Kindiefest 2010: Justin Roberts and the Not Ready For Naptime Players

For the most part, I only caught brief glimpses of Justin Roberts at Kindiefest this year. When I did see him there, it seemed like he always had a crowd around him. After many patient years diligently practicing his craft, Roberts seems poised to finally make the leap to the (relative) mainstream awareness (hello, New York Times!, hello, other magazines who were around last weekend!) enjoyed by folks like Dan Zanes, Laurie Berkner, and Ralph Covert. To those of us in the industry who have been thinking of Roberts as being at that level for a while now, it's just the rest of the world catching up. Still, I think even the most devoted and dialed-in observer of the scene couldn't help but be a little bit bowled over by the Roberts' showcase-concluding set Saturday night. I chose to title this post "... and the Not Ready For Naptime Players" deliberately. Sure, Roberts' popularity starts off with his sharp songwriting skills, but there's no doubt that the full 5-piece NR4NP is an essential part of Roberts' success, both on record and live. Liam Davis brings a keen producer's ear to Roberts' albums and is only slightly less energetic on stage than Gerald Dowd is on drums. Jacqueline Schimmel on bass and Dave Winer on trumpet, laptop, and court jester play no less important roles. They're loose (Winer's "Little Dave" riff on "Kidniefest" -- spelling intentional -- nearly brought the show to a comedic halt) but when they play, they are tight.

As I noted before, Roberts and his band were so great, at least a couple other performing artists said it inspired them to improve their own performances. Audience members shed tears. The brief 23-minute set was like watching a Super Bowl halftime show except the band wasn't dialing it in and the new stuff was every bit as good as the classics. Yeah, the new stuff is great, too. The two tracks they performed from the Jungle Gym -- "Trick or Treat" and "New Haircut" (were there more? "Gym Class Parachute," maybe?) -- weren't quite as orchestrated as on record (I wanted somebody to cue the flutes -- a reference which will be clearer once everyone hears the disk). But the band already sounded very polished on the new tracks (and Roberts already had hand/arm motions worked out for audience participation). As for "Trick or Treat" (excerpted below with Roberts' permission), which is a Halloween song that the New Pornographers would be proud to include in their collection, I had a conversation with a radio person afterwards who said, "I don't think I can wait that long to play that on the air." We decided Labor Day would be OK. That's going to be a huge song in concert for Roberts in the fall. In other words, win. Justin Roberts - "Trick or Treat" (Excerpt from Kindiefest 2010) [YouTube]

More pictures after the jump.

Share: "Kiss Ya Mommy" - Ralph & Ralph

A new Mother's Day song from Ralph and Ralph, free for the asking. I'm guessing that the moms out there would probably prefer something more substantial than, you know, an mp3, but maybe the non-moms out there can play it while bringing in breakfast in bed. Not found on their debut Opposites, the band is, I believe, the first family musicians to work in the word "dissed" in a kids song. Go to the website and click on "Free Download."

Songs For Graduation

A reader wrote me recently asking for suggestions for a mix CD to be played during a kindergarten graduation slideshow. (Yes, she noted that a kindergarten graduation ceremony was a little odd -- neither of us had one that's for sure.) Did I have anything that conveyed a feeling of a rite of passage? If some of the songs caused a tear or two to well up, so much the better. While I didn't have a readymade list, I pulled out a mix CD I made for Miss Mary Mack and found some songs that I thought would work well in such a setting. I've added a couple more to the list, and what you see below is the result. As always, I look forward to your suggestions on expanding this list. In no particular order, they are... "Barking at the Moon" - Jenny Lewis (Bolt soundtrack) "Luck" - Secret Agent 23 Skidoo (Easy) "Happy Doesn't Have To Have An Ending" - They Might Be Giants (Bed Bed Bed) "See You on the Moon" - Great Lake Swimmers (See You on the Moon! compilation) "Giant Sized Butterflies" - Justin Roberts (Pop Fly, more appropriate for the first day of the school than the last, so I guess it'll come at the beginning of the slide show) "Birdhouse in Your Soul" - They Might Be Giants (Flood) "Who Are You Not to Shine" - The Nields (Rock All Day, Rock All Night) "Jubilee" - Elizabeth Mitchell (You Are My Sunshine) "Fruit Jar" - Justin Roberts (Pop Fly) "Educated Kid" - The Hipwaders (Educated Kid) "Anna Kick a Hole in the Sky" - The Nields (All Around Singing in the Kitchen) "It's a Big World" - Renee & Jeremy (It's a Big World -- actually a lot of this disk is probably appropriate, especially in the "making the parents cry" category...)

Kindiefest 2010: Recess Monkey

Dan Zanes may be the godfather; They Might Be Giants, the legitimizer; and Laurie Berkner, Ralph Covert, and Justin Roberts the genre's superstars. But Recess Monkey is the heart of kids music today. There was nobody at Kindiefest who was in more places at once (except for maybe the organizers) than the band. (And that's not just because there are three members in the band.) Jack Forman appeared on a video panel, and all 3 of them were always engaged in discussion with other folks. They're successful enough to be emulated but not popular enough - yet - to be unapproachable. (Heck, they all still have "regular" jobs.) So they were approached - a lot. And their commitment to the scene is total. I don't think there was anyone else in the audience who was as supportive of the other artists playing the Saturday industry showcase as they were -- if there was handclapping to be done, they did it. During their own Sunday showcase, they brought in Chris Wiser from Sugar Free Allstars to play on "Booster Seat," Johnny Bregar on "Knocktopus" and Tor Hyams on "Moon Boots." And although I'd left by then to head back home, they filled in for Aric Bieganek's stuck-in-traffic bandmates and played 5 songs with him during the Royal Order of Chords and Keys showcase later Sunday afternoon. And the silver pants. Man, the silver pants. Commitment. Owning their stuff, indeed. Fun set, fun guys. Kids music needs them, and not just because they rock. Recess Monkey - "Booster Seat" (Live at Kindiefest 2010) - [YouTube]

One more video and pictures of the band and Mayor Monkey, the band's hand puppet band manager, after the jump.

