Please Release Me: July 2010 Edition

An update of last month's list of upcoming family music releases... The Not-Its: Time Out To Rock (July 20) Pete Seeger: Tomorrow's Children (July 27) Dream Jam Band: Leave It In The Soup (July 27 digital/Aug. 10 physical) The Okee Dokee Brothers: Take It Outside (Aug. 3) Various Artists: Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti (Aug. 10) "Doc" Dauer and others: The Body Rocks! (Aug. 17) David Tobocman: Lemonade School (mid-August) Matt Clark: Funnier Little Fella (Aug. 28) Secret Agent 23 Skidoo: Underground Playground (Aug. 31) Meredith LeVande: What Are the Odds? (Aug. 31) Billy Kelly: Is This Some Kind of Joke? (late summer) Bill Harley: The Best Candy in the Whole World (Sept. 14) Oran Etkin: Wake Up Clarinet (fall) The Boogers: Title TBA (fall) Jeremy Zmuda: Title TBA (fall) Laurie Berkner: Let’s Hear it for The Laurie Berkner Band! DVD (Sept. 28) Elizabeth Mitchell: Sunny Day (Oct. 5) Jim Cosgrove: Swimming in Noodles (Oct. 5) Maria Muldaur: Barnyard Dance: Jug Band Music for Kids (Oct. 12) Flannery Brothers The New Explorers Club (Oct. 19) Caspar Babypants: This Is Fun! (Nov. 2) Buckwheat Zydeco: Buckwheat Zydeco's Bayou Boogie (Nov. 2) Frances England: Mind of My Own (Nov. 9) Jamie Broza: I Want a Dog (Nov. 23) David Weinstone: Title TBA (November) Gustafer Yellowgold: Gustafer Yellowgold's Infinity Sock (Feb. 22, 2011) Others working on albums with potential 2010 releases? Lunch Money (Original Friend), Ella Jenkins, Big Don

Video: "13 O' Clock" - Secret Agent 23 Skidoo

Here's the second of two Secret Agent 23 Skidoo videos from his forthcoming Underground Playground album. (Here's "Chase the Rain".) Who knew that Skidoo had friends in Cirque du Soleil? This is a story/imagination song more along the lines of "Hot Lava." Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "13 O' Clock" [YouTube]

Video: "Chase the Rain" - Secret Agent 23 Skidoo

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo's second album of kid-hop Underground Playground has a release date -- August 31st (woot!). More importantly, the songs are starting to trickle out. "Road Trip" has started to hit radio airwaves (look for it on my Live365 station this week) and he's got a couple videos out. The video for "13 O' Clock" is definitely the more interesting visually, but I love this song. For those of you who really dug "Luck." Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "Chase the Rain" [YouTube]

Concert Recap: Randy Kaplan (Phoenix, June 2010)

RandyKaplan_CMOP_June10.jpgIt's been about a month since Randy Kaplan came through Phoenix and played a couple sets at the Children's Museum of Phoenix. As always, his storytelling was a hit with the audience. The title track (so to speak) from his new album The Kids Are All Id features words tumbling out of his mouth at a rapid speed and, as Kaplan admitted after the song, is probably more for the parents than the kids. But I like it. (And so do the kids.) Randy Kaplan - "The Kid Is All Id" [YouTube]

Video: "Trick or Treat" (Live at Kindiefest) - Justin Roberts

I know, I know, I've already showered praises upon the performance of Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Players at this year's Kindiefest. But that original post only included a snippet of "Trick or Treat" and not the full song. Well, with Roberts' permission, here's the whole thing. Y'know, I probably could have spent most of the NPR review talking about this one song. It's perfect (almost too much so for purposes of this recording, as you can occasionally hear me lending vocal support), really it is. Only 3 1/2 months 'til Halloween, y'all... Justin Roberts - "Trick or Treat" (Live at Kindiefest) [YouTube]

Little Boy Blue, Come Play Your Drums

Drums_Set.jpgIf this were a movie, the prologue would be set about thirty years ago, with an elementary-aged boy (not to give too much away, but it's me) playing an organ. It's an electronic organ -- not anything funky like a Hammond B-3, but a full-fledged organ with two rows of keys, pedals, stops, and foot pedals for the volume. What makes this scene slightly more remarkable is that I'm doing it at home on an organ that my dad built. That's right, my dad built an organ. It was from a kit, and I don't remember much of its construction. But I remember taking lessons, all the way through high school and three cross-country moves. At some point -- probably after I went off to college and my family was prepping for a fourth long-distance move -- we donated it to a church and aside from staying in the sanctuary until the organist finishes the postlude and an irrational appreciation of Saint-Saens' Symphony #3, I don't travel much in the organ world anymore. And I never picked up much of my dad's engineering skills. (His graduate degree = nuclear physics. Mine = not.) Roll opening credits, flash forward thirty years. We've noticed that Little Boy Blue spends a lot of time drumming. With his silverware at the dinner table, with his toothbrushes in the bathroom. (It's not for nothing that we put "D Is For Drums" on his birthday playlist.) "Let's get him a drum set for his birthday," I say. "You should make him one," my wife says. Now perhaps this sprang from having recently seen Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem in concert here in town. Rani's husband, drummer Scott Kessel, doesn't play on a standard trap kit -- he calls his set the "Drumship Enterprise" and it's entirely made of recycled materials. You can watch them in concert at Kindiefest here -- yes, that's a suitcase being used as the kick drum. It sounds pretty awesome, actually. Or maybe we were just trying to save money and find something that wouldn't echo through the house like a full-fledged set would. I don't know, but in any case, I started collecting boxes and other recycled materials for use as a drum set.