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Sophie From 'Care Bears of Fire' Featured on Converse Commercial

We've mentioned the band Care Bears on Fire before, but just to remind you they are three kids who started playing together in fourth grade and have since become something of a phenomenon. They have been featured in USA Today, SPIN Magazine and Vanity Fair, along with countless other print and online publications. They even found themselves in Billboard's Top Ten Critic's Choice list. They have become the defacto "It" band of the kidcore scene.

Recently, Sophie was filmed by Converse playing their hit song "Everybody Else" acoustically for a commercial. Check it out up top and make sure to check out their MySpace page. These kids are going to be huge, or maybe they already are. The original video for the song is below:

Camp Jam Allstar Matt Ernst Featured in Auburn Newspaper

Camp Jam Allstars guitarist Matt Ernst (top center) was featured in an article in the Opelika-Auburn News about the new single "Money In a Card."

Apparently, he is getting some notoriety from the exposure at school and is occasionally being asked for his autograph. There's a quote from Matt about that in the article:

"It’s a great feeling to know that a song I’ve performed is on iTunes," said Ernst, who’s been playing guitar about four years. "It’s great to hear kids come up to me at school and say ‘Hey, that Money In a Card thing is really cool.’ "

The song is absolutely blowing up as more and more people here about it. We're not gonna pretend that it's gonna sell out on iTunes, mainly because that would be impossible to do with a digital track, but you should jump on the bandwagon now so that you can say that you heard it first. Just sayin'.

If you haven't seen the video for the Camp Jam Allstars christmas song yet, here it is:

Weekly Kidcore Find: The Red Alert

When 14-year-old Hank and his 8-year-old sister saw The White Stripes play live in concert their lives were changed forever. Within 3 and a half weeks of that concert, Hank taught Christy to play 20 White Stripes songs and talked his father Hank Charles into recording them at his Valcour Sound studio; The Red Alert was born.

They got to be so good and popular in the local Tulsa scene that they opened for The Starlight Mints, have been featured in newspapers and on radio, met Meg and Jack from The White Stripes and received a Spot Award Rising Star nomination in 2004 which they won from the Tulsa World.  From there they released an all original album in December 2005, "Put Your Game Face On," won the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Battle of the Bands in February of 2006, which led to them being chosen National Battle of the Bands winners and picked up a bass player, their uncle Phillip.

In June of 2006 the band won the first annual "Debbie Campbell Young Musicians Award" from the Reaching Hands Foundation. They played the Warped Tour's stop in Dallas in July, and in August played three shows in St. Louis including a network TV Appearance on "Show Me St.Louis". On Oct. 14th, 2006, The Red Alert snagged the Spot Awards for "Artist of the Year", and Album of the Year". In February 2007, the bands music video was featured in the DVD-ROM in the book "Come Together: the Official John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Guide to Music and Video," and in March 2007 the band released a six song EP entitled "Extended Play."

Hank and Christy are now 18 and 12, respectively, and have recorded a music video for their single "The Only One" (see above). They definitely have retained a little of The White Stripes' sound, which was their original influence, but have definitely made it their own.

New Indie Compilation "For Kids III" To Hit Shelves Oct. 2

The third installment of the "For Kids" compilation series isn't so much kids making music in the vein of their favorite indie rockers, it's more along the lines of our favorite indie rockers making music that kid's like. Plus, proceeds from the sale of the compilation also go toward helping kids learn music at school as part of the VH1 Save the Music campaign.

It features music you might listen to if you believe that becoming a parent doesn't mean you have to lose all musical taste, but the new Minus the Bear album that's coming out in a couple of weeks isn't something your three-year-old will sing along to.

So, if you're going to have to listen to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" why not listen to O.A.R. do it?

