Ben's Playlist - Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Start Of The End – The Dirty Sock Funtime Band
Another Good Year – Lori Henriques
Forever Young – Andrew & Polly
Hello Goodbye – Caspar Babypants
It Suits You – Gustafer Yellowgold
Sunshine Blue Skies – Miss Nina & The Jumping Jacks
Best Friend – In The Nick Of Time

Tots Can't Miss Miss Nina's Every Day's Your Birthday

I have a soft spot in my heart for Miss Nina. Her second CD, 2013's SHA DOO BE DOOP, was the first time our son (then 2 1/2 years old) showed an active interest in selecting his own music. He would walk to the cabinet in the living room, carefully open the door, select her CD, turn on the CD/DVD player, put in the disc, and play the first two songs (usually). This month, when I brought home the new CD by Miss Nina and the Jumping Jacks, EVERY DAY'S YOUR BIRTHDAY, even though he is now five, he insisted I play it, despite the presence of two other CDs with more immediate release dates.

Sadly, time marches on and he is aging out of her demographic. Miss Nina records lively, upbeat original tunes (the title track and "DJ in My PJs") and energetic interpretations of "(Silly) Wheels on the Bus" and "Subway" (adapted from the Anastasia Suen/Karen Katz board book). With a three-year-old of her own, Miss Nina has both hands on her target audience, literally and figuratively.

Ably produced by Marc Bazerman (of Baze and His Silly Friends fame), Nina and friends give you a peppy "Freeze Dance," a strummable, hummable "Colors of You," and a motion-activity "Up and Down." On her weekly children's vlog, Nina takes on classics and oftentimes does some re-invention. "Five Little Pumpkins" puts a Halloween spin on the traditional one-at-a-time elimination. "(Silly) Wheels on the Bus" features jumping kangaroos, wiggling spaghetti, and marching soldiers in addition to children, parents, wipers, et al.

When we first heard "Every Hero," my older son thought it was Charity and the Jam Band, who are known for rocking slightly harder for slightly older sprites. But the song that delivered the biggest smile for my youngster was the closing "DJ in My PJs," the logical successor to "My Hula Hoop" from her last CD. It inspired him to jump on his bed and shout "I'm a DJ!" that night at bedtime.

The best thing you can say about any performer is that their passion is contagious. The dictotomy of entertaining the youngest of the young is that they are easy to amuse but you can't alienate the parents by being insufferably cute or infantile. Miss Nina walks that fine line of rousting the fervor of children without rustling the feathers of the elders of their flocks.  EVERY DAY'S YOUR BIRTHDAY is a Brady Bunch-esque romp in the playground that the under-6 set will find enchanting and intoxicating. And it's over in a slim, lean 38 minutes before your caramel macchiato gets cold. That should inspire some jumping jacks.

EVERY DAY'S YOUR BIRTHDAY is available May 6 from Miss Nina's website, Amazon, CDBABY, and iTunes.

Here is one of her latest video song posts, featuring "Roly Poly Caterpillar":

Kindie Quick Hits: Lard Dog, Miss Nina & the Singing Lizard

There's a television commercial where a man shows up for a costume party wearing an 80s hard rock getup, only to learn he's arrived at the wrong address. He feels awkward, the people in the house feel awkward. I had a similar feeling listening to Lard Dog & the Band of Shy's CD, SLURP THE NOODLE OF LIFE. Somewhere a party is going on, but I just felt awkward.

Multi-media performances tend to feel diluted if you remove one or more of the elements. For instance, we saw the Blue Man Group last week during the school break. Now, you can describe the experience. But would you get anything out of just listening to the soundtrack? Pee-Wee Herman's Playhouse was a spectacular breakout performance, however the most famous song from the show is the Champs' "Tequila." Even Kidz Bop changed the title when they recorded their version.

Steven Erdman has clearly been honing Lard Dog for a long time and LARD's 15-week Off-Broadway run was no fluke. He's got something happening, but until I viewed video clips, I just felt awkward. I appreciated the Devo underpinnings to many of the songs, applauded the unabashed unhinged spirit of invention, and saluted his efforts to promote the La'Delles, whom he discovered singing in the NYC subway.

