Zooglobble

Many months ago, I mentioned the Shins had recorded a new song -- "It's OK, Try Again" -- for the Nick Jr. show Yo Gabba Gabba!.

And then I told you that a video for "It's OK, Try Again" had been posted.

Well, for those of you who prefer to watch your kids' music videos on larger than iPod-sized screens, help is at hand. The Yo Gabba Gabba episode that actually features the video debuts on Friday, May 23rd in an episode titled "Imagine." (I doubt John Lennon had a hand in the episode.) Oooh, the Shins on a TV size of your choice!

And for those of who are OK with iPod-sized videos and who don't want to watch the show (or wait for it), watch the video here.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While I think that the Asylum Street Spankers' Mommy Says No! was definitely one of the best dozen or so CDs from last year, there's no doubt that it was definitely on the edge as kids' CDs go -- it's not for everyone, and some families won't like it at all.

On top of that, one song -- "You Only Love Me For My Lunchbox" -- has achieved what I believe to be a singular achievement in the kids' music genre. It is, to my knowledge, the only kids' song -- recorded specifically for kids -- to be edited for language. That's right, XM Radio is playing the song, but without the last part of the tongue-twister breakdown.

Why? Well, you'll have to watch this video from a Spankers' show in Dallas back in March.

So, anyway, to answer my own question - from about 4:00 to 4:30 or so, most definitely not, unless you want to have a lengthy and probably unproductive discussion with your impressionable child. (Note: the actual cursing is not part of the CD, just to make that clear.)

Asylum Street Spankers - "You Only Love Me For My Lunchbox"

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How many of you have ever wanted to be a kids' musician? (OK, I'm excluding those of you who actually are kids' musicians.) How many of you ever wanted to go a road trip and see your family's favorite kids' musicians in concert? How many of you ever wanted to blog about it?

Well, if you're Eric Herman, you've answered "yes" to all three questions above. I should have noted this for you sooner, but for nearly a month, Herman's been documenting his travels down the West Coast in his Myspace blog. Herman writes of his days playing at schools, festivals, and libraries, and that's interesting from a "life as a musician" perspective. But he's also got his wife and two kids in tow with in his "What a Ride!" RV (conveniently named for his next album), and so, yeah, it's a blog about travelling with a wife and two small kids. (An RV in San Francisco is apparently not the easiest of vehicles to maneuver in that hilly city -- who knew?)

And, as you might expect from the writer of Cool Tunes For Kids, Herman spends a lot of time running into other kids' artists. Justin Roberts, Gunnar Madsen, David Tobocman, Tito from the Hipwaders, Frances England -- and probably more I've forgotten -- all make appearances in print and photo in Herman's blog.

Anyway, a fun read.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Andy Blackman Hurwitz, mastermind of the ever-expanding Baby Loves Music empire, recently released the first CD from his Baby Loves Hip-Hop brand, Baby Loves Hip-Hop Presents The Dino-5. With hip-hop producing legend Prince Paul on board, along with a whole host of well-known names from the hip-hop world telling the story of five hip-hop dinosaurs, the expectations for the project were pretty high.

The end result? Well, it's a mixed bag. To be sure, the music is first-rate. I don't listen to a great deal of hip-hop, but the funky music and beats heard here are right down my alley. "Yea Me Too" has fantastic interplay between MC T-Rex (Chali 2na from Jurassic 5, who is essentially the lead rapper here and does a fine job) and Billy Brontosaurus (Wordsworth), while "Tell Me More" is a funky song with a sinewy melodic line. And "Jump," which features Pos and Dave from De La Soul will, indeed, encourage jumping. The songs, all 9 or 10 here, are lots of fun to listen to.

And if the CD had stopped at that, it would've been an excellent little CD clocking in at just under a half-hour. But interspersed between the songs are a story about how the "Dino-5" came to be. The story itself is OK, your fairly standard "don't judge a book by its cover" story (T-Rex is, shock, a nice guy!). But rather than using poet Ursula Rucker to tell the story in a unique way, creating characters or dramatizing the story in her own words, the recording uses her in the role of a mother reading a story to her child, just setting up the scenes. According to the press materials, the story may be heading for Broadway or a cartoon series; I can see those settings being much better for this source material than the way it's presented here, which is a little boring.

