Playlist 2/13/10

This week on Ages 3 and Up! we played songs about names, songs about games, songs for two of the four holidays being celebrated this week- President’s Day and Valentine’s Day, new music from Earthworm Ensemble, and the fantastic Tugboat Danny (not Tugboat Larry, like I said on the show).

The details:

Music for Aardvarks and Other Mammals– “Hello”- Taxi
Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke– “Favorite Names”- Rise and Shine
Shirley Ellis– “The Name Game”-The Name Game
ScribbleMonster & His Pals– “The Song of Life”- Songs With No Character
Candy Band– “Go Fish”- Lollipunk
Dean Jones feat. The Felice Brothers– “Rock Paper Scissors”- Rock Paper Scissors
The Shins– “It’s Okay, Try Again”- v/a Yo Gabba Gabba: Music is Awesome!
Pavement– “No More Kings”- v/a School House Rock! Rocks
The Galactic Heroes– “George Washington”- v/a Greasy Kid Stuff 3
Brian Vogan– “Happy Valentine’s Day”- Little Songs
Dreyer Family Band– “The I Love You Song”- Family Photograph
Earthworm Ensemble– “We Are Birds”- Earthworm Ensemble
Elizabeth Mitchell– “Little Bird, Little Bird”- You Are My Little Bird
Ray Darby and Morris Surdin– “Tugboat Danny”- Kiddie Records Weekly 2009 (disc 2)
Frances England– “Tugboat”- Family Tree
Banjos for Babes– “Home Sweet Home”- Volume 1: Classic Children’s Songs

It seemed fitting this week to feature the latest compilation from Greasy Kid Stuff- what with the picture of George Washington bathing a gigantic rat, and all… The great song we played about General Washington by The Galactic Heroes appears on Greasy Kid Stuff 3, as does Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke’s “Favorite Names” (we played the song from their newly released Rise and Shine).

I’m really happy about having the chance to gush over Greasy Kid Stuff, because they are Ages 3 and Up!‘s heroes! For those of you who don’t know, Greasy Kid Stuff is a long running (15 years, I think?) radio program for kids, currently broadcasting from KNRK in Portland, Oregon. Everyone has influences, including radio shows and radio stations. In fact, WFMU, the radio station Greasy Kid Stuff originally broadcasted from, was influencial to the folks who established our happy home, WRFL. Though Greasy Kid Stuff is not the reason our show exists, they certainly have shaped what we’ve become, and so we send a gigantic shout out to them!

Happy President’s Day! Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you have the best Chinese New Year ever, and have fun celebrating Mardi Gras! Be sure to tune in next week, as we’ll be playing nothing but jazz for kids in honor of the Fat Tuesday festivities.

Playlist 1/23/10

This week on Ages 3 and Up! things did not really go as planned. I played the wrong song four times, equipment failed, a visitor to the University of Kentucky’s lovely campus dropped in for directions, and Kid-O needed my help mustering up the bravery to use WRFL‘s dingy, old, disgusting, dark and scary bathroom. Arrgh… It was, simply put, a bad week.

But, that’s the way things go sometimes, so we rolled with it and did our best!

Having such a great selection of new music and old favorites definitely helped. New to us this week was More Please!, the nifty follow up release from Caspar Babypants. Also new to Ages 3 and Up! was The Speks‘ Sing Along Songs From Glasses Island, Los Lobos Goes Disney, Renee and Jeremy’s C’mon, and the various artist compliation from Yo Gabba Gabba, called Music is Awesome!

We featured the album pictured above, John and Mark’s Children’s Record. Like we said on the show, John and Mark are John Upchurch and Mark Greenberg from The Coctails. The Coctails put out a 7″ record many years ago, called Songs For Children, which later appeared on Early Hi-Ball Years. We played “Old Gray Mare” from that release. We also played “Itchy Itchy Hay Hay” from Georgia and August Greenberg’s Sing Songs For You and Me. Mark is Georgia and August’s dad! According to Mark, these days Georgia and August are making some wonderful animations. Hopefully, we’ll soon have some of those to post here at Ages 3 and Up! If you’d like, you can download Sing Songs for You and Me for free. You can also download some fantastic coloring pages, drawn by Archer Prewitt, who was also a member of the The Coctails and a number of other prominent Chicago area bands.

Wow! I’m wordy this week.

