The Kindie Rock Showdown: Coming Next Week!

Kindie Rock Showdown logo

As many of you readers know, for a number of years I hosted a KidVid Tournament, which featured kids music videos released over the past year competing against one another in a friendly (I think) competition. Fans and readers voted for their favorites, March Madness-style, with one band and video being named champion. I last hosted the competition in 2012, but I had lots of fun hosting it the six years I did so.

But no good idea ever goes away for too long, and so I'm proud to announce that starting next week, there will be an entirely new way to enjoy the tournament. The website batteryPOP features a ton of great curated video content for kids of a variety of ages, from preschoolers to tweens -- live action, animation, educational shows, shows just for fun, music, etc. Why "batteryPOP"? Well, if someone watches a video and likes it, they can "POP" it -- it's like upvoting for the kindergarten set.

I think you see where I'm going with this.

That's right, starting next Monday, May 11, batteryPOP will be hosting the Kindie Rock Showdown. For the next month, they'll be hosting showdowns between 8 great kids' musicians:

Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo

The Not-Its

Josh and the Jamtones

On top of that, not only will I be providing some color commentary, so will Laurie Berkner! Yeah, that Laurie Berkner, who will give her own personal reactions to the videos.

The fun kicks off next week as the Alphabet Rockers will take on the Bazillions and Danny Weinkauf is pitted against Caspar Babypants. The following week, starting May 18, Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band will go up against Secret Agent 23 Skidoo and the Not-Its will compete against Josh and the Jamtones. The following week will feature the semifinals featuring the most-POPped videos, with the finals the week of June 1.

So tune in to batteryPOP starting next week with your kids to find out which videos are competing, support your favorite kids' musicians, and vote for your favorite videos! (And you can even go there this week -- really, they've got a lot of great and varied content.)

Video: "John Jacob" - Josh and the Jamtones

LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!

Josh and the Jamtones - "John Jacob" [from the Bear Hunt: the Movie DVD] [YouTube]

Best Kids Music of 2014: Top 30 Videos

Continuing our look at the year's best in kids music, we finish up with videos. Now, unlike albums and songs, for which I've traditionally tried to adhere to the Fids and Kamily year (which is Oct. 1, 2013 through Sept. 30, 2014 this year), my best-of video selections have tended to run on more of a March through Feburary video fiscal year. I did that to kick off the very first KidVid Tournament, and I've sort of stuck with that ever since. (So nobody release an awesome video in the next 48 hours, OK?)

Here's my list of my favorite 30 kids music videos of "2014." Some are big-budget productions, some are small-budget productions, and some are virtually-no-budget productions. There are puppets, stop-action, hand-animation, computer animation, live action, and sometimes, more than one of those things.

Before I present the 30 videos, I should note that I wanted to limit an artist to no more than one video on the list. Which meant that artists like The Bazillions, Danny Weinkauf, and Caspar Babypants don't get their full due as artists that have fully committed to the art of the kids music video, each releasing several music videos that could have appeared on this list (if I wasn't limiting them to one video, they might have had a dozen or so between them).

Of particular note, Chris Ballew has done some amazing work, not only contracting out with a variety of animators for his Caspar Babypants videos but also producing videos on his own beautiful in their creativity and simplicity. For that reason, I'm giving him a Special Award for Awesomest Kids Music Video Guy of 2014. Now, if you don't mind, I've got to go find an MTV VMA statue on eBay so I modify it and give it to Ballew.

So while I'm doing that, here's the list in alphabetical order by artist. A YouTube playlist can be found at the very end if you'd like to while away an hour or two...

Dynamite - Alphabet Rockers (YouTube)

No Homework - The Bazillions (YouTube)

Bottle Caps - Laurie Berkner (YouTube)

Tiny Little Car - Johnny Bregar (YouTube)

The Creatures Under My Bed - Caspar Babypants (YouTube)

Grand March from Aida - Dog On Fleas (YouTube)

I'm a Little Fish - Laura Doherty (YouTube)

Hair - fleaBITE (YouTube)

I Can't Feel My Face - Gustafer Yellowgold (YouTube)

How Great Can This Day Be - Lori Henriques (YouTube)

November First (Jump, Run, Shake) - Eric Herman (YouTube)

Just Not Me - The Hipwaders (YouTube)

Did You Ever See a Lassie? - Charlie Hope (YouTube)

