Video: "Dance Party" - Triple Rainbow (World Premiere!)

Screenshot of doll with turntable from “Dance Party” video

I’m a sucker for chocolate ice cream, cool t-shirt designs, and warm-hearted sitcoms with a touch of absurdity and/or acerbity. I’m also a sucker for a deceptively lo-fi kids music video with a well-placed California Raisin cameo.

So, yeah, of course I liked the latest video from Portland, Oregon-based Triple Rainbow. The band is the combination of Jared Mees, head of local boutique chain/indie music label Tender Loving Empire, and his two under-10 daughters, July and Piper. They’ve got an album, You Are Magic, coming out next year and their latest single, “Dance Party” is out today.

The song is appropriately dance-worthy, an electronic bop that isn’t too fast — maybe even well-paced enough to do a little cleaning to. And the video? It’s a sweet little stop-motion video that features art direction and set creation by July Mees. (Jared and July did the animation, Jared edited, and Jesse Bettis did the motion graphics.) Like I implied above, it’s got a lo-fi aesthetic but is quite well done. And, yeah, a California Raisin cameo (not to mention at least a couple other cameos that might be more famous to the current under-10 set).

Anyway, I’m happy to world-premiere this fun video. You can preorder the album here or find the link to your family’s preferred way to stream or watch music here. You Are Magic is out on Jan. 22, 2022.

Triple Rainbow - “Dance Party” [YouTube]

Video: "Here and Now" - Renee & Jeremy (World Premiere!)

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from the Southern California duo Renee & Jeremy. While both Renee Stahl and Jeremy Toback made music in the meantime, particularly Renee with a couple of well-received albums with a series of musical partners (including Toback) under the Renee & Friends moniker, it’s been nearly a decade since the duo last released an album together.

But the memories of parents sitting in quiet rooms with their young ones don’t fade easily. Their first two albums in particular — It’s a Big World and C’mon — were in constant rotation in Little Boy Blue’s preschool years in the Zooglobble household. Those albums were followed in 2012 by a holiday-themed album and an album of covers called A Little Love which showcased the duo’s lovely harmonies on often surprising arrangements of modern classic pop and rock songs.

Luckily for those families with long memories (and for families who might not have even been families nine years ago, R&J are back with a new album next week! It’s called Whole Lotta Love and it’s the spiritual successor to A Little Love as it’s another album of (almost entirely) covers. I’ve enjoyed their first two singles from the album, their versions of the Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind?” and Guns ‘n’ Roses’ “Sweet Child ‘O Mine” (the latter a refreshingly different take on the song), and judging by the YouTube comments (I know, never read the comments), their are lots of families who are eager for the duo’s return.

Renee Stahl and Jeremy Toback standing in a field

The new album dips from the same well of intriguing covers A Little Love dipped from, with a cover of MGMT’s “Kids,” for example, sitting alongside one of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People.” (I particularly enjoyed the leadoff track, a take on INXS’ “Don’t Change.”)

But there’s one original song on the album, “Here and Now,” and I’m glad I get to world premiere the video for that song. The song itself considers the impermanence of things and the importance of being present. (It’s not a Buddhist song… but I think a lot of Buddhists would recognize many of the concepts here.) The video, directed by Ron Hamad, a commercial and film director and friends with the duo, captures the mood and lyrics well, with Renee and Jeremy walking through abandoned buildings amidst the Salton Sea. Toback says the video shoot consisted of just the three of them plus director of photography Wes Cardino “chasing magic,” in Hamad’s phrase. The ending scene under an amazingly glowing moon, happened by accident, they report. Like much of Renee & Jeremy’s music, the video’s a little mesmerizing.

Again, Whole Lotta Love is out next week! Having listened to it all, I know that if your family still grooves to the music they made before, they will dig this, too.

Renee & Jeremy - “Here and Now” [YouTube]

Photo credit: Stuart Burton

Video: "Daddy-O" - Frances England (World Premiere!)

Frances England and her favorite Casio keyboard

It has been a long time since San Francisco-based musician Frances England tiptoed her way onto the kids’ music scene with a homemade, handmade slimline CD titled Fascinating Creatures. Nearly 15 years, to be exact. It’s a little hard to remember just how… novel the album sounded at the time. It had a lo-fi sound, and there were just very few kids music artists who were merging a more personal lyrical approach with an indie folk sound. So taken was I that England was the very first interview on this site.

Fast forward lo these many years, and England has moved from sending CD-R’s to the handful of people writing about or playing kids music at the time to playing across the country, earning a Grammy nomination, and recording her first album for the brand new kids’ record label 8 Pound Gorilla Records, an imprint of Nashville’s comedy record behemoth 800 Pound Gorilla Records.

That album, an EP called Honey, is released today and while there are some new songs for England’s fans to enjoy, she also redoes some of her older tracks, including “Daddy-O,” an ode to fathers from that very first album Fascinating Creatures. The gentle, hushed tone of the original is still there, but the new track features some additional guitar work from Ramon Fermin and light drums from Jason Slota to give it a gentle push.

