KidVid Tournament 2012: Week 1 Summary

It was an exciting first week of action in KidVid Tournament 2012 and week 2 will be even more exciting. (I hope.) Without any further ado, the 2nd Round matchups are as follows...

Woody Guthrie Region
#1 Elizabeth Mitchell - "Ong Tal Sam" vs. #4 Princess Katie & Racer Steve - "Sand in My Sandwich"
#2 Dog on Fleas - "Do You Wanna Know My New Dance Step?" vs. #6 Imagination Movers - "Everybody Sing"

The winner of the Woody Guthrie Region meets the winner of the...

Ella Jenkins Region

#1 Caspar Babypants - "Mister Rabbit" vs. #5 Gustafer Yellowgold "Pancake Smackdown"
#2 Renee & Jeremy - "Share" vs. #6 Todd McHatton - "I Think I'm a Bunny"

Leadbelly Region
#1 Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band - "Blue Bear" vs. #5 Beethoven's Wig - "My Little Chicken"
#2 The Not-Its! - "First Kid in Outer Space" vs. #3 Rocknoceros - "Early Worm"

The winner of the Leadbelly Region will take on the winner of the...

Pete Seeger Region
#4 Brady Rymer - "Love Me For Who I Am" vs. #8 Suzi Shelton - "Tomboy in a Princess Dress"
#2 The Pop Ups - "Balloon" vs. #3 Rabbit! - "Magic"

As with last week's entries, this week's competition will place across teh Internets at these fine locales. Really, you should familiarize yourself with each and every one of 'em!

Finally, I'd just like to say thanks to all of you for not entering the official tournament pool. My faith in humanity -- for not entering a silly pool for a silly tournament -- is maintained.

Itty-Bitty Review: Kings & Queens of the Forest - Kira Willey

I really liked Kira Willey's first album of music for kids, Dance for the Sun. It was one of those rare albums written with a specific purpose in mind -- in this case, yoga music for kids -- that not only served that purpose but also could be listened to outside of that context. (It's an album that still gets played occasionally in our house.)

So of course I was eager to hear Willey's long-awaited follow-up, Kings & Queens of the Forest. I'm happy to report that Willey retains her touch at crafting poppy kids music which which could please folks who don't know their downward dogs from hot dogs. There's an obvious bias toward songs that encourage movement -- the leadoff track "Roller Coaster" talks about going up, down, and to the side, for example -- but lyrics are sometimes subtle enough that the yoga origins aren't obvious. "Let the Sun Shine In," for example, features Willey's brother Tom Shileds Jr. doing his bass vocal thing again in a jazzy song that could be about the sun salutation but is pretty much just a happy song. And "The Mixing Bowl" happens to accompany a two-person yoga move, but is lovely no matter the time or place.

The songs here are most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 8. You can listen to a handful of tracks from the new album at Willey's Soundcloud page. As with its predecessor, the hour-plus album also features Willey leading the yoga poses for each song.

Kings & Queens of the Forest is a pleasant collection of pop songs for kids with jazz, surfer, country, and acoustic undertones. Fans of Dance for the Sun will like this new one, and I would have difficulty picking a favorite between the two. Kings & Queens would stand up fine on its own, but for families (and teachers) looking for an album to encouragement (yoga or otherwise), this will definitely fit the bill. Recommended.

[Disclosure: I was given a copy of the album for possible review.]

A Brief Comparison of Kids Music Videos Featuring Ninjas

In one corner, the Imagination Movers. The other, Koo Koo Kanga Roo. They will fight each other to the death.

Or... maybe not.

In any case, the Imagination Movers recently released their second video off their Rock-O-Matic disk (and DVD), for the song "Dance Kung Fu." Let's compare it to Koo Koo Kanga Roo's "Ninja Training" off the band's 2011 Midnight Slushie EP.

Video: "Little Lap Dog Lullaby" - Laura Veirs

Not salty, not bitter, not sour. Not even umami. Yes, this video from Laura Veirs for "Little Lap Dog Lullaby" off her fine Tumble Bee album is just sweet. All due credit to animator Helen Woolston. Laura Veirs - "Little Lap Dog Lullaby" [YouTube]

KidVid Tournament 2012: The Official Pool!

In the past, when talking about the KidVid Tournament, I would inevitably make a joke about not to bet on the results as doing so could potentially be in violation of state and/or federal law. Well, I'm proud to say that I've found a way around that problem and eliminated one particular punchline. I'm announcing the Official KidVid Tournament 2012 Pool. That's right, no longer will you have to scour the Internet for unofficial pools related to the tourney or visit shady offshore gambling facilities. For KidVid Tournament 2012, you can enter the Zooglobble-sanctioned pool. Look at the brackets (attached at the bottom of this post), figure out who think will win each round, and e-mail that to me (zooglobble AT earthlink DOT net) by midnight West Coast time Sunday night/Monday morning. OK, sure, you're saying, but why should I do this? Well, there will be two winners, who will each receive a prize pack of 3 great family music CDs (I promise they'll be good). The first winner will be the person who correctly guesses the most total matchups (with 5 points given to correctly picking the winner of the whole tournament), with any ties broken randomly. The second winner will be picked randomly from all entries. You can get multiple additional entries for the random drawing by doing one or more of four things: 1) Tweeting about the tournament with a link to the KidVid Tournament 2012 bracket listing and using the hashtag #kidvid2012 2) Being a "fan" of the Zooglobble Facebook page and at least one other tournament hosting site (see the bracket listing for complete list). 3) Signing up for the Zooglobble newsletter (off to the side or at the very bottom of this post). 4) Tweeting about the tournament with a link to one of the first-round matchups next week and using the hashtag #KidVid2012. When you send me your pool entry, just let me know if you're submitting extra entries through items 1-3 below (either because you're already a "fan" or a newsletter subscriber or because you've newly become so). I'll look for anything you do on #4 once the tournament starts, obviously. If you have any questions, just shoot me an e-mail. Thanks, and have fun! [Brackets and newsletter signup after the jump.]

Announcing KidVid Tournament 2012

The KidVid Tournament 2012 is (almost) here! That's right, folks, the web's most popular fan-based tournament for the arbitrary qualitative ranking of kids music videos is back! For the sixth straight year, the best kids music videos of the previous twelve months will compete against each other in a frenzied two-to-three week period as if the determination of quality is based on fan interest on the Internet. I think it's kinda awesome. KidVid Tournament 2011 featured an exciting final showdown between Keller Williams and Sugar Free Allstars. Who'll make it to the final round this year? Well, that is up to you. So last week I announced my favorite kids music videos of 2011. In the past I've had to whittle down my list of favorite kids music videos down to just 16 to fit them into the tournament. But not this year. That's right, we're expanding to 32 videos! That's one more round and 16 more videos to jump into the action. This, friends, is the true March Madness (which is probably a trademarked phrase, so it's not the true March Madness at all). And, if you're going to add 16 more games, you're gonna need more help hosting these matchups. So I'm happy to announce that there will be eight great kids music writers and radio folks helping out to host this tournament: