Andrew Bird: Indie Rock Guest Artist to the Kindie Rock Stars

If you are a big name kids musician, who do you call in for a guest artist gig? It appears that Andrew Bird is the Justin Bieber of the kindie rock set, as he's made appearances on two big kid-friendly albums. First off was his take on Kermit the Frog's classic "Bein' Green" on The Green Album. Next up is the Dan Zanes album Little Nut Tree, which features a duet between Zanes and Bird on "I Don't Need Sunny Skies." Yes, Bird whistles.

But every good "trend" piece requires a third data point to prove the thesis, and that's what I have for you below. It's Bird's first appearance with kindie rock royalty. At the very least, a proxy appearance. Here's Bird as "Doctor Strings" on Jack's Big Music Show from 2007. There's no Laurie Berkner here, but it's hard not to smile anyway.

Andrew Bird as Doctor Strings on Jack's Big Music Show [YouTube]

Photo credit: Cameron Wittig

Again, There Is Only One Song Necessary for Groundhog Day

I know, the whole shadow thing's already been done today. I don't even care what happened (which is what happens when you live in Arizona).

You just need this. It's awesome on February 2nd and October 2nd. And all dates in between.

(Yes, I wrote essentially the same thing last year. Kinda meta, eh?)

The Next Best Thing to Jack's Big Music Show Season 3?

Well, Jack's Big Music Show is no more, but at least the fans that make up Laurie Nation will get to see Laurie Berkner return to Noggin. On Sunday, July 12 from 7 'til 8 PM East Coast time, Noggin will premiere the Laurie Berkner Band starring in Let’s Hear It For The Laurie Berkner Band!. The special features 17 music videos from the band, including three brand-new videos -- “My Family,” which was created exclusively for NOGGIN and is not available anywhere, plus “Five Days Old” and “Fast and Slow (The Rabbit and the Turtle)” from Rocketship Run!.

I don't have a TiVo, but I'm thinkin' that a lot of TiVo-in' households are going to save this one.

Spiffy News About a Jack's Big Music Show DVD

For those of you who would like to be able to delete all those Jack's Big Music Show episodes from your Tivo (so you can leave more room for 24 or something), good news.

A DVD may be on its way.

The always-amusing Chag started out looking for additional JBMS merchandise for his two-year-old but ended up interviewing the head honchos at Spiffy Pictures, the creators of the show. And he got this nugget out of them:

Currently the only merchandise available from Jack's Big Music Show is the CD. What other types of merchandise will we eventually see in stores?
We think a second CD and a DVD with four episodes on it, one of them never seen before! (cool, huh?)

My only question is why they would stop at four episodes. I guarantee you they could put out a 2-DVD set with the complete series and it would sell like hotcakes.

KidVid: I Hope My Momma Says Yes! - AudraRox

So, the taste-making juggernaut of Jack's Big Music Show continues with this video for "I Hope My Momma Says Yes!" from New York-based AudraRox (see the video at Jack's webpage).

Stylistically, this song isn't really like the rest of her fun debut album I Can Do It By Myself (review here), but the peppy bluegrass/country lends itself well to the madcap playing with the kids in the video. Plus, the band looks like they're having a blast. That's the difference, I guess, between kids music videos and adult music videos -- you rarely see a bunch of tormented kids pounding their hands against the wall in the rain.