Awesome Music

Pianist Vinheteiro demonstrates just how important it is to play music on period-correct instruments. Listen, and you’ll be transported to an old-timey saloon with this medley of Scott Joplin ragtime tunes, performed on a Barthol & Berlin upright piano that dates back to 1915.

Musician Will Wilde is an incredibly talented harmonica player. He’s especially adept at interpreting vocal and guitar solos from rock songs, including this jam from Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig in the Sky. His harmonica solos from Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven and Guns N’ Roses Sweet Child o’ Mine are equally compelling.

Composer and artist Sky Macklay shows off her Harmonitree, a wonderfully inventive musical instrument that plays harmonicas. It uses a tree-shaped inflatable airbag to push air through its harmonicas and can be left to make music on its own, but it is best when given a big hug for interactive sounds. She’s also built one that triggers with motion sensors.

Jonathan Wolff’s improvised bass riffs from Seinfeld are some of the most memorable in TV history. Bassist Paul Thompson says growing up on that and other TV theme songs inspired his music career. He performed his ten favorite bass lines from classic TV shows, including Northern Exposure, The White Shadow, The Wire, Barney Miller, and Night Court.

Lebanese singer Tony Abou Jaoudeh, aka looneytony4 is a master of vocal impressions. In this video, he performs The Weeknd’s 1980s-style track Save Your Tears in the voices of artists who were popular in the 1980s like A-Ha, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, and George Michael. His Jimmy Somerville is spot on.

Song lyrics often refer to locations, but they rarely are specific and sometimes inaccurate. Jam2Go thought he’d nail down the exact places in songs, starting with the guy in the Plain White T’s Hey There Delilah, who mentions he’s 1000 miles away from Delilah. Then he travels to Ocean Avenue, Africa, Over the Rainbow, and Country Roads.

Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral is a dark industrial masterpiece. MawinSwag took the entire album and performed it using the sounds from Nintendo’s Mario 64. The Mushroom Kingdom descends into madness with tracks like Mr. Self Destruct, Closer, Reptile, and Hurt. Piggy got a copyright strike, so skip over that part and find it here.

(PG-13: Language) Opposites attract, so naturally, punk-metal band GWAR and NPR hooked up for a Tiny Desk Concert. Blöthar the Berserker held court, saying they brought maestro Wilhelm Fartwrangler along to class things up, then plunged into a surprisingly blood-splatter-free set of Sex Cow, I’ll Be Your Monster, Ratcatcher, and Phantom Limb.

The music from the Super Mario Bros. games can be energetic and uplifting. But it can also be quite relaxing. If you need to calm your nerves on a hard day, all you need is to hit play on this clip, and you’ll get 75 minutes of the chillest Mario music ever. This is the music that spas should play while you get a massage.

(PG-13: Language) Dustin Ballard of There I Ruined It says he’s been hearing music in everything these days. For example, Samuel L. Jackson’s wrathful rants in Pulp Fiction provide the perfect opportunity for Jules to break into song. Honestly, we’d pay good money to see a Quentin Tarantino Broadway musical.

Just about anything can make a sound if you hit, rub, or touch it just right. Songs by Spencer recorded a bunch of random objects around his house, loaded them into a sampler, and layered them together to perform an original song about overcoming his insecurities.

The David Bowie and Queen track Under Pressure is one of the greatest rock collaborations ever. But in the hands of There I Ruined It, it’s just a bunch of random noises, gobbledygook, and mumbo jumbo. He did something similarly silly with Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal.

The electromechanical band known as Device Orchestra returns with another fun cover song. They used just three instruments to replicate the AC/DC track Thunderstruck. This time, the electric toothbrushes and credit card terminal are running on battery power, so they really should just be called DC.

Beatboxer SO-SO presents a fun, multi-part performance inspired by the world of Super Mario. There are tributes to Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart, Luigi’s Mansion, Donkey Kong Country, and more. The energy level by the end of the medley is off the charts. It’s a must-listen for Nintendo fans.

Algal the Bard presents a bardcore cover version of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ track Under the Bridge. Anthony Kiedis’ vocals have been replaced with a penny whistle, with a lute-guitar, Irish bouzouki, and traditional drums taking on the instrumentation.

Dirk Verbeuren has been banging the drums since the 1990s, and is the current drummer for thrash metal band Megadeth. Unlike most of us, he had never heard The Killers’ 2004 hit Mr. Brightside before stopping by Drumeo’s studio. After giving a drumless version a listen, he broke it down, chopped it up, and performed his own take on the track’s rhythms.

The Cure’s original drummer Lol Tolhurst, Siouxsie & the Banshees’ drummer Budgie, and producer Jacknife Lee teamed up and have an album on the way. The rhythmic title track, Los Angeles, just dropped and features vocals by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. Stream the single or pre-order the album now. Video by John Liwag. (Thanks, Christian!)

Gwen Stefani’s music couldn’t be the furthest thing from metal. So we had no idea what to expect when Finland’s Moonic Productions posted a cover version of Hollaback Girl in the style of System of a Down’s Toxicity. All we can say is this sh*t is bananas.

(PG-13: Language) When the sh*t goes down, you betta be ready. B-Real, Sen Dog, and the rest of the Cypress Hill gang stopped by the NPR Music offices to celebrate 50 years of hip hop. Their 30-minute, brass-heavy mini-concert includes razor-sharp performances of Hand on the Pump, How I Could Just Kill a Man, (Rap) Superstar, and Insane in the Brain.

Beatbox artist Improver shows why he’s one of the world’s best with his Grand Beatbox Battle 2023 World League solo performance. His original track Dirty Planet is a hard-driving commentary on humanity’s gradual destruction of our planet. He also plays a mean accordion.

Pianist and arranger Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox specializes in unique cover versions of popular songs. This time, Scott and drummer Roger Ross teamed up with vocalist and upright bass player Wild Bill for a wild interpretation of The Bee Gees’ disco classic Stayin’ Alive. They call it “Ragtime Rockabilly,” but we also get a Wild West saloon vibe.

C’mon Barbie, let’s go party… and take my blues away. There I Ruined It used an AI version of Johnny Cash’s voice to sing this hilarious version of Aqua’s Barbie Girl, just in time for the movie to come out. Things truly run off the rails when the Spice Girls show up at the Folsom Prison.

The Aqua song Barbie Girl is one of the cheesiest pop songs of all time. But what if it was actually a really complicated track that required serious skills to perform? Bass player Charles Berthoud explores just that idea by turning it into the hardest song to play.