Yet Another Kids Music Video Competition

Don't worry, folks, I'm done with kids music video competitions for the next 11 months at least. But Eric Herman needs your help if you can handle voting for more videos. Aniboom is running its annual Sesame Street contest in which the winning entries will be aired on future episodes of the show. Eric's entered his classic video (and song) "The Elephant Song" into the competition. Right now it stands at fourth place, but every little vote helps. You can vote once a day (after registering) through April 26. And while I've previously liked "Pet Dinosaur" and dig this video for "Lonely Eleven", I think we can all agree that Eric's video deserves to be seen by millions of kids on TV. At well over 11 million YouTube views, it's probably already been seen by at least a million kids on the computer, but why stop there? Eric Herman - "The Elephant Song" [Aniboom]

Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at Aniboom

KidVid Tournament 2010 Champion: Brian Vogan's "That's How a Pumpkin Grows"

Wow, that was a lot of voting. So many great videos, but only one can be called KidVid Tournament 2010 champion. That would be Brian Vogan's gorgeously animated video for "That's How a Pumpkin Grows" from his Little Songs album. Vogan's new as-yet-untitled album is tentatively set for release in mid-July and will feature songs about such topics as "dinosaurs, hungry frogs, shuttle rides to outer space, and cardboard box time machines." (It would make me very happy to discover that's a Calvin & Hobbes reference.) Also: guest vocalist Rachel Flotard from Visqueen (among others), so, woot! Thanks, everyone, for watching, voting and spreading the word. Not to mention, thanks to all the artists for participating and making such excellent videos. So here, for the last time, is the championship-winning video. After four rounds of voting, hopefully you'll be ready to watch it again by Halloween... Brian Vogan - "That's How A Pumpkin Grows" [YouTube]

Interview: Key Wilde (Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke)

kwmc_trophies.jpgFor being such a big fan of Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke, I'm a bit ashamed to say that I just unearthed this interview I did with Key Wilde a few months back. I could've sworn I published this just after the release of the excellent debut record Rise and Shine. Man, it's been a hectic three months. (In related news, apparently the Saints won the Super Bowl?) Oh, well, better late than never in that the interview below gives you, dear reader, more info on the past, present, and future of one half of one of my favorite kids music bands. Zooglobble: What are your earliest musical memories? Key Wilde: We were always singing together as a family. Constantly. We used to drive from Texas to North Carolina every summer and I remember all of us singing in the car the entire way. My dad and his two brothers sang barbershop harmonies together and as a little kid I was always trying to find a part and sing along with them. They knew hundreds of songs – bawdy college tunes, wacky folk songs, obscure standards – songs that made you laugh. It was always a joy to sing them over and over again and I still remember them all. We have a large extended family and to this day every family gathering culminates in a big songfest – a wonderful tradition I’m happy to pass along to my own kids. My dad played piano and insisted that the kids take formal lessons. We all rebelled at the time but are now grateful for the experience. How did you get into being an illustrator for a living? I studied fine arts – painting – at Parsons in New York and when I graduated I really didn’t want to do any commercial illustration at all. I found a great loft in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) a few years before the massive migration and undertook all sorts of ridiculous part time work in order to make the rent and carve out time for painting. I never promoted myself as an illustrator but eagerly accepted any assignments that came my way. Over the years my “survival” work has evolved from teaching, bartending and running a muffin store among other things to art direction, design and illustration – all things that I really love doing. And I’ve continued to develop as a “fine artist” on the side which has always been a deep-rooted goal. And of course the music has always been a constant distraction. How did you meet and start making music with Mr. Clarke?