Why did England choose this particular song to re-record? She says that “My husband was definitely the inspiration [for the song], but I was also thinking about my own dad when I wrote it. I included it on this EP because, probably more than any other song of mine, I've heard so many stories from people about what this song has meant to them. It's such a simple, little song but I've seen how families have included it in such important moments, which is why I wanted to re-record it and put out a version of it I was happy with.”

So now the old song has been buffed up and given a new video by England. I’m very happy to get to world premiere “Daddy-O.” Honey is out everywhere today.

Frances England - “Daddy-O” [YouTube]

Photo credit: Meredith Preble

Listen To This - "If You Want a Song" - The Okee Dokee Brothers (World Premiere!)

I don’t know if people are necessarily looking for “happy” entertainment these days, but I do suspect that people are looking to increase the percentage of “uplifting” stuff as part of their family’s entertainment diet. (That diet is probably larger than it used to be.)

May I suggest a recommended daily allowance of Okee Dokee Brothers music? I doubt the FDA would give it its stamp of government approval, but you know I’m right. And also singing. Singing daily is also highly recommended. Pete Seeger would tell you that straight out.

Singing Okee Dokee Brothers songs? Doubly recommended. The Minnesota duo had planned to release their double album Songs for Singin’ in the middle of summer, but taking a look at the weird new world they (and we) find themselves in now, they’re going to release this album full of singalong originals two months early, on May 1. (Two disks! That’s a lot of music!)

The Okee Dokee Brothers playing banjo and guitar

You can hear one of the songs early right here, today.. “If You Want a Song” is rousing singalong that, OK, it’s a little bit about singing, but it’s a lot about other stuff too. But it sounds great whether you blast out the lyrics all on your own or engage in a little call-and-response with whoever happens to be where you are right now.

About the album itself, Joe and Justin say that they got to see Pete Seeger perform live a few years before he passed away and the performance “always stuck with them as an example of how a strong song and a dedicated songleader can get a room full of people singing with spirit.” If you hear echoes of social and political engagement, that’s not an accident. “Life is a conversation,” they say, “a back and forth, a call and response.”

So I’m tickled to be premiering this song today. Whether you’re the songleader or follower, I hope you’ll sing along with this at least once.

Photo credit: Nate Ryan Photography

Listen To This: "I've Got The World (for You)" - Justin Roberts (World Premiere!)

You had me at “Justin Roberts.”

One of the kids musicians whose music has been part of our life since our first kid’s toddlerhood,, Justin Roberts, has a brand-new album coming out in just a month. It’s called Wild Life, and of course we’re very excited for it here at Zooglobble HQ, even though we’re long past the first year of parenthood, which is Roberts’ inspiration for his latest album.

With a name like Wild Life, you might think that the album is full of revved-up rave-ups — Roberts is pretty good at those — but tracks like “I’ve Got The World (for You)” are a little more reserved. Think “Wlid Life” as in messed up, tousled hair rather than anything disastrous. Roberts’ lyrical warmth and ear for hooks remains as sharp as ever, even as he plays more in the key of Paul Simon (hello, Graceland!) than Paul Westerberg.

I’m happy to feature a world premiere of “I’ve Got The World (for You)” for your listening pleasure. I’ve got a feeling this and the whole album will feature in a lot of parent-infant time in the year ahead.

Wild Life is out on February 28th — preorder or pre-save the album at your family’s favorite listening place here.

Listen To This: "I'm an Optimist" - Dog on Fleas (World Premiere!)

Album cover for Dog on Fleas’ “I’m an Optimist”

One way I think about the New York band Dog on Fleas is as kindie comfort food with a twist — japaleno mac ‘n’ cheese, perhaps, or an orange chicken burrito. Kindie music uberproducer Dean Jones and bandmates John Hughes and Chris Cullo produce music that families want to settle down with all comfy-like but with a musical (or lyrical) perspective that’s ever-so-slightly askew from the standard.

Dog on Fleas have a brand new album titled I’m an Optimist coming out on November 8th. (That’s the cover art to the side, done by Cindy Hoose in collaboration with Jacinta Bunnell and Michael Wilcock.) A dozen tracks of Fleas goodness/weirdness. (Check out the video for “Doppelgänger” for an excellent example of “goodness/weirdness,” more so on the lyrical side of the equation.)

I am super-happy, then, to offer you the world-premiere stream of the title track, “I’m an Optimist.” The song is about leaning towards thinking about positive things, but if you think it’s going to be a sappy message song, you’d be wrong. The music takes the lead, a horn-filled R&B track that is really hard not to smile and bop along with. Let’s just say that when the (light) message kicks in, the brain is in a very receptive mode to hear that message. The family’ll enjoy this one.

Dog on Fleas - “I’m an Optimist” [Soundcloud]