The music will appeal most to kids ages 3 through 6. You can hear tracks and samples here or here or at one of the Dino-5 Myspace pages (like MC T-Rex) -- who knew dinosaurs had myspace pages?

The list of good kids' hip-hop albums is pretty short, and even with the narrative tracks slowing it down, Baby Loves Disco Presents the Dino-5 should make that list, because the music is solid. Here's hoping that it's not the last appearance of the Dino-5 and the next time around, the integration between story and song is a little better.

Posted by SAShepherd at 03:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Newly-shorn concert/potluck promoter Bill Childs recently wrote of his appreciation for the Replacements.

That discussion, along with comments in this Justin Roberts Pop Fly review about how people have "linked" me with Justin Roberts, made me think about musical antecedents and current influences. Who would be the most important musicians (of any genre) throughout your entire life -- the ones, even if you don't listen to them on a regular basis now, who profoundly affect who you listen to now and, heck, who you are, period? And who are the kids' musicians who have done the same?

My answers are after the jump -- hopefully yours will be in the comments.

I'm going to limit myself to just 3 artists in each category, though of course that means leaving some off the list. But I'm looking for the touchpoints here.

All musicians (note: these aren't ranked)
1. Ludwig van Beethoven: OK, my first artist, and I'm already breaking the rules, but it's fair to say that there is no person who has written more music than I've actually played than Mr. Beethoven. Aside perhaps from my organ-playing days (in which J. S. Bach naturally played the primary role), Beethoven was always central. You can't play a stringed instrument, either in a symphonic or chamber setting, without playing Beethoven. If you think his stuff is great to listen to (and it is, I've got a whole bunch of CDs), it's just as great to play. Central to my love of making music.
2. They Might Be Giants: There have been relatively few points in my life where I would describe the band as being my favorite, but I doubt they've ever been out of my top five, certainly the top ten. Discovering Lincoln on cassette was my first entree into finding music that wasn't played on the radio. Their music always struck me as incredibly catchy and brainy simultaneously, a heady combination for a geek like me.
3. Spoon: I could probably have picked another half-dozen artists to represent my musical influences of today, but Spoon is the one I'm enjoying the most right now. I've really only been listening to them for maybe 4 years, but nobody has put together a stronger set of albums over the past 7 or 8 years. Their focus on crafting a song, then figuring out what they can strip away (rather than layer on), is what makes them likely to be a band that everybody in a band 15 years from now cites as a major influence on their musical development.

Kids' musicians
1. Justin Roberts: I'm not quite sure how I've become "linked" with Roberts, but I think he's a fabulous songwriter, and I don't think anybody touches him in his ability to write songs about kids' subjects in a way that parents will relate to as well. His songs have touched me (not talking about my family here, just me) more than any other kids' artist. The rest of the family listens, too...
2. Elizabeth Mitchell: If I hadn't heard You Are My Flower lo these many years ago, and realized that kids' music didn't have to be crappily electronic and noisy, you probably wouldn't be reading me writing all these words about this genre today. Our family has listened to her CDs so many times. This could be taken as a slam (though it shouldn't, it's a compliment), but her CDs are perfect for long, lazy drives in the car when you want the kids to nap.
3. Kenneth Guilmartin: Who? If I had to guess which musician we have listened to more in our family, I'd say him. He was one of the co-creators of Music Together, which is a franchised early childhood music program we've participated in multiple times with both Miss Mary Mack and Little Boy Blue. I can't comment on how it compares to Gymboree or those other music programs, all I know is that we have the CDs and the sheet music and we listen to (and occasionally play) All. The. Time. The CDs are cleanly produced and I've discovered more great traditional songs through that program than through any other source. And the opportunity to sing in a group (something I don't get to do since I don't have time for choir at church or elsewhere) is great for me.

So... what about you?

