Listen To This: Super Deluxe Action Figures - Todd & Cookie (World Premiere!)

Super Deluxe Action Figures cover

Yay, brand new music from Todd & Cookie!

Wait -- you don't know who Todd & Cookie are?  Well, I can't blame you if you're not familiar with them as it's been 3 years since their last and only EP -- the Epic 3-Song Starter Park.  they're the awesome duo of Todd McHatton (aka Todd) and Mista Cookie Jar (aka Cookie -- this isn't a terribly complicated naming system here).

But, yes, they've been thinking about more music since the first EP.  Cartoons and videos are on the way.  And most importantly for our purposes, they've got a brand new 3-song EP, Super Deluxe Action Figures.  The new music is every bit the blend of psychedelia and multicultural hip-hop you'd expect from the duo, both sonically and lyrically (those titles! "eMutt," "In the Backyard," and my favorite "Ice Cream Time Machine.")   Like ice cream swirls?  You'll love this.

You can, of course, buy the EP (less than $3) below, but here's something you can do if all or your kids you do is press that big triangle below, click that "share" link and spread the love.

The album officially drops today -- thanks to the boys for world premiering it here!

Intro to Kindie: Stefan Shepherd

It has been a long time since I've posted an "Intro to Kindie" list, such a long time that even if you're a regular reader, you'd probably need a reminder of its purpose.  (Here you go: Folks like me who are immersed in the genre provide a one-hour introduction to the genre for people who are unfamiliar with it.  It's the mixtape equivalent of an "elevator pitch.")

There are a lot of reasons for that, mostly having to do with PEOPLE BUSY ALL THE TIME.  And I'd always been planning on doing one of my own, but of course, PEOPLE BUSY ALL THE TIME.  Still, I felt like this post -- my post -- in particular just kept slipping further down off the list, and maybe that's because I thought that putting a list down "on paper" would make this list more permanent that it needs to be.

I would note that this isn't a list of the 20 best kids' songs of all time, or my 20 favorites, or my family's collective 20 favorites, or the 20 most important songs or artists.  Certainly some of these would appear on all such lists, but the purpose for me of this list is something more modest -- simply introduce an unfamiliar listener to kids' music to such music, perhaps with an emphasis on more modern music, but at least a good overview.

So as you look at (and listen to) this list of songs that I think make for a good introduction to kids music past, present, and future, keep in mind that what makes up the past, present, and future is always changing.  (It's changing as I write this.)  I'll still always think these songs are great and important, but my perspective, and kids music generally, will continue to evolve.

Without any further ado -- after all, this has been delayed long enough -- here is my intro to kindie, arranged roughly in alphabetical order:

Ella Jenkins - "Miss Mary Mack"

Pete Seeger - "Skip To My Lou"

Raffi - "Mr. Sun"

Laurie Berkner - "Moon Moon Moon"

Dan Zanes and Friends - "Pay Me My Money Down"

Elizabeth Mitchell - "Little Liza Jane"

They Might Be Giants - "Seven"

The Hipwaders - "Educated Kid"

Medeski, Martin & Wood - "Where's the Music?"

Lunch Money - "A Cookie As Big As My Head"

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "Gotta Be Me"

Recess Monkey - "Sack Lunch"

Caspar Babypants - "Stompy the Bear"

The Okee Dokee Brothers - "Can You Canoe?"

Justin Roberts - "Recess"

The Pop Ups - "All These Shapes"

Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band - "Piñata Attack"

Jazzy Ash - "Hide and Seek"

Mista Cookie Jar - "Gratitude"

Frances England - "See What We Can See"

Top Kids and Family Podcasts (August 2016)

Time once more to take a look at the nebulously-ranked world of podcasts.  This month's list differs slightly from last month's list of top-ranked kids and family podcasts.  For the most part, the order is the same, and the rankings of these particular podcasts within the "kids and family" charts in the iTunes and Stitcher kids and family charts are generally in the same range as last month.  (So, too, is the general placement of the most highly-ranked podcasts here within the "all podcasts" chart.  What is a continued improvement is the number of podcasts on one of the two lists, 28 -- the same as last month, but still up from 22 in June.

