Video: "Lemonade" - Justin Roberts

Yay for new music from Justin Roberts! In the wake of a successful PledgeMusic campaign, his brand new album Lemonade will quench the thirst of families wanting more of his folk-pop goodness. (I swear, that's the only drinking-related pun I'll be making here. Today.) The album is formally released on October 14, but your family can watch the amusing video for the title track right here, right now.

The two kids playing the main characters are cute, but if I'm honest, the lemons-as-puppets steal the show.

Justin Roberts - "Lemonade" [YouTube]

Video: "Banana Bread" - Caspar Babypants

You can view Caspar Babypants' song "Banana Bread" (from his new album Away We Go!) as an ode to that wonderful baked treat, or perhaps as a metaphor for life and value of being flexible. Either way, I think you should watch the brand-new hand-animated video for the song. Bananas wearing top hats for a song co-written by Chris Ballew and his dad (!). If the Beatles were ever to have written a song about banana bread, this would have been it.

Caspar Babypants - "Banana Bread" [YouTube]

Monday Morning Smile: "Vote for Jim Gill" - Jim Gill

As you're aware, usually these Monday Morning Smiles are not kid-music-specific, but when I saw this video from Jim Gill, I knew that this movement-based song would be perfect for this morning of the first presidential debate of 2016. It's a bit of "Vote for Jim Gill," the title track from his brand-new album, and it's tailor-made for playing during the ad breaks in tonight's debate.

It even includes a baby-kissing politician. Seriously -- couldn't be more appropriate for this evening's event.

Jim Gill - "Vote for Jim Gill" [YouTube]

Video: "Superhero" - The Laurie Berkner Band

It's September 23, a very busy day for Laurie Berkner. Her new album Superhero is released today, featuring a bunch of brand-new original songs and duets with folks like Ziggy Marley, Kira Willey, and Brady Rymer. (You can read more about the album in this interview with Berkner.) She's launched a Kickstarter project to bring 5 concerts featuring her to hospitals and special needs schools. Berkner is donating her time, so the Kickstarter money will help pay for all the other stuff -- sound crew, travel costs, etc. (You can donate CDs to hospitals, get signed CDs, and superhero capes, among other cool swag.)

One of those things would be enough for a Friday morning, and two is a lot, but why not do a third thing? So Berkner's debuting her video for the album's title track today. The song's got a zippy, catchy chorus and features cute kids wearing capes. That's enough for me and probably the nearest preschooler.

The Laurie Berkner Band - "Superhero" [YouTube]

Video: "Phone" - Eric Herman and the Thunder Puppies

Normally a video posted on a Monday morning might qualify for a "Monday Morning Smile" designation, but the latest video from Eric Herman and the Thunder Puppies is all about the impending collapse of Earth and its inhabitants due to humans' obsession with those tiny glass screens.

So not as uplifting as I'd typically choose for those Monday Morning Smile.

The video for "Phone" -- the latest from Herman's Bubble Wrap album -- will likely put a wry smile on your and/or your kids' faces, depending on your (or their) level of social media addiction. (Also: somebody has to have copyrighted "Webflix," right?)

Eric Herman and the Thunder Puppies - "Phone" [YouTube]

Video: "Dream Too Much" - Amy Lee

Clearly Amazon Music is moving full steam ahead in developing a label of exclusive releases. They started out slowly, but now in addition to The Pop Ups and Recess Monkey, they've got Lisa Loeb, The L (featuring Bob Schneider), and Amy Lee. The singer (probably best known as the leader of Evanescence) is a parent of a toddler, and in a couple weeks she's releasing Dream Too Much, her first album for kids.

The title track is whimsical and, befitting a song about dreams' often off-kilter narratives, filled with surreal lyrical imagery. That surreal imagery is made real in her new video for the album's title track. I like the song, but the paper-based images are even better.

Amy Lee - "Dream Too Much" [YouTube]