Kindiefest 2011: Artists' Showcase in Video and Pictures

Be it SXSW or Kindiefest, there are different reasons to see an artists' showcase at a music conference. You can see your favorite bands, or perhaps bands you're familiar with but are curious to see and hear them live. And sometimes you stumble upon a new favorite. The Kindiefest 2011 artists' showcase on Saturday night was for me a combination of all three, which suggests how well the lineup was put together. Now, I should note that though the lineup featured several artists I'd consider my favorites, I'd never actually seen any of them perform live. (That would have to wait for Sunday's public performance, for whom I'd seen half the lineup live.) But as someone who puts together shows here in the Phoenix area, that live aspect is important to me. This summary is long, but I encourage you to skim the entire thing, you never know when you'll find your new favorite artist.

The lineup kicked off with Billy Kelly and the Blah Blah Blahs, faced with the unenviable task of starting the show while everybody filed back from dinner or a run to their hotel rooms. That and selecting from a bunch of great songs. They went meta ("This Is The First Song" -- they should close with that one day), sweet ("Family Garden"), doubly sweet ("Pen Pal," duetting with Lunch Money's Molly Ledford), and classic ("The Legend of Johnny Box"). The last song featured none other than Johnny Box himself, played by... well, let's just say by someone very familiar to Zooglobble readers. Good stuff.

From there it was on to The Pop Ups, whose set was basically a very abbreviated version of their PASTA! musical. Were there puppets? Yes! Were there apes in capes? Yes! Was there lots of hand-clapping? Yes! Was there lots of pasta? Well, you'll just have to see the musical for yourself to see the answer. But it's hard not to see how the musical would be very popular with the 5-year-old set. The Pop Ups - "Pasta" [YouTube] But we were just getting started, with six more artists to go...

Listen To This: "Cooperate" - Sugar Free Allstars and Secret Agent 23 Skidoo

I'm all about the collaboration and cooperation, so of course I dig the fact that Sugar Free Allstars and Secret Agent 23 Skidoo hooked up for a new single. Both of 'em hung out together a bit at Kindiefest, and their affinity is obvious on this funky track. Stream it below or buy it here or here.

Red? Anne Hathaway vs. Hayden Panettiere, Singing

Longtime readers will know of my love for the soundtrack to Hoodwinked, an excellent soundtrack that was out of print for awhile but is now easily available. So now the long-delayed sequel, Hoodwinked Too!, is in theatres, and I'm wondering whether I should go with the family to see it. (We've subsequently acquired a copy of the original on DVD, and we like it quite a bit.) I was nervous because despite the original's director and creator Cory Edwards' assurances that the sequel was good (he's a co-writer on the new movie), I wasn't getting a good vibe from the trailer, and, what's worse, Todd Edwards, who was responsible for the soundtrack, is nowhere to be found on this film. Instead, what we have is this, courtesy of Hayden Panettiere, brought in to replace Anne Hathaway as the voice of Red: Hayden Panettiere - "I Can Do It Alone" (from Hoodwinked Too!) [YouTube] Sigh. So... generic. And so not intriguing to me. (Oh, and the video would appear to give away a major plot twist, so foo on that, too.) Finding clips of the first movie online is obviously a little difficult, but I would just direct you to...

Kindiefest 2011: The Big Picture

I'm writing this (or at least starting to write) while at about 38,000 feet, heading home to Phoenix after another weekend of family music immersion at Kindiefest, the annual gathering of family musicians, radio folks, writers, and others. I spent a fair amount of time this weekend trying to think about if there was an overarching theme to this year's conference. What is the big picture? Last year, if you'll remember, it was about owning your [stuff], the year before it was about... well, a bunch of stuff. And this year? There were always the random phrases people uttered during the weekend. In the entertaining discussion on using social media, Ashley Albert from the Jimmies mentioned how one children's media property allowed users to create avatars of themselves as potatoes, and I immediately wrote "potato avatar" as the name of a kids album or kids band, I'm not sure which. Daron Henry mentioned how Recess Monkey had at some point become a "jobby," a combination of job and hobby that captures, I think, the weird position of some kids music artists, for which this artistic endeavor has become something considerably more than a hobby, but maybe hasn't quite reached the point of full-time work. Yet. Kindiefest co-founder Bill Childs tagged "authenticity" as the word for the weekend. I won't deny that that notion surfaced throughout the weekend, especially in the musical performances. (More on those tomorrow.) But I'm going to call the word of Kindiefest 2011 "community." It wasn't a buzzword that rolled off everyone's lips immediately -- well, except maybe in my panel -- and it's not the word itself that I'm choosing. It was some that happened constantly. At least four or five times during the conference, somebody said to me (or I thought to myself), "I want to -- or I've been told that I need to -- meet [someone else]." And then I'd take it upon myself to find that person, and drag them (and you think I'm exaggerating, but it's not too far from the truth) to that other person. That community could be found in the many after-parties post-conference events, where some folks did the small-level relationship building that long-term associations are built upon. Sometimes that involved serious discussions on how band finances really work or trading touring war stories or fond memories, and sometimes that involved making really bad (and/or off-color) jokes. And probably most significantly, community was found in the showcases and public festival, where again this year many musicians were the most enthusiastic listeners. It was heartening to see the large contingent of kindie musicians on one side of the stage singing or clapping along loudly, for example, during Elizabeth Mitchell's set. Or when during the showcase from Shine and the Moonbeams -- and, goodness, you will be hearing much more about them -- the little boy on stage got a little stage fright and didn't want to dance, Tim Kubart and Ann Torralba got up and danced away. That's not even mentioning all the different folks who sat in on others' sets.

