Radio Playlist: New Music April 2014

The April new music playlist is a little thin, but there's still another week left with at least a couple albums that'll be featured on the next music playlist.  (You can see the March playlist here).  As always, it's limited in that if an artist hasn't chosen to post a song on Spotify, I can't put it on the list, nor can I feature songs from as-yet-unreleased albums.  But I'm always keeping stuff in reserve for the next Spotify playlist.

Check out the list here or go right here if you're in Spotify.

**** New Music April 2014 (April 2014 Kindie Playlist) ****

Sugar Free Allstars – My Daddy's Record Collection
The Little Rockers Band – Old Mick Jagger
Banana Baron – Queen of Sheba
Bears and Lions – Airplanes
¡Uno, Dos, Tres con Andrés! – O Papa
Zee Avi – Ben
The Laurie Berkner Band – Fireflies

Weekly Summary (3/31/14 - 4/6/14)

Listen To This: We're a Club in the Woods - Bears and Lions

I've already talked about how Florida's Bears and Lions strode into Kindiefest 2013 and knocked us all over with their slightly anarchic energy.

Well, it's taken nearly a year, but their debut album We're a Club in the Woods can now be streamed so everyone can hear for themselves their gloriously goofy stories about pancakes and dogs and much more.  (Official album release is in mid-May.)

At the very least, give "Pancakes" (the first track) a spin with your kids and tell me at least one of you isn't shouting "PAN-CAKE SWEEP-STAKES" by the end.

Weekly Summary (4/29/13 - 5/5/13)

Kindiefest 2013: Finding Your Mississippi River

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Another Kindiefest has come and gone and all that is left are the bar tabs, sore legs, and hoarse voices.

The seventh annual confab of kindie musicians (fifth as a full-fledged conference) broke its own attendance record this year and moved into new digs, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Fisher building.  But the basic concept -- meet, learn, and sing -- remains unchanged.

Every year, I am a little less interested in the panels and a little more interested in the people.  To a large extent, the reason for that is that I don't need to listen to a panel how to make a kindie music record.  It's great for the first-time attendees (of which there are always a lot), but as a veteran non-professional musician, it's not helpful.

What is helpful is talking to people.  I have always found the conversations outside the walls of the conference itself to be most valuable, because those conversations (sometimes aided by bar tabs, though not necessarily) tend to be more real, more likely to generate real sharing, real connections.  Instead of trying to sell a concept or an album, you're trying to understand the other person, and maybe, in that process share who or what you are as a musician (or writer or booker).  Even if you're not sure whether you like someone's music, or writing, or whatever, you can still make a genuine connection.

For my part at the conference, I was asked to present a curated list of kids music videos along with a brief presentation on the history and types of videos.  Frankly, it was just fun seeing all those videos shown on a big screen and through a nice soundsystem.

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One thing I only realized as I sat through the entire 40-minute, 13-song DVD I'd compiled was how much the artist's personality comes through in each of those videos.  That was not something I'd consciously done when I picked the videos, but I think it's clear that the artists that have found their band's or personality's heart in their video and it's that clarity that shines through.

The surprise of my video presentation was that I got to world premiere the first-ever video from Lunch Money.  It's for their song "Spicy Kid," and I found Molly's description of it as "half Mentos ad, half Blues Brothers excerpt" as being particularly apropos.  What's more, because it's funny at points, tender at others, it very much feels like Lunch Money, like Molly and the band had found another way to express themselves.

****

Despite my comments above, I did sit through about half of the panels, and while there were lots of useful pieces of information and funny moments, only once did somebody say something that made me dig out my phone and jot down what they said.

It was Molly (natch), who on the panel on "What's Next?" talked about getting the Can You Canoe? disk from the Okee Dokee Brothers for the first time, popping it in the CD player, and listening.  She may have used a curse word in describing her initial reaction, I can't remember properly because that happened several times during the weekend (Kindiefest: Where Kindie Musicians Go To Curse).  But, long story short: she loved the album and felt the Okee Dokee Brothers had found something deep within themselves in singing about their trek down the Mississippi River.  She encouraged the attendees to "find their own Mississippi River," and if that wasn't a metaphor for what folks said all weekend, I'm not sure what is.  Kindie musicians -- and, heck, people generally -- need to let their personalities and artistic goals shine through, and I hope there was enough proof during the weekend of just how valuable that approach can be, certainly artistically, but also even career-wise.  Know your song, and sing it loud.