Please Release Me: April 2010 Edition

It's been quite some time since I've done one of these, but I thought it'd be worthwhile to run down what the kids and family music world can look forward to here in the next few months... Lots and lots of stuff... Sugar Free Allstars: Funky Fresh & Sugar Free (April 30) Princess Katie & Racer Steve: Tiny Cool (May 4) Randy Kaplan: The Kids Are All Id (May 14) Billy Kelly: Is This Some Kind of Joke? (mid-May) Justin Roberts: Jungle Gym (June 8) StarFish: Enter Sandbox (June 1): My favorite album title of the year thus far... Recess Monkey: The Final Funktier (June 15) Putumayo Kids (Various Artists): Rock 'n' Roll Playground (June 15): Features Dan Zanes, Peter Himmelman, Uncle Rock, and Charity and the JAMband, among others. The Not-Its: Time Out To Rock (July 6) Frances England: Title TBA (the album has a tentative title, but I'm going to wait a bit...) (Early fall): Says Frances:
"We were lucky to have Tor Hyams produce this CD, and he kept the mood high - we had so much fun recording these songs, and I think that comes through in the sound. It's definitely the most upbeat, swinging thing we've ever done. There are 15 tracks with topics ranging from road trip pleasures, to bicycle love songs, to building log cabins in the woods, to the remarkable Jacques Cousteau."
Flannery Brothers: Title TBA (September): Theme is "exploring," apparently Jamie Broza: I Wanna Dog (October) Caspar Babypants: This Is Fun! (Nov. 2) "I think this album will be very upbeat and silly," says Chris Ballew... Elizabeth Mitchell: Sunny Day (TBA 2010) Others working on albums with potential 2010 releases? Lunch Money and Secret Agent 23 Skidoo at the bare minimum...

Video: "Hello Hippopotamus" - Laura Doherty

I know that Gwyneth just posted this too, but just because she's more efficient with her to do list doesn't mean I should be prevented from posting on this video from yesterday myself... This is a simple but effective song from Laura Doherty's Kids in the City disk. The animations in her new video for the song aren't the most polished (albeit better than what I could do), but convey the lyrics with humor. Challenge: come up with matching lyrics for the following animals or bugs: three-toed sloth, cougar, praying mantis. Laura Doherty - "Hello Hippopotamus" [YouTube]

SXSW 2010 (Music) Report: Day 4

SXSW_JMessersmithSolo.jpgWhereas Day 2 and Day 3 of SXSW Music were pretty glorious, weather-wise, Day 4, the Saturday, was... not "Chamber of Commerce" weather. It started out cold and, um, just never warmed up. It made for a lack of motivation to get back downtown for a third day of music. What I never fully appreciated having never attended SXSW before was how tiring the whole thing can be. Now, to some extent, this trip was just a giant vacation for me. My wife, whose tolerance of crowds and standing around is waaaay lower than mine, stayed home for some time without the kids, and my kids got lots of grandparental time. Which meant I could play hooky, listening to music for 3 days straight. It was wonderful. But just like you can be exhausted after a couple days of Disneyland or camping in the woods, SXSW can be exhausting. Scratch "can" -- is exhausting. So after telling you how cold and tired I was, what was my first activity on Saturday? Waiting in line for 30 minutes to get into the Rachel Ray party. I wanted to go for a couple reasons: 1) the bands (Jakob Dylan with Neko Case and Kelly Hogan, as well as She & Him), and 2) just to see what it was like doing a "free" (no badges) event. There were plenty of other events like that I skipped (who really needs free Taco Bell?), but the music (and the food) pushed it over the top for me. (The food was pretty good, definitely better than Taco Bell.) I got in, heard Street Sweeper Social Club, which sounded like it was for those who liked Rage Against the Machine but couldn't be bothered with the whole politics thing. (Turns out that was a pretty good read, as the band included Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine.) I chatted with a random stranger for awhile while listening to She & Him, the Zooey Deschanel / M. Ward project, who were pretty sunny for such a blustery day. As I noted before, it's amazing how much networking you can do when you're not expecting it -- it even was slightly kids music related. I don't remember much of the show, but I did note that they had 2 tambourines in the band. For some reason, I spent much of Saturday noting the presence of tambourines in the bands, because it seemed like everyone had them. She & Him were the final act for the party, so they rushed us out of Stubb's, and I made my way to Flatstock for the second time. It was just as cool the second time. I never did find a show poster I loved (I picked up a small New Pornographers poster for $5), but I did find this at the Seattle Show Posters booth. (What can I say? It was my third day without my wife.)