Awesome Music

Musician Alexandr Misko performs a wonderful fingerstyle guitar arrangement of the King of Pop’s massive hit, infusing new life into the 1982 track. His covers of The Cranberries’ Zombie and System of a Down’s Chop Suey! are equally sublime. (Thanks Nathan!)

We’re gonna be waiting a really long time for the final episodes of Game of Thrones to arrive. For now, we’ll have to satisfy our craving with Stjepan and Luka’s powerful and emotionally-charged arrangement of The Rains of Castamere and the Game of Thrones theme.

Jimmy Fallon and Kevin Bacon channel Ray and Dave Davies with their interpretation the hit track Lola might have sounded like before they worked out all the kinks. Oh yea, we went there. Whaddya want? It’s Friday here.

Another great cover by the Vitamin String Quartet. This time we’ve got Radiohead’s True Love Waits, which they recorded as well as Burn the Witch. If they sound familiar, that’s because they also recorded Motion Picture Soundtrack for Westworld.

Trip hop artist FKA Twigs conceptualized Nike’s Do You Believe in More? ad campaign for its Zonal Strength women’s training gear. The music video sees Twigs performing alongside 12 professional athletes.

YouTuber Grant Woolard is back with another classical mashup cover. Featuring 52 of your great-great-grandpappy’s jams from the OGiest of OG beatmakers such as Beethoven, Liszt, Strauss and Sousa.

Bring out the hairspray and leather jackets. We’re hitting the club with the latest mix from aural time traveler Tronicbox. It’s Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know, a ’90s song that came out in 2011, remixed to sound like it’s from 1984.

Lamont Landers and his bandmates Bowen Robertson, Jaraven Moe Hill, and Kevin Canada turn in an awesome medley of Earth, Wind & Fire, Sly and the Family Stone, and a dash of funky love makin’ tossed in for good measure. Want some mo? Try on some Bill Withers.

(PG-13: Language) At the end of a gig in Harrisburg, PA, Brooklyn-based jazz band Moon Hooch told the crowd that they didn’t have a place to stay that night. They ended up staying with a couple who took them in because of a silly thought. The track is Number 1.

The 1950’s sci-fi B-movie squeals of the theremin are probably the last thing that we’d associate with heavy metal music. But that didn’t stop musician Rob Scallon from giving it the old college try.

“Here, there’s no music here. I’m lost in streams of sound. Here, am I nowhere now? No plan.” Tom Hingston’s music video for one of Bowie’s final tracks will pierce you to the core, its static-filled screens where Ziggy, the Thin White Duke, and Bowie’s other personas once appeared.

Along with vinyl, cassette tapes are staging their own comeback, with ongoing interest from electronic musicians who find the analog sound and hiss complements rather than detracts from their music. The Vinyl Factory explores this growing movement. (Thanks Paul!)

Multitalented musician Kawehi reminds us why we love her so much, as she turns in an awesome one-woman performance of the Muse track Time is Running Out during a live performance. We’re looking forward to her recently crowdfunded new album EVE.

(PG-13: Language) DJ Flipboitamidles mashed up C418’s remix of the Stranger Things title theme with The Weeknd and Daft Punk’s megahit Starboy, resulting in a more textured darkwave track. The lyric video is dope too.

James Corden and Jim Parsons did a simultaneously amazing and hysterical job replicating the music video for Kansas’ 1977 classic Dust in the Wind. We’re pretty sure Parsons has no idea how to play the violin, but his beard more than makes up for it.

Dropbear Digital’s incredible music video for Dan Sultan’s track Magnetic was created through a mix of 3D printing, stop-motion, and projection mapping techniques to bring the singer’s digitized avatar to life. The behind-the-scenes photo album is equally fascinating.

Luna Lee is back with another awesome and unusual cover played on the Gayageum – Nirvana’s 1991 hit Lithium. Though we’re curious to know what the track would sound like “unplugged.”

A decidedly lo-fi version of AC/DC’s classic Back in Black, performed by French group The Wackids, three musicians known for playing their concerts entirely on kid’s toys and other cheap musical instruments. Here they are playing some Joan Jett and Metallica.

(PG-13: Language) Mylo the Cat’s latest mashup puts the words of Marshall Mathers in the mouth of Arthur Read. The aardvark who always has something to teach us about ourselves has yet another lesson – to clean up our act.

Trent Reznor and frequent film-score collaborator Atticus Ross teamed up to create this dark, distorted, cinematic, and sonically stellar five-song EP that recalls the greatest industrial sounds of classic Nine Inch Nails, while still sounding completely fresh.

(Flashing lights) A submarine skipper lives a quiet life with his crew of clones. Ft. Langley shot this music video on an actual submarine that they borrowed from the Canadian government. Naturally. From Aidan Knight’s latest album Each Other.

Singer and songwriter Alicia Keys spoke with NPR Music about how she got into music, her songwriting process and more. Keys reveals that she’s still not sure how she comes up with her songs, and that it wasn’t easy for her to collaborate at first.

No Surprises is one of the most oft-covered Radiohead tracks of all time, but we’re rather taken with Postmodern Jukebox’s ’30s-style jazz arrangement, with Chloe Feoranzo’s warm and smooth vocals standing in for Thom Yorke’s.