Announcing KidVid Tournament 2012

The KidVid Tournament 2012 is (almost) here! That's right, folks, the web's most popular fan-based tournament for the arbitrary qualitative ranking of kids music videos is back! For the sixth straight year, the best kids music videos of the previous twelve months will compete against each other in a frenzied two-to-three week period as if the determination of quality is based on fan interest on the Internet. I think it's kinda awesome. KidVid Tournament 2011 featured an exciting final showdown between Keller Williams and Sugar Free Allstars. Who'll make it to the final round this year? Well, that is up to you. So last week I announced my favorite kids music videos of 2011. In the past I've had to whittle down my list of favorite kids music videos down to just 16 to fit them into the tournament. But not this year. That's right, we're expanding to 32 videos! That's one more round and 16 more videos to jump into the action. This, friends, is the true March Madness (which is probably a trademarked phrase, so it's not the true March Madness at all). And, if you're going to add 16 more games, you're gonna need more help hosting these matchups. So I'm happy to announce that there will be eight great kids music writers and radio folks helping out to host this tournament:

Ages 3 and Up!

Dadnabbit

Gooney Bird Kids

Hilltown Families Variety Show

Out With the Kids

Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl

Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child

Zooglobble (of course I'm hosting, too!) As for the matchups themselves, the first-round matchups and all the brackets are listed after the jump...

Please Release Me: March 2012 Edition

It's time again for the latest list of new and upcoming releases, (here is last month's list). Additions to the list are noted with a "++"; changes to previously-mentioned items are indicated with italics. As always, if I've listed you on here and gotten something wrong (or something not ready for primetime), let me know and I'll edit or delete it. And if you're not on here and think you should be, drop me a line, too, and I'll get you added for the next iteration. ++ The Battersby Duo: Old Side of Young (March 16) The Good Ms. Padgett: ... Tells The Little Red Hen and Other Stories (March 20) ++Ellen & Matt: It's Love (March 23) Recess Music: La Bella Stella (March 27) Princess Katie and Racer Steve: Love, Cake & Monsters (March?) Central Services Board of Education: Binary [tentative] (March?) RhymeZwell: Robots on the Dance Floor (March?) Tim and the Space Cadets: Anthems for Adventure (March?) Alison Faith Levy: World of Wonder (April 1) Gustafer Yellowgold: Gustafer Yellowgold’s Year in The Day (April 3) The Pop Ups: Radio Jungle (April 3) Bobby Susser: Wo! (April 3) Mo Phillips: Monster Suit (April 10) Caspar Babypants: HOT DOG! (April 17) Sukey Molloy: I Am Happy! (April 24) Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band: A Bit A Luck! (May 8) Orange Sherbet: Delicious (May 15) Hope Harris: Picasso, That's Who! (May 22) Okee Dokee Brothers: Can You Canoe? CD/DVD (May) Secret Agent 23 Skidoo: Make Believers (May) ++ The Alphabeticians: Title TBD (May 2012) The Funky Mamas and Friends: Pickin’ In The Garden (spring) Elena Moon Park: Rabbit Days and Dumplings (spring) ++ Sugar Free Allstars: All On A Sunday Afternoon (June 1) Ratboy Jr: Title TBA (late spring/early summer) Recess Monkey: In Tents (June 19) The Dirty Sock Funtime Band: Dirty Socks Come Clean (June 26) ++ Elizabeth Mitchell: Blue Clouds (early summer?) Melissa Green: Sing Loud (July 31) Lori Henriques: The World Is A Curious Place To Live (July) Hey Dango: Blast Off (summer) Charity and the JAMband: Title TBA (Aug. 7) Randy Kaplan: Mr. Diddie Wah Diddie (summer) ++ Lunch Money: Spicy Kid (summer) (plus live album?) Hullabaloo: Title TBA (Sept. 4) The Diggity Dudes: Title TBA (Sept. 18) Recess Music: Someone Else’s Shoes (September 25) ++ Caspar Babypants: I FOUND YOU [?] (September) Andy Z: The Grand Scream of Things (Oct. 9) ++ Rolie Polie Guacamole: Triathlon (late 2012) Other expected 2012 albums: Ah-Choo, Peter Apel, Renee & Jeremy, The Bramble Jam, Eric Herman (2 albums: one music, one comedy skits), Keith Munslow (2 albums: one solo, one with Bill Harley), Wayne Potash, Alex and the Kaleidoscope Band, Shine and the Moonbeams, Yumza!, Rockabye Baby albums for Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers, Elska, Ozomatli, Justin Roberts (2 CDs)

Review: Musical iPad Apps for Kids

I know. I know. I agree with you: instead of playing music on the iPad, kids should be using honest-to-goodness instruments, including those instruments known as their own voices. But sometimes kids want to play on the iPad and if some of those games and books are primarily musical in nature, who am I to force them to play Angry Birds instead? So here are a handful of musical apps that have found their way to my iPad. Let's start off with the Puff, the Magic Dragon app, based on the classic song and popular picture book from Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton and featuring Eric Puybaret's illustrations. Like most iPad books, it features the ability for the reader to read the text themselves or to have it read to them. And as one would suspect, you can also have Yarrow and his daughter sing the song to you as the animation proceeds. But at $5.99, some people will find the app a bit pricy for the level of interaction (comparatively minimal) and animation (a little "chunky" compared to the level of Puybaret's original illustrations).

