If Only Somebody Had Done This Better...

I have no idea whether Da Jammies is destined for a network or will be lost in straight-to-DVD purgatory.

All I know is that I watch the video above, listen to the songs at their Myspace page, and read the description of the show, an

"animated series that follows five kids from the Suburbs who attend a Performing Arts school. These kids sing, dance and rap, all with a dream of becoming famous as they each are on a mission to make it in the music biz"

and I wish that it had been done better.

Oh, yeah, it had:

OK, there's no actual animation, but it's a waaaay cool song.

Ironically, Class of 3000 is itself subject of a copyright infringement lawsuit.

Andre 3000 Takes The Stage

One of the better kids music albums of 2007 was the soundtrack to the Cartoon Network series Class of 3000, created by Outkast's Andre Benjamin.

Well, if you're in the Atlanta area, you're in for a treat -- I think -- because the cartoon series has been developed into Class of 3000 LIVE, a new live-action musical, by Atlanta's Alliance Children's Theatre. From the sounds of this chat with Benjamin, it's going to be a pretty cool show. It runs from March 6th through the 29th.

Amy, if you're going, do let us know how it is.

One More First-Round KidVid '08 Matchup

One last chance to vote -- the Ella Jenkins Region's #1 seed, Renee & Jeremy's "It's A Big World" against the #4 seed, Andre 3000's "Throwdown."

Go here and vote by 9 PM tonight (Friday).

My Favorite Kids and Family Albums of 2007

It's time once again for me to list my favorite kids and family albums from the past year or so.

As I noted in last year's list, I don't put tremendous stock in individual "best of" lists, because taste is idiosyncratic. (Please note the title here is "favorite," not "best," a deliberate choice of words.) The idiosyncracies of taste are one reason why I came up with the idea for the Fids and Kamily Awards. The fact that I think Recess Monkey's Wonderstuff is one of the year's best CDs might be more easily dismissed if it weren't for the fact that a good number of 19 judges happened to agree with me.

As for my list, the top 10 below reflects my Fids and Kamily ballot. But as with last year, limiting a list of favorites to just 10 albums would leave off a number of very, very good albums. In fact, as a whole, 2007 was even stronger than 2006, making this year's decisions even more difficult. Although I lost count some time ago, I'd guess that I probably heard 250 to 300 new albums this past year -- even at 20 albums, I've left off some great music from this list.

So without further ado...
1)Play - Various Artists: Joyous and raucous, this compilation from DeSoto Records proves what sort of music artists can make when they play with the energy of a kid and the brains of an adult. (Or, sometimes, the brains of a kid and the energy of an adult.) Georgie James' "Grizzly Jive," Soccer Team's "I'll Never Fear Ghosts Again," and Visqueen's cover of "Centerfield" -- all awesome songs, and there are plenty more where those came from. It's my favorite album for kids and families of the year.
2) If You Ever See An Owl - Terrible Twos: Given a proper release earlier this year after being sold only at the shows of the band's adult alter ego, the New Amsterdams, this album is full of fabulous poppy and Americana melodies and lyrics born of the knowledge of being a kid -- and parent. So, so glad it's gotten the wider audience it deserves.
3) My Green Kite - Peter Himmelman: In the category of pure kids' pop, this album wins the title, hands down. Which isn't to say that Himmelman's songwriting doesn't have its small (and big) pleasures for the adult ears, too, just that the album is particularly attuned to the attitudes of kids. And anyone who can make us reconsider feet deserves some sort of award.

4) It's A Big World - Renee and Jeremy
4) Napper's Delight - Dean Jones
Two different lullaby albums, different from each other, and just about anything else that came down the pike this year. Even on first listen, it was clear that Renee and Jeremy's album was destined to become a CD that would be gifted to many a new parent, calming and soothing with new lullabies. Jones' take on the genre was one not so much for sleeping but for relaxing, but even so was more exhilerating than most albums twice as loud and twice as fast.

6) Wonderstuff - Recess Monkey
6) Have You Never Been Yellow? - Gustafer Yellowgold
6) Freedom in a Box - Deedle Deedle Dees
I tend to think of these three albums as signifying just how adventurous artists in the kids and family music genre can be right now. Recess Monkey didn't just put together another album with the creative input of about 100 kids -- it put together a full-fledged pop-rock double-album musical with a bunch of great songs. Gustafer Yellowgold's indie-pop would be pretty adventurous even without its illustrations, but with them the character might just be the standard-bearer for the kids new wave. And the Dees -- their energy, their love of history manifested in glorious musical flower here, and their determination to take their music across the country wherever they can serves as an inspiration to lots of other artists wondering if they can make their own kind of kids music.

9) It's A Bam Bam Diddly! - Father Goose
9) Make Your Own Someday - Jimmies
Sorry -- I can't draw any links between these two albums other than the artists spend most of their time in New York City. But Father Goose serves as the ringleader on an album of Caribbean and dancehall songs that will get the kids' heads (and sometimes their feet) bopping in style, making me think he's got a lot more great albums in him. And the Jimmies' Ashley Albert is a star entertainer in the making, guaranteed to make your seven-year-old laugh silly at least a few times. Wait a minute, maybe there is a link here...

