New Music From Bunny Clogs (Adam Levy from the Honeydogs)

MoreMoreMore.jpgOK, without even listening to the album, this album cover is one of my favorites of the year, and the band name wins "Best New Band Name," too. The name makes a little more sense when you realize that it's the brainchild of Adam Levy, mainstay of the long-running Twin Cities band The Honeydogs (just repeat one band name after another). Anyways, for this side project, Levy recorded music at home with his kids (his daughters sing and his son did the art work for the record) and finished it with students at the music school at which he he teaches, the Institute of Production and Recording in Minneapolis. (Levy also recorded a couple tracks for that Down By The Riverside Twin Cities kids-comp released a couple years back.) The result is More! More! More!. Oh, yeah, "Best Album Name," definitely. You can hear six whole tracks at the band's Myspace page. I particularly like "Velveeta Girl and Squatsy," but all of the tracks have a definite slightly-skewed vibe to them, a la Mr. David or Me3 or Kimya Dawson. Electronica, lullaby, horns, even a little Prince, I think. Anyway, the album will get a big push in the new year when it's formally released, along with a new Honeydogs album, but if you're an eMusic subscriber, you can get it right now... Here's the tracklisting...

Live Videos From Frances England

OK, it's no "Tricycle," but it's nice to see Frances England post some live video, if only because I'd heard about the slide show she was bringing out for some of her shows. Here she is doing the mellow "Animal Inside You" with Jeff Koch on drums and Tim Thurman on guitar at the July CD release party for her fine, fine Family Tree CD. And lots of animal pictures. Frances England - "Animal Inside You" (Live) That's not all...

Are You A Rabbit?

... or a statue of a rabbit? It's been four years (almost to the day) since Lunch Money released their first CD, Silly Reflection. And now I've been spinning their latest album, Dizzy. Totally worth the wait, y'all. Seriously -- the preorder button was created for this album. (Which, uh, unfortunately doesn't have it yet.)

New Music From Rocknoceros: "Gonna Get a Haircut" and "Lucky Lindy"

There is no such thing as working out the kinks on your new music anymore, even in the kids music genre. Thanks to YouTube, we can hear artists try out their latest stuff. Such as this tune from the DC-area band Rocknoceros. You'll have to get past 30 seconds of announcement-type stuff, but after that, a new tune from their upcoming Pink CD. "Gonna Get A Haircut" features sweet harmony, guitar solos, and the phrase "flattop." I think. Rocknoceros - "Gonna Get A Haircut" (Live) But wait, there's more!

Dan Zanes in Seattle ("Shining Star")

Well, the contest to win tickets to Dan Zanes' Holiday House Party has come and gone, but someone's finally gone ahead and posted a clip from his performance at Seattle's Moore Theatre. Even with the MST3K-like heads obscuring part of the action, you can see that there must be, like, a dozen people up there on stage. The Zooglobble winner for the Seattle show reports that there was tap dancing and shadow puppets. And, by the sound of this clip, yodeling. Lots of yodeling. Dan Zanes and Friends - "Shining Star" Tickets for the NYC run, which starts next weekend, are here.

Videos, Videos, Videos

I post my fair share (or perhaps more than my fair share) of videos around here -- heck, I even have my own irregulalrly updated YouTube video list -- but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out a couple other sites that deal in the world of video. First off, I've been really slack in mentioning this, but Jitterbug is a kid-safe site for kids music videos. So if you like the types of videos I link to here, but your kids could do without all the other blah blah blah, I recommend heading over there for their growing collection of stuff to watch. Second, Rock Tots is a newly-started collection of videos of kids playing music. It's as if "From the Top" ditched the classical focus and went straight to YouTube. OK, it's not really like "From the Top" at all. So there you have it -- videos of adults making songs for kids, and videos of kids making songs for adults.