Snow Day - Josh and the Jamtones (YouTube)

Crew Cut - Randy Kaplan (YouTube)

Gingerbread Man - Lunch Money (YouTube)

I Love You More - Todd McHatton (YouTube)

Girls Wanna Dance - Milkshake (YouTube)

Call Me Mista Cookie Jar - Mista Cookie Jar (YouTube)

Haircut - The Not-Its (YouTube)

Walking With Spring - The Okee Dokee Brothers (YouTube)

All These Shapes - The Pop Ups (YouTube)

Love Bug - Raffi (YouTube)

Brick By Brick - Recess Monkey (YouTube)

Rattlesnake - Red Yarn (YouTube)

Los Colores - Andres Salguero (YouTube)

Pillow Fort Pillow Fight - Secret Agent 23 Skidoo (YouTube)

Ice Cream (Healthy Eating) - Danny Weinkauf (YouTube)

Sea Turtle - The Whizpops (YouTube)

Armando Armadillo - Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke (YouTube)

Best Kids Music of 2014: Top 30 Songs

I know. This is madness, right? Trying to come up with a list of my 30 favorite songs from the past year? Completely. Nuts.

But that's what I'm willing to do for you, dear readers. More so than a list of albums or debuts or videos, however, a list ranking favorite songs is ephemeral, subject to the whims of a particular moment. More than that, it probably tends toward the poppy, upbeat, and lively. Tender lullabies have to do more work to stand out in my (or your) memory if you've heard literally thousands of kids' songs over the past year.

But regardless of how different my list would next week (or late in the evening), these 30 songs are among the best that kids music offered us in the past year. ("Year," as always, defined as Oct. 1, 2013 through Sept. 30, 2014, though that's harder to stick to given the prevalence of singles which might have been released on either side of that window. Deal.)

Also, these are in alphabetical order -- if you think I'm going to attempt to rank all these, you're even more nuts than I am in deciding to pick them.

Anyway, I've combined these into a handy Spotify playlist found at the bottom of this list (click here if you're already in Spotify). Enjoy!

Bears and Lions - "Pancakes"

The Laurie Berkner Band – "Fireflies"

Caspar Babypants – "The Girl with the Squirrel in Her Hat"

Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band – "When I Grow Up"

The Dirty Sock Funtime Band (w/ Laurie Berkner) – "We're in Love"

Laura Doherty - "I'm a Little Fish"

Django Jones – "Counterpoint"

Gustafer Yellowgold - "Toothloser"

The Hipwaders – "Kings & Queens"

Charlie Hope – "Harmony" (feat. Elizabeth Mitchell)

Hullabaloo – "Like a Bird Must Feel"

Jazzy Ash - "Throw Me Something Mista" (feat. Mista Cookie Jar)

Randy Kaplan – "Not Too Young for a Song"

Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights – "Food Fight"

Josh and the Jamtones – "Green and Spakkled Frogs"

Luscious Jackson – "Hula Hoop"

Walter Martin - "Hey Sister" (feat. Kat Edmonson)

Mista Cookie Jar & the Chocolate Chips – "My My My"

The Not-Its! - "When I Fell (The Scab Song)"

The Okee Dokee Brothers - "Through the Woods"

The Pop Ups - "All These Shapes"

Raffi – "Love Bug"

Recess Monkey - "Smooth Sailing"

Red Yarn - "The Fox"

Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could – "Just Say Hi!"

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo – "Imaginary Friend"

The Short Films – "The Mysterious Okapi"

Ben Tatar and the Tatar Tots – "The Grape Jam" (feat. Spare Parts)

Danny Weinkauf – "Oh No Oh Yeah"

The Whizpops! – "Sea Turtule"

Video: "Snow Day" - Josh and the Jamtones

Can a kids music video be called post-apocalyptic?

Should it?

All I know is that younger kids of tender heart (as judged by their caretakers) should probably be directed to another, mellower kindie video. As Josh of Josh and the Jamtones puts it in the comments to the YouTube video, "If you're kicking it with your little 2 year old baby sister who maybe prefers ponies and the color purple to polar bears with laser beam guns then you might consider telling them to scram. You know, in as kind a way as possible."

The animation is from Arsen Rudchenko, and if it's not on the forthcoming Bear Hunt: The Movie! DVD (out January 21), I'll be sorely disappointed.

Josh and the Jamtones - "Snow Day" [YouTube]