Listening and Talking To Kids Music Folks Is Awesome!

As previously noted in this space, I'm lucky enough to heading back to Brooklyn later this month for Kindiefest, the annual family music conference.  They've been announcing details during the course of the past two months and they've now posted the full schedule here.  There are lots of great artists and other kids music luminaries attending, including folks from Random House Children's Books, Spotify, a whole bunch of venue representatives, Ralph Covert, Kathy O'Connell -- the list goes on.

I'm particularly geeked, of course, about the panel I'll be moderating -- "The State of Kindie" -- which will feature Dan Zanes, Mindy Thomas from Sirius-XM's Kids Place Live, Jeff Bogle from Out With the Kids, Christina Reffords from Cool Mom Picks, and Darren Critz from Symphony Space.  That will be a blast, and hopefully will send people into the artists' showcase following that panel buzzing with big ideas and a little inspiration.

(Artists, by the way, if you haven't already filled out the brief and anonymous survey I'm doing on some "big picture" kids music industry questions, I'd encourage you to join the more than 50 artists who have already done so.  It's not officially related to Kindiefest, but I expect to use some of the results to help guide my moderating there.)

I'm also excited that Scott Schultz, co-creator of Yo Gabba Gabba! (not to mention the new Aquabats Super Show!) will be giving the keynote presentation Friday night.  In the wake of Jack's Big Music Show, Yo Gabba Gabba! kept (and keeps) music for kids highly visible on TV, continuing to reinforce the idea of family music not as one of last-gasp effort, but fully viable alternate (or duplicate) career.  It's an important show for family musicians.

Finally, members of the general public in the greater NYC area shouldn't miss out on Sunday's public concert.  With artists like Moona Luna, Apple Brains, and WeBop from Jazz at Lincoln Center, it'll be a super-diverse show.  It starts at noon, with tickets (just $12-$15) available here.

So, I hope I'll see you there (register here).  It's always an adrenaline-soaked, throat-parched event from tons of conversation.  As someone who writes about the music (and helps bring some of it to Phoenix), it's a great chance to meet the far-flung makers of the music and see many of them perform.

Kindiefest 2011: Final Thoughts

Welcome to Brooklyn, home of Kindiefest, the annual confab of kids musicians, writers, radio folks, promoters, bookers, and other folks trying to figure out where they fit into this new universe. I've already given you my thoughts on the weekend's big takeaways, the Saturday industry artists' showcase, and the Sunday public concert. My comments below are mostly a notebook dump -- that is, if the notebook were my brain. I need to get this out of my brain and onto paper (sort of) so I can move on and do more awesome stuff.

First, props go out once again Stephanie, Tor, Bill, and Mona for putting on this conference. They seemed much more relaxed this year than last, so we'd actually see them throughout the weekend, maybe even enjoying themselves. If there were glitches, they were minor (sound problems before Aaron Nigel Smith's set) or well-hidden. It left more time for conversing instead of worrying what sort of weird thing would crop up.

That's them at the registration table on Friday evening, by the way. I think that might have been the most stressed they appeared to me all weekend.

I hadn't previously mentioned the Friday evening keynote from SiriusXM cut-up/high-level manager Kenny Curtis, who gave a pep talk to the crowd about the value of kids music, complete with bingo cards. (The trick? Identify phrases on the bingo cards and shout "Bingo!" when bingo was, in fact, achieved. That was in the middle of one giant schmooze-fest that essentially ran from 6 pm or so 'til past midnight for some of us. I forgot until I got there how much talking I end up doing. Pretty good for a shy guy like myself.
Nor have I previously mentioned the Saturday day panels. I tend to find panels at conferences -- regardless of subject area/purpose -- to be less essential. (You won't be surprised to hear that I find the brick-by-brick community-building resulting from personal interaction more valuable.) I'm a poor judge of the value of the panels, because I either know most of this stuff or it doesn't apply to me as a writer (I'm sure the tech panel was great, but it was useless for me). Having said that, you didn't need to be a musician to appreciate (or enjoy or laugh during) the social media panel moderated by the self-deprecating Jeff Bogle and featuring folks like Jonathan Coulton and Ashley Albert from The Jimmies.

