Review: Road Trip - Girl Authority

RoadTrip.jpgThere are two kinds of critic-proof kids' music albums. The first kind are albums from, say, Barney or the Wiggles or Baby Einstein. Setting aside whatever you (or, more importantly, I) think of the artistic merits of their music (and it's not necessarily what you think), clearly critical opinion won't move the sales meter one iota, up or down. (Note: I'd love to see what Oprah would do with kids' music, though.) The second kind is an album such as this one, Road Trip, the second album from the Boston-area group Girl Authority, released earlier this week. Now, seeing as their first album has reportedly sold more than 100,000 albums -- if not High School Musical-type sales, certainly more than enough to hold their own with the Dan Zanes and Laurie Berkners of the world -- there's something of the first kind of critic-proof-ness in here. But the bigger reason this album is critic-proof is this: Your kids can -- and do -- buy this album. Listen, if every parent who claims to be sick of the Wiggles just stopped buying their CDs, their sales would drop dramatically. Why? Because 3-year-olds aren't walking into their local Target, plunking down their credit card, and buying the latest CD. This album, however, isn't targeted at you (or me). It's targeted at your 9-year-old daughter. Who, while she probably doesn't have a credit card (unless you've got a waaay different approach to parenting than I have), does probably have an allowance and could pick this up at the mall or ask you to get it the next time you order something online. And, let's face it, you're probably not going to listen to the CD very much as she'll listen to it in her room or with headphones on. Still, you (or some well-meaning relative) might be interested in knowing, well, is it any good?

KidVid Tournament 2007

It's mid-March, which means it's almost time for our nation to ignore work, significant others, and child-rearing responsibilities in lieu of watching people running and jumping around with orange balls in their hands on large televisions. Well, here at Zooglobble, we'd like to bring families together. By watching people running and jumping around with variously-colored guitars in their hands on small computer screens. So I'm happy to announce Zooglobble's first (and maybe last, depending on how well this goes) KidVid Tournament. That's right, over the next 2+ weeks, we'll be pitting 16 of the best kids' music videos from the past year or so head-to-head with readers voting to determine the best video of the year. Who was the selection committee which decided the 16 best? Well, it's a committee of one -- me. I picked videos that showed some level of production value and had a decent song. I stayed away from live cuts. I also was limited to picking videos whose complete versions are available on the Internet (so you Ralph's World fans can blame Disney for Mr. Covert's absence here). Here, then, are the seedings: Lead Belly Region: 1. "I Hog the Ground (Groundhog Song)" - Steve Burns / Steven Drozd 2. "Tricycle" - Frances England 3. "Bees, Butterflies, and Bugs" - Sir Jerry 4. "Forest Rhymes" - Farmer Jason Pete Seeger Region: 1. "Let's Shake" - Dan Zanes 2. "I'm From the Sun" - Gustafer Yellowgold 3. "I Hope My Mama Says YES!" - AudraRox 4. ???? Woody Guthrie Region: 1. "Willy Was A Whale" - Justin Roberts 2. "I Found It!" - Brady Rymer 3. "Toenail Moon" - Wee Hairy Beasties 4. "Polar Bear" - The Quiet Two Ella Jenkins Region: 1. "Pieces of 8ight" - Captain Bogg & Salty 2. "Farm Song" - Laurie Berkner 3. "Ya Gotta Have Pep" - John Lithgow 4. "Picnic in the Graveyard" - Uncle Rock Sharp readers will notice that I've listed just 15 videos. Well, in addition to you voting on the videos in general, I've left room for a "play-in" game for the #4 seed in the Pete Seeger Region. Who will be this tournament's Niagara? Well, that's up to you, too. To nominate videos, click here. The first two matchups will be posted later today. Come back and vote for your favorites.

KidVid Tournament 2007: Nominate the 16th Video

As I discuss elsewhere, we're running Zooglobble's first KidVid Tournament over the next couple weeks or so. I'm looking to readers to pick the 16th video. (It's a play-in game!) Nominate your favorite(s) in the comments below. The video with the most comments will be picked, as long as the video conforms to the following rules (there are always rules, aren't there... it's a parenting thing): 1. The video has to be publicly accessible on the internet -- sites requiring registration to view the whole video will not be accepted. 2. The whole video has to be available (I call this the "Ralph's World" rule because the Disney website only includes 1-minute selections of his videos). 3. The video has to be from the past year or so. The song doesn't have to be, though. 4. Artists with a video already in the tournament (see list here) are ineligible for this final slot. I reserve the right to modify the rules above to account for things I'm not bright enough to anticipate. Deadline for nominations/votes: 8 PM West Coast time / 11 PM East Coast time Monday, March 19. Power to the people! (Or something like that.) Show me what I've missed.

KidVid: "Picnic in the Graveyard" - Uncle Rock

Hey, everyone, it's a kids' song about death! Really. Actually, this song is one of my favorites from Uncle Rock's Plays Well With Others album just because it's a disarming approach to the subject of death. I'm not sure the "hey, lookie, it's your dead Aunt Petunia" part of the video will advance that concept with all but the most metaphorically advanced of kids (or with those who, well, believe in ghosts), but this is a great video to show how to put together a compelling video on what looks to be a relatively small budget. Check out the glasses on the dad character -- I kept on expecting him to rip off the glasses and become Superman. Or Uncle Rock.