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New York's Hayes Greenfield is the most vital person in the kids' music jazz subgenre. Through his Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz program, he brings his saxophones and a love of jazz to kids in concert. (And his 1998 CD of the same name which inspired that program is, with the possible exception of the new Medeski Martin & Wood disk, the best kids' jazz album out there, period.)

So clearly Greenfield's latest project, Music For A Green Planet, released yesterday, Earth Day, had the possibility of being another excellent album. Certainly many of the characteristics of his Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz disk appear here -- the never-dumbed down playing of Greenfield and his fellow instrumentalists, the broad range of jazz styles (a New Orleans strut on "This Little World of Ours," the South American jazz of "This Little World of Ours"). And once again, Greenfield brings aboard a bunch of fine vocalists, with Joe Lee Wilson and Melissa Stylianou getting the most lead vocal time. The kids' chorus is fun and never cloying (the hopping "The Sun" is a particular high point.) In sum, the jazz is first-rate.

What keeps this from being an absolutely necessary CD are the lyrics, which are set to familiar kids' tunes (e.g., "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" becomes "We'll Be a PArt of the Solution"). Please don't misunderstand me -- the lyrics are generally witty and it's hard to argue with the need to reduce, reuse, recycle. The difficult part is that it's 53 minutes of the same thing -- it's all a bit too much, frankly. And while there isn't much talking down or straight lecturing, I'm not sure the concept of the carbon footprint is going to make much headway with the target audience. While not dull, the album isn't as fun as it could have been. I think the album would've been served better by a few more instrumental tracks or lyrics that just celebrated nature or being outside rather than stressing the message all the time. Less would have been more in this case.

I think kids ages 5 through 9 will most appreciate the messages here. You can hear samples at the album's CDBaby page or here. I do think Music for a Green Planet will be popular with (and I would recommend it to) any ecologically-minded class or family, plus jazz fans. While I'd recommend Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz over this album for an introduction to Greenfield's work, I do certainly hope it'll be less than 10 years before he makes another album for kids and families.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For a variety of non-music-related reasons, I've been slack in formally noting this on the front page of the site, but I wanted to extend my congratulations to Florida's Mr. Richard, who took on all comers in KidVid Tournament 2008, and took the title of KidVid Tournament 2008 with the help of a most remarkable fanbase. (I always knew he had an active fanbase -- I had no idea just how active until the Tournament.)

Congratulations to him and all the other performers (especially New York's The Jimmies, who took on Mr. Richard with their video for "Cheese" and together broke all commenting records to smithereens in their epic semifinal matchup, extended.) I don't quite know what form KidVid Tournament 2009 will take, but it'll be here...

Anyway, for one last time, here is Mr. Richard and "Cheese."

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

... so why wouldn't you host a kids' music concert there?

OK, that probably wasn't the thinking of XMKids when they set up a concert for Saturday, May 24, but, hey, why not? The XMKids' Traveling Roadshow will broadcast from 11 Children's Miracle Network hospitals across the country starting May 12 as part of an effort to raise $10 million for the non-profit group.

And at the end of the trip they'll host a live, free show from noon to 4 PM at the Sylvan Theatre on the National Mall. Musicians playing at the show include Lisa Loeb, Meredith Brooks, and the ubiquitous Jimmies, who are well on their way to becoming the Jack Johnson of this year's summer concert circuit, appearing seemingly everywhere.

Nice lineup for a good cause.

Posted by SAShepherd at 02:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After going over-the-top for their first two videos ("Do The Elephant" and "Spanimals"), New York's Jimmies do what all artists do for their third release -- go power-ballad.

OK, it's not really a power ballad (there is no poofed hair), but "Taddy" is one of the few sweet and tender songs off Make Your Own Someday, and now it has a video to match, one in which the band members sit around and don't even lip-synch a word.

But it's awesome in its own way.

The Jimmies - "Taddy"

By the way, is there a word for tweaking your video to make the YouTube "pull-clip" (such as the "Taddy" above) be particularly enticing (or relevant)?

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Southern California-based singer-songwriter Tom Freund released Hug Trees in late 2007, and I'm sort of surprised it's gone under everyone's radar (including mine) until just recently. In many ways, the album, inspired by his preschool-aged daughter, is a typical "kids' music" CD -- it's got a "freeze dance" song, there's a rendition of "The Cat Came Back," there's a song about baking a cake.

