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: "The Skunk and The Robot" - Ratboy Jr.

I've always appreciated the low-key offbeat humor of New York duo Ratboy Jr. -- Timmy Sutton and Matty Senzatimore sing songs that would remind you of Roald Dahl or Shel Silverstein if they were both gentler and perhaps a little less sentimental.

So there's not much of a reason why I like "The Skunk and The Robot," a video off their latest album Hamster Dance except that it features, well, a skunk.  And a robot.  It's Ratboy Jr. in video form.  (And if you don't like skunks or robots, there's always "Sponges," which features Timmy and Matty in puppet form.)

Ratboy Jr. - "The Skunk and The Robot" [YouTube]

Radio Playlist: New Music May 2015

Summertime... and the listenin' is easy... [OK, I love Gershwin, but that's too much...]  Lots of new releases coming up...  If you want to catch my list from April you can see that playlist here.

As always, it's limited in that if an artist hasn't chosen to post a song on Spotify, I can't put it on the list, nor can I feature songs from as-yet-unreleased albums.  But I'm always keeping stuff in reserve for the next Spotify playlist.

Check out the list here.

**** New Music May 2015 (May 2015 Kindie Playlist) ****

“Shake a Friend’s Hand” - Andy Z

“It’s Gotta Rain (If You Want a Rainbow)” - The Harmonica Pocket

“Hellbender” - Fire Dog

“Dancing Room” - Ratboy Jr.

“Seashells Singing in the Sunshine” - Seth and the Moody Melix

“Trapped in the Attic” - Lloyd H. Miller

“Jump Little Froggy” - Jen Havens Romanat

"Squish It Up” - Dave Kinnoin, Randy Sharp

“Ya Viene Otono” - Future Hits

“Robby Dobby” - Here Comes Trouble

Best Kids Music of 2013: Top 25 Songs

It has been too long since I posted a list of my favorite songs of a year.  2011, to be exact.

Oops.

(I already said how embarrassed I was about that.)

Following up on my list of Top 10 kids music debuts in 2013, here's my list of my 25 favorite (or best, depending on your perspective) kids' songs on albums released over the past year ("year" defined as between November 1, 2012 and September 30, 2013, to match the Fids and Kamily Awards this year).  I should note that some of these songs have been floating around for a few years now (the Trout Fishing and Shine and the Moonbeams songs), but have only now found themselves on a proper release.  One could do much worse than to put all 25 on a mix CD or iTunes/Spotify playlist.

Hey, wait, I've done that!  Here's the link (go here if you're in Spotify).  See the end of this post for the embedded stream.  By the way, songs not on Spotify are marked with an *

In any case, picking these 25 songs was tough, tougher than in most previous years, I think.  I had another 15-20 songs I was seriously considering for this list, and on another day, my mood would have struck me differently and at least a couple of those songs would be on here.  But I'm pressing the "publish" button today.

Top 25 Kids Music Songs of 2013 (listed alphabetically by artist)

"Similes and Metaphors" - The Bazillions (Heads or Tales)

"When Pigs Fly" - Sandra Boynton (performed by Ryan Adams) (Frog Trouble)

"Thingamajig" - Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band (Lishy Lou and Lucky Too) -- I know, I know, the album was released on Oct. 1, 2013 and so technically speaking shouldn't be on here.  But come on, this was song was awesome.  And there was a single, so that's what I'm hanging my hat on...

"Lonely Girl" - Cat Doorman (The Cat Doorman Songbook)

"It's Not Fair To Me" - Bill Harley & Keith Munslow (It's Not Fair To Me)

"Dinosaur" - Lori Henriques (The World Is a Curious Place To Live) *

"Wag More" - Boxtop Jenkins (You're Happier When You're Happy)

"Take You Into My Arms" - Joey No Knows (Color This Album)

"Nine O' Clock Behind the Jack Rabbit" - Josh & Gab (I'm Not a Bully!)

"You Made Me a Sock Monkey" - Billy Kelly (AGAIN!) *

"Have You Ever Been Jealous?" - Alastair Moock with Rani Arbo (Singing Our Way Through: Songs for the World's Bravest Kids) *

"Let's Skateboard" - The Not-Its! (KidQuake!)

"High 5 Your Shadow" - Ratboy Jr. (Champions of the Universe)

"The Deep End" - Recess Monkey (Deep Sea Diver)

"Recess" - Justin Roberts (Recess)

"Bully Bully" - Shine and the Moonbeams (Shine and the Moonbeams)

"Home of Song" - Paul Spring (Home of Song)

"Song Without a Rhyme" - SteveSongs (Orangutan Van)

"Duermete" - Heidi Swedberg and Friends (My Cup of Tea)

"The Late, Great Nate McTate" - Trout Fishing in America (Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers)

"Here Comes My Friend" - Underbirds (Underbirds)

"Scavenger Hunt" - The Verve Pipe (Are We There Yet?)

"Stay True" - The Watson Twins (Pioneer Lane)

"Bigga Bagga" - Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke (Please To Meet You)

"Honeybee" - Dan Zanes & Elizabeth Mitchell with You Are My Flower (Turn! Turn! Turn!)

Weekly Summary (8/19/13 - 8/25/13)

Itty-Bitty Review: Champions of the Universe - Ratboy Jr.

Trying to describe the music of New York's Ratboy Jr. is an exercise in merging two disparate references.  Funk made by your favorite dog?  Music for the easily distracted kid in all of us?  A blender with really good taste in guitar-drum duos?

Whatever.  It's weird, and so long as your family is down with the first 8 1/2 minutes of the album -- a loping song about a sentient rock ("Bill"), a pure pop hit about high fiving one's shadow ("High 5 Your Shadow," natch, along with a digression into the difference between a solar and lunar eclipse), and a gentle, dreamy song about eating clouds ("How To Eat a Cloud"), then y'all will make it through the rest of the album with a silly grin on your face.  For every crunchy Americana and Velvet Underground-inspired tune from guitarist/kazooist Timmy Sutton and drummer/glockenspielest Matty Senzatimore, there's a song like "Pretend Your Hand's a Puppet," which includes an air-drum solo and more "la la la's" than ANY song in recent memory and which should wipe away any churlishness the listener has stored up from the past week.

The album is best for kids ages 4 through 8 (as well as your inner 7-year-old).  Producer and multi-instrumentalist Dean Jones helps sand down some of the band's rough edges, while creating some new nooks and crannies for the band to explore, but in the end the album rests upon Ratboy Jr.'s unironic enthusiasm, heart, and willingness to wear its rubber chicken on its sleeve.  Recommended.

Note: I received a copy of the album for possible review.