Michael Rachap– “Boomba Boom”- Songeez: Original Music from Readeez
Robbert Bobbert– “I Am a Clock”- …And the Bubble Machine
Boogers– “Um Tut Sut”- Road to Rock
Lullatone– “Your Snore”- The Bedtime Beat
Dean Jones feat. The Felice Bros.- “Roncando”- Rock Paper Scissors
Music for Aardvarks and Other Mammals– “Daddy’s Snoring”- Taxi
Caspar Babypants– “Take the Sun”- More Please!
The Coctails– “Old Gray Mare”- Early Hi-Ball Years
Georgia and August Greenberg– “Itchy Itchy Hay Hay”- …Sing Songs for You and Me
John Upchurch and Mark Greenberg– “Colors”- John and Mark’s Children’s Record
Banjos for Babes– “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes”- Volume 1: Classic Children’s Songs
The Speks– “The King’s Concerto”- Sing Along Songs From Glasses Island
Dick James– “Robin Hood”- v/a Hello Children Everywhere
The Barbara Moore Singers– “Hey Robin”- v/a Fuzzy Felt Folk
Los Lobos– “Oo-De-Lally”- …Goes Disney
Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke– “I Had a Little Dog”- Rise and Shine
Logan Whitehurst & the Junior Science Club– “Lizard & Fish”- Goodbye, My 4 Track
Renee and Jeremy– “Watch Where You’re Goin'”- C’mon
Chromeo– “Nice ‘n’ Clean”- v/a Yo Gabba Gabba: Music is Awesome!
Snowmonster!- “Make Your Own Kind of Music”- Ready in Seconds!
Clementown– “Gum Bubble Monday”- Polkabats and Octopus Slacks: The Music!
The Free Design– “Bubbles”- …Sing For Very Important People
Ella Fitzgerald– “Chew Chew Chew (Chew Your Bubblegum)”- Miss Ella’s Playhouse

Playlist 11/1/08

This week on Ages 3 and Up! we got locked out of the car. Seriously. If you click the player below, you can hear me whine about it.

Things could definitely have gone better, but they also could have gone worse. As I am an eternal optimist, here is a list of GREAT things that happened as a result of my losing the car keys while frolicking in a pile of leaves at the park:

1. I got to spend quality time trick-or-treating with my sister on Halloween.
2. Kid-O didn’t actually trick-or-treat as George Bush (original costume pictured at right).
3. I got to visit a friend who I would not otherwise have seen on Halloween- because he lived close to the park and we needed a ride.
4. I didn’t warp Kid-O’s mind by taking him to the Thriller re-enactment before he was ready.
5. I saved some gas.
6. I didn’t have to carry a huge bag of CD’s to WRFL in the morning, or worry about forgetting anything when I left the station.
7. I got to play a funny song about a vampire that I would not otherwise have played.
8. I was able to frolick in the same pile of leaves the next day, while looking for the car keys.
9. We got to celebrate when we FOUND the car keys in the pile of leaves!! Hooray!
10. I was able to take THIS opportunity to think about how much worse things could have been, and be thankful for the fact that they weren’t. Hooray again!!

Here’s what was played on Ages 3 and Up!:

Wee Hairy Beasties– “The Lonely Vampire”- Wee Scary Beasties

They Might Be Giants– “Sleepwalkers”- No!

The Sippy Cups– “The Day After Halloween”- One Day Soon

Uncle Rock– “Picnic in the Graveyard”-Plays Well With Others

Kimya Dawson– “Smoothie”- Alphabutt

Woody Guthrie– “Don’t You Push Me Down”- Nursery Days

Elizabeth Mitchell– “Three is a Magic Number”- You Are My Flower

The Old 97’s– “The Bug Song”-? I honestly don’t know where I got this.

Medeski Martin & Wood– “Where’s the Music?”- Let’s Go Everywhere

Vince Guaraldi– “Linus and Lucy”- A Charlie Brown Christmas

Classiks on Toys– “Blackbird”- Snoopy’s Beatles
The Not-It’s– “Helicopter”- 8 Songs

Me3– “Sunlight”- The Thin King

The Harmonica Pocket– “Ladybug 1-2-3” (Dub Version)- Ladybug One

Deerhoof– “Fresh Born”- Offend Maggie

Sugar Cookie– “Banana Yes, Banana No”-Sugar Cookie

Dinah Shore– “Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy”- The Dinah Shore Collection: Columbia and RCA Recordings 1942-1948

We didn’t actually celebrate Dia De Los Muertos, but if you did, we hope you had a fantastic holiday. The picture to the left is of Kid-O practicing his reading skills at the Lexington Cemetary a few weeks ago. If you’re local, and haven’t been there, you really should go. It’s a BEAUTIFUL place, and great for learning about Lexington’s early history/explaining to your young that cemetaries aren’t spooky- they’re just parks for dead people.

And… here’s a video.