Kermit the Frog won't win the Grammy this year, but he's moved into covering some more recent, adult tunes. This will be amusing only if you're familiar with the song (and only of marginal interest to your kids), but I swear that if you are familiar with it, you must must must watch this all the way through. (Hat tip: Idolator.) I'm not a huge fan of this song , but the album it closes, Sound of Silver, is pretty awesome.
And if you're not familiar with that song, you can always go back and watch this more familiar cover.
Ed: It's up on YouTube!
51st Grammy Nominations Announced
So the nominations for the 51st Grammy Awards have been announced, and for those of you who remember the push for membership, I think you'll be pretty pleased. I mean, your favorite CD of the year might not have been nominated, but there aren't any stinkers in there...
Best Musical Album For Children
(For albums consisting of predominantly music or song vs. spoken word.)
Beethoven's Wig 4: Dance Along Symphonies - Beethoven's Wig [Rounder Records]
Big Round World - Trout Fishing In America [Trout Records]
Here Come The 123s - They Might Be Giants [Disney Sound]
Here Comes Brady Rymer And The Little Band That Could - Brady Rymer And The Little Band That Could [Bumblin' Bee Records]
The Shoe Bird - Gerard Schwarz Conducting The Seattle Symphony [Brilliance Audio]
Best Spoken Word Album For Children
(For albums consisting of predominantly spoken word vs. music or song.)
Around The Campfire - Buck Howdy With BB [Prairie Dog Entertainment]
The Big One-Oh - Dean Pitchford [Random House Audio/Listening Library]
Brown Bear And Friends - Gwyneth Paltrow [Macmillan Audio]
The Cricket In Times Square - Tony Shalhoub [Macmillan Audio]
Yes To Running! Bill Harley Live - Bill Harley [Round River Records]
Dee-mos, er, Demos from the Deedle Deedle Dees
One Myspace page isn't enough for Brooklyn's Deedle Deedle Dees, as they've set up a new page for demos for their upcoming album. They're set to record tracks for Dee-mocracy soon, but you can hear Lloyd Miller's (er, Ulysses Dee's) solo demos at Deedle Deedle Dee-mos.
If you're a long-time reader, some of the historically-inspired tracks (or at least their stories) will sound familiar -- "Bring 'Em In," "Little Red Airplane," and the Bill Childs-inspired "Susan B. Anthony." But there are a couple new (to me) tracks -- "Tubtubtubman" and "Growl Growl Alaska." I especially like Miller's falsetto on the latter track. The chorus on the former's pretty catchy, too...
I'm also highly amused by the random picture of a Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback -- Vinny Testaverde? -- as the artist photo on the page. Perhaps there's a song about them losing their first 26 regular season games. (Ed.: Just noticed that Lloyd said it was Trent Dilfer. The retro uni confused me.)
Which reminds me, and I know I'm off on a tangent here, but those initially hapless Bucs are the source for possibly my favorite sports quotation of all time. It was uttered by their first head coach, John McKay. After one of those first 26 losses, McKay was asked by a reporter what he thought of his team's execution.
McKay's reply: "I think it's a good idea."
Fresh Biscuit (Brothers) for Christmas
It's always good news when Austin's Biscuit Brothers have new stuff for public consumption -- and the Volume 3 of Go Make Music! I told you about a few weeks back, is so-close-you-can-taste-it available. (It's gonna be here any day now, they swear.)
But that's not all -- the Christmas/holiday episode I mentioned before is now available for PBS stations across the land to pick up for free to airing this holiday season. And in case you (or your local PBS affiliate) need some convincing, they've kindly gone ahead and posted some clips on YouTube.
Here's one of my favorite Biscuit Brothers Christmas tunes (they have a whole Christmas CD) featuring, of course, Tiny Scarecrow:
Biscuit Brothers - "The Best Christmas Ever"
And some more...
The Holiday Season Has Begun: We're Already Hearing About 2009 Christmas Albums
Thanksgiving hasn't even ended yet and already we're moving on to the Christmas/Hanukkah/winter holiday of your choosing phase of the year.
Tito Uquillas, guitarist and songwriter for Bay Area band The Hipwaders has jumped into the blogging ring with his new blog, Kindie Christmas. All about Christmas songs (natch), started in part to help motivate him as the Hipwaders go into the studio in January to record a bunch of Christmas songs for a winter 2009 release. (That news is new; they're also wrapping up work on Goodie Bag, an EP of new tunes.)
Anyway, Tito's always been an astute viewer of the kindie music scene (not to mention a vital part of it himself), so the blog promises to be a good read.
A Low-Schmaltz Thanksgiving Song from Rock Daddy Rock
If you like your Thanksgiving songs with even less schmaltz than Cathy & Marcy, you can try this brief song from Rock Daddy Rock on for size.
Though, I'd add, if you're a vegetarian you might want to stay away.
(I just finished assembling a seafood lasagna for Thanksgiving. We're kinda agnostic in that regard.)
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!