Because I'm All About Kids Music Battles to the Death

Really, why stop with kids music videos?

You may remember last year, when Gustafer Yellowgold (AKA Morgan Taylor) faced off against the Flannery Brothers for supremacy in the 2008 edition of the John Lennon Songwriting Competition. (The Flannery Brothers took that round, and they really haven't stopped to breathe since.)

Well, the battle of the bands is back, this year featuring Australian Kate Rowe and her song "Space Rabbits of Brocklevoons" against Lanny Sherwin and his tune "A Cappella" from his 2009 album Meltdown!.

"Apples and oranges" is an appropriate phrase here, because Rowe's song is a silly story song while Sherwin's is a very meta (but effective) song about, well, singing a cappella. As for me, I vote Sherwin, but it's not an easy call. Should you care to make your voice heard, you can vote here once a day through April 27th. Vote early, vote often.

A couple other points worth mentioning while we're on the subject of songwriting competitions and this one in particular...
1) You could put together a nice little compilation of free mp3s from those available on the site -- besides last year's and this year's championship battles, you can find tracks from Princess Katie and Racer Steve, more from Gustafer Yellowgold, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Eric Herman ("The Elephant Song"!), Kristin Andreassen, and more.
2) The International Songwriting Competition also has a kids music competition -- oddly enough their list of finalists for the category doesn't include any crossover with the Lennon competition. There's music there from Jon Samson, Bill Harley, and Andrew Queen. (But when I say "music there," I don't really mean that. No mp3s. In this particular equation, John Lennon > International.)