Awesome Music

Musicians Blair Crimmins and The Hookers created this great slow jam arrangement of Foo Fighters’ track My Hero specifically for their friend’s Mom, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease. They wanted to make a version that she could dance to at her son’s wedding.

Leo Moracchioli of Frog Leap Studios takes what was arguably the edgiest sounding song Genesis ever recorded and ramps up the passion and intensity to 11,000 with his throat-frying metal interpretation of the 1983 track, Mama.

(PG-13: Language) Chris Hopewell’s music video for this track off of Run The Jewels’ album RTJ3 features a stop-motion Killer Mike and El-P on a not so amusing amusement park ride through some of society’s worst examples of racism, corruption, and materialism.

(PG-13: Language) Chance the Rapper finally got around to visiting NPR Music’s office. He performed Juke Jam from his latest album, recited a poem that he wrote just for this set, and finished with a cover of Stevie Wonder’s They Won’t Go When I Go.

(PG-13: Language) Hov is back. The stereotypes in the video for Jay-Z’s single complements the song’s message about how even successful African-Americans can’t escape, and should not, turn their backs on racial issues. From his sick new album 4:44.

“I fear something’s wrong, panic is on.” Indie electronic artist Matthew Barnes aka Forest Swords continues to breathe soul into dub music with his critically-acclaimed second album. One of our favorite releases of the year so far.

Drummer David Dockery continues his series in which he synchronizes his drumming with dialogue, this time adding some rhythm to the words of Peter Griffin. We’re still not sure that he can actually drum all 50 states in a 1/4 of a second though.

Previous vinyl record releases of John Williams’ award-winning score for Jaws contain re-recorded versions of the songs. Mondo’s watery blue release marks the first time that the original score (albeit restored and edited) will appear on vinyl. PCC’s sleeve art is a plus too.

“It’s nobody’s fault. No guilty party. We just got nothing, nothing left to say.” Time to wear grays and blues and sit by the window. Indie rockers The National are back with more sad bastard music. From their upcoming album Sleep Well Beast. Thanks Karlo!

“When I expel, from this mortal shell, will I die for living numb? Am I vital, if my heart is idle, am I doomed?” LA-based artist Moses Sumney continues to hone his bedroom soul music with his latest single, which is accompanied with a perfectly complementary music video.

Russian poet and musician Deita Meira demonstrates his special gift – the ability to play a tune on a simple plastic coffee stirrer. Here, he performs John Williams’ classic Imperial March from the Star Wars saga.

Kathryn Shinnick, Kate Sullivan, Katie McKay, Sidney Harvey of Dolce Ensembles perform a wonderful cover version of Foo Fighters’ Everlong on violin, viola, and cello. Be sure to check out their their epic medley of Muse, Tool, System of a Down and Massive Attack too.

Game of Thrones’ YouTube channel keeps the flame of hype alive with this featurette starring the brilliant film composer Ramin Djawadi. He talks about how he makes music for the show, describes some of the songs from different seasons, and plays a few ones as well.

Using post-production trickery, comedian and actor Jimmy Slonina multiplied himself for this spirited lip sync performance of the Beastie Boys 1987 classic Brass Monkey. It’s supremely entertaining, even if Jimmy looks really pissed off when he emotes.

“This is not communication, just a facsimile of interaction.” Death Cab for Cutie’s latest guitarist Dave Depper breaks out on his own with this melancholic and comforting synth/disco/funk pop album about – what else? – a heart left shellshocked by failed romance.

(PG-13: Language) Zveki put together this fantastic mashup of music from Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, and The Weeknd. The track blends together Starboy, In the Air Tonight, and They Don’t Care About Us, resulting in They Don’t Care About the Starboy in the Air.

Digital artist Florian Renner created this neon-lit promo video for the synthwave collection Magnatron 2.0 from New Retro Wave. While the imagery and sounds are certainly inspired by the ’80s, they’re also crazy slick and futuristic. The track here is Star Fighter by Wice.

(PG-13: Language) Mass Appeal Records compiled 14 tracks used throughout the four seasons of Silicon Valley, including the title track Stretch Your Face, Nas and DJ Shadow’s recently released Systematic, and Wu-Tang’s new track Don’t Stop.

(PG-13: Language) “I get so lonely, I forget what I’m worth. We get so lonely, we pretend that this works.” R&B star Solána Rowe aka SZA sings about the recipes and results of failed romances in her solid debut album.

Using an array of effects pedals, musician Nathan Navarro was able to replicate not only the familiar theme music, but the in-game sounds from Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 using his bass guitar.

During a recent appearance at The Kennedy Center, musician Ben Folds showed off his ability to rapidly improvise, as he composed an entire song live in less than 10 minutes, including all the parts for the National Symphony Orchestra so they could play along.

Keyboardist Seth Everman decided to test out a bunch of the different sound modes on his Yamaha synth again, this time using Toto’s 1982 hit Africa as his test music. The pizzicato one sounded too much like Enya to us, and nearly put us into a sleep trance.

Remix master DJ Cummerbund latest effort brillantly combines another group of unlikely tunes, seamlessly melding the music of Dave Matthews, DeBarge, Spin Doctors into a single juicy track which will have you shaking your butt and shaking the ants out of your picnic blanket.