I post plenty of heads ups on free mp3s, but this one is a bigger deal. The Bay Area's The Sippy Cups have managed to get themselves the first free iTunes download in the Children's Music category. For the next week, iTunes users can go here to download "Seven is the New 14," one of the better (and funnier) tracks from their new album The Time Machine. ("Three and three? Not seven.") I expect a lot of clueless comments on iTunes from folks who aren't really part of the kids music demographic, but I think most readers here are going to like it. The Time Machine is out today as an iTunes exclusive, next week everywhere.
Video (and mp3): "Best Friends Forever" - AudraRox
This video from Brooklyn's AudraRox has been out there for a year now, but I'm only now just finding it. It's for "Best Friends Forever," a selection from the new Sesame Street: Being Green DVD. It's a sharp-looking video (yay for Sesame Workshop's deep pockets!) and a fun song.... which is now (newly) available for your downloading pleasure here. I love the line "Warm in the middle / cold at the ends..."
AudraRox - "Best Friends Forever"
There's more, of course.
How Much Pete Seeger Is Too Much Pete Seeger?
Pete Seeger might not have an official website of his own -- this Wikipedia page will have to do for a link -- but definitely resides in the 21st century. How many other 90-year-olds do you know who are offering a couple free mp3 downloads to promote their latest release? That's right, Smithsonian Folkways is re-releasing the American Favorite Ballads Volumes 1-5 box set, which itself was an expanded version of a collection of songs recorded from 1957 through 1962. You can go here to download Seeger's renditions of "Buffalo Gals" and "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" and then decide if you need 139 tracks (nearly six hours) of Pete Seeger in his sweet, crystal-clear voice accompanied by his banjo-picking. (You probably do.) Not all of it is "kids music," strictly speaking, but there's more than enough tracks that'll be familiar with anyone with more than a couple kids' disks in their collection.
Sing Along With Lloyd
That would be Lloyd Miller of the Brooklyn band The Deedle Deedle Dees. I'm a big fan of the Dees, of course, for many reasons -- they rock, they're lots of fun in concert, and they know how to craft educational songs you'll listen to for purely un-educational reasons (hint: they craft actual stories). Also, they're a great bunch of guys.
It probably won't come as much of a surprise to you, then, that Miller doesn't just write original songs about historical figures, but he's also a collector of old songs. Miller merges those two aspects of his musical life on a set of mp3s he's posted to his Bandcamp page. They're songs from the 2009 edition of his annual Mother's Day singalong. Says Miller:
I recorded these tracks so that my bandmates for the event could learn the tunes. Like all the recordings on this page, these recordings are very raw. But I kind of like them. I thought I might as well put them online so everyone could have them.In days of old (ie, 10 years ago? 5 years ago?), artists like Miller would have held on to them for a decade then released them on a B-sides/rarities collection. Now they get posted online for your free streaming or downloading enjoyment. I'll re-empasize Lloyd's point -- these are definitely lo-fi recordings (midway through one track on his Nature Babies collection from last year, his phone starts ringing) and shouldn't be considered final products or actual releases. And he has an occasionally uneasy relationship with some of the songs (Miller, on his bluesy "Wheels on the Bus" from Sing Along With Lloyd -- "'Wheels on the Bus' is lame. I never liked it and I still don't. Even so, my daughter only wanted this song before bed for about a year and a half."). But they're still interesting to listen to for various reasons -- the singalong disk is great for parents wondering how to inject a little variety into songs they sing on a daily basis. But it's the new stuff I'm going to post below...
Listen To This: "Happy Mother's Day" - The Harmonica Pocket
This is either the last song you'll need for Mother's Day 2009 or the first one you'll need for Mother's Day 2010 -- "Happy Mother's Day" from Seattle's Harmonica Pocket. A sweet little love song.
(Pssst... here's another song for your listening pleasure: Woody Guthrie's "Little Sacka Sugar". Think of it as the gift the mom gives back to her kids.)
Listen To This: "High Roller" - Hullabaloo (plus a shot at fame if not fortune)
San Diego-area band Hullabaloo has been particularly prolific over the past few years, releasing 3 albums in about 3 years, plus a DVD. Now they're prepping they're latest disk, High Roller, and they've posted the title track at their music page. It's an appealing 2-minute country/folk track with a hint of blues thrown in that includes the phrase "rolling on 3-point-5 inch wheels," which made me laugh.
Besides the track itself, you also have the chance to have your wee one's face grace the new album cover. Go here for instructions on how to enter, but the gist of it is that you'll submit a picture of your kid to the band's Facebook page. Then I, along with Warren and Ryan Loyko (Rattle-N-Roll birth announcements), will each pick a semi-finalist face from all the entries, leading to an online vote to pick the winner. Entries are due May 15th. Will it be as iconic as Paul Simonon slamming his guitar on the London Calling cover? We shall see....