When I Say You've Never Heard These CDs, I'm Not Talking About You in Particular

Another week, another piece of mine on Education.com. This time it's "Five Great Kids' CDs You've Probably Never Heard." Regular readers probably have heard all of these CDs (heck, a couple of the bands listed have been discussed here in the past couple weeks), but if your kids' music diet has been limited to intakes of Jack (the music show, not the bourbon), Disney, or NPR, or assorted award-giving sites, here are five CDs you should get to know ASAP. Go forth and enjoy.

DVD Review Two-Fer: Jim Cosgrove / Eric Ode

I receive a lot of CDs every week, some good, some bad, but not so many DVDs. I expect DVDs to become a much bigger deal in the world of kids' music here in the next couple years as artists look to connect with their audience in multiple ways, beyond just recorded music and concerts. It's also a way to help artists develop more of an identity nationally. (It's also a way to generate additional revenue, but that would be a rather crass way of putting it, I suppose.)

For the moment, however, the number of DVDs is still more accurately a trickle rather than a flood. Musicians Jim Cosgrove and Eric Ode each released a DVD relatively recently, and it's worth a glance to see the results of some of the early settlers of the kids' music DVD field.
Missouri-based musician Jim Cosgrove has a fanbase of some sort, as a few of his fans have written me over the past couple years asking me to check out his music. Cosgrove has released six kids' CDs and this DVD, Mr. Stinky Feet's Road Trip Live, was released earlier this year. It was distributed by Jack Records, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers and the same label releasing comedy records by Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy.

I wish I could say that I understood what draws people to Cosgrove, but this 30-minute DVD, which is a filmed "live" performance (it appears to be specifically for the DVD), does him no favors. Only a few of the songs, such as "Little Red Wagon," generate any interest on repeated hearings. Perhaps kids might enjoy shouting "P.U.!" over and over in "Stinky Feet," but it gets tiring quickly. And Cosgrove's lengthy banter is mostly limited to explaining what people should be doing to interact with their songs. I'm not opposed to between-song banter, but it just seemed labored compared to, say, Trout Fishing in America, who could probably release a whole album of quality between-song banter.

Songs are targeted at kids ages 2 through 6. If you need to see for yourself, you can watch "Put Down the Binky" here. But I've just completely missed the Jim Cosgrove boat. I'm sure those of you who think I'm wrong will tell me exactly why...

Washington-based Eric Ode also has a number of kids' CDs (five) to his credit, plus a bunch of poetry anthologies. He released Welcome to the Workshop late last year.

I don't think this DVD works great, either, though I like it more than the Cosgrove DVD. It misses the mark not so much because the songs aren't good -- some of the songs, like "This Song Has No Elephants" and the rocking "Trash Can," are quite good. In this case, the quality of the 35-minute DVD itself doesn't always reflect quality of the songs. The video is a combination of interlude bits with a cat puppet named Scratch and videos of varying quality. The sound on the interlude bits sometimes drops way out, while the videos range from decent ("Trash Can" and "Worms," for example, could be in-show bits on some PBS show) to not very good ("Corner of a Cloud" is pretty boring).

This is one of the better videos and songs, the very meta "This Song Has No Elephants." If you don't like this, then you're definitely not going to like the rest of the DVD.

If you think Eric Ode smiles a lot in that video, you're right. The entire DVD is like that -- Ode is nothing if not genial. It's a completely safe DVD and songwriting approach, and so parents and kids looking for a bit of an edge, any edge, will probably find this too safe. It's probably most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8.

Watch a trailer here, the bluesy pop-rocker "I Love My Shoes" here, or the kid-poppy "At the Library" here.

Even though I can't really recommend Welcome to the Workshop, I think it shows promise for future DVD releases by Ode and his compatriots. And fans of Ode's CD output will probably find it a pleasant visual accompaniment.

But I think the bar for kids' music DVD releases, if not high now, probably will be considerably higher the next time both Cosgrove and Ode release a DVD.

Listen To This: Lunch Money, "Cookie As Big As My Head"

There are a number of releases in the works for the rest of 2007, but none I am anticipating more than the second album of South Carolina-based trio Lunch Money. It's approaching three years since the release of their debut CD, the small gem Silly Reflection (review), and that's just way too long, y'know? Their lo-fi songs, slightly remiscent of Yo La Tengo or Spoon at its most minimalist, have stayed fresh after repeated listening...

So thanks to Gwyneth, who caught the band's set at Chicago's Summer on Southport Festival a couple weeks ago, and preserved this new track for the world (or at least the world with access to YouTube) to see. "Cookie As Big As My Head" is another instantly catchy melody (though the bass seems particularly high in this mix) married to sharp lyrics ("By the way, my cookie policy is / I'm a chocolate chip girl / We can [something] Pecans and walnuts / [something else] Is winter coming? / Are you trying to tell me that I look like a squirrel? / I want a cookie as big as my head...") OK, I'm sure the lyrics will be sharper on disk. [Note: Thanks to Lunch Money songwriter extraordinaire Molly Ledford for setting things straight in the comments.]

Jim James Is Kermit and Alvin at Kidapalooza

Thank goodness for the internet. Without it, there'd be no way for me to show you Jim James' kinda-accurate impersonation of Kermit the Frog at this weekend's Kidzapalooza. Here he does "Rainbow Connection," accompanying himself on banjo:

And if that wasn't enough, James, the front man front from the excellent My Morning Jacket, turns Alvin and the Chipmunks' novelty hit "Christmas Don't Be Late" into something almost haunting. Yeah, it's August, but it's worth a couple minutes of your time...

It's not clear how many kids were actually in that crowd of what looked to be primarily people over 5' 6", though...

New Music from the Shins: "It's OK, Try Again" (from Yo Gabba Gabba!)

I think most people would probably consider me a fairly straight-laced guy. Sure, I occasionally drive faster than the speed limit and go back for a second donut in the office lunchroom, but for the most part, I think "goody two-shoes" would not be a wholly inappropriate appellate for me.

Which gives you an indication of exactly why I'm not going to be posting a copy of new music from the Shins, people! You heard me, the Shins!

I totally understand one of the impluses behind mp3 and .rar blogs -- new music falls into your lap and all you want to do is share it with others. Preferably before anyone else does. But even though the record industry's approach to file-sharing seems somewhat... misguided... to me, I've always felt that the copyright holder should get to call the shots.

So that means I'm not going to post the 2-minute track from the Shins from the new Nick Jr. show Yo Gabba Gabba!.

Well, there is one other reason. Although it's a good track that sounds like the Shins (particularly a soaring la-la-la part near the end), it's not an awesome track. It's not even the best track on the 9-minute sampler CD I received. Perhaps at even just 2 minutes in length it's too long to convey a message which is -- literally -- "Sometimes you win / sometimes you lose / sometimes you win / sometimes you lose / But it's OK / you try again."

That honor of the sampler's best track goes to the LA band I'Kona, which turns in a strutting, funky 90-second song called "Hello, Goodbye" that G. Love would be proud to call his own.

The band Paco (whose lead singer Dominique Durand also sings in Ivy with Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger) turns in a nicely muted "Listen," which is about 180 degrees from the Aquabats' hyper "Pool Party." (Aquabats lead singer Christian Jacobs is also a co-creator of Yo Gabba Gabba!.)

The list of artists appearing on camera or turning in songs for the show is enough to keep music-minded parents intrigued -- Mya, Sugarland, Smoosh, Cornelius, the Postmarks, Dean & Britta, Jason Falkner, Low, Jason Lytle, Mark Kozelek, among others.

I have no idea how the on-camera appearances or videos will turn out. Nick Jr. reps have indicated that the Shins video will be posted to the Nick Jr./YGG website shortly, so you can judge that song for yourself. (And for those of you just wanting the CD, they're hoping to put one together sometime in the future.)

I've also seen the first episode, schedule to debut Monday, August 20th. But I'm gonna need a little time to process that one...