Here is the tracklist for the "For the Kids III" compilation:

Of Montreal - "I Want To Have Fun"
Great Lake Swimmers - "See You On The Moon"
Over the Rhine - "The Poopsmith Song"
Rogue Wave - "My Little Bird" 05
O.A.R. - "Itsy Bitsy Spider"
Barenaked Ladies - "The Other Day I Met A Bear"
Dar Williams - "The Babysitter Song"
The Sippy Cups - "I'm A Believer"
Anathallo - "If You're Happy And You Know It"
The Format - "Does Your Cat Have A Mustache"
Moby - "Very Long"
The Submarines - "My Darling Clementine"
Kyle Andrews - "The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round"
Blitzen Trapper - "New Shoes"
Piano - "Sunny"
Mates of State - "Jellyman Kelly"
Hem - "No Hiding"
MC Lars - "The Lint Song"
Jolie Holland - "Pure Imagination"
Rosie Thomas and Damien Jurado - "As Small As Me"

Here is Broken Social Scene's version of "Puff the Magic Dragon" from "For the Kids II" that came out last year. (Courtesy of the best music blog ever, Stereogum)

Broken Social Scene - Puff the Magic Dragon (mp3)

Nick Jr. Show "Yo Gabba Gabba!" To Feature Big Time Music

One of our new favorite reads, Zooglobble, got a sampler CD and a preview of a new show, "Yo Gabba Gabba", on Nick Jr. that he talks about in his post. However, what caught our attention was the list of bands that are scheduled to provide music or appear on camera.

Starting with The Shins, who have a song and video that will be on the show, the list continues on from there:

Mya, Sugarland, Smoosh, Cornelius, the Postmarks, Dean & Britta, Jason Falkner, Low, Jason Lytle, Mark Kozelek, among others.

From Smoosh, a duo that consists of two young sisters (Asya is 13, Chloe is 11) who make infectuous pop-rock sing, to Low, a dream-pop shoegaze outfit formed in 1993 and still hugely influential, it is definitely an intriguing list of musical acts for a kids show that starts with the magic words "Yo, Gabba Gabba."

The Weekly Kidcore Music Find: Beautiful Records

Julian Bennet-Holmes is the founder of Beautiful Records, a record label that finds itself home to many bands that feature teenage members. Why do they play host to so many bands with young members? Well, that's because Julian is only 16 himself.

We should probably preface this post by saying that in the article "Just Don't Call it Kid-Core" from The Eye, it turns out that Julian does not really like the term "kidcore" to describe bands with underage members. He feels that their classification should be just based on what kind of music they play, not what age they are. While we respect this, we also feel that genres have been used in the past to transcend musical styling and describe the members of a band themselves.

Anyway, Beautiful Records started when Julian got together with co-founder Lucian Buscemi in the winter of 2005 and recorded some stuff in their basement. They decided to record an EP that became the full-length "Basement" under the band name they already had, Sonar.

That was the first release under their newly-founded record label, Beautiful Records, and the rest, as they say, is history. The label now calls itself home to eight other bands who are all close to Julian in age.

The MySpace page for the label has music videos or live performances for many of their roster and their website has some free downloads, as well as other information about upcoming releases.

Go check out the bands and the music and support the scene. You never know, if you start a band at Camp Jam Rock 'n' Roll Summer Day Camp you could end up piquing the interest of someone like Julian.

(Photo courtesy of The Eye)

The Weekly Kidcore Find: New Tiny Masters of Today Video

Thanks to one of our personal fave's, Stereogum, we came across a video from a kidcore punk garage punk band that we've mentioned on here before, Tiny Masters of Today. Here is what they had to say about it:

The kids are alright, and now they've got a Nicholas Chatfield-Taylor directed video. Add that to a record deal with Mute (Great Society in the US) -- debut LP Bang Bang Boom Cake is out 9/25), a day-stealing SXSW set (complete with "Jump Around" cover), and some adorably punky songs, and the sibs of Tiny Masters Of Today -- Ivan, 13; Ada, 11 -- are the cutest thing since Smoosh (the sketch band and the real one). Gotta love how disaffected Ada is. Eyes rolled, arms crossed .... she's done her homework! (no pun intended, etc.)

Check out the video below:

12-year-old Drummer Has Been Rockin' For Nine Years

Tyler Hudson is only 12 now and has been playing for about nine years. Yeah, that's a lot of practice and it has definitely paid off. Check out this video of him progressing over the years. Sick, just absolutely sick.