In short, Lard Dog is a cartoon character from the planet Belopio. He traveled here on a giant pretzel and is surrounded by funny characters singing about improbable things. Titles include "He's Plop, Treat Him Nice" (a rockabilly tune sounding ripped from the 1950s), "Catch That Pretzel" (a Buddy Holly yodeling number), and "Listen to the Bob Hope" (prime Devo meets the B-52s).

LIFE'S A REAL DREAM did bring something out of my five-year-old. But he was silly to begin with. So our relationship with Lard Dog may expand in the future. I may feel awkward while the kid sings 'Do the Pooky Do," but at least he's singing. And with nonsense lyrics, he's just inspired to make up more of his own. Really, that's what Erdman has been doing with LARD for 20 years.

LIFE'S A REAL DREAM is available March 11 from the House of Lard website, Amazon, Google Play, and iTunes.

One of my younger son's first "favorite" artists was Brooklyn's Miss Nina. When we had enough of her debut CD, SHA DOO BE DOOP, he was inspired (at 2 1/2 years old) to figure out how to extract the disk, turn on the CD player and stereo receiver, and hit "play." He has aged out (unfortunately) but for younger listeners, Miss Nina is still the bee's knees (or whatever the mod tods are into these days). Her new CD. EVERY DAY'S YOUR BIRTHDAY, is coming out in March. Check out her weekly video series of children's songs:


The Singing Lizard (Liz DeRoche) is prepping for the March release of her CD, CLUB CALLED AWESOME. The "electro-kindie" performer has released the first video from the disk, "Show Me Your Happy," and no, it's not a typo. She encourages listeners to show their happy faces and behavior. And it features a sad Abominable Snowman, so there are no losers here.

Kindie Quick Hits: Peanuts for Tykes, Bazillions for Q and U

The early development years are very important, duh. We prided ourselves on selecting only the finest children's music to play for our progeny. Of course, that was the intention...until they began to crave repetitive plays of Sesame Street CDs, the Wiggles, and any assortment of other performers they heard through osmosis or the outside pernicious influence of relatives, playmates, and kindie-related social media.

It's eye-opening to watch a child cultivate their own musical tastes. I reviewed Miss Nina a few years ago and put her CD in a pile with other kid's discs. Our (then) two-year-old could not operate the CD player and was intrigued by the puppets on the cover. My wife then reported he was requesting it every day. Yes, every day. If only she had been doing appearances in Queens, he would have been in for a shock one morning.

I have a feeling he would have had similar feelings for Michal "Peanut" Karmi's second CD, CUDDLEBUG PARADE, a ukelele-charged burst of caffeinated energy. With her earnest, not cloying sincerity, Peanut delivers easily (and organically sustainable) messages on "How Are You Feeling," "Six Little Pickles," and "Chew and Swallow," the last sung in English, Spanish, and Hebrew.

Then again, there's something to be said when that early development period begins to wane, and your child's tastes become a little more sophisticated. In that way, I don't envy Peanut and her never-ending quest to renew her audiences and stay relevant. It's a noble pursuit and anyone down there in the trenches deserves support and encouragement.

CUDDLEBUG PARADE is available through Peanut's website, Amazon, CDBABY, iTunes, and Bandcamp.

Speaking of older kids' tastes, the Bazillions have released a video from their brand, spanking new CD, ON THE BRIGHT SIDE. It's an old-fashioned, singalong educational song in the style of "Schoolhouse Rock." Give it a try, it's "Q and U":

Patty Shukla Keeps It Simple for the Li'l Ones

Stefan Shepherd of Zooglobble said it best. Basically a statement to the effect that "Kids music is just that and it isn't for US." In other words, I get to write about children's music, but I'm not the target audience. And if I find myself listening with adult ears, I'm only going to disappoint myself.

Patty Shukla hits that sweet spot in my reviewing prowess. She boasts close to 100 million views of YouTube videos of her songs. Yet her average "audience member" would appear to be 3-6 years old. A year ago, I'd never think that kids that young could drive that much traffic. But now my three-year-old knows what the YouTube app looks like on the iPad and can effortlessly find Wiggles songs.

Patty is going for the real young set. I'm talking parallel to Sesame Street and prepping for Laura Berkner. Patty's most recent CD, WIGGLE IT! is the first one to feature cover songs. In short, it's not the best representative example of her work, unless you want reggae-fied versions of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and "Row Row Row Your Boat."

