I've been sitting on a bunch of interviews from my trips to Austin last September. With the music world once again congregating in Austin for SXSW, it's high time I transcribed and shared them with you.
Given the South By Southwest connection, I thought it appropriate to kick things off with Tor Hyams, who will be speaking at a kids music panel at SXSW Friday.
Among the many roles that California-based Hyams has is producing the Kidzapalooza stage at Lollapalooza and the Austin Kiddie Limits stage at the Austin City Limits Festival, not to mention the Little State stage at the Big State Festival. It was backstage at ACL 2007 that I caught up with Hyams and talked about producing those events and his thoughts about the future of kids music festivals.
Zooglobble: What's been the best part about the Austin Kiddie Limits stage?
Tor Hyams: The best part about the Austin Kiddie Limits is, I have to say, Austin. People are really different. There's no airs about anybody, they're very open and honest and willing to have a good time, and that makes what we do a lot easier.
You produce Kidzapalooza, Austin Kiddie Limits, and the kids stage at the Big State Festival. Big State is more country, while the other two are more rock. How did you decide who you would try to get for Kidzapalooza as opposed to Austin Kiddie Limits?
In Kidzapalooza, we go a little harder-edged. It's just a different energy to that place than here. This is more of a roots-rock kind of energy, where Kidzapalooza is more of hard-rock kind of energy. Some bands fit into both, like the Sippy Cups. Some bands don't work in both. For example, we had the Blisters, Jeff Tweedy's son's band, at Kidzapalooza, but they're from Chicago, and they're kids. It would've been hard to get them out here. I think they would've done well here, but it's just a different thing. So it's really who fits more the roots-rock mold or even country crossover acts do well, but Austin's such a dynamic city that I think you could any kind of act on stage here and it would work.
I saw a quote from Charles Attal, the head of C3 Productions who sort of described the festival circuit as a land grab -- there are a lot of opportunities in a lot of other places to establish these festivals. Do you think a kids stage is something C3 or other entities would be looking towards doing?
KidVid Tournament 2008: Picking The Final Two Slots
One of my favorite events on this site last year was the inaugural edition of the KidVid Tournament 2007, which took the craziness of basketball's March Madness and married it to the craziness of the kids music genre. (I'm pretty sure nobody ever used the phrase "craziness of the kids music genre" before -- hey, I'm right! -- but whatevs.)
Well, the slightly sports-aware among might be aware that we're getting close to that time again and, yes, that means it's almost time for KidVid Tournament 2008.
But before we get there, I need your help. Because I only have 14 videos selected...
Music, Milieu, Manners... and Megadeth
We've had mixed luck taking our youngest, Little Boy Blue (who's about 2 1/2 years old), to cultural events. The Dan Zanes concert last month? Boy, the kid sat there and took it all in, bouncing a bit and clapping his hands. The musical version of Goodnight Moon we attended at our fabulous local theatre for young audiences, Childsplay? Let's just say it's a good thing we were in the back row, near the "screaming kid" room.
I'm gonna chalk that one up to hunger, but you know, maybe it's because we didn't have a chance to watch a Goodnight Moon DVD over and over like we did with Dan Zanes to prep the guy.
Anyway, Debbie Cavalier, who recently recorded a kids' music CD of her own called Story Songs and Sing-Alongs as Debbie and Friends, just penned a good guide for parents about to take their kids to their first musical event.
It's a solid set of common-sense recommendations which, thankfully, doesn't completely assume that your child's first concert is necessarily going to be the symphony. The suggestions -- listen to the music together beforehand, talk about speakers and appropriate concert behavior -- apply just as much to Megadeth as to Mozart. Though I'm guessing Dave Mustaine wasn't quite who Cavalier had in mind...
More Pop Fly Details
For those of you awaiting the release of Justin Roberts' next CD, Pop Fly, his latest newsletter has a treasure trove of info. (For those of you who don't care, his latest newsletter still has a treasure trove of info, though I suspect little of it would interest you.)
First off, the tracklisting, 11 JR originals, produced by Liam Davis.
1. Pop Fly
2. She's a Yellow Reflector
3. Big Field Trip
4. Henrietta's Hair
5. The Backyard Super Kid
6. From Scratch
7. Stay-at-Home Dad
8. She Sits
9. Giant-Sized Butterflies
10. Kickboard, Baby, Yeah
11. Fruit Jar
Second, Roberts' trumpet player Dave Winer is putting together a video for the title track and is looking for close up pictures "of your child or your inner-child" to be assembled into a giant collage. No word if this going to turn into some sort of "Where's Waldo?"-like hunt. Anyway, for details, check out Roberts' Journal page.
Recess Monkey Plays For World Dignitary, Screaming 6-Year-Olds
You know, when Recess Monkey recorded "I Went to the Zoo (w/the Dalai Lama)" on their debut CD, Welcome to Monkey Town, I don't think they were engaging in wish fulfillment.
But the Dalai Lama is visiting Seattle in April as part of the Seeds of Compassion event and on April 12, the band is essentially going to be the Dalai Lama's opening act, a sweet gig if there ever was one. (Because, hey, nobody going to see the Dalai Lama is going to boo them for not playing "Stairway to Heaven.")
And for those of you going to Recess Monkey's shows this weekend and a couple weeks from now as part of the recording for their upcoming July album Tabby Road or if you're just curious about the new album, click ahead, why don't you, and see the tracklisting...Barenaked Ladies Love Their Fans, Hate Quebec and Rhode Island
I don't typically mention contests from bands here (though I'm going to do so a couple times here in the next few days), but I was amused by this, the rules and regulations for a recently-launched contest the Barenaked Ladies are running to promote their upcoming kids' music CD Snacktime.
The assignment is -- draw the band. "Barenaked Ladies just want to see the most creative cartoon of them," they say, and the winner will receive a BNL hoodie, t-shirt, and personally autographed copy of Snacktime.
Yeah, yeah, cute, whatever, but the rules, goodness, those are long, though the band probably does have a few more fans than the bands typically releasing albums in the genre. They're capped by the final statement -- "The contest is open to legal residents of the United States and Canada (excluding Quebec and Rhode Island)." The pure randomness of the statement (which I'm sure is backed by very sound legal reasoning amused me. Anyone from Quebec or Rhode Island care to share why they might be prohibited from entering said contest?
