It is time once again for the KidVid Tournament, the 2008 edition, where families come together by watching videos the way they were meant to be watched.
On the computer.
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, mostly me. Plus, well, some reader suggestions. (Gwendolyn and Andre 3000 thank you!) The seedings are below. The first two matchups will be posted Tuesday morning. Come back and vote for your favorites.
And remember: please, no wagering!
Ella Jenkins Region
1. Renee And Jeremy - "It's A Big World"
2. Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke - "I Had a Little Dog"
3. Hollow Trees - "Animal Alphabet Song"
4. Andre 3000 - "Throwdown"
Leadbelly Region
1. They Might Be Giants - "Seven Days a Week (I Never Go To Work)"
2. David Tobocman - "Home"
3. Ellen and Matt - "Bounce"
4. Happy Monster Band - "I Will Be Your Friend"
Pete Seeger Region
1. Gustafer Yellowgold - "Pinecone Lovely"
2. The Squeegees - "The Elements"
3. Mr. Richard - "Cheese"
4. Asheba - "No More Monkeys"
Woody Guthrie Region
1. The Jimmies - "Spanimals"
2. Orange Sherbet with Hot Buttered Rum - "Campfire Song"
3. Eric Herman - "My Lucky Day"
4. Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang - "You Can Be Anything"
Review: Ladybug One - The Harmonica Pocket
I hesitate to use the phrase "the most unusual kids' album you'll hear all year," because, I assure you, no matter how unusual a particular kids music album, I've heard odder ones (don't get me started). So let me describe Ladybug One, the second kids' CD from the Seattle-area Harmonica Pocket thusly: It's the most unusual good kids' album you'll hear all year.
I hope that doesn't sound like damning with faint praise, because the album is quite good. But it's definitely not a collection of straightforward kids' pop, folk, rock, jazz, or anything else. Oh, sure, there are a few elements of that here -- the indie-pop "Spiders In My Breakfast," re-appropriated from the band's first album (for adults), and the soulful and jazzy take on "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," for example, are fun tracks that don't sound too unfamiliar. "One Tree Said" sounds like a track from a future Decemberists kids' CD. But many of the other tracks veer into more challenging territory -- the psychedelic "I Love the ABCs" or the number of songs on which band mastermind Keeth Apgar explores Indian music. You might not think that "O Susanna" and sitar and tabla percussion would make a good fit, but it does, actually helping to hear the song fresh.
In fact, one of the most successful things about the album is how the wide variety of instruments here (including didgeridoo, mbira, and saw, and quite possibly my favorite, hula hoop) serve the songs, not the other way round. The instruments aren't being used to show off -- they genuinely make sense within the context of the songs. And kids will enjoy the variety of songwriting approaches -- story, metaphor, humorous, counting. It makes "Mere Bacche Ke Liye Lori," a Hindi lullaby, which could potentially come off as pretentious, sound part of a whole.
The album will be of most interest to kids ages 3 through 7. You can hear clips from the 55-minute album (many of which have been reworked from their first kids album) at the album's CDBaby page, or listen to four excellent tracks at the band's own music page.
The Harmonica Pocket's Labybug One is unusual, but a couple spins of this low-key but well-crafted album should make many listeners aware of its numerous charms. Definitely recommended.Baby Does Indeed Love Music
I already talked about the ever-expanding Baby Loves Music empire, but apparently BLM founder Andy Blackman Hurwitz is taking it to heart. In this interview with Wired.com's GeekDad, Hurwitz outlines his future release schedule:
"Hip-Hop comes out April 1 [Ed. - that I've told you about], Salsa September 1 [Ed. - OK, that's been pushed back]. Blues (being produced by the North Mississippi All-Stars) is being recorded in the fall as is Reggae (being produced by Stephen Marley), and both of these should come out in early ’09."
Whoa. That could be seriously good.
While I think Hurwitz sells the rest of the kids music genre short -- he says,
"I hate to be a music snob and like to think that there's some merit to anything creative so I don't want to come across as "dissing" other kids music - it's just that ours is created and produced by the best in the business, musicians with decades of experience in the art of songwriting and songcrafting and I think that's what makes the difference - REAL musicians."
... thereby indeed "dissing" the significant number of talented artists in the genre meeting that criteria right now -- I am impressed by the talent he is bringing to bear to all these different genres.
I'm just waiting for the meta-overload of a "Baby Loves Kids Music" disk.
(Hat tip: Idolator)
Interview: Tor Hyams
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...