11) Dark Side of the Moon Bounce - Rocknoceros
11) Get Up & Dance! - Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang
Could these two have easily been tied for 9th instead of 11th? Sure, but I had to draw the line at some point. Both these albums were probably the best of the year for preschoolers. Rocknoceros' kid-pop focused a bit on songs about space, but all the songs were solid; Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang have honed their songwriting (and production) to a fine point. Both excellent albums -- maybe next time they'll hit it lucky.

13) Dos Ninos - Sugar Free Allstars
13) Educated Kid - The Hipwaders
Both albums here tickled my pop-rock fancy. SFA's sub-30 minute album was a perfectly brief, keyboard-drug confection, with surprising stylistic breadth and subject depth. The Hipwaders took a major step forward with their latest album, crafting the power-pop album of the year without entirely shedding their occasional educational nugget, lyrically.

15) Mommy Says No! - The Asylum Street Spankers: Not every parent will love this, the first kids' CD from the Asylum Street Spankers. It walks on the edge of what a parent might tolerate in a kids' CD. But there's no denying the huge heart that's worn on the (album) sleeve here. It might cross the line, but you still love the kid.

16) What Did You Do Today, Stephen Scott Lee? - Steve Lee: A day in song and story, melding the ambition of Wonderstuff with just a hint of the Spankers' snarkiness. Lee brought in a whole bunch of Nashville musician friends to record a personal CD with some incredibly strong songs.

17) Class of 3000, Vol. 1 (Soundtrack) - Andre 3000: I'm not sure what's more surprising -- that Andre 3000 released an album for kids or that it didn't attract more attention. I think it's the latter, because it's a fine and often funky CD that deserved a wider audience. Proof that cartoony voices don't make a bad kids' CD if done well and with verve.

18) All Together Singing in the Kitchen - The Nields
18) Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook Vol. 2 & 3 - Various Artists
The Nields put out the best folk album for kids this past year, singing songs their father taught them with their father, and passing them down to a new generation. Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music didn't put out a kids album, but this value-priced 2-CD set has a ton of great renditions of American classics old and, well, less-old, that kids should know....

20) For the Kids Three! - Various Artists: Number 20 on the list, and, yeah, I could probably have put a half-dozen other albums here depending on my mood. But this definitely deserves to be here, too -- a bookend to Play's ranking at the top. The distance between that compilation and this one is pretty small -- there are fine songs here and your family is bound to find a favorite or four.

Review: Class of 3000: Music Volume 1 - Andre 3000

In reviewing this CD, let me be clear from the start that ours is not, for the most part, a television-watching household. It's not really a principled stand as much as it is a reflection of our busy lives. We just don't have much time to watch TV if we want to do other things like, you know, bathe and eat.

Having said that, I do wish we had a little more time, because if we did, we might find time to watch Class of 3000, a Cartoon Network show co-created by, executive produced by, and starring Andre 3000 of the hip-hop duo Outkast as musician/teacher Sunny Bridges. Even if the animation was lousy, we'd still have the music to enjoy.

Released earlier this month, Class of 3000: Music Volume 1 features one song from each of the first season's thirteen episodes, plus the show's theme song. That theme song by itself is more adventurous than most kids' music, going from funk to jazz and even picking up a nursery rhyme along the way. (You can download a copy here, courtesy of Sony, or listen to a Windows stream here or a RealPlayer stream here.)

Luckily the rest of the CD is just as creative and funky. "Throwdown" could be a hip-hop hit. "Cool Kitty" sounds like it was written 40 or 50 years ago, with a snappy surfer/girl-group vibe. "Oh Peanut" is a slower track that shows off some more classical instrumental grooves (listen to a Windows stream here and a RealPlayer stream here.) "Life Without Music" is one of the better "educational songs" of recent years. And, hey, how often on a major-label kids' music release do you get the pure instrumental bebop jazz of "My Mentor?" Rarely, oh so rarely.

If there's a drawback to the album as an album, it's that some songs are clearly tied to the visuals. In some cases it's not much of a drawback -- while I might like to see the visuals associated with "Fight the Blob," the drumline march of the tune is so strong, it works fine a song told in music. In other cases, such as "UFO Ninja," I'm clearly missing something. I'm not saying you need to have seen the series, just that I think those who have might enjoy it (and understand the story-driven songs) slightly more. For those of you don't like cartoony voices, well, I'm usually right in that camp, but the vocal characterizations here are pretty strong, and I think you'll enjoy 'em. (I did.)

The songs are probably most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 10, though with the exception perhaps of the darker "We Want Your Soul," everything here is A-OK for youngsters, too. You can hear samples at your standard internet retailers, but I'd also recommend checking out the videos from the show, available at the show's website. You can hear many of the album's tracks there.

In the end, what I find so wonderful about Class of 3000: Music Volume 1 is that a major label gave an exceedingly talented musician the freedom to create an album that takes so many risks. In the jazz interlude of the theme song, one character says, "But, Sunny, radio doesn't play songs without words anymore," and Sunny says wearily, "I know..." It'd be a shame if the public doesn't hear these tunes, be it by radio or some other way. The album is a smartly crafted collection of kid-friendly funk, hip-hop and jazz. Definitely recommended.