I had originally pressed Bill to get food trucks at Littlefield because, y'know, food trucks. But it is Park Slope, and no small number of restaurants were only a block or two away. We went twice to Babouche for Moroccan food. Mmmm.... tagine... But if you can't have food trucks, you can at least have ice cream from Mister Softee. Thanks, Deb, for the ice cream. I totally owe you one.

I also wish I had brought running shoes and shorts, because I walked around Prospect Park on Sunday morning when it was closed to car traffic, and I was very much wanting to take a Sunday morning run around the park. Oh well. Next year. (That walk to the Park was also when I much more fully understood the derivation of Park Slope's name.)

Again, I can't stress enough the value (and fun) of socializing with other over the weekend. Not in a "I'm gonna pitch you" sort of way, which is sort of awkward, and not all that useful. But it takes a certain sort of person who wants to write (or play or write about) kids music, a certain perspctive on the world, and when you get two folks together like Robbie Schaefer and Billy Kelly, they're probably going to enjoy each other's company. (Also, "Where is the Turtle Wax? Where is the Turtle Wax?".) The best conversations I had all weekend just involved hearing others' dreams and aspirations and concerns, sharing what they did or what they (or I) hoped to do. Also, making fun of Bill's meal.

You can read others' commentary on the weekend, such as Jeff's words, videos, and pictures. (Jeff has a nicer camera than mine.) John Joyce from Poochamungas has also been recording his thoughts.

In the end, I'm going to leave you with a couple other memories.

1) I was talking with someone where we both agreed that we didn't like hearing the phrase "I didn't have time to do [X]." What that phrase really means is that "I didn't prioritize [X] highly enough." If you want to do something badly enough, then just do it, recognizing that that may mean sacrificing something else. There are so few rules in this genre and community right now, that anything you want to try is worth taking a shot. If it succeeds financially, awesome, but if it doesn't (so long as it doesn't bankrupt you), did it succeed artistically?

2) I flew home on JetBlue, which offers some SiriusXM stations, including Kids Place Live. I listened to it a bit, and happened to catch Frances England's "Place In Your Heart," a song that features Mates of State. I almost choked up a bit, because here was someone who less than six years ago decided to record an album as a preschool fundraiser. She spoke (or, rather, sang and played) from the heart and now has a song that features, well, Mates of State. Things like that take a bit of luck, but they mostly take guts and doing things that are true to who you are. That's what the family music genre needs to do. If everyone involved does that, then we -- musicians, writers, the audience -- will come out just fine.

Kindiefest 2011: Sunday Concert in Videos and Pictures

If Kindiefest's Saturday night showcase was about introducing new(-ish) names (and one longtime favorite) to a new crowd, the Sunday afternoon public concert was more about a lineup guaranteed to draw in, you know, the public.

There was indeed a nice crowd, both of conference attendees as well as local families. (It's not a coincidence that the conference is held in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope, famous (and perhaps occasionally reviled) for the sheer number of families who live around there. And unlike the showcase, with its brief 20-minute sets that may subconciously lead artists to forgo contemplation for excitement, the public concert, with 30-minute sets, and a more passive audience, allows for more variation in styles.

For example, the concert kicked off with a set from Oran Etkin, who tells stories (either more traditional stories or about the instruments themselves) via jazz. He was very engaging with his young audience. Most of his songs are originals, but here he is with a take on a piece Dizzy Gillespie made famous...

Oran Etkin - "Salt Peanuts" [YouTube]

Next up was the delightful Heidi Swedberg and the Sukey Jump Band. The Brooklyn iteration of the band included Phillippa Thompson (who sometimes plays with Elizabeth Mitchell) and multi-instrumentalist Dean Jones. The set was similar to the one she played here in Phoenix in January, but the more enclosed nature of the performance here led to something occasionally hushed. I spoke with Elizabeth Mitchell a little bit later and she, too, enjoyed it...

Heidi Swedberg and the Sukey Jump Band - "When You Get Old" [YouTube]

And that was just two down...
Next up was Aaron Nigel Smith. Smith was an artist who I've always felt was fine on record but who held no special interest to me. But his was a performance that reminded me -- I need continual reminding -- about the difference between recordings and live shows and how it's possible to hold different opinions about each. It was lots of fun, in part due to the chorus of kids he brought in to perform a few songs with him (as soon as I saw the kids walking backstage during Swedberg's set I knew we'd be in for a treat), but even more so due to his energy on stage, which even carried over to him being in the audience enjoying other artists' sets.

Aaron Nigel Smith - "Che Che Cole" [YouTube]

I missed the last part of Smith's set as well as the first part of Tim and the Space Cadets' set . The first rule of Kindiefest is that it's impossible to do everything you want to do at Kindiefest -- talk, learn, eat, listen, whatever. In any case, I am glad I caught the last three songs or so of the set. Tim Kubart wins the award for most energetic dancer/participant, Musician Division, at Kindiefest 2011, as he really got into others' performances throughout the weekend. There is a giddiness to his performing as well that serves him and his music well. They've already played Kidzapalooza, but I think their new album is going to bring them a lot more attention...

Tim and the Space Cadets - "Superhero" [YouTube]

Ah, Elizabeth Mitchell, how I do so enjoy your music. I saw her perform at Austin City Limits Festival last fall, and while those were fun sets, I think her music is best enjoyed in a setting without many distractions (or bizarre feedback from adjoining stages). The musicians off to the side were definitely engaged with Mitchell, singing along and doing the hand motions for a few songs. She brought in Heidi Swedberg and Dean Jones to sing "Shoo Lie Loo" and all in all, I felt like I'd now finally seen a true "Elizabeth Mitchell concert."

Elizabeth Mitchell and You Are My Flower "Little Liza Jane" [YouTube]

Hi, The Verve Pipe! Or, rather, bye, the Verve Pipe! I would have gladly stayed to see them perform, but I saw them twice at ACL last fall and, more importantly, the show was running slightly behind schedule and I had a train to JFK to catch. So I bid adieu to Littlefield. But here's another clip of the band performing a song with the guys from Recess Monkey a song not off their A Family Album disk.

The Verve Pipe (w/ Recess Monkey) - "You Can Write a Song" [YouTube]

Kindiefest 2011: Artists' Showcase in Video and Pictures

Be it SXSW or Kindiefest, there are different reasons to see an artists' showcase at a music conference. You can see your favorite bands, or perhaps bands you're familiar with but are curious to see and hear them live. And sometimes you stumble upon a new favorite. The Kindiefest 2011 artists' showcase on Saturday night was for me a combination of all three, which suggests how well the lineup was put together. Now, I should note that though the lineup featured several artists I'd consider my favorites, I'd never actually seen any of them perform live. (That would have to wait for Sunday's public performance, for whom I'd seen half the lineup live.) But as someone who puts together shows here in the Phoenix area, that live aspect is important to me.

This summary is long, but I encourage you to skim the entire thing, you never know when you'll find your new favorite artist.

The lineup kicked off with Billy Kelly and the Blah Blah Blahs, faced with the unenviable task of starting the show while everybody filed back from dinner or a run to their hotel rooms. That and selecting from a bunch of great songs. They went meta ("This Is The First Song" -- they should close with that one day), sweet ("Family Garden"), doubly sweet ("Pen Pal," duetting with Lunch Money's Molly Ledford), and classic ("The Legend of Johnny Box"). The last song featured none other than Johnny Box himself, played by... well, let's just say by someone very familiar to Zooglobble readers. Good stuff.