But there's a relaxed and playful attitude to the whole affair that makes it more compelling than you would think from the description above. Take "Freezedance," for example, which has a very funky '70s sound (Freund mentions James Brown as a particular inspiration for the track) and doesn't just involve Freund occasionally yelling "Freeze!" but also has him encouraging listeners to emulate animals and throwing out musical adlibs. "The Cat Came Back" is an admittedly hard song to screw up, but I quite liked his mellow approach on the song. "Party in the Yard" was actually written by Brett Dennen (who appears on this and one other track), and it's a soulful, funky tune (think Jack Johnson) about playing outside. (If you get a bit of a Ben Harper vibe, too, well, Freund's played with him quite a bit.)

Freund's roots-rock vibe on some tracks ("Hug Trees" or "Bump Bump Bump") will remind listeners of Brady Rymer, while on the closing "Go To Sleep (Fais Do-Do)" or "Seashells" (the former with Abra Moore, the latter with Victoria Williams), Freund sounds a little bit like a West Coast Elizabeth Mitchell. (And on "I Walk the Dog," Freund just sounds like a tired guy who knows how important it is to walk your dog, if you've got one.)

The 33-minute album will appeal mostly to listeners ages 3 through 6. You can hear four tracks at the album's Myspace page, or hear selections from more tracks at its CDBaby page.

The biggest strength of Hug Trees is its overall vibe, which turns what might have been a collection of typical kids songs into a fun little disk, something beyond ordinary. Fans of Brady Rymer or Elizabeth Mitchell I think will respond well to the musicianship and playfulness from Freund and friends here. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's unfair, but I'll start this review of Pop Fly, the sixth solo kids' music album from Chicago's Justin Roberts, by saying I think Meltdown, Roberts' fifth solo kids' CD is easily on the shortlist of best kids' music CDs of the decade. Clearly, I had high expectations for the new CD, which is being released today.

Never fear, Pop Fly is a hit. (OK, I promise -- that's the only baseball-related phrase I'll use here. Read on fearlessly, folks.)

If Roberts isn't the best songwriter in the rock/pop/folk heart of kids' music, he certainly doesn't have many peers. The new album has a number of outstanding tracks that again showcase his songwriting strengths -- nifty lyrics that flow effortlessly ("Pop Fly," "Kickboard, Baby, Yeah"), carefully crafted portraits of life at home ("From Scratch", "The Backyard Super Kid"), and an affinity for singalong choruses ("Stay-at-Home Dad", "Field Trip"). If some of the lyrics don't quite work -- a stay-at-home dad who kids' clothes don't match very well seems a bit cliched -- it's forgivable because so much else does.

Roberts' melodic and musical sense is once again ably abetted by fellow musician Liam Davis, who again produces Roberts' CD. The album sounds great, from the faux Dylan (and loose chorus) of "Henrietta's Hair" to the strings on "The Backyard Super Kid" to the mellow surf sounds of "Kickboard, Baby, Yeah." And, yeah, there are a bunch of horns, a Roberts habit from almost the very beginning. The alterna-pop sound mixes in hints of Fountains of Wayne and ELO, and every great forgotten '80s alternative hitmaker, along with Burt Bacharach. It's a heady mix.

The overall mood of the album is somewhat more reflective than Meltdown, and maybe for that reason I liked Pop Fly a little bit less. It's maybe a little bit more in the Not Naptime camp -- another fine album, but more downtempo than Roberts' best-known songs. The irrepressible protagonists of "Meltdown" or "Ten Little Cookies" don't make an appearance here. Again, the songs are excellent, they're just a little more mellow. And I think Roberts' best songs are the less mellow ones.

