 2009. But it could be argued that TMBG's other fan base helps out considerably as does Disney's distribution power, which no doubt helped get the album in places most kindie artists can only dream of.
Compared to last year, the genre didn't do appreciably better when compared to the industry as a whole, given that 3 of the Top Kid Audio albums charted in the Billboard 200 in both 2010 and 2009. But the broader issue is that it's impossible to fully measure the genre's impact. I wouldn't be surprised if Justin Roberts' Jungle Gym (which reached as high as #10 and spent a couple weeks on the Kid Audio chart is being underreported if a lot of his album as sold via toy stores, for example, or at Justin's shows (I don't know if he's self-reporting to SoundScan). And Laurie Berkner's Best of... must have just missed the cut-off, because her album spent a full 3 months in the Kid Audio Top 10, and has spent 28 weeks there total since being released in late June.
One wonders, however, whether kids' music would have wider visibility in the industry if it figured out some way to better quantify all the albums being sold (or if SoundScan reduced the fee to become a reporter). I would guess that the percentage of "unreported" sales is higher in this genre than in others, and that maybe a few more artists (rather than TV and movie soundtracks) might squeeze their way in were those "unreported" sales finally reported.