From there it was on to The Pop Ups, whose set was basically a very abbreviated version of their PASTA! musical. Were there puppets? Yes! Were there apes in capes? Yes! Was there lots of hand-clapping? Yes! Was there lots of pasta? Well, you'll just have to see the musical for yourself to see the answer. But it's hard not to see how the musical would be very popular with the 5-year-old set.

The Pop Ups - "Pasta" [YouTube]

But we were just getting started, with six more artists to go...
After the fizzy pop of The Pop Ups it was time for the fuzzy rock of the Not-Its!. I thought the Not-Its!' ("Not-Its'!"? "Not-Its'"? Note: exclamation points as part of the name: very confusing, grammatically) was just about perfect as a "showcase set" goes -- they came out spent the next 20 minutes conveying the exact same energy and image they have on disk... just better. Seriously, just watch the video below (or the other video I took, for "We Are the Not-Its," though the sound isn't as good, here) and tell me that isn't something that would have your kids bouncing and pretty much wiped out on the car/stroller-ride home.

The Not-Its! - "First Kid in Outer Space" [YouTube]

And then there's Shine and the Moonbeams, a band so new I'm linking to their Facebook page. Remember category #3, stumbling upon a new favorite? That would be this band, a collaboration between singer Shawana Kemp and guitarist Jeff Feagler, featuring some soul and a little bit of jazz. It was a set where the buzz in the audience was just palpable. I mean, there were a lot of great sets Saturday night, but there was something different going on here, a recognition of something missing in the genre that had now been found. After the set, Bill Childs stepped up to the microphone and said, slightly stunned, "Oh. My. God." Those of us in the audience started describing the set with small curse words, then moved up to the larger curse words, and everybody, and I mean everybody was asking, "When did Stephanie say that album was coming out?" The answer (hopefully) is, this fall. I could probably critique the songs in some way, and listening to an album in a home or car might result in a diminished experience, but as another artist said later that night, there was something in the performance -- and Shawana's in particular -- that touched folks emotionally. I don't know of another debut album that will be as highly anticipated as theirs...

Shine and the Moonbeams - "High Five" [YouTube]

Seattle's Central Services Board of Education had the unenviable task of trying to follow up Shine and the Moonbeams, and I think they pretty much succeeded by bringing their own energy to the room. Lead singer and drummer Kevin Emerson plays standing up, and the five-piece band really sold the highly literate and slightly skewed songs live. Sadly, they didn't have time to play any of their new stuff from their forthcoming album, but luckily their first album is pretty much awesome.

Central Services Board of Education - "Ice Ages Are Fun!" [YouTube]

I liked Cat and a Bird, but after the whirlwind of energy from the first five acts, their chamber-Gypsy-pop almost felt a little out of place. (They would have fit in a little better on Sunday's lineup, I think.) I use the phrase "chamber" pursposefully -- the trio sat down for the entire performance, two violins and a guitar. As performers, the band's probably the newest of the bunch (even Shine and the Moonbeams have played a few shows and the members have been performing music for a looong time), and I think with experience they'll figure out how to turn their sweet songs (performed very well) into something a little more interactive. [Edit: Apparently that was the first public performance for that particular lineup of the band... pretty good from that perspective.]

Cat and a Bird - "Cat and a Bird" [YouTube]

The list of kid-hop artists -- good ones, anyway, is short. Boston artist RhymeZwell made a compelling case for adding his name to that list. Unlike Secret Agent 23 Skidoo (who was in the crowd, nodding his head), RhymeZwell targets a slightly younger set (preschoolers and kindergarteners), so his lyrics aren't quite as intricate as Skidoo's. But he got the crowd moving and cheering, so count me in as intrigued.

RhymeZwell - "I Love Music" [YouTube]

We wrapped up the night with a set from Detroit's Candy Band, the undisputed veterans of the showcase, with five (six?) albums to their name and a finely honed live show. The advantage of being a bunch of punk rockers is that you can power through, like, 9 or 10 songs, as they did. And that's without the two-song encore they had the privilege of taking thanks to their position at the end of the show. It was exactly how I pictured a Candy Band set being, maybe better.

