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    Entries in animals (4)

    Monday
    Oct152012

    Monday Morning Smile: Candela y Los Supremos - "El Desalojo del Piojo"

    I've featured the work of Candela y Los Supremos here on the site before, but I will be honest that it is hard for me to get past the language barrier -- singing in nothing but Spanish (or perhaps Portugese) makes it difficult for me to properly evaluate.

    The music is infectious pop, though, so I'm gonna post this video, the leadoff single from the band's brand new album Animaladas (out tomorrow, Oct. 16, in Spain, and a week later worldwide, I believe).  It's for the song, "El Desalojo del Piojo," which roughly translates to "The Eviction of the Louse."  That translation makes the constant hair-mussing of 7-year-old Candela make a lot more sense.

    If you want to listen to more, PlayGround has you covered.

    Candela y Los Supremos - "El Desalojo del Piojo" [YouTube]

    Monday
    Sep102012

    Video: "I'm Thinking of an Animal" - Billy Kelly

    Billy Kelly and public television.  Now that's what I'm talkin' about, man!  He's a triple threat -- he sings, he draws, and he's willing to kiss a stuffed-animal giraffe on video.

    For this last component, we have public television station WXXI in Rochester, New York to thank for being crazy enough to agree to Kelly's proposal for a series of 1-minute videos based on his song "I'm Thinking of an Animal."  The song, from his 2011 disk The Family Garden, gets chopped up here into four segments -- I'm highlighting my favorite, but you can see all four at the link above.  Can I just say that I love, love, love Kelly Knox's Bucknell University Dancing Dancers?

    Billy Kelly - "I'm Thinking of an Animal (that's really tall)" [YouTube]

    Thursday
    Sep062012

    Video: "Animal Alphabet" - Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke

    Yaaay!  A new video and a new song from Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke.  OK, the song's been around for a little while (if not generally available), but the video?  Definitely new.  Yes, the "animals representing the alphabet" thing has been done before, but even Sandra Boynton make a song out of hers.  (And Wilde's illustrations are every bit as cute.)

    Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke - "Animal Alphabet" [YouTube]

    Wednesday
    Apr182012

    Itty-Bitty Review: Creepy Crawly Love - Duke Otherwise

    It's been awhile since I've heard a good off-kilter kids music album, an album with a distinct perspective on song subjects and a musical approach to match.

    If your family collection is similarly deficient, allow me to suggest Duke Otherwise, AKA Noah Riemer, whose debut album Creepy Crawly Love comes out of the Upper Midwest's House of Mercy Recordings to take up space on your family's CD shelf (or computer hard drive) next to John and Mark's Children's Record, The Great Adventures of Mr. David, or perhaps Zak Morgan (thanked in the album's liner notes).

    Take "I Used to Think," a jazz-with-a-bit-of-klezmer tune with a hyperactive narrator sounding a bit like Sesame Street's Count declaiming that features the lyrics "I used to think the world was flat, not round / I used to think I weighed a thousand pounds / Can you believe I used to think that e=mcHammer?"  Or Tin-Pan-Alley-via-the-midway "Git Yer Fiddle Out," featuring (among other things) a dog toy, train whistle, trombone, and strummed fiddle, and lyrics like "Get your fiddle out and strum it / Get your trombone out and drum it / Get your xylophone and drive it / C'mon! Drive, drive, drive!" that only get odder from there.  Riemer obviously delights in wordplay, using nifty, brainy lyrics to sing about short-tailed dogs ("Dog Without a Tail"), the Spanish language interrupted by other languages ("How Do You Say 'No' in Español?"), and other eccentrics, all in a musical packaging that's like a slightly peppier Tom Waits.

    While a few of the songs will amuse preschoolers, it's really kids ages 6 through 10 who will most appreciate the album.  You can hear clips of many tracks at the Duke Otherwise homepage, or stream a few full-length songs here. I would be surprised if Creepy Crawly Love became a massively popular hit -- it's a bit too off-center for that.  But these types of albums often become adored in some households, and if what you hear here tickles your fancy, then I think your household will give this album a happy home.  Definitely recommended.