Happy Valentine's Day Monster Followers!

Because I can't seem to go more than a few weeks without mentioning Recess Monkey or posting one of their videos, here is a special Valentine's Day video featuring them.  Well, one monkey anyway.  That's Drew singing about his daughter's fish.  This song comes from their next album Flying due out June 14 (My Mama's birthday!  Guess what Mom's present will be?  Just kidding, Mom.)  It's titled, appropriately enough, My Valentine! and features local Kindiependent talents Johnny Bregar on piano and Tom Baisden on trumpet, as well as  Dean Jones on trombone.  I love the autographed photos of Johnny and Dean featured in the video.  What a cute touch!

What else do I love about this video?  Well, there's the pink ukulele that Drew plays while wearing a fuchsia cummerbund.  There's the black and white film footage of a big band that comes out towards the end. And then there is my most favorite part, little Valentine's bubbly solo.  Can't get any cuter than a singing fish.  Well, maybe you can, but I loved it nonetheless. 



Happy Valentine's Day to all of you.  I hope that you share this video with all that you love.  Have a super sweet and special day!

Kindiependent and the Share the Music Concert

Look out because Seattle is spreading the word about it's kindie bands!  On Sunday, June 13 you can catch four of the big names in Seattle kids music as they host the "Share the Music Concert".  Recess Monkey along with Caspar Babypants, The Not-It's!, Johnny Bregar, and Central Services Presents:  The Board of Education have all banded together to create Kindiependent.  From the website, "Kindiependent is a collective of like-minded people who are passionate about cultivating a vibrant kids and family music scene in the Pacific Northwest.  Through creative collaborations and community events, our mission is to develop a network of family-friendly artists and organizations that supports cultural innovation."

The "Share the Music Concert" is what looks to be the first of many collaborative events to come.  It's also the release show for Recess Monkey's latest CD, The Final Funktier!  Awesome!  I just can't tell you how exciting this is for me!  I love the fact that my family has easy access to so many great kindie bands and that they are actually collaborating and working together to share all their great music with Pacific Northwest families.  The festival is going to be four back-to-back sets with four out of the five bands:  Recess Monkey, Caspar Babypants, The Not-It's!, and Johnny Bregar.  The concert is FREE!  For more information, check out the new Kindiependent website.  You can also get more information about other upcoming group events and you'll also find links for each of the five bands.

I'm hoping that once the word gets out, even more kids music bands located in the Pacific Northwest will join ranks with these guys.  I can see Harmonica Pocket and Captain Bogg and Salty jumping on the bandwagon.  Maybe this means that there will be a giant kindie music fest coming our way in the very near future?  We can only hope.  And of course, support these guys like crazy!!!  See you there!

Update:  Check it out!  Harmonica Pocket has joined Kindiependent too!  Told you they would!

Video Friday - Shoo Fly Pie by Johnny Bregar

I was reading the April edition of Seattle's Child magazine because the cover story caught my eye, "Seattle's Kindie Rock Scene:  It ain't your mama's Raffi".  Hmm, interesting.  Actually, not much was said in this article that hasn't been said before about Seattle's kids music scene.  The cover photo was of Recess Monkey's Andrew Holloway rockin' out with a bunch of kids.  And, there were the obligatory pictures of Caspar Babypants and The Not-It's.

Here's a couple of highlights from the article though:  Recess Monkey has collaborated with Johnny Bregar, Caspar Babypants, and the Not-It's on their new CD, The Final Funktier.  You can hear some of the new songs on their website.  Also, there is finally mention of a Seattle Kindie Festival!  F-I-N-A-L-L-Y!!!  I can't tell you how exciting this is.  As the article mentions Austin has already been holding a Kindie Festival as an off-shoot of their Austin City Limits Music Festival, and Kidzapalooza is a direct result of Lollapalooza (both of which were mispelled in the article, which I thought was hilarious.  It's not like you can spell-check those words.)

The main thing that I realized after reading this article is that I haven't given any mention to Johnny Bregar.  That's entirely my fault.  It's not like he just arrived over-night.  He's been doing the kids music thing for quite a while.  The problem is that I'm not as familiar with him as I am with some of the other bands.  I fully plan to rectify this as soon as I find one of his shows near enough to see.  For now, we can all enjoy this video by Johnny, a fun version of Shoo Fly Pie.

Happy Friday everyone, and good luck on your search to find a magical oven that can produce gourmet desserts without melting your plastic rocket ship, dinosaur, and palm tree!