Having said that, my favorite song on the CD -- my favorite song of the year thus far, kids or adult -- is the tender "Fruit Jar". It's a stone-cold folk classic, with lines like "Life ain't no fruit jar / Stuck in a cellar / Sometimes you've just got to / Spin that old propeller / Watch it rise up / Way past the moon / And if love don't find you / You know it's going to be there soon." The song itself is beautifully constructed -- add the duetting voice of Nora O'Connor (who also appeared on Yellow Bus) and Davis' nifty guitar work, and it's one of those songs that should carry on far beyond this album. It's a tremendously affecting tune, and consdering how much some of Roberts' other songs have affected me ("Cartwheels and Somersaults," for example), that's high praise.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 8. You can find Roberts' CDs in an increasing number of physical stores, but if you want to hear songs from the 37-minute album, you can hear "Pop Fly" by checking out Roberts' Radio or his (new) Myspace page (or check out snippets at your favorite online retailer).

Pop Fly is another masterfully crafted collection of songs which will have broad appeal just like the best in kids' literature. If Roberts has taken a slightly more mellow approach to his songs this time around, they're no less appealing. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, they've announced the Austin City Limits Festival lineup for the 2008 edition, and it's a doozy. Foo Fighters, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and Beck appear to be the 3 headliners based on the fact they're listed first, and there are a lot of bands on the undercard worth seeing (David Byrne, Neko Case, Gillian Welch, Mates of State are just some of the intriguing names on the list).

But this is Zooglobble, and so here I am with the Austin Kiddie Limits lineup:

Jambo
Q Brothers
Buck Howdy with BB
Uncle Rock
Big Don
Mr. Ray
The Jimmies
School of Rock

With the exception of Jambo, Q Brothers and School of Rock, all are new to the AKL stage. The lineup is a little more country (Buck Howdy), a little more hip-hop (Big Don, who was there last year passing out CDs, so that seemed to work out well for him), with perhaps the Jimmies trying to fit the large showmanship shoes of the Sippy Cups.

Austin City Limits Festival this year is Sept. 26 - 28.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now, don't get me wrong -- Austin's Biscuit Brothers are most thoroughly enjoyed on your local PBS station or on DVD. But it's been a bit of a pain trying to describe the show with, you know, just words.

Relief for the word-challenged Biscuit-appreciating music writer is at hand, however, because the Brothers finally have themselves their own YouTube channel.

That's right, they have nine videos from the show posted on the site, ready for your viewing pleasure.

And I'm going to tell you which ones to watch first.

So, I'd start with the immortal "Chickens Playing Bongos," which has several things going for it, including the almost-always hysterical Tiny Scarecrow, lots of different instruments to learn, and chickens playing bongos. Sadly, the chickens are unseen, but otherwise it's a fun little vignette...

But there are eight more videos... Which ones should you watch first?

Well, every show features "Crazy Classics," which puts a humorous spin on a classical music warhorse. This one, "The Can, Can!" (which uses, of course, Offenbach's "Can-Can" as inspiration) is by far the favorite one we've seen in our household. The sight of the can buckled into the carseat still cracks me up.

"Tempo and You!" is a good example of the show at its most instructional. Which isn't too instructional, but I think it does a good job of getting its point across...

If you have a number of Biscuit Brothers-related CDs and DVDs, you'll probably grow tired of "Go Make Music!," but for the first 100 times or so, it's a cute little song, and this video is typical of the "Symphony Barn" performances they typically close the show with...

At any rate, there are five more videos at the YouTube page (including "The Tiger Rag" and the mockumentary "Musical Day"), so go forth and explore.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The kids music genre includes, of course, those songs explicitly written for kids. But it also includes those songs re-appropriated for kids, though perhaps not originally intended for that audience.

It was in the latter category that I thought "Crayola Doesn't Make a Color For Your Eyes," from Boston-based artist Kristin Andreassen and her solo album Kiss Me Hello, fell into when I first heard it (or, rather, saw the YouTube video below).

It's a love song, ostensibly, but it's about crayons. What a perfect re-appropriated song!, I thought.

And then I found out it won the "Children's Song of the Year" in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest back in 2006. Other winners in the category include Joe McDermott, Thaddeus Rex, and Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, so clearly it's not some out-of-left-field award. Andreassen wrote the song when she was teaching dance in grade schools.

Oh, well, loss of my preconceived notion is your gain, as you can go to the link above and download the track. Lots of fun.

Or you can just be mesmerized by the live rendition of the patty-cake on the album track. If your kids are anything like Miss Mary Mack, they'll be fascinated by the fact they keep that up for nearly 4 minutes.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's nothing terribly fancy about Ditties for Kiddies, a benefit CD for the Little Kids Rock organization, which brings free musical instruments and music instruction to public schools. The CD comes in a small slipcase with nothing but the cover art on the front and song titles and artists on the back.

But, you know, so long as the music's good, I'm OK, and the music's good here. There's a wide variety of songs here, but a lot of them would fall in the "jamband" category. Compilation producers Deep Fried Pickle Project contribute their jug-band original "Picklejuice," while Hot Buttered Rum turn in a sprightly and bluegrass-y "Firefly." Other tracks, such as Greensky Bluegrass' take on "Boom Boom" (which Raffi's done) and ALO's "Mashed Potatoes" mine similar veins. Deadwood Revival's "Daisy" is a sweet Americana tune.

It's not entirely on the Americana side of roots music -- one of the most fun tracks is "Who Stole the Hot Sauce" by Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, a rollicking zydeco-influnced tune. And there's the electronica dance tune "Milk Man" by Zilla. But if you're not keen on roots music, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. (And if you're looking for a CD with a sound more directly targeted at kids, look elsewhere, too. It by no means is kid-unfriendly, but aside from a Melanie Dill track and a couple other tracks, it's really kid-friendly, not focused.)

The songs may be most interesting to kids ages 3 through 8, but, as noted above, the appeal is probably pretty broad. You can listen to track at the album's CDBaby page. In Ditties for Kiddies, the Deep Fried Pickle Project have put together a sweet little compilation CD that will appeal to a number of listeners, particularly those families who like the jamband/roots music sound. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here we go, everyone, the final of KidVid Tournament 2008. This contest pits "Cheese" from Mr. Richard's Polka Dot Puzzle (video directed by Banks Helfrich) against "The Seven Days of the Week (Never Go To Work)," from They Might Be Giants' Here Come the 123s CD/DVD (video directed by David Cowles and Sean McBride).

As always, vote once per family only, please, in the comments below. Votes are due by 9 PM West Coast (midnight East Coast) tonight (Tuesday). And, remember, vote nicely.

Mr. Richard - "Cheese"

They Might Be Giants - "Seven Days of the Week (Never Go To Work)"

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those of you who were kinda taken by the cover art for Snacktime, Barenaked Ladies' first kids' album (due out May 6), well, now you can get a whole bunch more of that. Instead of just preordering the CD alone, you can preorder the CD and an accompanying book. Yes, you can also get a book featuring a collection of stories based upon the album, with illustrations from bandmember Kevin Hearn (who also did the album cover).

I'll have a review of the album soon enough, but I think longtime readers of the website will probably find the preorder price ($10 for the CD alone, $15 for the book/CD combo, both shipped) tempting.

But in case you need to hear more...

Youtube is typically accomodating, in this case with recordings from a show the band did in the greater Vancouver area back in March. Here, then, are the first five tracks from Snacktime, as performed live.

7 8 9
The Ninjas or watch a version below...
Pollywog In A Bog
Raisins
Eraser

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, there was a KidVid Tournament 2008 semi-final between the Jimmies and Mr. Richard. Which ended in a tie.

But just like that other March Madness permits its 40-minute games to go into 5-minute overtime, so will I. Given that the voting window has generally been about 12 hours long, I'm going to open voting IN THIS THREAD for about 90 minutes (that's 1/8th the length of regulation), 'til 1:50 PM as time-stamped below.

The rules: One vote per family/household in the comments below. I will be checking IP addresses, so don't even think about voting twice, 'cause I'll delete both votes. I'm not going to delete votes for trash talk, but c'mon, folks, be nice. (Besides, I don't think you're going to convince someone to change their vote.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While yesterday's matchup was a live-action affair, the 2nd semifinal in KidVid 2008 is an all-animation competition. Renee & Jeremy offer "It's A Big World," a soft lullaby from their It's A Big World disk (review). They Might Be Giants counter with "The Seven Days of the Week (Never Go To Work)," a zippy anti-work/pro-trumpet practice tune from Here Come the 123s (review).