As always: this is a blunt instrument, combining pure rankings from two fairly opaque charts, and for a variety of reasons has only marginal value as a measure of quality.  (Results compiled from Top 100 podcasts on iTunes and Stitcher "kids and family" charts on Wednesday, August 17, 2016.  Podcasts that appear on both charts are listed with numbers; remaining podcasts only appeared on one list.)  I will also note that it's subject to considerable sway by a single high-profile article or event.  For example, after this Popsugar article on 15 podcasts for families came out after my research, the rankings of several podcasts that made the list jumped significantly so that 6 of the top 10 podcasts on iTunes were listed below (compared to 2-4 at other times) and OWTK's Kid's Music Monthly, which wasn't on the top 200, jumped to 27.

Two other reminders:

1.  If you're looking for a list that has most (or all) of these podcasts, check out my comprehensive list of podcasts for kids.

2. If you're interested in the future of podcasts for kids, you might be interested in Kids Listen, a grassroots organization of podcasters and folks like me interested in helping high-quality audio for children thrive.  We're looking for other interested folks -- producers or otherwise -- to join in!

With that out of the way, let's get to the chart.

1. Stories Podcast

2. Brains On

3. Radio Adventures of Eleanor Amplified

4. Storynory

5. Tumble

6. Story Pirates

7. Story Time

8. Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child

Others (listed alphabetically): 1001 Classic Short Stories and Tales, Activated Stories, Audio Books for Children, Barefoot Books, But Why, Children's Fun Storytime, Cramazingly Incredifun Sugarcrash Kids, Ear Snacks, Family Folk Tales, Goop Tales; Little Stories for Tiny People, Molly and the Sugar Monster, Official Adventures in Odyssey, Podcast Kid, Radio Adventures of Doctor Floyd, The Secret Diaries of Tara Tremendous, Short & Curly, Sparkle Stories, The Story Home, That Story Show

Video: "Mister Cloud" - Caspar Babypants

Away We Go album cover

To go into my appreciation for Chris Ballew's Caspar Babypants project would take far more time than I have at the moment (not to mention a ruthless editor prepared to cut my ramblings to an acceptable length.

And I feel like that would go against the spirit of CB's music for kids, which is simple, stylish, and incredibly catchy.  It's not that he dashes off the music -- or his videos -- there is attention and craft in his output.  But there's definitely not a feeling of overthinking things, and as he's been cranking out more than one album a year for several years now, he doesn't have time to overthink things.

The latest Caspar Babypants album Away We Go! was released last week, and the first single from the album is "Mister Cloud."  Like many of his videos, the video for "Mister Cloud" has a very simple concept -- it's a hand-drawn cloud looking very cute -- neatly executed.  I like it a bunch.

Caspar Babypants - "Mister Cloud" [YouTube]

Video: "Players' Life" - Alphabet Rockers (World Premiere!)

Back to school season is in full swing, and the Bay Area's Alphabet Rockers have a brand-new video to help your favorite kindergartner slide back into life on the school playground.

OK, I promise that their video for "Players' Life" is, unlike my dad-joke of a sentence above, entirely cool.  The song's off their new album The Playground Zone and the video features a whole bunch of kids dancing with the duo (Kaitlin McGaw and Tommy Shepherd) on a playground, a sight which in my eyes very rarely gets old.  (Choreography is courtesy of Samara Atkins from Oakland's Destiny Arts Center.)  The kids themselves are from Shepherd's son's second grade class (his son, also named Tommy, is one of the mini-me's, who might be my favorite thing about the video).  Director Julio Salcedo, who directs the Rockers' web series, keeps things moving along here, too.

Just an all-around fun little video, one I'm happy to be world-premiering here.

Alphabet Rockers - "Players' Life" [YouTube]

Interview: Kyla Slaven (Short & Curly)

One of my favorite podcasts for kids right now is Short & Curly, a production of Australia's ABC.  You can read my review of the show if you'd like, but basically it's an ethics podcast for kids and families that delves into ethical issues without being ponderous.  It's the product of those four people striking a pose in the picture above, giving you a sense that they're not taking themselves too seriously.  The three in front are the "on-air" talent: Molly Daniels, an actor and writer; Carl Smith, a reporter for ABC TV; and Dr. Matt Beard, from Australia's The Ethics Centre.

The woman in the back is the engine that makes everything go -- she's Kyla Slaven, the producer for Short & Curly.  I wanted to get some background on her, the show, and how the Australian kids podcast scene compares to the American one.  (Spoiler alert: a lot of it is going to sound familiar to American podcasters and podcast listeners.)

