Music

A while back, musician Davie504 performed a solo on a crazy 24-string bass guitar. Now, he’s back to blow up his prior record with an even more insane instrument – a bass with 36 strings. You’re gonna need some extra fingers next time, Davie.

Each year, Tom BetGeorge of Magical Light Shows tricks out the front of his Tracy, California house with tons of lights to celebrate Halloween, continually stepping up the show to outdo himself. For 2019, we get Ray Parker Jr’s Ghostbusters theme, accompanied by a brilliant array of color, and singing pumpkin animations.

The Hood Internet’s excellent retro remix series continues, picking right back up where we left off. As we move ever so slightly into the ’80s, we get a funky dose of Phil Collins, Hall & Oates, Tom Tom Club, Billy Squier, The Go-Gos, and many more.

Wonderfully enigmatic musicians The Flaming Lips teamed up with the Colorado Symphony and conductor André de Ridder to re-record their 1999 album The Soft Bulletin with a full orchestra. Race for the Prize gives us a preview of the live album, which drops 11/29/19.

If the Nintendo Entertainment System came out in the 1920s instead of the 1980s, the music its games played might have sounded a bit like the ragtime jazz piano arranged and played brilliantly here by musician Scott Bradlee.

(PG-13: Language) During their recent tour dates in Brazil, Weezer performed a great cover of Nirvana’s 1991 track Lithium. It’s a great tribute to a fellow band who achieved fame in the 1990s, but with a very different outcome. On a related note, we came across this little gem while researching this story.

Synthwave duo Litiowave envisions what John Williams’ Imperial March (aka Darth Vader’s Theme) might have sounded like if it came out in the early 1980s rather than in 1977, giving the track a new neon-lit electronic sound.

Radiohead’s 1997 classic Paranoid Android always cuts deep when we hear it, and it’s as power-packed as ever with this amazing cover version by UK band Old Dirty Brasstards. The trumpet does a surprisingly good job standing in for Thom Yorke’s vocals.

It turns out that when you plug in a drawing of some of the major continents into MIDI sequencing software, it actually makes a surprisingly pleasant little tune. Be sure to listen to the U.S., Europe, South America, and Africa by themselves too.

Ah, there’s nothing quite like a Finnish bluegrass band performing a Lenny Kravitz song in a French street corner restaurant. So sit back, crank up the volume, and enjoy as Steve ‘n’ Seagulls gives the 1993 hit Are You Gonna Go My Way a fresh new sound.

Musical mashup maestro Bill McClintock issues his apologies in advance for this hilariously weird melding of The Spice Girls and Slipknot, with a dash of The Black Crowes tossed in for extra seasoning. All we really want is to zig-a-zig-aaaaaaarrrrgh.

It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark… Fortunately, musician Luca Stricagnoli is here to shine his light on it, with a simply fantastic fingerstyle cover version of Michael Jackson’s 1984 megahit Thriller.

This desktop device aims to democratize the creation of vinyl records. The Phonocut is designed to carve grooves directly into a 10″ wax disk, allowing for the creation of custom records at home. It’s makers are hoping for a 2020 release and will start raising funds on Kickstarter 10/15/19 at 4:20pm LA time.

Pierre Fontenelle and Cristian Perciun of accordion/cello duo Made in Belgium turn in an energetic and powerful medley comprised of three tracks from the James Bond universe – John Barry’s original theme, Adele’s Skyfall, and Sam Smith’s Writing’s on the Wall.

Musician Costantino Carrara takes Queen’s iconic 1975 rock opera track and turns it into an equally impressive classical piano piece, packed with wonderful flourishes, and epic transitions. Think you can keep up with Costantino’s fingers? Buy the sheet music here.

Most hard rock music is played on a 6-string electric guitar, but Music is Win decided to see what it might sound like if he attempted to play some metal riffs on a 12-string blues guitar. The resulting sound is quite unique – like some kind of prog rock from the future.

The very talented Scott Bradlee took The Doors’ 1967 classic People Are Strange, and put his own unique spin on it. His old-timey arrangement feels like it would be right at home on the saloon’s player piano in Westworld, as a pair of hosts fight over a poker game.

Musician Luna Lee is here to brighten our day with another unique gayageum cover – this time taking on Echo and the Bunnymen’s brilliant 1984 track The Killing Moon. We bet she could pull off a mean version of Bedbugs and Ballyhoo.

We already know that Britney Spears’ songs have an underlying dark side to them. In this clip from musician Jack Baca, he transforms the pop star’s 1998 track (Hit Me) Baby One More Time into a depressing ballad about unrequited love.

(PG-13: Language) Who doesn’t love the Lizzo track Truth Hurts? Well, resident metalhead Leo Moracchioli certainly enjoys it, and shows how the song lends itself surprisingly well to a hard rock arrangement. It certainly had us banging our heads and throwing devil horns here in the office.

Archaelogist dusted off Claude Debussy’s famed classical piece Arabesque No. 1 and reworked it as a masterpiece of prog rock, giving it a powerful edge we’re certain the composer could have never envisioned back in the late 19th century when he wrote it.

In a just barely Halloween-themed episode, musical expert 12tone walks us through the complexities of distortion, and what it is about such sounds that make them more creepy and off-putting than others – sort of like the way he draws from right to left across the page.

Music teacher and arranger Michael Charles Smith knows how to get the most out of the marimba, as is demonstrated by his students Preston Bushnell, Sophia Domreis, Tyler Griffith, and Baden VanHuis cover of The Postal Service’s 2003 classic Such Great Heights.

It took musician Jacob Collier hundreds of hours of video editing to put together this multitrack arrangement of Lionel Ritchie’s 1983 hit All Night Long, performed by Collier and dozens of collaborators, but we think the richly layered result is worth it, and is the perfect way to kick off any weekend.

Inspired by their plans to go see Joker – and the passing train outside the window, Puddles the clown and his pal, guitarist RL Martin decided to record a little impromptu session – an awesomely stripped-down acoustic cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s 1980 rock classic Crazy Train.

Mondo presents a limited edition one-time pressing of Elmer Bernstein’s original score from 1984’s Ghostbusters. The double album features awesome jacket and interior art by illustrator Paul Mann, and is pressed onto 180 Gram colored vinyl. Preorders start 10/2/19 on Mondotees.com.

(Gore) Eclectic Method pays tribute to one of the greatest anime films of all time, with this funky remix of sound bites from Katsuhiro Otomo’s visionary 1988 cyberpunk classic Akira. We were hoping to see a bit more of Neo-Tokyo though.

This unique smartwatch is designed specifically with musicians in mind. In addition to typical day and date functions, it has a built-in powerful vibrating metronome, a magnetic contact tuner, and a decibel meter. If you just need the metronome, the Soundbrenner Pulse is already available.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ Abbey Road, their company Apple Corps collaborated with Trunk Animation to create a new music video for Here Comes The Sun. The clip takes us inside the famed Abbey Road Studios’ Studio Two, and features rare band images, and film footage shot by Linda McCartney.

Jonathan Robert & Gabriel Favreau’s animated music video for Quebec band Corridor takes us on a wild trip through a fantastical structure filled with elevators, staircases, cable cars, and other vertical conveyances that all lead towards an almighty computer that controls man and machine.