You know the rules by now. One vote per family -- one per family, folks! -- in the comments below, due by 9 PM tonight (Thursday). As always, vote nice, y'all.

Renee & Jeremy - "It's A Big World"

They Might Be Giants - "Seven Days of the Week (Never Go To Work)"

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And if I wasn't running a blog for kids' music, I'd use an even stronger term.

TheJimmies-Mr. Richard KidVid 2008 Semifinal ended with, I'm not kidding, a virtual tie. I mean, there might have been a slight voting edge to one artist, but we're talking 1 or 2 votes in nearly 700 cast.

We're talking Florida 2000-close. And given that I eliminated some votes (on both sides) because they appeared to have come from the same family (one IP address voted 8 times in, like 5 minutes -- I didn't eliminate all those) and some other votes (on both sides) because they crossed a line I set for rudeness, I could purposefully exclude or include votes based on my personal preference and create my own winner.

Which I don't want to do.

(Heck, 5 people voted without making clear who it was they were voting for. My own hanging chad. Sigh.)

So I'm calling this round a draw. I don't know what I'm going to do yet, but I'm trying to be fair to both artists.

Stay tuned.

(And thanks, by the way, to everyone who voted and kept the tone pretty light.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While people are furiously voting in the KidVid Tournament 2008 (and if you're one of those, move on to the next post -- don't vote here), we're already collecting videos to determine the most popular kids music video in 2009.

One of those possible participants? Justin Roberts' "Pop Fly" video, which was released today. It's a fun, lo-fi cut-out effort, accompanied by the title track from his upcoming album, a track that I like more and more every time I hear it. (I also like the Cubs/Willy the Whale logo on Roberts' jersey.)

Video after the jump.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Moving on into the semifinals of KidVid Tournament 2008, we have a matchup between two popular videos thus far in the competition. The first video, The Jimmies' Latin-tinged (of course) "Spanimals," is off the Jimmies' 2007 debut CD, Make Your Own Someday (review). Its competition will Mr. Richard's Italian-tinged "Cheese," which is from his late-2007 release Polka Dot Puzzle (review).

Please read these voting rules carefully...
1. Vote in the comments below.
2. One vote per family.
3. Vote by 9 PM West Coast time tonight (Wednesday).
4. Please vote nicely. Anything that smacks too much of, well, talking smack won't be counted as a vote. It's OK to say how wonderful your favorite is. It's not OK to say how awful the other is.
5. Just as a reminder, comments aren't posted immediately -- for spam-prevention purposes they need my OK before being posted. So if your vote doesn't show up immediately, don't worry -- it will get posted eventually.

OK, so on to the videos (which you should watch both of, even if you already know who you're voting for.)

The Jimmies - "Spanimals"

Mr. Richard - "Cheese"

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (612)

Well, we've known about the title of the first Ralph's World album of all-new material for Disney Sound -- The Rhyming Circus -- for awhile now.

But now we have a date -- May 20th -- which, given that Dan Zanes is also releasing his new album on that date, makes it like the kids' music equivalent of Kanye and 50 Cent. Except I hope neither of them stops recording. (And I was just reminded that Frances England's new album drops that day, too. )

Anyway, the album will feature "rhymes such as wooly mammoth and sandwich, or squish and Lillian Gish." I also like a line mentioned from "Do The Math" -- “a new girl in class/Polly Hedron, a non-Euclidean lass”).

Tracklist after the jump.

1. The Rhyming Circus
2. Gotta Be Good
3. Edward, The Tap-Dancing Elephant
4. Polka Dot Shirt
5. Abby's Alphabet Soup
6. Do The Math
7. Rodeo Peg
8. Bad Bug Ball
9. Happy Not My Birthday
10. King Of The Alphabet
11. Finger Is The Singer
12. Folsom Daycare Blues
13. Watch The World Go By

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The title says it all. Head over here and find out about a fabulous new opportunity I'm privileged to be a part of that will let many more families know about kids' music you Zooglobble readers have known about for a long time.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)