Video: "Catch That Pretzel" - Lard Dog & The Band of Shy

Life's a Real Dream cover

If a picture can be worth a thousand words, sometimes a music video can capture a band's sensibility far better than a review ever could.

It's with that in mind that I'm featuring a video from Lard Dog and The Band of Shy called "Catch That Pretzel."  The video's the first off their debut album Life's A Real Dream, and in its whimsy I think it pretty much nails the band and its album.

Choreographed drone footage, modern sculpture (from Steven Erdman AKA Lard Dog himself), and an American Gothic reference.  Oh, and pretzels of all sizes, including life-sized.  It's like Arnie the Doughnut as filmed at MassMOCA.  (Which makes it sound pretentious, which applies only to my description, not the video itself, which is properly silly.)

Lard Dog & The Band of Shy - "Catch That Pretzel" [YouTube]

Video: "Jackalope" - The Okee Dokee Brothers (World Premiere!)

Is this the mysterious jackalope?

After a trip down the (spiritual) heart of the country, the Mississippi River, on their Grammy-winning album Can You Canoe?, and along the Appalachian Trail spine of the East Coast for Through the Woods, it's time for The Okee Dokee Brothers to finish their Adventure Album trilogy.  On Saddle Up, the duo head west for adventures along and around the Continental Divide.

Saddle Up album cover

As with their previous two albums, this new one celebrates the outdoors in songs both heartfelt and (occasionally) silly.  In more the latter category (but also a little bit the former) falls "Jackalope," a tall tale about a mysterious and rarely seen animal.

For the song's video, Joe Mailander and Justin Lansing recruited a couple westerners to help -- Red Yarn helps out with a familiar puppet, while Laki Karavias, known to kindie fans as one of main ringleaders of the Big World Audio Theatre, handles the cinematography.  I asked Joe and Justin what motivated them to work with the pair of Portland-based musicians, and this is what they said:

We love both of their work as family musicians as well as their work in puppetry and filming. On top of that, they're really nice people with a similar aesthetic to our brand. Justin and I aren't great with puppets, so we reached out to our favorite folk singer/kids musician/puppeteer about using one of his Deep Woods critters for this video. We had thought Andy would need to make a whole new jackalope for us, but he had the great idea of giving Bob Rabbit a makeover. He sent us some photos before they did the filming and we approved of Bob's new look. Both Laki and Andy did a great job of matching Bob's "acting" (which took place in the woods of Portland) with our jackalope hunt story (filmed in AZ during our western trip). When we got the footage back, we were all so surprised at how well everything matched up - from the lighting and setting all the way down to little plot points. It was a real pleasure working with those two.

As for the titular character, when I asked if they'd ever gone jackalope hunting when they were kids, they said:

Yes! Growing up in Colorado we would always see taxidermied jackalopes hung on walls in people's basements or in gift shops. We had some tricky uncles who convinced us that, if we waited long enough, we could catch a jackalope (along with some other strange creatures... snipes come to mind). They would teach us how to hold our gunny sacks and what calls to make in order to lure the jackalopes into our bags. I remember staying out in the woods for hours one night with Justin, whistling and chirping at the moon to no avail.  But guess what, tricky uncles: We did catch something... it might have taken 20 years of wandering around making weird noises, but we caught a song out of the deal!

Joe and Justin seem particularly flummoxed in their search for this particular jackalope, but their fans should enjoy this world premiere video from The Okee Dokee Brothers just fine.

The Okee Dokee Brothers - "Jackalope" [YouTube]

Video: "If We Were Twins" - Michal "Peanut" Karmi (World Premiere!)

Michal "Peanut" Karmi with teddy bear friend

I am a sucker for a cute video and a cute album title, which means that I'm a total sucker for "If We Were Twins," the first video from Michal "Peanut" Karmi's upcoming album.

The video features hand-drawn animation from Dominique Blöink, gentle and organic in craft, matching the song in tone.  Peanut's vocals give a slightly whimsical tone to the song and its ooh-la-la chorus, but it's also helped out no doubt due in part to Dean Jones, who produced it and the rest of the album, Peanut's third.

So what's that album title?

Ampersandwich.

I know, right?  Anyway, the album will be out later this year, but you can get a first taste, regardless of your sibling status, with this world premiere video.

Michal "Peanut" Karmi - "If We Were Twins" [YouTube]

A Decade of All Kindie Things Considered

Meltdown album cover

Exactly ten years ago today, I had what was at the time a very weird experience -- I heard my voice on the radio.  That's because my voice was hitting the airwaves as part of an interview with Melissa Block about kids music on NPR's All Things Considered.  Over the course of five minutes, Block and I chatted about Dan Zanes, Brady Rymer, Laurie Berkner, and Justin Roberts, my kids, a philosophy of kids music, with a slight diss of the Beatles -- a band I really like! -- thrown in for good measure.

The whole process actually started a couple weeks before when I received an e-mail from Block herself asking for some more information about me.  Fast forward a couple weeks, and after some discussions with Block and an NPR producer -- no doubt to make sure that I had something to say and could say it without sounding like an idiot -- I went to a local studio (not my NPR affiliate) and chatted about the various albums.  I have no memory of how long the conversation went -- I'm sure it wasn't for much more than 30 minutes -- but the next day I got an e-mail saying that they'd edited the piece together and it would be airing later that afternoon.