New York as Kindie Epicenter This Weekend

As you should all know by now, I'll be attending (and moderating a panel at) Kindiefest this weekend. The events Friday and Saturday are attendee-only affairs, though I hope to provide some updates via Facebook and Twitter. Having said that, Sunday's concert is a public affair, with crazy-cheap tickets and a great lineup. Elizabeth Mitchell, the Verve Pipe, Heidi Swedberg, Oran Etkin, and more. Tickets are just $12 in advance, $15 at the door, infants free. Tickets are here. Conference attendees looking for an after-show Saturday night could do much worse than seeing Deedle Deedle Dees quasi-alter ego band the Red Hook Ramblers play the Floating Kabarette at Galapagos. Definitely not a kids show. More details here. Of course, there are always more local musicians playing this weekend, but you've got a chance to see some folks whose presence on the East Coast is not as consistent. Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band, all the way out from LA, are playing Sunday at 12:30 at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. Tickets are $10. Finally, Recess Monkey will be playing 2 shows, one Saturday at 1 pm at the Brooklyn Central Library, and one Sunday at 11 am at the 92Y Tribeca. It's a good weekend to be a New York parent -- hope you can take advantage of even more great family music than you usually get to.

Disks I Missed

I get literally hundreds of disks every year. Some are great, some are awful, and a whole bunch of 'em are somewhere in between. Most of these disks in this large, last category have something to recommend them, someone to be recommended to. But for many reasons -- they didn't grab me upon first (or second) listen, too many other reviews at the time, "real life" getting in the way -- I don't review them. I review 50-60 disks a year, but when you get maybe 5 or 6 times that amount, a lot of albums that would appeal to at least some segment of my audience just don't get a review. So consider this list of 27 "disks I missed" a jumping-off point for exploration. I've mentioned many of these artists here in one way or another (videos, radio airplay, free music), so regular readers won't be surprised by many of these names. They're all disks that at one point I thought, "I could definitely review this." (How did I not get around to that Barry Lou Polisar tribute disk?, for example.) They are all disks for which news of a follow-up would definitely intrigue me. And I would guess that most of them have reviews elsewhere on the Internet. So go forth and explore. [Edit: I should note that these disks are essentially from the first 10-11 months of 2010. And I probably missed a few, like Yosi's Super Kids Rock!. So there's probably more out there that will make me slap my forehead when I realize it's not listed here...] The Baby Grands - The Baby Grands II The Boogers - Let's Go! Cake For Dinner - s/t Jim Cosgrove - Swimming in Noodles The Dirty Sock Funtime Band - Sock-A-Delic The Dream Jam Band - Leave It in the Soup Hilary Field & Patrice O'Neill - Cantilena The Flannery Brothers - The New Explorers Club Paul Greaver - Guitar Lullabies Grenadilla - s/t Roy Handy & the Moonshot - (I'm Gonna Be) Your Best Friend Charlie Hope - I'm Me! Hullabaloo - A Mighty Good Day Jeremy Plays Guitar - Use Your Words Todd McHatton - Sundays at the Rocket Park The Monkey Bunch - Power 2 the Little People Alastair Moock - A Cow Says Moock Maria Muldaur - Maria Muldaur's Barnyard Dance - Jug Band Music for Kids The Primate Fiasco - The Wheels on the Bus Ratboy Jr. - Smorgasbord Rhythm Child - Eat a Bowl of Cherries Rock Order of Chords and Keys - Punk Rock One Sock Tim and the Space Cadets - The Greatest Party Ever EP David Tobocman - Lemonade School Yosi - Super Kids Rock! V/A - Music for Little People: Love & Peace V/A - Music for Little People: Pickin' & Grinnin' V/A - We're Not Kidding! A Tribute to Barry Louis Polisar