I Want My KTV!: Kidz Bop Launches Preschool Video On Demand Channel

I think it is safe to say that the opinion of Kidz Bop 'round these parts is one of -- at best -- tolerance. The half-sung/half-shouted re-workings of songs written for folks twice the age of Kidz Bop's audience have tended to annoy the adults in my audience. Even with all that, perhaps you should become a Kidz Bop fan. Why? Because it stands to have the biggest positive impact on independent kids music of anything TV-related since Jack's Big Music Show. For a couple years, the label's been partnering with Comcast to offer a Video on Demand channel (Cox is also now part of the partnership). Up to this point, the channel appears to have been nothing but Kidz Bop-related stuff targeted at the 6+age group, but starting this week, they've added "KB Preschool." It'll feature music videos, educational shows, live concerts and more from both signed and unsigned preschool/children artists (emphasis mine). This month, Ben Rudnick's “A Frog Named Sam," Lalaland's "Music in You," and Milkshake's "Jump" and "Blue Bird," among others, are debuting on the channel. In months to come, expect Justin Roberts, Debbie and Friends, Sugar Free Allstars, Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Uncle Rock, and more. Kinda looks like a Zooglobble (or Jitterbug) playlist, no? If you're a Kidz Bop hater, why should you care? Well, Kidz Bop reports that Comcast and Cox reach about 30 million homes (as compared to Nickelodeon's 85 million cable households) and they get more than a million streams a month of their content on video-on-demand. Take into account the streams on their own Kidz Bop website and syndicated programming on KOL (AOL for Kids) and Yahoo! Kids, and the potential impact on those independent artists above is potentially huge. Even if you don't have Comcast or Cox (or are worried about what other videos might be interspersed between those listed above and therefore wouldn't let your kids watch it anyway), grabbing just 10% of those streams for independent music would be a pretty big deal. So, yeah, count me as a fan. I'm as surprised as anyone. And if you're actually in one of these households, let me know what you think of the channel (and what else I've missed)...

Kindiefest 2010: Own Your [Stuff]

I've launched into a series of posts focusing on the individual artists who showcased at the 2010 edition of Kindiefest, but I thought a few words about what I took away from the conference would be appropriate before getting too far down that path. If the thread running through last year's conference was that of community, the thread running through this year's conference was that of hard work and committing to the craft of making music for kids and families. Or, to put it another way, committing to owning your stuff. Except when we (or at least I) talked about it this weekend, we used an earthier word in place of (but close to) "stuff" that I don't feel comfortable using on the intrawebs. And we (or at least I) used that phrase a lot. Danny and Sarah and Nori from The Not-Its walking around in their band trademark black and pink outfits? Owning their stuff. Recess Monkey putting together sweet little videos on the cheap? Owning their stuff. Justin Roberts playing a set so awesome that at least a couple other performing artists said that it inspired them to improve their own game and making at least one audience member literally cry? Completely and totally owning his stuff.

As I suggest above, that commitment requires time and attention to detail. The panels this year were, with the exception of my Old School Meets New School panel, technically oriented. And what I saw of the panels suggested that people can't do this lackadaiscally. The panel on videos moderated by Michael Rachap of Readeez brought to life the truism that when it comes to making videos good, fast, and cheap, you can only pick two of them (and nobody suggested dropping "good"). Though I didn't see all of the production panel, what I heard suggested that the producer wasn't necessarily going to make your life easier. Better, hopefully, but you'd be working even harder. And the distribution panel might have been the biggest cold water splash of them all. Veronica Villarreal from E1 Music said that only 500 of 4,300 Walmarts carry music, of which most of it is TV-based. The Walmarts and Targets of the world are look for you to sell 400-500 CDs per week. Kevin Salem from Little Monster Records was again one of the most quotable folks around, pointing out that the question isn't just (from the artist to the distributor), "What are you doing to get my record into stores?," but also (from the distributor to the artist), "What are you doing to get your record out of the stores?" Said Salem in that regard, "Nothing is as powerful as doing a great show, even if it's for 10 people." In other words, you've got to take your career -- even if it's a part-time one seriously. You have to, yes, own that stuff. (Just like Cathy Fink did in giving her initial comments for the panel while accompanying herself on an electric guitar-styled ukulele.) My own panel on "Old School Meets New School" was fun, but I'm a poor judge of that, I suppose. It was the only panel that wasn't specifically designed to be nuts-and-bolts. Instead, I viewed it mostly as an opportunity for the more experienced hands on the panel to a) reassure newer folks that this was a valuable path to travel, but b) it wasn't going to be easy. Bill Harley still sets aside an hour a day to write new stuff. That's commitment to the creative side. Sustaining this Kids New Wave is going to take a lot of hard work and effort. You don't have to do it full time. But whatever time you give to the genre, you're gonna need to give it your full attention. If you don't own your stuff, nobody's going to do it for you. More thoughts after the jump...