Kindie-Chartin': Kids Place Live's Top Songs of 2011

Last year I reviewed the most popular songs of the year on Sirius-XM's Kids Place Live radio show.  It was an imprecise attempt to gauge the popularity of artists and songs on a national level.  Given that the show has nearly 17,000 fans on its Facebook page, its listenership is not small.

Almost every weekend, the channel broadcasts its "13 Under 13" show, a Casey Kasem for the kiddos which counts down the week's top songs.  As noted last year, the list is not totally objective -- there is a subjective nature to the list which takes into the station's directors' sense of buzz, for example, associated with each song.  There's a practical limit to the number of times the station can play a song in a week without annoying its audience through oversaturation, a limit which may not totally reflect the demand for it via listener requests.

Having said that, there does appear to be a rational relationship between the rankings and actual airplay.  For example, the most recent "13 Under 13" had the Board of Education's "Why Is Dad So Mad?" at #1, Keller Williams' "Mama Tooted" at #7, and Caspar Babypants' "Sugar Ant" at #14.  The total number of airplays (excluding double-counts) for the week that roughly corresponds to KPL's week, according to Dogstar Radio, was 25, 16, and 13,  respectively.

Once again, I used the Kids Place Live Fans page as the source of my data, making assumptions regarding chart placement when Gwyneth wasn't able to record the list for the week.  I counted all songs which first charted in 2011.  (Note: some are still charting in 2012.)

Now, all the standards and caveats from last year's effort still applies -- there are data gaps, it's not perfect, and may or may not be the best songs of the year.  But these are the songs to which, once they started getting some airplay, kids really responded to.

I'm presenting here the Top 13 songs of 2011, a year-long "13 Under 13," as it were.  That's mostly because the data lent itself to a nice division.  (It also makes for a nice comparison to KPL's own summary from New Year's weekend.)  And due to the data gaps, I'm presenting them in three relatively distinct groups points-wise, ordered alphabetically within each group.  So here goes:

Top 6

• Baron von Rumblebuss - "Did You See (What the Cat Dragged In)?"
• Caspar Babypants - "Butterfly Driving a Truck"
• Todd McHatton - "I Think I'm a Bunny"
• Mike Phirman - "Chicken Monkey Duck"
• Barbra Streisand (Llamanator Mix) - "Duck Sauce"
• Keller Williams - "Mama Tooted"

Notes: the McHatton and Williams songs are still charting, more than half a year after they first made the chart.

Next 5

• Blue October - "Jump Rope"
• Seth Decker and the Missing Piece - "Cucumber Canoe"
• The Fray - "Mahna Mahna"
• Joe McDermott - "Kitty Fight"
• Recess Monkey - "Flapjacks"

Final 2

• Cars 2 - "Collision of the Worlds"
• Recess Monkey - "Grandmom's House"

Note that Jonathan Coulton's "The Princess Who Saved Herself," which made the Top 5 list last year, would have made this list had it been expanded to Top 15.  It is without much doubt (according these lists, anyway), the most popular song of the past couple years.

Finally, there are always some artists who don't score massive hits, but get multiple hits.  So, the top 10 artists if you look at songs which first charted in 2011, listed alphabetically, are:

• Baron von Rumblebuss
• Caspar Babypants
• Joe McDermott
• Todd McHatton
• Mike Phirman
• Recess Monkey
• ScribbleMonster
• Secret Agent 23 Skidoo
• Barbra Streisand (Llamanator Mix)
• Keller Williams

Thank you for letting me indulge my inner numbers nerd just a little bit.

Kindiefest, Schmindiefest

Kindiefest is over, but the memories linger on.  Did we have a great time?  Yeah.  But I always come back from Brooklyn with ideas of how I wish my Kindiefest experience had been different.

Don't get me wrong - I think Kindiefest is pretty darn great as it is; to make changes is akin to pulling a thread in a bulky sweater -- doing so would unravel the whole enterprise.  So consider these add-on suggestions, from somewhat serious to slightly less so.

KindieCamp: There is a big opportunity for musicians who are expert in a particular area to share that expertise with others in a concentrated format, far more than a 60-minute panel or even 2-hour chat can do.

Would it be possible, for example, to have a video camp with Recess Monkey?  Tell a dozen artists to bring an idea for a video, a camera of some sort for capturing video, and a computer of some sort for editing video to Seattle for 48 hours.  For a relatively low cost -- $1,000 per artist/band? -- the band -- known for its raft of low-budget, slick-looking videos -- could help other musicians formulate, create, and edit their own video, giving them both the fish and teaching them how to fish.