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Other notes from the weekend:

-- The industry showcase concert Saturday night was, as always, a combination of more experienced artists who might not have had the broader exposure of the industry stage and more relative newcomers.  The set that most impressed me was definitely Mister G's. He came up on stage with nothing more than a guitar, a kick drum, and his wife, and within 3 minutes (probably more like 2) had the entire crowd close to the stage, clapping and singing along.  By the end of his set, he'd filled the stage with other kindie musicians, and thoroughly entertained us all.

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-- Everybody was entertaining in one way or another Saturday night -- live shows almost always add to an artist's reputation -- so I'm hesitant to recommend any more, but a brief shoutout to Vered and the Babes (her backing band of 4 guys), who translated her simple songs focused on bonding with baby into something that worked surprisingly well in a much less-intimate setting.  Also, in the category of "sometimes being unknown is an advantage," newcomers Bears and Lions performed a set featuring songs like "I'm a Mediocre Kid" (much more upbeat and celebratory that the title would imply), people dressed up as bears and lions in track suits, and absurd songs and patter remiscent of other surreal duos like the Telephone Company, The Quiet Two, The Thinkers, and fellow showcase performers Ratboy Jr (pictured here with Dean Jones helping the boys out).

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-- I have said that my favorite part of Kindiefest is the connecting with others, and my favorite way of connecting at the festival is probably at the showcase.  It's the singing in 8-part harmony, it's the dancing, and, in the case of the concluding performance from Dan Zanes and Elizabeth Mitchell, even a tunnel for audience to dance under.  It's a communal feeling that underlies the entire conference.  And it's a ton of fun.

-- Other things I liked: The empanadas at the food truck down the street.  Edvard Munch's "The Scream" at MOMA.  Underbirds at Symphony Space and Raffi at Town Hall (more on those separately).  Running around Prospect Park on a beautiful Saturday morning.  Getting to sing with Ella Jenkins.  Talking with fellow kindie folks (too many to name, but I will give a tip of the cap to Jeff Bogle and Dave Loftin).

-- Things I'm sorry I missed: The KindieTalks (especially Laurie Berkner's).  The barbecue place around the corner from BAM.  Sleep.  Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge with Lloyd Miller.  The Sunday public festival.  Stretching.  Bill Childs.

Back in the real world, I'm trying to remember the lessons of Kindiefest, but I think if I just keep searching for my own Mississippi River, I'll be OK.

Newborn: Bears and Lions

There are lots of words and pictures to share from Kindiefest 2013, and I'll be doing that shortly.  But I didn't want too much time to pass by before sharing the music from Bears and Lions, a new band from Hollywood, South Carolina.

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I think there were other sets that were more popular and frankly better at the industry showcase on Saturday night.  But I'm pretty sure if I polled those of us huddled stage right, the set that had us laughing the most and saying something like, "I have no idea what that was, but it might have been brilliant" was from this duo of two guys dressed up as a bear and a lion wearing basketball uniforms and strumming guitars, telling the story in song of a bear and a lion who... oh, what does it matter?  They played a song called "Mediocre Kid" which might just be an anthem -- yes, it's about an average -- maybe even mediocre -- kid, but the song somehow manages to be inspirational.  For the song "Good Boy," they managed to get Recess Monkey's Drew Holloway to act like a dog.  It was just a loopy, occasionally surreal performance that resulted in people loudly shouting "Pancake Sweepstakes!" in unison.

​A lot of people were reminded of The Telephone Company, and I totally get that (duo? check; surreal? check), but the first band that came to my mind was The Thinkers (duo? check; surreal? check).  There's even a touch of the late, lamented Quiet Two in there, at least if they had been influenced by Southern rock rather than the British Invasion.  [Edit: Not to mention, of course, fellow showcaser Ratboy Jr., though their songs are more whimsical than Bears and Lions'.]

So I haven't quite made up my mind yet about them, but I can't wait until they're ready to unleash an entire album onto the world.  Listen to 5 songs below plus watch a couple live videos (not from Kindiefest), and pick up a free track here.