“Examples of other indie rockers-turned-kindie rockers abound: Lisa Mathews of Milkshake, a band that recently toured with Zanes on Jamarama Live, a sort of Lollapalooza for kids, used to be in a band called Love Riot, who once played Lilith Fair. “A lot of us, like Dan Zanes and They Might Be Giants, we’ve had rock bands. So people that liked us before and now have kids get to go enjoy us in an unexpected way,” says Mathews. Her music now, she says, is “basically Love Riot for kids.”
There may be no clearer sign of how big kids music has become than the long list of artists who, like They Might Be Giants, have surrendered to its allure. Lisa Loeb put out a kids record called “Catch the Moon” in 2003; in March, Devo oversaw a kid-oriented rerelease of their album called “Devo 2.0” with Disney that had teenagers performing all the songs; Stephin Merritt and his band the Gothic Archies are releasing an album of 13 songs based on Lemony Snicket’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events” in October. And even if they’re not making full albums, many artists have been making guest appearances as kids performers: Nick Cave and Natalie Merchant show up in duets on the forthcoming Zanes album (Lou Reed appeared on Zanes’ “Night Time!” in 2002), Belle and Sebastian have curated an album of children’s songs by Franz Ferdinand, the Flaming Lips, Travis and others to be released in the fall, and the two albums of the recent “For the Kids” series have included artists like Billy Bragg and Wilco, Tom Waits, Jason Mraz, Cake and Nada Surf. ”
http://www.salon.com/ent/music/feature/2006/06/24/kindie/print.html
(via BoingBoing)