I told you last week about the two new releases from the wonderful Wee Hairy Beasties. Jon Langford, Sally Timms, and Kelly Hogan, backed up by Devil in a Woodpile, are giving their bug-sized slice of Americana another shot, this time with a Halloween take, on their Creepy Lullabies double-single/EP.
And you can now go hear for yourself. Get yourself on over to their Myspace page to give five new songs a spin. "Wee Scary Beasties" gives their theme song a twist, "Creepy Lullaby" is a gentle, ever-so-slightly-askew, lullaby, and "Monster's Disco" would be, if there was any justice in this world, a massive novelty hit. "The Lonely Vampire" and "Pumpkinhead" also make an appearance.
In addition, there are some more details about that second full-length. It's entitled Holidays Gone Crazy, and it's set to be released Nov. 4. It appears that many (all?) of the Halloween songs will make an appearance on this full CD, along with more traditional songs such as "Dinosaur Christmas." (What? That's not a traditional Christmas song? Well, maybe it will be.)
Anyway, go listen.
Laurie Berkner! Webcast! Tonight!
Well, perhaps it's not quite as exciting as "Weird Al" Yankovic releasing his new song on iTunes days after its conception, but it's close, especially for the 3-to-5-year-old set and some of their parents, too.
Laurie Berkner will be hosting her first-ever webcast tonight at 8 PM Eastern. Go here to watch. Letters will be read, "Rocketship Run" will be played acoustically. Fun will be had (presumably) by all....
Video: "The Day After Halloween" - The Sippy Cups
San Francisco's The Sippy Cups have a new EP, One Day Soon, coming out today on iTunes, and to celebrate they've posted a video for the EP's most timely song, "The Day After Halloween." The song is a bit of a departure from a lot of Sippy Cups songs as it's pretty straightforward in its narrative structure. It's not a departure in that it has a not small amount of humor, and the accompanying video, about a kid who refuses to take off his ghost costume the next day, has got some amusing visuals.
7 + 5 = CANDY. Has that ghost been taking math lessons from my daughter?
The Sippy Cups - "The Day After Halloween"
Video: "Lullaby" - Chris Blake
I got an e-mail from Chris Blake, an LA musician whose latest album Wave features a gentle song called "Lullaby," sung from the perspective of a parent to a soon-to-be-slumbering child. If you had told me that a sweet lullaby song could feature the word "TV" as the last word, I'd probably have laughed -- hey, I was wrong.
The video features home movies from a half-century ago or more, and, yeah, it's manipulative, but it works. Makes you wonder if the digital video/YouTube explosion will make these kinds of things more common or less wistful in the future.
Anyway, a peaceful 3 minutes or so.
Chris Blake - "Lullaby"
A Little Bit More About That New Robbert Bobbert CD...
I know, I told you just last week about how Robbert Bobbert -- aka Robert Schneider from Apples in Stereo -- is releasing his debut kids music CD Robbert Bobbert & The Bubble Machine on January 20th, 2009.
But I found some album art, and thought I needed to share. Todd Webb posted some album art from the book accompanying the album, and it's cute enough to merit the click-through.
Really, that Bob Schneider there in the center is a hoot.
Concert Recap: Family Music Meltdown 2 (Austin, September 2008)
Well, it's been a little while, but the good times of Family Music Meltdown 2 are still in my memory and before they leave my memory, allow me to recap an excellent night of Austin-based kids music. It ended with a whole bunch of kids rockin' out with Joe McDermott and his band, but before we got there...
