New Music: Shake It Up! Shake It Off!

Twenty years ago, Seattle was the epicenter of new music for us Gen-Xers...so I suppose it's not surprising that in 2012, it would be the epicenter of the new wave of music for kids. (This is, it must be faced, where our generation is right now.)

Nor should it therefore be a shock that Seattle would be the first city in the country, as far as I know, to have a family-music compilation entirely created by local bands. (Or at least the first I've heard of.) Put together by parenting website ParentMap, Shake It Up! Shake It Off! is essentially a "best of Seattle kindie music" album, featuring top (previously released) tracks by the likes of Recess Monkey, Caspar Babypants, and the Not-Its!. Like most compilations, it's a great way to test the waters for parents who aren't already familiar with these artists, and find out which you and your kids respond to most.

In addition, ParentMap is donating $3 of each $12.95 purchase of the album to one of 14 participating nonprofits, from Ashoka to Washington Green Schools.

[Cover image courtesy of ParentMap]

Kindiependence Day

Seattle, known since my own youth for its independent music scene, now also has a thriving music scene for youths. Now, I don’t really know that I have a huge audience in the Pacific Northwest at this point in my blogging career, but I have some news that any parents in the vicinity, whether visiting or native, should know about.

Several of the city’s leading kids’ bands recently joined forces in a collective known, fittingly enough, as Kindiependent. And four of them will be performing together in a free family concert, the Share the Music Festival, in Seattle’s Freeway Park (700 Seneca Street, corner of 7th and Stewart) on Sunday, June 13, from 12 to 2 p.m. 

I’m most familiar with the work of two of the bands in Kindiependent that will be playing the festival, Recess Monkey and the Not-Its, and I’d include both among the highest echelon of today’s makers of music for children. A free concert featuring both, as well as more of Seattle’s leading lights of the genre, is well worth parents’ attention. The concert will also celebrate the release of Recess Monkey’s sixth CD, The Final Funktier—and watch this space in the coming weeks for more on that album, by the way.

[Image courtesy of Kindiependent]