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...
KidVid Tournament: Overtime!
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.)
KidVid Tournament 2008: Renee & Jeremy vs. They Might Be Giants
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)"
Aw, Crap.
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.)
Video: "Pop Fly" - Justin Roberts
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.
KidVid Tournament 2008: The Jimmies vs. Mr. Richard
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"
