Video: "Time to Make the Donuts" - Recess Monkey

For adults of a certain age, the phrase "time to make the donuts" will probably ring a certain set of bells. Our kids, though? That phrase will be linked with Recess Monkey.

That's because for their brand new album Novelties! (their thirteenth, and first for Amazon Music), they've got the catchy track "Time to Make the Donuts," and a video whose choreographed swooping and strutting seems like something out of an early OK Go video. Jack sings while Drew and Korum step in and out of the frame with all manner of donut-related equipment in Seattle's own Top Pot Doughnuts' kitchen. The video, filmed by Aaron Horton, is thoroughly charming.

By the way, for the next week (through June 23rd), you can grab a copy of "Time to Make the Donuts" for free right here.

Recess Monkey - "Time to Make the Donuts" [YouTube]

Video: "Take a Bath" - Eric Herman and the Thunder Puppies (World Premiere!)

Today marks the official release date for Bubble Wrap, the brand new album from Eric Herman (and his band the Thunder Puppies). Longtime kids music listeners will not be surprised to find out that the new album contains a mix of the silly and heartfelt, and while perhaps the Washington-based Herman has strong feelings on the issue of cleanliness, the song "Take a Bath" definitely fits on the silly end of that spectrum.

The reggae-inflected song is amusing by itself, but the cartoon visuals are particularly effective, and I suspect will amuse the youngsters. (Hey, it amused me, so that age range might be kinda broad.)

Anyway, enjoy this world premiere video!

Eric Herman and the Thunder Puppies - "Take a Bath" [YouTube]

Video: "What Kind of Fruit?" - Dean Jones (World Premiere!)

In My Dreams cover art by Giselle Potter

Yay! New music from Dean Jones! Nothing like getting e-mail which says, "hey! new music in a month!" Which is essentially how I learned about Jones' forthcoming album In My Dreams. The latest album from the producer who seems to produce about half of every kindie album these days arrives a scant 4 weeks from now on July 1, and to kick things off we've got a laid-back video featuring Jones in a banana suit. (Now there's a sentence I feel confident has never been written in the entire history of the world up 'til now.) Directed by Ratboy Jr.'s Tim Sutton, the video is gently goofy and questioning and will probably lead to some requests for some apples, grapes, or bananas. Enjoy this world premiere!

Dean Jones - "In My Dreams" [YouTube]

Video: "I Can't Dance (I've Got Ants in My Pants)" - The Hollow Trees (World Premiere!)

It's been awhile since we've heard from Los Angeles' The Hollow Trees, more than five years since the release of Wacky's Tackle. But thankfully they're back with a new album of Americana- and Tin Pan Alley-inflected originals and covers, Hello Friend, and in anticipation of the album release on July 1, they've got a new video.

The video's for "I Can't Dance (I've Got Ants in My Pants)," a jazz tune dating back to the '30s (at least). The Hollow Trees' version zips along nicely, and I suspect that between the song and the video, featuring lots of public domain clips of dancing of all sorts, some member of your household will be encouraged to dance in some way, for non-formicidaeical reason. In any case, enjoy this world premiere video!

The Hollow Trees - "I Can't Dance (I've Got Ants in My Pants)" [YouTube]

Video: "We Live in an Orchestra" - The Pop Ups

The partnership between the Pop Ups and Amazon is paying dividends, if only because Amazon let Jacob and Jason create a half-hour special exclusively for Amazon Prime members, and then let them share it with the world. "We Live in an Orchestra" from their stellar Great Pretenders Club album is like the funkiest ASMR song for kids ever, filled with taps and scratches and balloon pops. Now they've done a video which, in its multiple iterations of Jacobs running around Jason's laboratory, is like a cartoon come to life. So good! (If I were picking from the spinning wheel, count me as "Happy :-)" and "Super."

The Pop Ups - "We Live in an Orchestra" [YouTube]

Video: "Dame una A" - 123 Andres

It's Cinco de Mayo as I type this, and while 123 Andres' new album Arriba Abajo gets its official release a month from now, this is as a good a week as any to release a brand new Spanish-language kids music video.

The video is for "Dame una A" ("Give Me an A") and its simple celebration of vowels ("vocales") is well-served by an incredibly cute quartet of animated animals, characters, and, er, vowels. I'm guessing this is not the last we will see of them.

123 Andres - "Dame una A" [YouTube]