I don't remember if I had an actual "driveway moment" listening to that piece, I don't even remember where I heard that piece (in the car, maybe, or at home).  But I'm guessing that the piece generated quite a few driveway moments across the country, because eight months later, I found myself back on the air, talking about some more kids music.  Three more times, Block and I chatted, and then starting in 2009, I started writing and recording honest-to-goodness reviews.  My first NPR kids music review was for Lunch Money's Dizzy in 2009, and it remains one of my most favorite pieces of audio I created for ATC.

Since that review, I've done 20 more kids music pieces for ATC, featuring 24 albums.  (Oh, and a commentary on the sound of a lawnmower.  Yeah, I know!)  It has been an absolute blast writing, editing, and recording these reviews, and working with the amazing folks at NPR who, if they've ever been frustrated with my written product or slow starts in warming up my voice ("a little more Shatner"), never mentioned it to me.  I learned quite a bit about writing and editing for radio.  And of course it's been a thrill to be able to bring serious (and fun) consideration of an oft-maligned musical genre to a broad national audience.

Having said all that, the worlds of public radio, of music consumption, of music promotion -- these have all changed significantly over the past decade.  People can argue about the value of criticism, but it is hard to argue that the perceived value of criticism has faded over the past ten years.  All Things Considered has not been immune to those changes, either, and the amount of reviews they've run from any genre of music, particularly over the past six months, has dropped dramatically.  I do not think that will change significantly in the future, and so I'm not sure when I'll next appear on All Things Considered.  (If I do, I'm not sure it'll be in the standard 3:30-ish review format I've honed over the past 6-7 years.)

I would be sad about that possibility, were it not for the fact that the past decade has just been so damn fun.  I've never ever taken for granted the gift I was given with a short e-mail from an NPR host titled "Who are you?" a decade ago.  So I just think it's an appropriate time for me to say "thanks" to everyone at NPR who have let me share that gift with all the wonderful musicians I got to talk about.  I hope this piece on Jazzy Ash's Bon Voyage isn't the last piece I record or write for NPR, but if it is, I'd be cool with that.

The Imaginary Accomplishments Podcast: Todd McHatton's New Thing

Just the other day, I was talking about podcasts for kids, and noting that there wasn't enough different kinds of podcasts aimed at the pre-teen and below crowd.  A fair number of (really good) science podcasts, but stuff for younger crowds?  More comedic and fictional in nature?  Not so much.

As it turns out, kids musician Todd McHatton, who already has a ton of side projects, is adding one more project to his list, one I'm pretty excited about, not to mention explore some of the less-traveled areas of the podcast, er, space.  It's called "The Imaginary Accomplishments Podcast," and I think this image from Todd sums it all up... sort of.

OK.  Maybe it doesn't explain a lot.

So what is it really?  McHatton says that heroes above (that's monsters like Finch, Larry, and Marvy, in addition to Todd himself) will "explore the stories and accomplishments of random champions throughout the galaxy."  There will be news coverage and imaginary ad breaks, original music and humor.  He promises an "all ages, family friendly mix of The Muppets, Cheech & Chong, Monty Python, and 70s rock and roll cartoon shows."

McHatton says he's already got six episodes ready to go, so when the podcast officially launches later this month, you'll have a lot to look forward to.  (I know I am.)

Review: Explorer of the World - Frances England

Explorer of the World album cover

Frances England didn’t plan on becoming a kids musician when she made her first album more than a decade ago.  She just wanted to contribute something to her son’s preschool fundraiser, and wrote songs for a homegrown CD while supervising her son’s baths.  But that album’s popularity far surpassed the small world of that San Francisco school.  Last Friday she officially released her fifth album for families, Explorer of the World.

As the album title suggests, England is concerned with themes of exploration, observation, and investigation.  But rather than traveling long distances, she pays close attention to the world literally outside her front door -- walking her dog around her neighborhood, for example, noticing patterns and colors.  She’s inspired as much by visual artists like Wendy McNaughton and Keri Smith as by musicians, and like those artists, she encourages her listeners to pay attention to the art around them daily.

England’s music isn’t as shiny and poppy as that of her peers, but this new album is even more experimental than most kids music.  Instead of using chord progressions as the jumping-off point for songs, on some tracks she used field recordings she made walking around San Francisco.  “City Don’t Sleep,” for example, started with recordings from late-night walks along North Beach.

Co-producers Dean Jones and Dave Winer bring a lot of different perspectives in terms of the musical production, and the result is an album that vibrates as their approaches (Jones: earthy kitchen-sink sound; Winer: try-anything sonic collage and percussion) differ, but resonate with each other and with England.

I was trying to come up with the appropriate age range for the album, and while I'm going to put at ages 5 through 9, like much of England's more recent work, it's probably broader than that.  Not for toddlers, perhaps, but also for kids older than 9, if you get them to sit down and really listen.  (You can listen to this album -- along with the rest of her music -- here.)

Even though this album celebrates exploring her own backyard, Frances England is more interested in the process of keeping her eyes open to the world around her.  In discovering her own neighborhood, she reminds the rest of us that we can do the same with our own streets and sidewalks.  Highly recommended.