Video: "Banana Bread" - Caspar Babypants

You can view Caspar Babypants' song "Banana Bread" (from his new album Away We Go!) as an ode to that wonderful baked treat, or perhaps as a metaphor for life and value of being flexible. Either way, I think you should watch the brand-new hand-animated video for the song. Bananas wearing top hats for a song co-written by Chris Ballew and his dad (!). If the Beatles were ever to have written a song about banana bread, this would have been it.

Caspar Babypants - "Banana Bread" [YouTube]

Video: "Phone" - Eric Herman and the Thunder Puppies

Normally a video posted on a Monday morning might qualify for a "Monday Morning Smile" designation, but the latest video from Eric Herman and the Thunder Puppies is all about the impending collapse of Earth and its inhabitants due to humans' obsession with those tiny glass screens.

So not as uplifting as I'd typically choose for those Monday Morning Smile.

The video for "Phone" -- the latest from Herman's Bubble Wrap album -- will likely put a wry smile on your and/or your kids' faces, depending on your (or their) level of social media addiction. (Also: somebody has to have copyrighted "Webflix," right?)

Eric Herman and the Thunder Puppies - "Phone" [YouTube]

Video: "Jellyfish Jones" - Caspar Babypants

I know, I recently posted Caspar Babypants' video for "Mister Cloud" but I'm just a sucker for his stuff.

Especially when it's as cute and whimsical as his video for "Jellyfish Jones," another track off his brand new album Away We Go!. This song features the title character who wishes for a skeleton so he can go on land and do a bunch of stuff. As you might expect, the illustrations of possible activities -- my favorite is the ice skating jellyfish -- are delightful. (They're courtesy of Mike Holm.)

Caspar Babypants - "Jellyfish Jones" [YouTube]

Video: "Mister Cloud" - Caspar Babypants

To go into my appreciation for Chris Ballew's Caspar Babypants project would take far more time than I have at the moment (not to mention a ruthless editor prepared to cut my ramblings to an acceptable length.

And I feel like that would go against the spirit of CB's music for kids, which is simple, stylish, and incredibly catchy. It's not that he dashes off the music -- or his videos -- there is attention and craft in his output. But there's definitely not a feeling of overthinking things, and as he's been cranking out more than one album a year for several years now, he doesn't have time to overthink things.

The latest Caspar Babypants album Away We Go! was released last week, and the first single from the album is "Mister Cloud." Like many of his videos, the video for "Mister Cloud" has a very simple concept -- it's a hand-drawn cloud looking very cute -- neatly executed. I like it a bunch.

Caspar Babypants - "Mister Cloud" [YouTube]

Video: "Feufollet" - Katy Hobgood Ray and the Confetti Park Players

This is a video that's probably more appropriate for the last day of October than the last day of June, but no matter. It's for the song "Feufollet," off the album We're Going to Confetti Park. What is Confetti Park? It's a kid-friendly radio show and podcast featuring New Orleans culture led by New Orleans musician and producer Katy Hobgood Ray. Their first album features songs inspired by New Orleans and a children's chorus.

This song, "Feufollet," is a little spooky in a kid-friendly way, with the art and animation by Gustavo Wenzel and Santiago Germano a perfect atmospheric match. With swamps and flickering lights and danger of the will o'the wisps, watch this now... and bring this back out around Halloween.

Katy Hobgood Ray and the Confetti Park Players - "Feufollet" [YouTube]

Video: "Entomology" (feat. Liz Vice & Laki Karavias) - Big World Audio Theatre

It's new music from Big World Audio Theatre! That's right, the Portland, Oregon-based crew who gave us the big story of the Peculiar Tales of the S.S. Bungalow are back, with a look at the very small world of bugs.

Or, for those of you who like to use big words for small things: "Entomology."

The band's got a brand new jazzy, big band song about our 6-legged friends (or non-friends, depending on you or your child's attitude toward the bugs), with Liz Vice taking most of the vocal duties and Laki Karavias a small professorial part. Karavias also directed the very slick animated lyric video, one of the nicest kindie videos I've seen in a while. You can pick up the single on iTunes here, or just enjoy the video below.

Big World Audio Theatre - "Entomology" (feat. Liz Vice & Laki Karavias) [YouTube]