Video: "Pretty Crabby" - Caspar Babypants

Me? I'm a big fan of Caspar Babypants. And a big fan of Charlotte Blacker.

And, as you might expect, a big fan of when the musician and the artist combine for videos.  (See here and here.)

So when CB and, er, CB get together to release a brand new music video, um, yes, I shall post it.  Blacker joins with Mark Taylor to create a another spiffily kinetic and knitted animation for "Pretty Crabby" off Caspar's brand-new album Rise and Shine!   My favorite bit is the crabby band.

Caspar Babypants - "Pretty Crabby" [YouTube]

Video: "Costume Party" - The Pop Ups

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This is such a sweet little video from The Pop Ups.  It's for their song "Costume Party" off their forthcoming release Appetite for Construction.  (Preorder it on iTunes here and Amazon here.)  The premise of the song is simple -- it's OK to wear all types of different clothes -- and the gentle groove serves as perfect accompaniment to the feeling of acceptance in the lyrics.  The video, meanwhile, features the duo (and puppets, and kids) goofing around with different clothes.  It's a feel-good song and video in more ways than one.  (Hat tip: OWTK's Jeff Bogle, premiering the video on Huffington Post.)

The Pop Ups - "Costume Party" [YouTube]

World Premiere Video: "No School Today" - Danny Weinkauf (plus free download!)

Setting aside the fact that Danny Weinkauf has not, up to this point, released a kids music album, he's got a pretty good resume -- for many years he's played bass with a little band known as They Might Be Giants and has written kids' songs for them, including "I Am a Paleontologist."

But on April 29 all that changes with the release of No School Today, his first solo collection of family-friend pop-rock, powered in part by Kickstarter.  And while you'll have to wait another 3 weeks or so to hear the whole thing, today I'm proud to world-premiere the first video from the album.

The video for "No School Today" (directed by Ryan Hanrahan) matches the good humor of the power-pop song with a little bit of lyric video and a WHOLE BUNCH OF SOCK PUPPET.  The sock puppets -- including a Weinkauf lookalike -- I can almost guarantee will bring a smile to your face (especially if you're a TMBG fan).

As a bonus, you can download the track free for the price of an e-mail address in the widget at the bottom of this post.

But really, check out the video.

Danny Weinkauf - "No School Today" [YouTube]

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

My Annual Post About "Felt Around the World"

A couple years ago -- exactly two years ago, April 1, 2012, I shared one of my favorite all-time posts here on the site, the world premiere of "Felt Around the World," which was "We Are the World" for a new (puppet) generation.

Last year I shared how the song had generated hundreds of dollars for St. Jude's Children's Hospital.  Now, I'm happy to report that the world's greatest song performed by Fabricated Americans has generated thousands of dollars for St. Jude's.  That's right, thanks to album sales and radio plays, we (that is, me and the folks at Recess Monkey, who coordinated the video and the musical contributions from our puppet friends) have now contributed more than $2,200 to St. Jude's.

Contributions keep trickling in, and you can still purchase the track at CD Baby, iTunes, and Amazon.  Thanks again to everyone who produced, purchased, or listened to the song.  Enjoy -- I still smile when I watch and listen today.

Hand Aid - "Felt Around the World" [YouTube]

Video: "End of a Summer Storm" - Alison Krauss

I suppose the Sandra Boynton video that would make me happiest would be one that Boynton herself animated with her amusing anthropomorphic animals.  But that also wouldn't fit the mood of "End of a Summer Storm," the Alison Krauss-sung tune from Boynton's fine Frog Trouble album.  The video, directed by Keith Boynton, features a bunny on a mission -- it's a felt-y, puppet-y action adventure. (Sort of.)  Also dig the Swallows and Amazons reference.

Alison Krauss - "End of a Summer Storm" [Vimeo]