Video: "Chocolate" - Sonia de Los Santos

After the ubiquitous "De Colores," I'd guess that the traditional Mexican children's tune "Chocolate" is the Spanish-language song that appears most often in our kids music collection. Simple enough for preschoolers of any language + sugar = generations of children's music longevity!

Sonia de Los Santos included a nice rendition of the song on her album Mi Viaje: De Nuevo León to the New York Island, and now it's got an simple but artfully crafted video to match. The illustration is from Mexican-born illustrator Rafael Lopez, and if you and your family enjoyed de Los Santos' album, or Dan Zanes' music and overall family music aesthetic, y'all will dig this.

Sonia de Los Santos - "Chocolate" [YouTube]

Monday Morning Smile: "Ma'agalim" - Jane Bordeaux

Got an e-mail the other day from Lori Henriques the other day which just included a subject line -- "Thought of you :)" -- and a Vimeo link.

Turns out Henriques has me pegged pretty well. The link was to this video for "Ma'agalim" by Jane Bordeaux. The Jane Bordeaux Band plays "Americana Hebrew Folk Country music," so be advised that unless you're a Hebrew speaker, you're not going to understand the lyrics. But the lovely video from director Uri Lotan will likely cause you and your kids to stare slightly slackjawed at the gorgeous animation of a penny arcade machine that tells a years-long story. Full of wonder.

The Jane Bordeaux Band - "Ma'agalim" [Vimeo]

Video: "Black Footed Ferret" - The Whizpops

Last fall, I clued you in to a sweet animated video for "Manta Ray" by Montana kindie band The Whizpops. The video was premiered on the SciShow Kids channel, and nearly six months later, the band's getting a second video premiere from fellow Montanan Hank Green and his merry band of YouTube educators.

The video is for "Black Footed Ferret," and I think it's an even better match of song and video than the first pairing. In addition to the song, which veers from Billy Joel/Steely Dan jazzy piano pop to rap and back again, the video neatly complements the story the song tells about black footed ferrets' tenacious and tenuous grip on survival as a species.

Also, in addition to the animation, there are also puppets. I am ALWAYS thinking of the puppets.

In any case, the song is from The Whizpops' forthcoming album, Ranger Rick's Trail Mix Vol. 1, due out May 20, and the band is clearly continuing down the nature-tainment path they've forged on their recent albums. Hopefully there are a couple more videos as cute as this one on the drawing board.

The Whizpops - "Black Footed Ferret" [YouTube]

Video: "Astronauts Love" - Jumpin' Jamie (with Danny Weinkauf)

So here's a song (and video) born out of Kindiecomm, the annual gathering of kids' music artists in Philadelphia.

Last year, Jamie Theurich, AKA Jumpin' Jamie, met Danny Weinkauf, bassist for They Might Be Giants and occasional kids musician in his own right, at Kindiecomm. Weinkauf agreed to produce Theurich's first single, which ended up being "Astronauts Love," a look at all of the things (maybe besides space) that astronauts love. It's got an angular pop melody reminiscent of early Elvis Costello, with a la-la-la chorus -- Weinkauf on the instruments, Theurich on lead vocals -- it's a charming slice of kindie pop-rock.

For the video, Theurich recruited French animator Marie Chatelot, who threw in references to the band Weezer (both Theurich and Chatelot are big fans) and a certain little OK Go video you may be familiar with as part of her puppet animation, just as charming as the song itself.

In any case, seeing as Kindiecomm 2016 kicks off today, this seems like the perfect time to release the single and its video, no?

Jumpin' Jamie (with Danny Weinkauf) - "Astronauts Love" [YouTube]

Video: "Young at Heart" - Mista Cookie Jar and the Chocolate Chips (World Premiere!)

It's not quite Kendrick Lamar dropping a new mixtape or Wilco releasing Star Wars (the album) without any advance warning, but today Mista Cookie Jar and the Chocolate Chips release their new album Music Is Everywhere with less than a week of public notice. They've been celebrating by releasing a whole week's worth of videos across the kindiesphere, and I get the privilege of wrapping the whole thing up with the world premiere of the video for "Young at Heart."

Mista Cookie Jar guitar, art by Alex Chiu

Mista Cookie Jar's released some of the songs on Music Is Everywhere as singles over the past year, but "Young at Heart" is brand new, a tender celebration of youthful attitudes, a spiritual cousin perhaps to Dylan's "Forever Young." The song gets some playful stop-motion clay-based animation from Portland based artist Alex Chiu, who, C.J. Pizarro notes, decorated his guitar a few years back.

In any case, you can find Music Is Everywhere today in all the usual places including CD Baby. And enjoy the video below...

Mista Cookie Jar and the Chocolate Chips - "Young at Heart" [YouTube]

Video: "Cosmic Vacation" - Michael and the Rockness Monsters (World Premiere!)

It's super-cute-video time!

The self-titled debut album from Michael and the Rockness Monsters got its official release yesterday (you can get it from iTunes and Amazon if you're so inclined), and to celebrate they've released an adorable video for the song "Cosmic Vacation."

Seriously, this computer-animated trip around the solar system (and back) is candy-colored and super-sweet and will captivate the nearest preschooler at hand. So I'm happy to be world premiere-ing here today.

Michael and the Rockness Monsters - "Cosmic Vacation" [YouTube]