Video: "Mellows On My Mind" - Henriques²

There is no shortage of spousal teams in kids music -- think of Lunch Money, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, or many more -- and unsurprisingly lots of parents and children, but siblings?  Those pairings are far fewer.

But there's a new such pairing on the horizon, and it's one I'm really looking forward to.  It's called Henriques², and it features the siblings (natch) Lori Henriques and Joel Henriques.  "Mellows On My Mind" - Henriques²  The two of them have paired up several times before on videos for Lori's music, but now they're joining forces musically for a full-length album due out this summer.

Based on the first track, it's definitely something I'm looking forward to.  The track is called "Mellows On My Mind," and it's retro (perhaps that's more Lori's influence) and forward-looking (Joel's) at the same time sonically.  And marshmallows (not to mention cereal) are always a popular item around kids.  Says Lori, "When we were writing the lyrics, we loved the idea of one simple quotidian thing (a bowl of cereal) inspiring us to create something more amazing."

I'm really happy to be world-premiering the video, which features drawings by Joel's kids, animated by Joel himself.  More details on the album to come!

Henriques² - "Mellows On My Mind" [YouTube]

Monday Morning Smile: "Lightspeed" - Joel Henriques (World Premiere!)

This may be a first -- a combination Monday Morning Smile and world premiere video.  It's for the song "Lightspeed" from Joel Henriques.  You may know Joel from his own incredibly popular crafting website Made By Joel or the videos he's made for his sister Lori Henriques (I think my favorite is probably "Dinosaur").

Turns out, though, Joel's a bit of a musician himself, and seeing as there's some sort of Star Wars movie coming out later this month, he's gone an rerecorded a song he wrote about 20 years ago recounting the plot of the very first Star Wars movie (Episode IV, to be specific).  "Lightspeed" is a funk-rap with a furious guitar line that recounts the story of Luke, Han, Princess Leia, and a certain Wookiee.  Thrown in Joel dancing with a vintage Millennium Falcon t-shirt and simple animation based on drawings from his 8-year-old son, and it's a fun 2 minutes of pre-Episode VII hoopla.  Not written with kids in mind, but I feel fairly sure that kids'll dig it.

Joel Henriques - "Lightspeed" [YouTube]

Video: "Groove" - Lori Henriques (World Premiere!)

Summertime... and sometimes all you want to do is relax with a cold beverage and a bit of shade from the sun.

Your kids, of course, often have an entirely different idea.

For the latest video from Lori Henriques' excellent How Great Can This Day Be album, Henriques melds the two concepts.  In the video for "Groove," a very jazzy dance song, her brother (and director here) Joel Henriques slows down the juvenile dancers and puts a filter on them so it seems all so... relaxed.  Very apropos for this world premiere video.

Lori Henriques - "Groove" [YouTube]

Video: "How Great Can This Day Be" - Lori Henriques (World Premiere)

It is no secret I'm a big fan of Lori Henriques, both of her music, as well as her videos.

Well, Henriques has a brand new album out today, her third solo kindie album.  It's called How Great Can This Day Be, and I'm tickled pink (and green, and yellow, and, oh, you'll see) to offer you the world premiere of the album's title track.

Once again she's teamed with her brother Joel Henriques to produce a memorable music video to accompany her music.  Appropriately for the jazzy, horn-accompanied pick-me-up of a song, Joel's stick puppets of brightly-colored shapes on simple backgrounds (referencing the album cover) look like they're enacting purely non-verbal storytelling from the '60s.

Lori Henriques is excited because her album is releasing the day that Sesame Street is celebrating its 45th anniversary.  One of the best compliments I can pay to this video is that I think the song and visuals would have fit well on the show at just about any point over the past 45 years.

Lori Henriques - "How Great Can This Day Be" [YouTube]

Video: "Another Good Year" - Lori Henriques

There are always Christmas songs, even in years with scant kindie Christmas music.  But kindie new year songs?  Few and far between.

So thank you, Lori Henriques, for the fabulous send off to 2013.  (You can pick up the song on iTunes here.)  And, of course, thanks to Henriques' brother Joel, of Made By Joel, with another simple but effective video.  (Love the hands at the end.)

Lori Henriques - "Another Good Year" [YouTube]

Video: "Dinosaur" - Lori Henriques

From the first time I heard Lori Henriques' The World Is a Curious Place To Live, her song "Dinosaur," with its wistful (but hopeful) love song for the long-extinct animals was a favorite of mine.  Now it has a video worthy of its delicate, thoughtful nature.

It's courtesy of Henriques' brother Joel of Made By Joel, who drew every line of the story.  (You can see just a little bit more about how the video was made here.)  Really, very much worth your time...

Lori Henriques - "Dinosaur" [YouTube]