The Secret Mountain's A Duck in New York City app is, just like Puff, the Magic Dragon, a song (by Connie Kaldor) and a book (illustrated by Fil & Julie) that is now an app. On the positive side, the conversion of the illustrations in a collage-like format into moving pictures is well-done. On the negative side, the song isn't as classic as "Puff," though that's probably an unfair standard for comparison. Again, you have the option of reading it yourself, having it read to you, and listening to the song, with a karaoke option thrown in. For $3.99, the app is a little more affordable than the Puff app, but I'd definitely listen to the song before committing the money (and the memory space) for the app. With both these apps, I felt like something was missing, like the interactive nature of the iPad begs for more control and interaction (and, frankly, in the case of the "Puff" app, finish) than what they offered. Perhaps we haven't yet found a good music-book-to-app app yet. (It seems like a Gustafer Yellowgold app, done well, would be truly game-changing for the kindie world.) But there are other apps with musical DNA to consider...

Video: "States and Capitals" - Musical Stew

I really enjoyed Musical Stew's song "States and Capitals" -- see, it's there on my radio station playlist from earlier this week. It's from their self-titled 2007 debut. But this new video for the song takes it up to a whole 'nother level. The original video for the song is probably more useful from a rote learning perspective, but for sheer inventiveness, this new video has it beat. It's too late to sneak it into my list of the best videos of 2011, but I've got a good feeling about it and the 2012 list. And all of a sudden, I appreciate much more fully the puppetry backgrounds of the members of musical stew, "Macho Nacho" and "Mouth Trumpet." Musical Stew - "States and Capitals" [YouTube] (Hat tip: The Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl) After the jump, a bonus video from the band featuring the cutest electrical socket ever. I appreciate much more than I

Radio Playlist: New Music February 2012

Time again to update the Zooglobble radio station, covering assorted tracks collected in the first couple months or so of 2012. (You can see my January 2012 playlist here.) This playlist airs in the mid-afternoons (West Coast time), but if you can't listen in the afternoon, the tracks are scattered throughout the day, too. The listing below is in alphabetical order; the on-air play order is totally random (due to Internet music restrictions). Whoa Jack! - Andrew Queen (Grow) Gravity - AudraRox (La Bella Stella) Kick Drum Heart - Bari Koral Family Rock Band (Anna And The Cupcakes) Raccoon's Got A Bushy Tail - Ben Bowen (The Bumblebee EP) Why Is Dad So Mad? (Single) - The Board of Education (Why Is Dad So Mad? (Single)) Peanut Butter & Jelly - The Boogers (10 Great Songs About Food) Capybara - Brian Vogan & His Good Buddies (Born To Wiggle) Augustus Jackson - Ellis Paul (The Hero In You) Rocks 'n Sand - Essence (A Dog Named MOO... And His Friend ROO) The Moose Lives Where? - Farmer Jason and Jo Nesbo and Todd Snider (Nature Jams) Everybody Sing - Imagination Movers (Rock-O-Matic) Muscle And Bone - Katherine Dines (Hunk-Ta-Bunk-Ta Hits) States And Capitals - Macho Nacho And Mouth Trumpet (Musical Stew) Syeeda's ABCs (Syeeda's Song Flute) - Matt Wilson (WeBop: A Family Jazz Party) Rollerskate Banana Peel - Mo Phillips (Monster Suit) What Would You Do with a Grumpy Sailor? - Rick Huddle (Arrrr! Pirates Have Feelings Too) Sandbox - Riff Rockit (Riff Rockit) La Familia (The Family) - Sing With Senor (Uno Dos - Songs for Learning Spanish) Nightlight - Spaghetti Eddie! (Spaghetti Eddie! and Other Children's Songs Vol. 2) Se A Alegria Existe - Teresa Cristina (Brazilian Playground) Coconut Trees - Two Of A Kind (Sing Me Your Story)

Itty-Bitty Review: Rock-O-Matic - Imagination Movers

It took me a little while to appreciate the Imagination Movers -- in their early, pre-Disney years, I didn't hear anything particularly special in their music. Not bad, by any means, just nothing... noteworthy. But writing songs for your TV show -- constantly -- and playing live shows -- constantly -- will hone your songwriting chops, and their new, post-Disney album Rock-O-Matic bears the fruit of all that hard work. There are some kids musicians who attempt to map out the interior life of a child. The Imagination Movers are not those musicians. They instead write silly songs about goofy dance moves ("Dance Kung Fu," the album opener) or shiny pop-rockers about going to outer space ("Blast Off"). Or perhaps they write songs that will sound good when they play in front of audiences of 1,500 people or more (the dancehall of "Everybody Sing" or the Queen stomp of the title track). There are plenty of songs here that sound pretty good coming out of the minivan speakers and will sound even better in concert. (A couple more favorites: "Rain Rain," which neatly weaves "Rain rain go away" into a Movers original tune, and "Little Red Wagon".) For the most part the 43-minute album will resonate with kids ages 4 through 7 (though a couple songs, like "Buckle Me In" aim at a younger crowd). In addition to the CD, the album also comes packaged with a 30-minute DVD that mixes silly comedic interludes (a la Monty Python or The Muppet Show, though nowhere near as brilliant) in between videos, some of which ("Little Red Wagon," "Blast Off") are very, very good. Longtime Imagination Movers fans will certainly not be disappointed by Rock-O-Matic, the band's best album yet. But even families who spend their kids music time in independent waters should find quite a bit to enjoy on the disk. The Movers have earned their success with a keen eye (and ear) toward pleasing family audiences of all ages and Rock-O-Matic offers willing listeners a generous portion of kid-pop confections. Recommended. Disclosure: I received a copy of the album for possible review. I also was asked to World Premiere the band's video for "Everybody Sing."