The Top 50 Kids Songs of All Time: Songs 26-30

We are finally completing the "Others Receiving Votes" section of The Top 50 Kids Songs of All Time. Except, of course, unless Top 25 college rankings, we actually rank items 26 on down. (Somewhere 'round here I actually have an "others receiving votes" listing for song #s 51+.) A few mid-majors with strong performances, a few songs close to not quite at the top of the major conference standings... In case you're tuning in late, here are the previous entries: Songs 31 through 35 Songs 36 through 40 Songs 41 through 45 Songs 46 through 50 There is still time (but not so much) to enter the contest to guess the Top 5. Winner gets one million dollars a free CD. 30. "Buckeye Jim" - traditional: This is just such a delightfully weird song. "Way up yonder in the sky / A blue bird lived in a jaybird's eye" the song starts off, and the meaning gets no clearer. Wonderful imagery, though I'm not sure the original songwriter was in a completely happy place when writing. (Elizabeth Mitchell and Dan Zanes do the song; so do The Hollow Trees -- click on track 17.) 29. "Marvelous Toy" - Tom Paxton: This is one of the few songs on this list that's old but not traditional -- Tom Paxton wrote it but Peter, Paul and Mary made it famous. John Denver recorded it, too. (And apparently it was the Chad Mitchell Trio's biggest hit, but, uh, I've never heard of them.) I like the mystery about the toy -- "It went "Zip" when it moved and "Pop" when it stopped / "Whirrr" when it stood still / I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will." Indeed. (Listen to Amazon's miserly 30-second clip here.) 28. "All the Pretty Little Horses" - traditional: Oooooh. A lullaby that's not in a major key! Despite that the fact that the narrator's basically bribing the baby to go to sleep ("Hushabye, don't you cry / Go to sleep, little baby / When you wake, you'll cake / And all the pretty little horses"), I sing this quite a lot. (Did you know Olivia Netwon-John recorded an album of lullabies? I didn't. Anyone care to tell us how good it is? Even just the "All the Pretty Little Horses" sample?) 27. "Hot Potato" - The Wiggles: Yeah, deal. It's simple enough for kids to master, it's got hand motions, and 4 guys from Australia built a freakin' empire on this song. Sorry that this song will now be in your head today while you have that meeting with Terry from marketing. (Ah, YouTube, what would we ever do without you?) 26. "This Old Man" - traditional: Yeah, you're probably bored of singing it, but in the best folk song tradition, change the lyrics. At least the first line... "Britney Spears / She played one..." "John McCain / He played one..." "Shaquille O'Neal / He played one..." (No, I am not going to find a sample for you. If, however, you can find one of the three people listed above singing it...)

Review in Brief: Phredderiffic - Phredd

Phredderiffic.jpgPhredderiffic is the third album for kids from the uni-monikered artist whose six-letter name starts with the letter "P." No, Prince does not have two other kids' albums. This 2005 album is from Fred McNaughton, also known as, yes, Phredd. While there is no cover of "Starfish and Coffee" on the disk, there are a number of fun tunes here -- the sweet Beach Boys-esque lament for warm weather "Sled Dogs" and the countryfied "My First Haircut" (with the lament "Where in the world did they put all my hair?") in particular stand out. A number of songs also would lend themselves well to kids' movement, particularly the one minute of nonsense in "Zoobah Zoobah Diggity Zoom" or the silly Australian-accented (literally) "Stuffy Hunt." Other tracks do wear out their welcome -- I do not need to hear the reggae'd "Meet the Trolls" or the industrial "William Watermelon" ever again. (I would note for those of you with small collections of coffee-related songs, "If Coffee Smells So Good, Why Does It Taste So Bad?" is an amusing sea shanty.) Without making too big of a deal of it, it's important that I point out track 5, "I Choose Love." This isn't the first album with religious references I've reviewed, and probably won't be the last, but since it's definitely an uncommon occurrence 'round here, I feel obligated to mention this. If you heard the disk without knowing anything about Phredd, you'd probably be a bit (or a lot) surprised to hear the phrase "God is love" woven into the chorus at the end of the song -- it's only a tenuous fit with the song itself, and nothing before (or after) really prepares you for it. If you're not prepared for it, it's a very "What the...?" moment that will have you scrambling for the CD packaging wondering if you missed something. Kids ages 3 through 8 will probably enjoy this 39-minute album the most. You can hear samples at the album's CDBaby page or at his media page. With his poppy tunes, silly lyrics, and skilled blend of programmed keyboards and real instruments (particularly the ukelele), Phredderiffic is a little bit Eric Herman, a little bit Steve Weeks, and an itty-bitty bit Veggie Tales. It's not a uniformly strong album, but fans of the above artists will likely find something to enjoy here.