Quick - I have a question for you.
Has there ever been a band quite as educationally questioning as the Bazillions?
Y'know? Because this is a new video for "Q and U," off their album On The Bright Side? Get it?
Forget this, then. I'm quitting.
The Bazillions - "Q and U" [YouTube]
The wonderful duo The Pop Ups are continuing their video series, and their latest, Episode 4, features a BRAND NEW SONG. The song is called "C Is for Cat," and while I can't say that it reaches the level of bonkers that their video for "Robot Dance" did, it's still pretty darn good as it outlines feline preferences (cars and carp, among other things). And that robot dance video didn't instruct you or your kids on how to draw a cat. This one? Nailed it.
The Pop Ups - "C Is for Cat" [YouTube]
Let's begin as we must always begin when talking about Ella Jenkins -- she is a legend. The Chicago-based musician released her first album for Folkways Records (later Smithsonian Folkways) in 1957, and she's recorded for Folkways ever since. Jenkins turns 90 years old later this year, but she's still playing live around the country.
This latest album follows up on 2013's Get Moving with Ella Jenkins with another collection of previously-released material. As you might guess from the album title, this album features songs about counting and the alphabet, presented with empathy and without a trace of irony and hipness. That's not a putdown -- one of the great joys of listening to and watching Jenkins perform live and on record is hearing and seeing how in sync she is with her audience. She's not playing to the adults in the back of the room -- she's playing to the kids in the front. (She wants to get the adults involved, too, but that's usually not at issue on recordings.) She's leading and teaching them, and the kids adore her for it. Once your kids have already mastered their letters and numbers, they probably won't want to listen, and you might not want to listen to the album on repeat regardless, but again, it's not for you.
You can listen 3 tracks from the 31-minute album here. Recommended if you've got preschoolers, and as always, if you yourself sing to preschoolers on a regular basis, regardless of whether you're in a classroom setting or not.
The first video from The Bazillions' Kickstarter project has appeared, and the video from eg design is, of course, very cute.
Not "cut." "Cute."
The Bazillions - "Silent e" [Vimeo]
A while back, I highlighted Plays Well Together, a free collection of mp3s from Seattle-based Burnside Distribution. While I focused on the mostly Seattle-based nature of the artists, there were a couple artists with whom I was unfamiliar.
One of them was Edukator Jr. Now, they're a band that clearly didn't spend too much time pushing the album (that's a Myspace link, for example, and not a particularly up-to-date one at that). But as EPs go, their self-titled debut is pretty good. It's squarely in the preschool/early elementary education wheelhouse and its subject matter -- songs about ABCs, brushing teeth, taking naps, etc. -- is nothing that hasn't been done before but it's wrapped in a shiny, mostly indie-pop sheen that stands up to repeated listenings.
Don't believe me? Well, you can check it out for yourself here, or just use this widget to listen to it or download for the price of an e-mail.
Zooglobble
Zooglobble helps you find kindie music -- news, videos, mp3s, reviews -- for your whole family.
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