At Kindiefest a couple weeks ago, one of the few sustained conversations I had was with the guys from Recess Monkey. We talked about how the key with the kids music genre is the continued sharing -- rather than fighting over limited pieces of a pie, try to make that pie bigger so everybody gets more. Especially if it's pecan pie. Mmm, I love me some pecan pie.
But I digress.
Anyway, the guys in the band said they'd been working with some of the other Seattle kids music bands to try to cross-promote their shows and music, but they didn't reveal their secret weapon, which is the most awesome name: Kindiependent, which almost makes me like the whole "kindie" name which I've never fully been able to embrace. It's a Seattle kids music collective featuring Recess Monkey, Caspar Babypants, The Not-Its, Johnny Bregar, and the Central Services Board of Education.
Check out the cool poster art from Kate Endle (Chris Ballew's wife, who's also done both Caspar Babypants covers) -- with help from Johnny Bregar and Jack Forman -- for a show on June 13th. It's the record release party for RM's The Final Funktier -- apparently it's going to be one seamless set where each band's set overlaps with the one preceeding it.
So, yeah, Seattle's totally going all for one, one for all, 5 Musketeers-style. (And maybe more, once other Seattle folks get the word.) Other areas might be thinking the same thing, but Seattle's taken the visible step. And secured the website.
Brilliant stuff from Chris Ballew aka Caspar Babypants. I've always liked the song "$9.99" from his More Please! disk, but this video -- which features a lot of help from Ballew's daughter Josie -- is, well, just wow. Another one of the incredible series of minimalist Babypants videos.
Caspar Babypants - "$9.99" [YouTube]
The time is at hand for the KidVid Tournament 2010 Championship. From the beginning, this has been a very Seattle-focused tournament, like those years when the Big East or ACC gets a bajillion teams into the tournament and 3 teams into the Final Four for the NCAA basketball championships (or the WCHA in the Frozen Four). Except those teams generally don't cheer for or even assist their conference mates, as many of the Seattle bands did when they weren't actually competing against one another. As they are today.
This matchup pits a couple Seattle artists against each other for the right to be called KidVid Tournament 2010 Champion -- Caspar Babypants and his "Itsy Bitsy Spider" video from More Please! against Brian Vogan and "That's How a Pumpkin Grows" from his Little Songs album. That title and $3.75 will get you coffee at Starbucks, I suppose.
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, but the official results are based on the poll at the bottom of the page. One vote per person, please. One vote per person! (Please note, however, that I've got the IP monitoring cranked up on high so if you vote at a company and someone else there votes first, your IP may be blocked. Sorry for the inconvenience.) Votes due by noon tomorrow (Tuesday) East Coast time (or 9 AM Seattle time).
Finally, I'm happy that so many fans of both artists are voting, but please remember to keep your comments respectful, and, heck, watch both videos. They're both entirely different (simplicity, style, song type), but each quite effective. You might just find a new artist worth following.
Caspar Babypants - "Itsy Bitsy Spider" [YouTube]
Brian Vogan - "That's How A Pumpkin Grows" [YouTube]
The first semi-final matchup of KidVid Tournament 2010 features the Pete Seeger Regional winner Caspar Babypants and his "Itsy Bitsy Spider" video from More Please! -- the video vanquished Dan Zanes in an epic Round 2 matchup. That video's going up against the Ella Jenkins Regional winner Debbie and Friends and "Willy Won't" from the upcoming More Story Songs and Sing-Alongs, who defeated a feisty Johnny Bregar in Round 2.
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, but the official results are based on the poll at the bottom of the page. One vote per person, please. One vote per person! Votes due by 5 pm tomorrow (Friday) East Coast time. And, as I continue to say, play nice -- that means encouraging folks to watch both videos and avoiding trash-talking. Really, folks, it's just a silly internet contest.
Caspar Babypants - "Itsy Bitsy Spider" [YouTube]
Debbie and Friends: Willy Won't [YouTube]
It's the second matchup of the second round of KidVid Tournament 2010 -- a titanic Pete Seeger Regional final featuring Caspar Babypants' "Itsy Bitsy Spider" from his More Please! album going up against "Pollito Chicken" from Dan Zanes and Friends featuring La Bruja, from Zanes' Nueva York! album. Who will administer the smackdown (in a very, non-competitive, child-friendly way, of course)?
The other Day Two KidVid Tournament 2010 matchup in the Pete Seeger Region features Caspar Babypants' "Itsy Bitsy Spider" from his More Please! album going up against "Ants in your Pants #99" from Eric Herman'sWhat A Ride! album. It's a very Washington bug-oriented matchup.
At Kindiefest a couple weeks ago, one of the few sustained conversations I had was with the guys from Recess Monkey. We talked about how the key with the kids music genre is the continued sharing -- rather than fighting over limited pieces of a pie, try to make that pie bigger so everybody gets more. Especially if it's pecan pie. Mmm, I love me some pecan pie.
But I digress.
Anyway, the guys in the band said they'd been working with some of the other Seattle kids music bands to try to cross-promote their shows and music, but they didn't reveal their secret weapon, which is the most awesome name: Kindiependent, which almost makes me like the whole "kindie" name which I've never fully been able to embrace. It's a Seattle kids music collective featuring Recess Monkey, Caspar Babypants, The Not-Its, Johnny Bregar, and the Central Services Board of Education.
Check out the cool poster art from Kate Endle (Chris Ballew's wife, who's also done both Caspar Babypants covers) -- with help from Johnny Bregar and Jack Forman -- for a show on June 13th. It's the record release party for RM's The Final Funktier -- apparently it's going to be one seamless set where each band's set overlaps with the one preceeding it.
So, yeah, Seattle's totally going all for one, one for all, 5 Musketeers-style. (And maybe more, once other Seattle folks get the word.) Other areas might be thinking the same thing, but Seattle's taken the visible step. And secured the website.
