This video from Brooklyn's AudraRox has been out there for a year now, but I'm only now just finding it. It's for "Best Friends Forever," a selection from the new Sesame Street: Being Green DVD. It's a sharp-looking video (yay for Sesame Workshop's deep pockets!) and a fun song.... which is now (newly) available for your downloading pleasure here. I love the line "Warm in the middle / cold at the ends..."
AudraRox - "Best Friends Forever"
There's more, of course.
Video: "I've Got a Laugh" - Debbie and Friends
Last week I posted some art and a rough video from the latest Debbie and Friends video, "I've Got a Laugh." Well, the finished product is out, and it does look pretty slick.
I have to tell you, though, I think Debbie Cavalier might want to look for some of her money back. I've met Debbie in person, and she totally has five fingers, not four, on each of her hands.
Debbie and Friends - "I've Got a Laugh"
Appear on TV. Check.
I've been on TV before, though I think every single one of those times involved screaming loudly at the camera in response to a particularly exciting play at a collegiate sporting event. A couple weeks ago, however, I appeared on Phoenix-area TVs talking coherently and at a rational volume. The folks at Raising Arizona Kids magazine, who interviewed me for their May issue, also produce a weekly segment for our NBC affiliate and on Memorial Day, I was the featured person. That segment is now online, which means that in just 56 seconds you can see Miss Mary Mack talk, me and my kids and my neighbors' kids dancing, and special brief appearances from Recess Monkey, Laurie Berkner, the KC Jiggle Jam, and Caspar Babypants. You can also see me giving me these odd sidelong glances that give me the appearance of thinking something like, "Is that an alien landing on our front lawn? I can't quite tell but I need to finish answering this question first."
Reminder: Win Timeout To Rock Tickets!
A reminder for Seattle-area folks (or folks who are willing to travel there to see a great lineup of Seattle-area kids music) -- go here by 9 PM west coast time tonight (Friday) to enter to win a family pack of tickets. Don't miss your chance!
How Much Pete Seeger Is Too Much Pete Seeger?
Pete Seeger might not have an official website of his own -- this Wikipedia page will have to do for a link -- but definitely resides in the 21st century. How many other 90-year-olds do you know who are offering a couple free mp3 downloads to promote their latest release? That's right, Smithsonian Folkways is re-releasing the American Favorite Ballads Volumes 1-5 box set, which itself was an expanded version of a collection of songs recorded from 1957 through 1962. You can go here to download Seeger's renditions of "Buffalo Gals" and "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" and then decide if you need 139 tracks (nearly six hours) of Pete Seeger in his sweet, crystal-clear voice accompanied by his banjo-picking. (You probably do.) Not all of it is "kids music," strictly speaking, but there's more than enough tracks that'll be familiar with anyone with more than a couple kids' disks in their collection.Interview: Jason Ringenberg (Farmer Jason)
In some small way, Jason Ringenberg is kids' music's Kings of Leon. Like his Tennessee compatriots, as Farmer Jason, Ringenberg has a definite United States fan base (and was big enough to play the Austin City Limits Festival a couple years ago) but may be even bigger in the UK and Europe. In this interview he talks about how his Farmer Jason career has slowly grown "across the pond" to the point of playing big festivals in Europe, challenges facing the artist creating a European fan base, and how to craft a show for a non-English-speaking audience.
Zooglobble: What music did you listen to growing up?
Jason Ringenberg: I grew up on a Midwestern hog farm. Most of the kids listened to corporate rock. However, I always loved American roots music, especially the classics like Dylan, Hank Williams Sr., Woody Guthrie, and Jerry Lee Lewis. On top of that, I had a fondness for the first wave punk rock, particularly the Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, and The Ramones.
How long have you been playing music in Europe now?
I have been playing in Europe since 1984, when Jason and the Scorchers did our first tour there. Over the years, I have always performed in Europe with Jason and the Scorchers, Jason Ringenberg, and now most interestingly as Farmer Jason.
When you first started going to Europe, wasn't it pretty much lots of Jason and the Scorchers shows with an occasional Farmer Jason show mixed in? Has that mix changed at all over time?
