Awesome Music

This October, the Rolling Stones will release Hackney Diamonds, their first original album since 2005 and without Charlie Watts on most tracks. The elder statesmen of rock and roll prove they still have it with the single Angry. The music video features a leather-clad Sydney Sweeney rolling through LA, dancing to a Stones retrospective on the billboards.

We’ve seen guitars with lots of strings. This is the first time we’ve heard one where some strings are rubber bands. You might think they wouldn’t produce a very satisfying sound, but they play surprisingly well in the hands of a guitarist as talented as Bernth. It helps that he kept the original metal strings in the middle of his Ibanez acoustic guitar.

Musicians – especially guitarists and bass players – will love these desk organizers that look like miniature guitar amps. Etsy seller Lions Print makes these 3D-printed pencil caddies and dresses them up with logos from popular amplifier makers. They’re available with silver or gold caps and can be personalized, too.

Imagine for a moment that Nirvana and Green Day did some kind of Freaky Friday thing and swapped bodies. Musician Steve Welsh imagines what it might have been like if Billie Joe and his bandmates performed Lithium in their trademark pop-punk style. It took a minute for us to remember this wasn’t an actual Green Day song.

The Auralnauts used some editing and visual effects trickery to make it look like the characters in The Matrix movies (and Wilford Brimley) are reciting the lyrics to the Vanilla Ice hit Ice Ice Baby. Take the red pill, and it’s really Queen and David Bowie’s Under Pressure.

Finnish band Steve’n’Seagulls offers up another great bluegrass cover of a rock classic. They performed their arrangement of Boston’s 1976 hit More Than a Feeling while enjoying a delightfully warm summer day along their country’s idyllic Lake Armisvesi.

We’ve heard a whole lot of covers of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, but never one like this. A few years back, New Zealand choral group Hātea Kapa Haka and musician William Waiirua collaborated on a unique and captivating interpretation of the rock opera classic sung in the native Māori language.

Musician Carolina Eyck is one of the best theremin players of all time. Her nuanced arrangement of Ennio Morricone’s The Ecstacy of Gold is a thing of beauty, a musical Cowboys & Aliens, if you will. Only Carolyn’s performance is significantly more entertaining than that movie.

Radiohead is one of our favorite bands of all time. While some of their music can be a bit esoteric, they’ve produced an equal number of sharp and memorable guitar-driven melodies. Guitarist Bloxsy claims he’s no Radiohead expert, but we think he sells himself short with this excellent medley of classic riffs.

The musicians of 40 Fingers have wowed us with their Disney medley and Dire Straits covers, among others. You’ll want to put your headphones on and crank up the volume for this incredible multi-guitar performance of the Overture from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, which we also know well as the opening theme music from Trading Places.

This clever online clock by The Pudding automatically plays songs with the current time in the title. While we’ve heard of 12:51 by The Strokes and 10:15 Saturday Night by The Cure, we had no idea there were so many other time-titled tunes out there. The album art on the turntable is a neat idea, too.

There I Ruined It continues to create insane new versions of songs using AI-generated voices. This time, he took the Nine Inch Nails somg Hurt (Quiet) and combined it with The Beach Boys hit Surfin’ U.S.A. The resulting track is something we like to call Summertime Sadness 2.0.

Musician Wendel Gama doesn’t just impersonate Michael Jackson’s look and dance moves, he’s got the voice to back it up. If you close your eyes and listen to his performances of Billie Jean, You Are Not Alone, and Remember the Time, you’d be hard-pressed to tell it isn’t The King of Pop reincarnated. He also does Tiny Tim.

The 1980s and the 1380s were pretty different times. The era of big hair and Rubik’s produced some great synthpop and arena rock, and those tunes sound surprisingly good when played on medieval instruments. This 90-minute medley features bardcore versions of 22 classic ’80s tracks, including Don’t Stop Believin’, Smooth Criminal, Eye of the Tiger, and more.

UK printmaker Dorothy and artist Malik Thomas teamed up to create this large-format A0 (33.1″ x 46.8″) digital print, celebrating 50 years of hip-hop. Its giant boombox is filled with iconic moments and musicians, including Grandmaster Flash, Run-D.M.C., Sugarhill Gang, Beastie Boys, Salt-N-Pepa, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan, and many more.

This talented performer shows off his multitasking skills by simultaneously playing his acoustic guitar while tap dancing.  His unconventional flamenco performance has him strumming the fretboard while holding the guitar upright. Also, this man has some crazy long fingers.

The theme music from Tetris is a big part of what made the video game so popular. Musician JER of the Skatune Network and We Are the Union transformed the classic Russian chiptune into an energetic piece of ska, with its trademark quick beats, layered brass, and organ sounds.

The Foo Fighters’ track Everlong is already a pretty emotive song. But vocalist Anthony Vincent has taken things to a whole other level, turning the tune into a smooth and soulful jazz ballad with the help of producer and pianist Joey Izzo.

This might not be the first cat to utter the words “Oh Long Johnson,” but this vocal kitty is even better thanks to added lyrics and music by The Kiffness. The track Hold Onto My Fur is a groovy earworm that will have you singing along with the talkative orange kitty from China.

Grammy Award-winning musician Post Malone and a dozen bandmates stopped by the NPR Music offices and turned in a wonderfully intimate acoustic set. The mini-concert includes performances of his multi-platinum hits Sunflower, I Fall Apart, and Circles, along with a new track, Enough is Enough, fresh off of his 2023 album Austin.

Recorded audio and radio programs from the early 20th century have a distinctive sound. Musician Sam Stafford got his hands on a vintage 1920s carbon microphone and shows how much of that sound was due to limitations in the era’s audio technology. When Sam gets out his banjolele and starts singing, it’s like he stepped into a time machine.

Franzoli Electronics rode down the highway, broke the limit, and hit the town with another electrifying performance by his Tesla coil band. This time, the high-voltage musicians added some lightning to the AC/DC classic Thunderstruck. The improved expressiveness and stereo capabilities represent a big upgrade from past Tesla coil concerts.

Voice mimicry is getting easier and easier to achieve thanks to rapid advancements in AI tech. Musician Kid Klava shows just how impressive the technology has become by taking a Lennon-inspired song he wrote and programming the late Beatles’ digital avatar to perform it.