Check out more of him at mindwalkband.com and tylerhudson.com.

C-Change Battle of the Bands Hosted by The Klaxons Wraps Up Today

C-Change is a UK organization run by two teenagers, Emma Kosmin, 17, from London and Kit Jones, 19, from Norwich. Their goal is to raise awareness of the need for climate change throughout the world by hosting events designed to bring these issues to light. Their first event was the C-Change Battle of the Bands for bands with members who are 11 to 21 years of age.

Here is what their website had to say about the competition:

Different from your average Battle of the Bands, this event will strive to power it’s music by renewable energy. The finest unsigned bands of 2007 will be selected online by anyone who wishes to care, and the top five will play on stage - Clapham Common Bandstand in London - at a free concert on 7 July 2007

The top prize which will go to the winning band chosen by our music industry judging panel is a day’s recording laying down their music track at The Premises solar powered recording studio.

Today is the day of that final concert and the winner should be announced later on this evening. As of right now, the band with the most votes through the website is Sleeper Cell (MySpace) with 954 points followed closely by Dirty Shockwaves (MySpace) with 926 points.

Check out the C-Change website for info on the organization and their blog for the results of the Battle of the Bands.

The Weekly Kidcore Find: Magnetic Bunny Records

As I mentioned last week in the post about ShiSho, today I'm gonna talk about the side project that sisters Vivian and Midge are working on right now. Self described as the "Home for Future Child-Star Tragedies", Magnetic Bunny Records is their effort at providing an outlet for bands whose members are 18 years-old or less, those who would otherwise not get a lot of label attention no matter how talented (with the notable exception of Hanson back in the day).  From the looks of the site, the label will mainly be focused on downloads, and to that end they already have an online compilation "Seaside Summer" that will be available in June. Acts confirmed for the compilation are Artillery Road, Bonzai, Dirty Spanglish, Empty State, Fiasco, the Flairz, Kara Hopkins, L.E.G.S., Lot 40, Magnolia, Mod Rocket, ShiSho and Jew on Jew. Action!

Vivian and Midge give their thoughts on the label and its origin over on the Magnetic Bunny MySpace page:

Vivian: We started Magnetic Bunny because we thought kid-bands could get more recognition - and because at our shows, kids get encouraged because they think only grown-ups can do this - so we started this project. My sister and I have been saving money from our past shows, our allowance and gifts from relatives to put toward this record label. We are home schooled - so this label is sort of like a GIANT class in-and-of-itself for us. We'd like to get some great kid bands on this label... so spread the word!

Midge: So, I named it when I was writing to Athsmatic Kitty (record label) and I accidentally said (called them) "Magnetic Bunny." Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

Vivian: In March/April, we plan to open our on-line music store at magneticbunny.com - for ALL Kid-Core bands who want to sell their music .. (regardless of home label). In June we will release a download compilation called "SCHOOL'S OUT!!" or something like that - celebrating the fact that school is out and the FUN OF SUMMER! We will be selling the compilation with 100% of sales going to a nonprofit or to help someone who can use it - probably to support baby Callum Robbins - the baby son of J. Robbins and Janet Morgan of Channels. (www.desotorecords.com/cal/index.shtml)

Vivian: Hopefully, by 2008 uhm, we can start signing bands (for contracts) in the United States and have really good distribution worked out by then.

Midge: Uhm... We would like too.. if you have any friends who are like... who have bands or anything... if they're indie, rock-n-roll, if they're hardcore, hip-hop, indie... whatever uhm.. just tell us about them (or tell them about us).. Oh yeah, emo... yeah all that kind of stuff.

Vivian and Midge are requesting submissions for compilations and for upcoming projects. They are hoping to start signing bands to the label in early 2008 when they have distribution lined up.

Music can be sent to:

Magnetic Bunny Records
PO Box 894
Pickerington, OH 43147

If you want to get a band together and maybe get signed by Magnetic Bunny records why not head to Camp Jam Rock 'n' Roll Summer Day Camp and learn how to work with your band mates and how to be a rock star.