Review in Brief: Ditties for Kiddies - Deep Fried Pickle Project and Pals (V/A)

DittiesForKiddies.jpgThere's nothing terribly fancy about Ditties for Kiddies, a benefit CD for the Little Kids Rock organization, which brings free musical instruments and music instruction to public schools. The CD comes in a small slipcase with nothing but the cover art on the front and song titles and artists on the back. But, you know, so long as the music's good, I'm OK, and the music's good here. There's a wide variety of songs here, but a lot of them would fall in the "jamband" category. Compilation producers Deep Fried Pickle Project contribute their jug-band original "Picklejuice," while Hot Buttered Rum turn in a sprightly and bluegrass-y "Firefly." Other tracks, such as Greensky Bluegrass' take on "Boom Boom" (which Raffi's done) and ALO's "Mashed Potatoes" mine similar veins. Deadwood Revival's "Daisy" is a sweet Americana tune. It's not entirely on the Americana side of roots music -- one of the most fun tracks is "Who Stole the Hot Sauce" by Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, a rollicking zydeco-influnced tune. And there's the electronica dance tune "Milk Man" by Zilla. But if you're not keen on roots music, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. (And if you're looking for a CD with a sound more directly targeted at kids, look elsewhere, too. It by no means is kid-unfriendly, but aside from a Melanie Dill track and a couple other tracks, it's really kid-friendly, not focused.) The songs may be most interesting to kids ages 3 through 8, but, as noted above, the appeal is probably pretty broad. You can listen to track at the album's CDBaby page. In Ditties for Kiddies, the Deep Fried Pickle Project have put together a sweet little compilation CD that will appeal to a number of listeners, particularly those families who like the jamband/roots music sound. Recommended.

KidVid Tournament 2008: Final - Mr. Richard vs. They Might Be Giants

Here we go, everyone, the final of KidVid Tournament 2008. This contest pits "Cheese" from Mr. Richard's Polka Dot Puzzle (video directed by Banks Helfrich) against "The Seven Days of the Week (Never Go To Work)," from They Might Be Giants' Here Come the 123s CD/DVD (video directed by David Cowles and Sean McBride). As always, vote once per family only, please, in the comments below. Votes are due by 9 PM West Coast (midnight East Coast) tonight (Tuesday). And, remember, vote nicely. Mr. Richard - "Cheese" They Might Be Giants - "Seven Days of the Week (Never Go To Work)"

Barenaked Ladies Are Not Just Peckish, But Bookish As Well

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.)