Or perhaps Jeni and Jim and Keli from Jiggle Jam go over specific details and budgets in putting together their own music festival.  Nothing too trade-secret-y, but enough info to get musicians (or interested families) going by themselves (with a follow-up all-access pass visit to the Jam over Memorial Day weekend to see it in action).

Songwriting weekends, app-development weekends -- there are many possibilities.  The added benefit?  Spending time with a core group of people working through the same issues you are.  Building capacity and connections.

KindieTalk: Hey, I love the panels - and as a perennial moderator, I appreciate their inclusion.  But as a non-musician, I don't get as much out of panels on, say, breaking into TV, as musicians might.  There might be some news/big-picture value to some panels, and sometimes they generate big laughs, but I don't take much away from them.  I often spend the majority of the panel time outside in the Littlefield courtyard gabbing with musicians and other attendees (or inside chatting loudly, sometimes to the chagrin of Kindiefest organizers).  It's where I learn most of what I take home with me - what's going on with the new album, how much touring are they doing, who they're recording with.

On top of that, the conversations at the end of the evenings on Friday and Saturday night are often highlights of the weekend for me.  They're funny, insightful, and, well, more honest than the panels, which for obvious reasons tend to avoid the warts of the business.  When I come stuffed to the gills with ideas, it's from these after-hours and sideline conversations.

Add to that the fact that there are tons of people I would have loved to have had conversations with and didn't, or people who might have wanted to catch up with me and didn't, and it contributes to a feeling that there was a lot more I could have spent time with.

Is it possible to have a conference that doesn't consist, you know, of anything that a conference typically has - panels, keynotes, name tags?  Can you have a conference with a big gaping hole at its center?  Probably not.  But I could probably definitely fill 48 hours just talking and listening one-on-one and in small groups.

KindieSing: As nice as it was to hear 10 artists on Saturday night and 8 on Sunday afternoon, the downside was the artists -- more so on Saturday night, not so much on Saturday -- didn't get a lot of time to play, to settle into a groove.  And the audience was similarly short-changed.  I've never been to a performing arts showcase, one of those two- or three-day affairs where bookers from across the country watch acts perform, aside from Kindiefest, which is a shorter version of that.  And it strikes me that extending the length would make it less likely that other artists would spend as much time listening, singing, and dancing along.  It's one of the great joys of the conference dedicated to making music for kids (and families) that the artists in the audience often act as joyfully as the kids they normally play for.  So much harmony and clapping along.

MindyFest: Someone e-mailed me after the conference asking if Sirius-XM Kids Place Live's Mindy Thomas could be assigned to every panel next year.  I totally agree.  Mindy is a hoot and a half, and not only on my panel when she spent most of the time audibly wondering whether she should say something, then saying it.  She's a genuinely nice person who bears the burden of being the person everyone wants to talk with lightly and with good humor.  So why not make it all Mindy, all the time?

KindieFelt: I just want to echo what Jack Forman and I said before we introduced Hand Aid's "Felt Around the World" (thanks, Kindiefest organizers!) -- next year, a panel of puppets.  Tell me you wouldn't pay to see that.  Conference gold, my friends, conference gold.

Maurice Sendak: An Appreciation

The news came, as it often does for me these days, via Facebook, as a trickle of comments and "RIP"s became a flood.  As you might expect, my friends on Facebook are a fairly musical and culturally attuned group; as with Dick Clark and the Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch before him, news of Maurie Sendak's death was met with a combination of sadness and appreciation, NPR links and YouTube embeds.  Amberly was the first of many to link to the excellent New York Times obituary, which noted that the 83-year-old Sendak died Tuesday of complications from a stroke.

***

We have exactly three Maurice Sendak books around our house.  They are three different editions of the same book, Where the Wild Things Are.  The only other book in our house we have three copies of is the Bible, and even though we go to church on a regular basis, I think we probably read Sendak's book more.  But it's also clear that we're not some huge Sendak obsessives.  While we have the excellent DVD collection of animated stories (affiliate link), we've never seen the Spike Jonze live-action movie.  Why, then, do I feel the need to write an appreciation for an illustrator whose presence could be attributed to the power of his publishing house than anything else?

Well, first off, it's a great book and while Sendak's illustrations and his stories could be argued to have opened the door to a much broader range of literature for kids, the door hasn't been busted off the hinge quite yet.  Where the Wild Things Are would still be considered different and unusual (and great) even if it were released today, 49 years after it was originally released.

