Video: "Pony Ride" - The Hipwaders (World Premiere!)

When is a good time for a new song and video from the Bay Area band The Hipwaders?

The answer is: Always.  It is always a good time for a new song and video from The Hipwaders.  So I was pleased when I heard from chief Hipwader Tito Uquillas recently that they had a new single about to drop.  It's called "Pony Ride" and features a simple but infectious singalong chorus and some nifty guitar work.  Says Uquillas:

We play a lot of events where pony rides were also part of the festivities and I noticed it was always the same people running it. I always had a soft spot for the pony rides as I enjoyed them as a kid and my family had horses growing up when I was younger - although I remember cleaning out stalls about as much as I rode.  Anyway, I wanted to promote the pony ride people by writing a song we could play for them as we performed next them and wrote "Pony Ride."

Add an amusingly plotted video with typically droll animation (going for a bit of a Cartwrights look from the TV show Bonanza) from the fine folks at Goopymart... and friends, you have 3 minutes that may be even more fun than an actual 3-minute pony ride.  I'm happy to world-premiere the video -- you can pick up the digital single, out today, at Amazon and CD Baby.

The Hipwaders - "Pony Ride" [YouTube]

Video: "The Boy Who Cried El Chupacabra" - The Hipwaders

Always nice to have new music from Bay Area-adjacent trio The Hipwaders.  Their latest effort is a 2-track effort -- think of it as a single with a B side, except it's not on vinyl.  The A side is a surf rock effort (if the surf was from the Sea of Cortez) titled "The Boy Who Cried El Chupacabra," a retelling of the "boy who cried wolf" story that is, somehow, perfect for the kids' Halloween season.  The B side is a cover of Pointed Man Band's "All That Krampus Wants" for those families who want to get a jump on the later holiday season.  (You can grab the single on iTunes or CD Baby.)

In any case, the band's roped in Will Guy to do the animations, and every time the "camera" pans out to show Tito and the band dressed up in mariachi outfits singing in high harmony, it makes me smile.

The Hipwaders - "The Boy Who Cried El Chupacabra" [YouTube]

Video: "Just Not Me" - The Hipwaders

For my tastes, Bay Area band The Hipwaders ranks right up there with Recess Monkey and Caspar Babypants in having kindie's best set of videos in terms of quality, quantity, and diversity.  Their latest video for "Just Not Me," off their new album Year-Round Sounds, pulls in another animator into the Hipwaders' fold, Will Guy of Goopymart, and with just a handful of touches (the tattoo parlor, the backwards "E" in the title character's graffiti, perfectly captures the narrator's... recalcitrance to mind rules.  Much fun.

The Hipwaders - "Just Not Me" [YouTube]