KidVid Tournament 2007: "I Found It!" (2) vs. "Toenail Moon" (3)

Our first matchup on the third day of KidVid Tournament 2007 pits the #2 seed in the Woody Guthrie Region, "I Found It!" from Brady Rymer against the #3 seed, "Toenail Moon" from Wee Hairy Beasties.

Vote in the comments below. Rules: Video with most votes wins. One vote per e-mail address, please. Votes due by Tuesday 6 PM-ish East Coast time.

[Note: Hey, I can embed both videos here! Thanks, Internet-friendly kids' musicians and labels!]

"I Found It!" - Brady Rymer

"Toenail Moon" - Wee Hairy Beasties

KidVid: "Toenail Moon," Wee Hairy Beasties

The Sally Timms-directed video for "Toenail Moon," originally on the Animal Crackers CD (review here), has now been posted to YouTube. It's cute, in a lo-fi, did-the-kids-help-with-some-of-the-decorations-and-sock-puppetry sort of way.

Plus, the song's sweet.

Next Up: The Vogue Children's Music Review

My first review in a print magazine, and it's for the venerable Conde Nast empire. You can see my brief review of Wee Hairy Beasties' Animal Crackers in the December issue of Wired magazine here.

Now where's David Remnick's e-mail address? I've got a story idea for him...

Review: Animal Crackers - Wee Hairy Beasties

When Bloodshot Records' classic kids and family music compilation The Bottle Let Me Down was released in 2002, it was, well, something of a novelty. Adult artists -- edgy ones, even -- doing kids' music? What was perhaps surprising was just how darn good the collection was.

Now it's 2006 and adult artists doing kids' music, while not yet passe', is certainly not a novelty, not when every rocker with kids underfoot may be thinking that there's an audience out there that's waiting to be served. So it hardly seems necessary to note that the Wee Hairy Beasties, whose debut album Animal Crackers will be released next week, actually consist of musicians with a long history of playing in places far seedier than your local day care center -- Jon Langford and Sally Timms, of the punk band the Mekons; Kelly Hogan; and Devil in a Woodpile.

It also is much less surprising than it would have been four years ago that this album is more fun than a barrel full of monkeys. Or ants. OK, it's way more fun than a barrelful of ants. Barrelfuls of ants are never fun, but the rewrite of the Bo Diddley classic "I'm a M.A.N.," which is turned into "I'm an A.N.T." definitely is. "Housefly Blues" introduces young listeners to the problems of the common housefly. Langford's distinctive and slightly raspy voice is a great fit for the zippy "Ragtime Duck." And so on, through a whole range of country, bluegrass, and swing arrangements. My favorite track on the CD is "Cyril the Karaoke Squirrel," on which Hogan's sly vocal delivery and the '60s-era arrangement draws the listener into a story about intolerance which, as you might expect from Bloodshot Records, doesn't end quite the way you'd expect.

I'm going to put an age range of 3 to 8 for the 33-minute album, thanks to the animal subject matter, which always goes over big with preschoolers. You can download the leadoff track, the ragged-sounding (in a good way) and lots-of-fun "Wee Hairy Beasties" and pre-order the album at its Bloodshot page.

Make no mistake, Animal Crackers is a kids' album. But it's made with love and enthusiasm and will engage kids while making the parents smile. And if you had any affinity for The Bottle Let Me Down, you shouldn't hesitate at all to get this album. Definitely recommended.