But more importantly, I think Sendak's career is illustrative of the power of sticking to your muse.  There's no Return to Where the Wild Things Are or a spin-off featuring the bakers from In the Night Kitchen.  Instead there are operas and music books and whatever else struck his fancy.  Yes, he hit it lucky in how Where the Wild Things Are struck such a chord with readers and critics -- no massive success like that can be solely attributed to its creator.  But that was after twelve years of illustrating books, both of others and of his own.  And even after that blazing success, he continued following his own path, lighting up the imaginations of children and children-at-heart.

I would never suggest that a goal for one's life is to get an obituary in the New York Times.  I would suggest, however, that hearing that creative spark inside you, listening to the world around you, and focusing on those things are what let you make that dent upon the universe, what draws an appreciative world to say "thanks."  There are many worse ways to live a life.

Two videos to finish this off.  First, a five-minute interview by the Tate Museum with Sendak from a couple years ago.  I can't emphasize how impressive Sendak is in this interview and how well it ties into this appreciation.  His comment on sequel to Wild Things is priceless.

TateShots: Maurice Sendak from Tate on Vimeo.

Second, this is a kids music blog.  Can't go without the music.  From Carole King's adaptation of Sendak's "Nutshell Gang" books:

Carole King - "Alligators All Around" [YouTube]

Review: A Little Love - Renee & Jeremy

Cover albums are, depending on one's perspective, the last refuge of scoundrels or a songwriter's tribute to classic songs.

Of course, that's an adult's perspective.  Such debates are nowhere to be found in kids' music, mostly because preschoolers don't truck in adults' notions of hipness and because the history of the genre has been one of handing down songs from generation to generation.  There's a reason why kids have been singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" for hundreds of years in dozens of languages -- it's because it's a damn good song.

And lullaby albums are especially susceptible to the cover treatment.  It's hard work crafting loving songs that are memorable (but not too memorable, because, hey, the kids are supposed to go to sleep).

One of the bands that have worked the lullaby seam quite well in recent years are the LA duo Renee & Jeremy.  Many of their chilled-out songs (especially on their debut It's a Big World) are mellow, modern gems of love.  So it was with a little trepidation I gave their new album A Little Love -- a collection of ten covers given a mostly down-tempo burnish -- a spin.  "They write a good song," I thought, "why would they want to record others'?"

Whatever their motivation, the resulting album highlights Renee & Jeremy's number one weapon in making parents weak at the knees and kids very relaxed -- their voices.  Jeremy Toback and Renee Stahl are the best vocal duo in kids' music, bar none, and it's the interplay and harmonies between them that turn what could otherwise be a collection of "why bother?" covers of overly familiar tunes into something much bigger.  "Daydream Believer," "Shiny Happy People," "Love" -- all songs I never needed to hear other than by their original artists, but which R&J give a sufficiently mellow spin and artfully draw out the lullaby-ish nature of the song to prove me wrong.  And in some cases, like their take on Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Give It Away" and Coldplay's "Yellow," they provide an entirely different perspective from the original, breathing new life into those songs.  Some of that is due to the arrangements, but much of the credit must go to duo's voices, which seem perfectly matched.

It's mostly a lullaby album (ages 0 through 5), but besides the parents, the 25-minute album will probably translate well to the toddlers' older siblings as a mellow-afternoon spin.  (You can listen to 90-second samples via the widget below.)

I expected to like A Little Love, but was surprised how much I ended up enjoying it.  It has nothing to do with the fact that they're covering songs of my musical childhood and everything to do with the fact that they're turning those songs into music of our collective childhood.  That, and the fact that I'm pretty sure I would buy an album of the duo singing anything, including the happy hour menu at TGI Friday's.  I actually have a lot of love for A Little Love.  Definitely recommended.

Monday Morning Smile: "Elephabet"

Like elephants?  Portmanteaus?  The alphabet?  Whimsical sculptures that are elephants and portmanteaus and alphabets in and of themselves?  Then I would suggest the video below.

It's from Hilary Pfeifer, who makes whimsical sculptures at Bunny With a Toolkit.  The video is associated with Elephabet, a book which Pfeifer successfully Kickstarted last year.  (If you think that looks fun, you can join in on her new Kickstarter to bring the book to iPad and poster formats.)  It's a little long (9 minutes), and takes a while to warm up, but when it gets going, there are some particularly inspired creations -- I like the "K" through "N" run especially.