The Best of Gustafer Yellowgold: A Playlist

What am I supposed to do with the new Gustafer Yellowgold album, Gustafer Yellowgold's Brighter Side, since it's the first one that comes without a full DVD to accompany it? All seven Gustafer prior albums dating back to 2007's Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World, were produced as DVD/CD sets with a video for each song, and, to greater or lesser degrees, a unifying story linking the songs together.

But for the new album, musician and illustrator Morgan Taylor, the mastermind behind Gustafer, eschewed a full set of videos. He'll be doing videos for some songs -- shout-outs to "Hot Nights" and "Baconstein" -- but not all. Perhaps Taylor is just looking to mix things up. (And if it means he releases music a little bit more often, even better.)

While I could do the standard review thing, I think I will take a cue from Taylor's decision and mix things up myself. So I put together a list of the best Gustafer Yellowgold songs from all eight albums (including Brighter Side). It wasn't a terribly difficult process -- quite enjoyable, actually -- because Taylor is one of kindie's most gifted pop songwriters, with an oblique sense of humor.

I tend to go for the more uptempo Gustafer tracks, so while you could easily make a solid compilation of nothing but the mellow tracks for cooling-down/nighttime purposes -- and Brighter Side tends to lean slightly more towards that softer, mellower side -- this playlist features more of the punchier tracks, either in tempo or arrangement.

So here's a Spotify playlist of my 40 favorite Gustafer Yellowgold tracks, organized chronologically, up to and including music from Brighter Side, out today. Grab your favorite foods (or least favorite foods, depending on how pugilistic your kids are feeling), tune in, and enjoy!

Video: "Rocketship" - Stacey Peasley (World Premiere!)

Sometimes all your kids -- or you -- need is a simple pop song with a cute video. If that's you today, might I suggest this video for "Rocketship" from Stacey Peasley? The song's a catchy and danceable guitar-driven number perfect for the closest kindergartener with a space obsession. (Evidently there are a number of said kindergarteners, because Peasley reports it's the most popular track off her 2016 Marty Beller-produced album RSVP.) When the song paired with the suuuuuupercute video from eg design based on illustrations from Jill Howarth, the whole package really, er... takes off. [Ducks behind curtain to avoid thrown objects.]

Anyway, I'm happy to world-premiere this fun video!

Stacey Peasley - "Rocketship" [YouTube]

Video: "Baconstein" - Gustafer Yellowgold

There are many pleasing things about the word of a new Gustafer Yellowgold album, but the news from a few weeks back that the forthcoming track "Baconstein" would be getting a video was among the most pleasing. "Baconstein" is a spiritual if not literal sequel to "Cakenstein," which, while not the most typical of Gustafer songs, is one of the funniest tracks in the Gustafer canon. "Baconstein" tells another story of food run amok, a "Bacon Chucky Norris" with an attitude. (As technology is for Wallace & Gromit, so food is for Gustafer Yellowgold, apparently.)

And now the video for "Baconstein" is here, so you can hear about (and see) Baconstein's six-pack abs. And more. Gustafer Yellowgold's Brighter Side is out Sept. 8.

Gustafer Yellowgold - "Baconstein" [YouTube]

Video: "Shine" - Alphabet Rockers (World Premiere!)

The community of musicians making hip-hop for kids is small but dedicated. The Bay Area's Alphabet Rockers have, over the course of their career, gradually refined their sound and their audience, moving from preschool-targeted topics to a somewhat older crowd.

Just a glance at the title of their upcoming album -- Rise Shine #Woke, out this Friday, September 1 -- suggests that Kaitlin McGaw and Tommy Shepherd continue their journey as songwriters into the world at large. (The band cites Lauryn Hill's classic The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as a template for the album.) Don't get me wrong, I love me some "Shape Rap," but I'm also glad to see them tackle broader social issues as well -- Pete Seeger, after all, sang about bugs and the labor movement.

You can read as much or as little politics as you want into this new tune "Shine," but the video, with footage from a recent concert at the local Oakland Museum, features lots of beaming, dancing kids, along with lyrics celebrating kids' smiles, skin color, and self-expression, is worth pressing play.

Alphabet Rockers - "Shine" [YouTube]

Alphabet Rockers at Oakland Museum concert

Photo credit: Marcus Salinas

A Postnoceros About the Rocknoceros Podnoceros

Rocknoceros: Boogie Woogie Bennie, Coach Cotton, and Williebob

(Pretty sure nobody's typed that before.)

I was happy to find out that DC-area kindie rockers Rocknoceros have stepped in the paths of Andrew and Polly and the Sugarcrash Kids and... hey, wait, why haven't there been more kids musicians who've tackled the podcast medium? I know of at least one more in the works, but, still, there should be more.

So, yay for Rocknoceros, who have started their own podcast called the Rocknoceros Podnoceros. Just one episode released so far, a celebration of all things summertime (a topic broad enough to cover both ice cream trucks and hydration and sweating).

Coach Cotton -- lead singer (usually) and the guy with the whistle in the picture above -- says that they're hoping that the podcast is a "broad platform through which [they] can find the 'thing' that excites... an audience." He cites the enthusiasm of bandmate Boogie Woogie Bennie (their multi-instrumentalist) for podcasts as being contagious for the rest of the band. They're hoping to educate and entertain, and hopefully read a wider audience, too.

And once you've had enough of summer, the next episode -- they hope to publish monthly -- will be a large topical shift -- it's all about Alaska!

Anyway, having listened to the first episode, I think if you've got kids between the ages of 4 and 8 -- in other words, Rockno's core audience demographic -- it's worth giving it a listen. You can subscribe in iTunes here or listen below...

And if you just want to groove to new Rockno tunes, check out "Summertime" below...

A Massive Caspar Babypants Playlist

Today marks the release of Jump For Joy!, the 13th album for kids from Caspar Babypants, AKA Chris Ballew.

Thirteen albums for any artist is a significant achievement, but the fact that Ballew has done so in basically little more than 9 years is even more amazing.

And the fact that those 13 albums are uniformly good to great -- not a stinker among them -- is the most impressive feat of them all.

Jump For Joy! is another good Caspar Babypants album, and while I'd probably pick a different album to introduce a listener to CB (More Please! or Sing Along!, to suggest a couple), it's certainly a worthwhile spin.

I have written many words about the music of Caspar Babypants -- many, many words. Let's face it, trying to say something interesting about the latest album from some who is releasing new music every 33 or 34 weeks can get difficult. Let's just say I think that Ballew is one of the great songwriters for preschoolers of this era or any other.

So rather than going into more detail on his latest album saying, basically, "I like this -- you should try it out," I decided to put together a playlist of my favorite Caspar Babypants songs. And as I went through his albums one by one, I quickly realized that to do something like a 15- or even 30-song list wouldn't do Ballew justice.

I present to you, then, one hundred awesome Caspar Babypants songs, up to and including songs from Jump For Joy!, out today. I have not tried to organize these 100 songs into the perfect Spotify playlist -- they are simply CB songs, ordered chronologically by release date. The one exception I made was to move all the songs from Night Night!, Ballew's lullaby/nighttime album, to the very end, but even then you'll hear a few lullabies from his other works scattered throughout. (I also tried to keep the songs I picked from Winter Party!, his Christmas/holiday album, not very... Christmas-y so that it works even in the heat of late August.)

Anyway, parents, enjoy, and Chris Ballew, thanks.