Video Friday - Dinosaur in My Backyard by Hullabaloo

I found this video last week and it has quickly become a favorite with my sons.  The video itself is very simple, but extremely fun.  There's nothing quite like a wind-up dinosaur doing silly things to make little kids laugh.  The song itself is really fun too and good for a laugh; even the grown-ups will enjoy it.

Happy Friday everyone!  Have a dino-rific day!

Video Friday - The Teens by Recess Monkey

My family has really been into Recess Monkey lately.  In particular, their new album Field Trip.  By far I think this is our most favorite album of theirs.  I liked this song immediately because it reminds me of when my son was first learning to count.  Something about the teens is always difficult for kids.  One number in there always gets missed.  I think it was 16 for him.  Anyway, I think even though this video is very simple and only includes one of the monkeys, it's still really fun.  I especially like that they included the number 12.  I wish I new why they did that.  Twelve-teen?  I don't know, maybe just because it's silly.

Enjoy and have a great Friday everyone!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So I was poking around the other day and saw that The Speks are totally awesome and are offering a free download of their song Saint Patrick's Day to anyone and everyone.  How could I not share this?  Next step is for them to make a video for it I think.  It's a fun little ditty.  Visit The Speks website for a short description of the song and also the complete lyrics so that you can sing along AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE!



I know that this next bit sounds more Scottish, than Irish, but since there is no designated Scottish holiday in America, I decided to include it.  Besides, they're under the header of "Celtic Music", so it all fits.  Anyway, this is the Wicked Tinkers doing Wallop the Cat.  If you've never been to a Wicked Tinkers show, this is another song meant to be AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE!  And you can all sing along because you only need to know the words, "Wallop the Cat!"  The video is a little fuzzy, but still fun.  By the way, if you've never been to a Wicked Tinkers show, wot's yer problem?



Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  Erin go bragh!

Video Friday - The Kid with the Replaceable Head by Richard Hell and the Voidoids

This is a fairly recent video from Pancake Mountain that has become my six-year-old's new favorite video.  I like it a lot too.  The video is new, but the song is an old one by Richard Hell and the Voidoids.  It's got a really fun punk sound and it also has a 70's cartoon vibe to it.  My favorite part is when the little boy dances, it's just such a little boy kind of dance.  It's also got kind of a monster type feel to it, which is what seems to appeal to my son.  I love that old punk songs like this are being reformatted into videos for kids.  My son proclaims this one "Awesome!" every time he sees it.

Have a kick-@$$ Friday everyone!!!

The Harmonica Pocket - Live at the Library!

I was checking out The Harmonica Pocket's website recently and saw that they would be coming to our local library with their new show Get Loose With Seuss.  Timberland Regional library is using this new show to kick-off their annual reading program and to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday.

I've heard of The Harmonica Pocket before, but I didn't have any experience with their music, and I really had no idea what to expect.  The group is fronted by Keeth Monta Apgar who plays "acoustic wah wah guitar" and is joined by a rotating selection of other musicians.  Nala Walla joined him this time; she provides vocal harmony and her famous hula hoop.

The group is described as "indie-pop" and "jazz-pop", but not "corn-pop", at least not yet.  Honestly these labels don't really mean anything to me.  I dislike putting labels on music because I  think that most people don't tend to think in terms of labels when they think about the kind of music that they like.  "Kids Music" is enough of a label for me because kids music can be just about anything.

The two marched out stomping and playing their hinkle-horns (that would be a kazoo attached to two tubes leading to a couple of brightly colored horns) and greeted the crowd enthusiastically.  However, there was no sound!  Wow, let me tell you that totally threw all the kids off!  They were so intrigued, baffled, confused . . . what in the world was up with these people!?  It was soon determined that it was necessary for the kids to turn on their ears before the show could start and after a quick lesson on how to turn on your ears, everything continued at a much louder pace.

They began by singing a birthday song to Dr. Suess and other songs were created using parts of Dr. Seuss stories.  The kids were really excited about it because all of them were familiar with Dr. Seuss books and their subsequent songs like One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  There was also a great little sketch about how Dr. Seuss came up with his ideas, including the idea for Horton Hatches an Egg.  The kids expressed shear delight when Nala broke out her hula hoop and she received quite a bit of applause for all her tricks.  Nala also danced with a pair of large orange and red scarves that was really beautiful and fun to watch.  At one point she pulled one of the scarves over several kids in the audience until she reached the end of the semi-circle of kids.  She then draped the scarf over herself and three very lucky little kids and they sat for a moment in their own private tent.  It was so child-like and carefree.

They closed the show with a song about Horton Hears a Who and a large balloon was bounced around the audience as we all pretended that it contained a tiny world of Whos.  Nala ended up catching the balloon and letting all the air out in Keeth's face, to which Keeth replied, "That balloon has bad breath!"  The audience all had a laugh and gave a large round of applause.

We bought The Harmonica Pocket's new album, Lady Bug One, to get a sense of what some of their other music is like.  I for one enjoyed the show so much that I'd really love to see some of their other shows.  I've listened to the CD several times now and I can tell you that it is like nothing else that you will hear in the kids music world.  Visit their website where you can download mp3s of some of their songs for free (or leave a contribution in the tip jar).  Also check out what they say about the Free Music Project.  It's a delightful breath of fresh air in the music industry.  I love the fact that some people in the kids music industry are embracing this idea.

The Harmonica Pocket has more shows coming up so be sure to go check them out!  They'll even be doing a taped radio show on Evergreen's radio station KAOS, Sunday, March 14, 3-5 pm PST.  So even if you can't get to one of their shows, you can still listen to them.