Zooglobble: How did you get into radio/audio production?

Kyla Slaven: I got into radio accidentally. I was studying journalism at university a long time ago and the documentary film subject was so popular they balloted students for a place. My number didn’t come up, I gave radio a go, and fell in love with it.

How was Short & Curly created (e.g., where did the idea come from, how did you get ABC to support the show, etc.)?

Short & Curly has been on my mind for a few years now. I have previously worked as the producer on a philosophy show for adults at the ABC (The Philosopher’s Zone), and once made a program about studying philosophy in primary school. The kids, the ideas and questions, the whole ethos of it all in the classroom was exciting to me. So I just kept thinking that children were up for a program which appealed to their curious and interesting young minds. I didn’t study philosophy at school or university, another regret of mine, but always wanted to be a journalist or a teacher, so this kind of combines the two. I applied for a secondment [or temporary transfer] from the station I usually work at (RN at the ABC) to come to this digital first/podcast project (called First Run, which also made Science VS – now a Gimlet show) and this was one of the ideas I pitched.

Short and Curly logo

I think the ABC was interested because it was a group of people not really being serviced by audio/radio at all (kids). The show is aimed at children listening with the families and also the show builds in things which are only possible in a podcast format, i.e., the pause button approach.

How long did it take you from getting the OK from ABC to having the show ready to air?

This is a bit hard to answer because I was also overseeing pilot podcasts being produced by other people in this First Run project as part of my job, but it was at least 6 months. We had to find/cast the hosts and our in-house ethicist, thinking through how it might sound, we had to find a school to be our brains trust and play around with ideas for topics and sound. I think we have already gotten better at working out how many ideas you can get into one show before it becomes unwieldy.

Our team live in different cities and come together for an intense week for production with me in Sydney, but they all have other jobs as their main gig. The hosts do scripting over a few days each (in the lead up to our week together) and our ethicists is always bouncing ideas around with us, but mostly it is just me working on the show, in all the pre- and post-production tasks. But I really love the week in the studio when I sit in the control room and watch the three of them in the studio riffing off each other and bringing the whole thing to life. There is a fair amount of fun and laughter that week though we are zonked by the end.

What were/are your goals for the series?

The goals were to help develop the culture of families listening to podcasts together (especially on car trips for holidays or stuck on traffic on the way to sports training and the like); the ABC had research showing parents were keen for non-screen based media and entertainment for children. We wanted to reach number one in the kids and family iTunes category in Australia, which we did. (Most of the programs are about parenting, though, rather than being podcasts for children.) I think we still have a lot of work to do in terms of creating a family podcast listening culture (that such podcasts exist, then how to listen to them).

What has been the response to the series in Australia?  Internationally?

We have done pretty well, but not as well as some other ABC podcasts. I think some of this is about the issues in the [previous] answer. There is also so much work in getting the word out, targeting people and groups who might be interested in the broader concept or individual programs.

Co-host Molly in recording studio with a couple kids

Did you learn anything, particularly as it relates to creating audio for kids, in the first season of the show that you incorporated into your production of the second season?

What we have learnt, and are still fumbling our way around, is to be really clear in our heads what the two or three main “stops” in the journey are for each episode. We have also tried to do more rather than less signposting of where we are heading and where we have come from. Again, it’s a work in progress but these are probably the two main things we know we have to really nail. We have also tried to amp up the silliness and the colour of each episode using [sound effects] and the host interactions to set up self-contained little worlds.

Who’s your favorite ethicist/philosopher?

I don’t have a favourite philosopher, but I realised when producing the philosophy show that the host (who WAS trained in academic philosophy) was always at his most excited when we were looking at philosophy of science and some of the more esoteric stuff (to me, at least) like about time or reality, whereas I have always been more taken with philosophy and philosophers really grounded in political and social questions, whether in ancient times, during the enlightenment or now. But like I say, I am by no means an expert on philosophy or ethics.

"Should you eat your pet?"

What’s next for the show?  For you?

I’m not sure what is next for the show, given we are not even one year in. There is a lot more to explore, as well as the potential for expansion into other areas of philosophy. We are hoping to do a live show later this year, partly so we can just have the fun of being in a big room full of children who are interested in curly questions about the world. My official job is at RN, a national mostly talks-based radio station that is part of the ABC. I would love this show to continue and would love also to do more in the kids audio world, but who knows?