There’s a lot to like on Jeanie B! and the Jelly Beans’ new kids album, “Sugar Buzz” .   The kick-off song, “When You Open a Book” has just about the most infectious “Na Na Nas” of any song since “Hey Jude”.  Throughout the album, Jeanie’s vocals are warm and fresh – you can almost hear her voice [...]

From the opening strains of the first song, a soaring anthem to the Slow Food Movement, Van Oodles’ new album “Flossophy 101” feels very different from his last album. Where the self-titled “Van Oodles” was character-driven, populated by cartoony-voiced monkeys and bees, “Flossophy 101” is about healthy, mindful living: eating your vegetables, avoiding [...]

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my experience as Van Oodles’ body double in his forthcoming kids music video, “Flossophy 101″.   Well, I was called back to the set to be — and I’m not kidding, this video has a very strange plot — the backside of a cow.
Van Oodles' cow tail pulling [...]

Mo Phillips' Robot Rodeo
Mo Phillips is the most vocally exuberant of Portland’s kindie artists, which is one of the qualities that makes his 2010 album, Robot Rodeo feel so playful and infectious.    When Mo launches into falsetto on the 70′s funk/disco send-up, “You Can’t Be Friends with Food,” you want to shake your booty. [...]

Van Oodles is a new kids musician on the Portland scene, recently arrived from San Francisco.  Before that, he lived in Japan for ten years where he was a television personality and major-label hip hop artist.      Van Oodles is an anagram for his real name, Dave Olson, which apparently sounds like the Japanese [...]

I’ve always been a lyrics guy.  After I bought Magical Mystery Tour in fourth grade, the first thing I did was lie down on my bed with the liner notes and memorize the words to “I Am the Walrus”.  Nothing sours me on a band faster than when I think they’re phoning it in with their lyrics.
Mr. [...]