Video: "Flying Starfish" - Elena Moon Park (World Premiere!)

Even though I’m not posting quite so much these days, I will always make time to post music from Elena Moon Park, the New York singer/violinist/multi-instrumentalist who first came to kindie prominence as a member of Dan Zanes’ band. (And not just because her non-musical background suggests she’s a policy nerd like me.) She’s always drawn from a deep well of influences, yes from East Asia as noted on her first album Rabbit Days and Dumplings, but beyond that.

Her new album Unhurried Journey takes another dip into that deep well, effortlessly melding sounds from different cultures. This song from the album — “Flying Starfish” — is deceptively simple but the instrumentation, featuring the musical saw and jarana with some electronic instrumentation as well, gives it a dreamlike feel. As for the song itself, Park notes that “I sang this song to my niece Zora when she was born, making it up as I went along. While holding her for the first time, I thought of all the exciting adventures coming her way, the transformations and changes that come with them, and how her family would always be waiting for her when she returns.”

This world-premiere video features drawings by the musician and artist Dana Lyn that match the song in its simple, otherworldly texture. All around, a lovely song for your family to get lost in for a few minutes.

Elena Moon Park - “Flying Starfish” [YouTube]

Video: "Ding Dong Merrily On High" - Charlie Hope (World Premiere!)

It is always a good time for music from Charlie Hope, her clean, crisp voice a tonic for the dreary days of winter (or summer!).

Sing A Festive Song! is Hope’s 2017 holiday-themed album, and included a lovely version of “Ding Dong Merrily On High.” Hope rewrote the lyrics to remove the most religious parts of the text, but kept the er… glorious “Gloria,” which requires a long intake of breath before the singer the gently descending line. In other words, the absolute best part remains.

It may be a couple years after the album release, but now the song has a video that’s every bit of delightful. It’s directed by David Cowles and Jeremy Galante (this is not the first time by any means their work has appeared on this site, often in conjunction with They Might Be Giants’ music) and features a bunch of happy, playful, and singing gnomes. Festive for the winter holidays, no matter which winter holidays your family celebrate. And it’s a world premiere!

Charlie Hope - “Ding Dong Merrily On High” [YouTube]

Video: "Froggie Went a Courtin'" - Caspar Babypants

It's a little hard to hear because of his history with the pop-punk Presidents of the United States of America, and because his Caspar Babypants project has such a whimsical pop sensibility, but Chris Ballew's work as Caspar Babypants is very, very folk. His originals generally have a simple core, easily replicable as sung work by the novice. And he's very committed to reworking folk song classics and giving them new life.

For "Froggie Went a Courtin'," perhaps the hoariest of folk song chestnuts, Ballew ditches the amphibian's sword and pistol, and replaces them with a ring and bouquet -- because Froggie's asking to get married, duh. It's not that this new version is any better than the thousands that have come before it (though it's better than a lot of them), but his willingness to make the song his one is folk as anything.

The song is on his forthcoming album Jump for Joy! (out August 18), and as with many of his videos, features Ballew's own drawings. (Look for Beatle John.)

Caspar Babypants - "Froggie Went a Courtin'" [YouTube]

What Is Music? Let Christian Robinson and Some Kids Tell You

I stumbled across the video below recently, and I was completely charmed, both by the voices of kids but also -- and probably even more -- by the animation from Christian Robinson. He uses a variety of styles to accompany the voices of kids answering the question "What is music?" and other musical inquiries -- pen-and-ink (there's a touch of Ed Emberley there), stop-motion cutouts, photograph-and-drawing mashups. Sure there's humor in the kids' occasional off-balance response -- "My favorite kind of jazz is... Michael Jackson" says one boy with a well-placed dramatic pause -- but the animation is made with heart.

Robinson graduated from CalArts in 2008 (his "Dinosaur Song" from that year is worth checking out as another winning meld of subject matter and varied animation styles) and over the past nine years he has, not surprisingly, had an impressive set of authors to illustrate for: Margaret Wise Brown, Mac Barnett, and Matt de la Pena for Last Stop on Market Street, for which de la Pena won the Newbery Award and Robinson a Caldecott Honor. And, to bring it back to kindie for the moment, he also illustrated Justin Roberts' The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade.

But all that was in the future when Robinson made this video. It's charming and worth your time.

Christian Robinson - "What Is Music?" [Vimeo]

Video: "Phone" - Eric Herman and the Thunder Puppies

Normally a video posted on a Monday morning might qualify for a "Monday Morning Smile" designation, but the latest video from Eric Herman and the Thunder Puppies is all about the impending collapse of Earth and its inhabitants due to humans' obsession with those tiny glass screens.

So not as uplifting as I'd typically choose for those Monday Morning Smile.

The video for "Phone" -- the latest from Herman's Bubble Wrap album -- will likely put a wry smile on your and/or your kids' faces, depending on your (or their) level of social media addiction. (Also: somebody has to have copyrighted "Webflix," right?)

Eric Herman and the Thunder Puppies - "Phone" [YouTube]

Video: "Dame una A" - 123 Andres

It's Cinco de Mayo as I type this, and while 123 Andres' new album Arriba Abajo gets its official release a month from now, this is as a good a week as any to release a brand new Spanish-language kids music video.

The video is for "Dame una A" ("Give Me an A") and its simple celebration of vowels ("vocales") is well-served by an incredibly cute quartet of animated animals, characters, and, er, vowels. I'm guessing this is not the last we will see of them.

123 Andres - "Dame una A" [YouTube]