Her previous (of four) CDs, I CAN DO IT! has a more well-rounded collection of basic thoughts, such as "Saturday's My Favorite Day" and "Let's Plant a Tree." We're talking about simple children's tunes, with a beat and easy-to-repeat choruses. Patty cleanly and professionally delineates her ideas and takes her audience exactly where she needs them to go. What to expect from "Vroom, Goes the Red Race Car" and "Let's Plant a Tree."

At first listen to Miss Nina, we were convinced that our younger son would not "get it." To our amazement, when we made the CD available to him, he proceeded to sit there and study it, then play guitar along with it, for the next month (until he moved on to another CD). Patty Shukla may just be the next artist he gets into. As Stefan pointed out, this is not music for US (i.e., adults). And we'll deal with it. It's just cool that he's getting into music, like his brother. (END NOTE: Patty just gave birth, like, last week. So she'll deal with it, too.)

Patty Shukla's CDs and DVDs are available at her website, iTunes, and Amazon.

Here is the video for her song, "I Like to Dance":

Could Connor Command Your Children? Conceivably!

Full disclosure: When I see the words "Nashville musician," I decode them as "country artist."

When I read the press material for Lizza Connor's debut children's CD, COMMANDER SALAMANDER, I saw those very words and thought, "Oh brother. Time for steel pedal guitar and southern accents."

Well, I was wrong. A native Floridian who recently moved to Tennessee for family reasons, Connor's children's music is very much in the vein of Laurie Berkner. You get songs about cleaning up ("Hello, Bubbles"), watching your surroundings ("Safe-Ti Song"), and even an album-closing lullaby ("Sleepytime"). If anything, Connor and her producer, Nomad Ovunc, went out of their way to minimize the "southern" content on the CD.

A mother of two young children, Connor is very much into narrowcasting for her self-built audience. You can almost hear her using music's power of persuasion to push the kids into bathroom to clean up. My wife did a double-take at some of the lyrics for "Hello, Bubbles":

Hello soap
Bye bye blood on my knees
That I scraped climbing trees
Going down the drain, bye bye
Time to get clean clean clean

As with most "early age" children's music, you get the prototypical self-esteem, you can do anything song. Here it's "Anything I Wanna Be." Comedians may joke about singing to kids about becoming janitors and secretaries, but there's nothing wrong with suggesting that kids at least start by aiming high. The weight of the real world can come later.

The title track ("Commander Salamander") relates to a pet lizard, with the punchline being that it's the one thing the child possesses that her sister won't touch. That sentiment won't hold true with this CD, which the under-five set may want to play repeatedly. Our 2 1/2 year old is delighted every time I bring home a recently-reviewed CD and announce, "This one's for Matt." No doubt he will be enchanted by Lizza Connor's latest offering.

COMMANDER SALAMANDER is available from her website, Amazon, CDBABY, and iTunes.

Here is a video of Lizza Connor singing "Sleepytime":

Miss Nina Looks Out for the Kids

First impressions can be deceiving.

I was going to write off Miss Nina as just another children's music performer, not on par with an Audrarox or Princess Katie. Then I took a closer look at the liner notes. Nina Stone is "all about the kids," as she puts it.

"It's common nowadays for performers to tailor their children's music to reflect the parents' musical tastes," she says. "But honestly, I'm a passionate advocate for children. I believe some of the power [of music] is lost if the performer is bent on producing carbon copies of adult music packaged for little ones."

Now dem's fighting words!

Instead, Nina turns her perspective to the preschool set and uses some literary references on her new CD, SHA DOO BE DOOP. "The Brown Bear Rap" incorporates the Eric Carle/Bill Martin classic into song. "Wild Things" pays tribute to Maurice Sendak.

Considering her audience demographic and mission statement, songs like "Wash Our Hands" and "Ridin' In My Car" are no surprise. The rocking "Angry Song" validates the emotions that kids feel when things don't go their way:

This is my angry song
When everything is going wrong
I'm mad and sad and full of steam
And all I want to do is yell and scream

SHA DOO BE DOOP may not be groundbreaking but it does offer easy themes, gentle encouragement, and positive reinforcement, with a dash of rock on the side.  A former Gymboree instructor, Brooklyn resident Nina currently teachers music and is expecting her first child. I expect some lullabies to follow in the future.

SHA DOO BE DOOP will be available on April 16 from Miss Nina's website, Little Monster Records, Amazon, CDBABY, and iTunes.

Here is her video for the song "Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands":