Friday, February 9, 2007 at 12:11PM Don't forget, the deadline to win one of two family packs of tickets to the party that will be the February 24th Baby Loves Disco event in Scottsdale is tomorrow, Saturday the 10th.
Enter via this link.
Friday, February 9, 2007 at 12:02PM So, the taste-making juggernaut of Jack's Big Music Show continues with this video for "I Hope My Momma Says Yes!" from New York-based AudraRox (see the video at Jack's webpage).
Stylistically, this song isn't really like the rest of her fun debut album I Can Do It By Myself (review here), but the peppy bluegrass/country lends itself well to the madcap playing with the kids in the video. Plus, the band looks like they're having a blast. That's the difference, I guess, between kids music videos and adult music videos -- you rarely see a bunch of tormented kids pounding their hands against the wall in the rain.
Thursday, February 8, 2007 at 12:26PM 
Talk about double lives -- Los Angeles-area-based Gwendolyn Sanford spends some of her time scoring the second season of the Showtime series Weeds, while simultaneously performing music for preschoolers as the uni-monikered Gwendolyn in Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang.
It is very much to Gwendolyn's credit that her second album for kids, Get Up and Dance!, released late last month, is entirely irony-free. Somehow, though, the songs are eager without turning off the parents. For example, kids will enjoy her exhortation to "bounce and bounce and bounce" (ad nauseam) "around" on the leadoff title track, while parents will smile wanly at the recognition of the fact that this, yes, is exactly how their child moves. But somewhere in the course of the song, the music opens up, adding handclaps and becoming sonically interesting (without losing the kids). The rest of the album is like that, too -- the super funky "Eensy Weensy Spider," the disco freeze-dance of "Red Means Stop," and the best song never recorded for Grammar Rock!, "I Can Read." The listing of vegetables "Out in My Garden" is reminiscent -- in a good way -- of their debut album's "My Anatomy." I also appreciate the fact that the album doesn't end with a typical kids-album-closer slow song, but instead with the peppy "Sunny Day." It fits perfectly here.
She's having fun performing her songs, which are targeted right at 3- and 4-year-olds, and it shows here (you can almost hear the laughter on a couple of tracks). The band's sound has expanded since their self-titled debut album, and, like their Northern California counterparts The Sippy Cups, are especially mining the sounds of 30 to 40 years ago for inspiration. The band (which includes her Weeds scoring partner Brandon Jay) sounds great. Nowhere to be found are the "characters" from the first CD (which is A-OK by me), though Gwendolyn's high-pitched voice and occasional spoken-word intros may turn off a few exceedingly finicky listeners.
The 27-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 2 through 6. You can hear samples either at Gwendolyn's Listen page or at the album's CDBaby page.
Save for a track or two, this is probably not an album you would listen to by yourself. But Get Up & Dance! will be one of those albums you'll be happy to pull out at your kids' request. They'll think it's great, and the energy and enthusiasm on the album will pull you in, too. Definitely recommended.
Thursday, February 8, 2007 at 12:22AM The tentative showcase list for the 2007 South by Southwest Music Festival has been posted, and a brief perusal of the 1,300 (yes, you read that right) bands indicates at least 3 artists whose primary medium is kids' music: Daddy-A-Go-Go, Gustafer Yellowgold, and The Sippy Cups. The Sippy Cups' newsletter from Tuesday night indicated that they'd be headlining a free family concert at Auditorium Shores, so I wonder if the three bands are on a (pretty cool) triple bill...
Oh, and there might be a couple other bands in that list worth seeing.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007 at 1:59PM Eagle-eyed Mrs. Davis has noticed that Steve Burns' and Steven Drozd's "I Hog The Ground (Groundhog Song)" is no longer on YouTube. (So ignore my post, too.)
Never fear, however, dear readers, as Viacom hasn't completed gone over the edge -- the video is now available on their main webpage for Jack's Big Music Show. Huzzah! (I still prefer the YouTube version, though, because it had manic Jack comments interspersed throughout the video.)
What's that? You want more? Lyrics, perhaps? Well, Jack is obliging in this regard, providing two songbooks, including one with the lyrics for "I Hog". Steve's raised eyebrow when he sings "herbivore" is, sadly, not included.