Candy Band - "Skip To My Lou" [YouTube]

With that, the crowd buzzed around the venue for another half-hour or so, then went out into the beautiful Brooklyn night to carry on the conversations...

Kindiefest 2011: The Big Picture

I'm writing this (or at least starting to write) while at about 38,000 feet, heading home to Phoenix after another weekend of family music immersion at Kindiefest, the annual gathering of family musicians, radio folks, writers, and others. I spent a fair amount of time this weekend trying to think about if there was an overarching theme to this year's conference. What is the big picture? Last year, if you'll remember, it was about owning your [stuff], the year before it was about... well, a bunch of stuff.

And this year? There were always the random phrases people uttered during the weekend. In the entertaining discussion on using social media, Ashley Albert from the Jimmies mentioned how one children's media property allowed users to create avatars of themselves as potatoes, and I immediately wrote "potato avatar" as the name of a kids album or kids band, I'm not sure which. Daron Henry mentioned how Recess Monkey had at some point become a "jobby," a combination of job and hobby that captures, I think, the weird position of some kids music artists, for which this artistic endeavor has become something considerably more than a hobby, but maybe hasn't quite reached the point of full-time work. Yet.

Kindiefest co-founder Bill Childs tagged "authenticity" as the word for the weekend. I won't deny that that notion surfaced throughout the weekend, especially in the musical performances. (More on those tomorrow.)

But I'm going to call the word of Kindiefest 2011 "community." It wasn't a buzzword that rolled off everyone's lips immediately -- well, except maybe in my panel -- and it's not the word itself that I'm choosing. It was some that happened constantly. At least four or five times during the conference, somebody said to me (or I thought to myself), "I want to -- or I've been told that I need to -- meet [someone else]." And then I'd take it upon myself to find that person, and drag them (and you think I'm exaggerating, but it's not too far from the truth) to that other person.

That community could be found in the many after-parties post-conference events, where some folks did the small-level relationship building that long-term associations are built upon. Sometimes that involved serious discussions on how band finances really work or trading touring war stories or fond memories, and sometimes that involved making really bad (and/or off-color) jokes.

And probably most significantly, community was found in the showcases and public festival, where again this year many musicians were the most enthusiastic listeners. It was heartening to see the large contingent of kindie musicians on one side of the stage singing or clapping along loudly, for example, during Elizabeth Mitchell's set. Or when during the showcase from Shine and the Moonbeams -- and, goodness, you will be hearing much more about them -- the little boy on stage got a little stage fright and didn't want to dance, Tim Kubart and Ann Torralba got up and danced away. That's not even mentioning all the different folks who sat in on others' sets.
There were a lot of familiar faces at this year's event, but there were also new faces. The challenge to the long timers (and it feels weird to call those of us attending for 2 or 3 years to be long timers, but there it is) is to keep the inclusionary feel of the genre open, but it's also the challenge for the newcomers, too. There's a difference between community-building and networking -- it's the former that will get us to Kindiefest 2021.

My relationship to this community that's being created (or significantly expanded) is a little odd in that I am both a part of and yet separate from the community's largest contingent, that of the musicians. I believe firmly in the idea of making music for and with kids and families, but a significant component of my work here is to provide (my own subjective) qualitative distinctions. As a result, I still walk that fine line between encouraging everyone (because who knows who will become the next [name your favorite artist]) and recognizing (repeatedly) the artists I think best reflect the explosion of creativity we're seeing and hearing right now. It seems a little competitive for a collaborative community, but one of my hopes is that events like this help motivate everyone to try harder, dig deeper, and take artistic chances. (And that includes me. That even includes readers who have nothing to do with the music-making end of the community and just want to find more great music for their families.) In the end, that's one of the things that will make this community more visible to the community at large.

Thanks again to Stephanie, Mona, Tor, and Bill for putting on another excellent conference, the best Kindiefest yet. Learned some, and laughed and got inspired a bunch. That's a lot for 48 hours in the city.