Awesome Music

Toys instrument band The Wackids cover Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name Of the only way they know. We get that they’re just having fun, but they should try using Rick Syers’ tiny drum set for more range.

(PG-13) Cassius, Cat Power, and Pharell Williams collaborated on this awesome dance track which we missed when the album Ibifornia dropped last Summer. Director Alex Courtès‘ literally cheeky music video works wonders with the best use of split-screen ever.

(PG-13: Language) “Ice cream on my front porch in my new FUBU and my A1’s too, watching my happy block my whole neighborhood hit the diddy bop.” Fatimah Warner brings rap on the rocks to NPR Music with tracks from her album Telefone. What a talent.

Musician Luna Lee’s latest cover seems especially well suited to being played on the gayageum – the vibrato sounds of David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World just seem to flow perfectly from the strings of the classic Korean instrument.

Their stage schtick is cheesy, but that takes nothing away from the talents of these dueling percussionists as they both play on the same drumset during a performance of the classic surf tune Wipeout! by Rich K. and the Allnighters, featuring drummer Steve Moore.

Ten Second Songs‘ Anthony Vincent channels Anthony Kiedis, then takes a quick left turn to perform the Chili Peppers’ classic Give It Away in the style of 20 other musicians, from The Beastie Boys to Guns N’ Roses to David Bowie. The Twenty Øne Pilots bit was hilarious.

Paweł Zadrożniak’s incredible orchestra of floppy drives, hard drives, and stepper motors is accompanied by a rare human appearance in this computer-controlled cover of The Buggles’ MTV-launcher, Video Killed the Radio Star.

“In an alternate universe, this is what could have been.” If you were expecting to be Rickrolled when you click play on this clip, you’d be wrong. Though there is something just so wrong it’s right about the soulful pop singer doing a cover of the AC/DC classic Highway to Hell.

Puddles seems even sadder than usual as he reunites with Postmodern Jukebox to sing a toned down version of Blink-182’s pop hit All the Small Things. The song seems so much creepier sung by a 6-foot 8-inch tall clown.

Musician Davie504 rises to the challenge of a typically unreasonable YouTube commenter’s request – to play his bass guitar using only a single finger. He still uses his other hand to fret, but you try strumming a bass this well using only your pinky.

Musician Louis Cole’s short song works on more levels than you’d expect. Most of us can relate to its lyrics, and while it starts out like a novelty tune, we quickly learn that Louis is a serious electrofunkmaster. And then there’s this. Louis, you’re our new hero.

(PG-13: Language) Seth McFarlane’s anthropomorphic teddy bear swears his ass off and beats the spit out of Mark Wahlberg in Eclectic Method’s latest remix. That sample of McFarlane’s Boston howl needs to come standard with every synthesizer.

Musician Miguel Montalban turns in an epic lead guitar performance on his cover version of the Dire Straits classic Sultans of Swing as he plays for a crowd of bystanders in London. His Sweet Child O’ Mine and Stairway to Heaven are equally enthralling.

YouTuber Mr. Cookies liked the sound his floorlamp made when he tapped its metal shade with a pen, so he decided to sample it and a few other lamp sounds, then sequenced them it into the 2001 Darude track, Sandstorm.

Streaming speakers with minimal monochrome color schemes and physical controls. Available in two sizes, they can play audio via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, AirPlay, Chromecast and 3.5mm aux. They also have built-in support for Spotify and Internet radio. (Thanks Tomas!)

Put on your headphones and crank them up to 11 for this incredible 1973 BBC broadcast, featuring musician Mike Oldfield and his bandmates as they perform all 25+ minutes of the esoteric prog rock creation Tubular Bells Part 1, best known for its use in the horror film The Exorcist.

Puddles Pity Party managed to mash up two unlikely tunes into one, combining the Johnny Cash classic Folsom Prison Blues with The Who’s Pinball Wizard. We’re not sure why it works, but Puddles always does a good job hypnotizing us with his voice.

This video from Grunge makes a good point about how with radio DJs no longer being the main way we hear new music, many fans have no idea how bands’ names are pronounced. We bet there’s at least one band name in here that you’ve been getting wrong all along.

(PG-13: Language) American sign language interpreter Amber Galloway Gallego spoke with Vox about how traditional ASL is not suited to translating music, whether it be wordplay or melody. That’s why she injects creativity and motion to help the deaf appreciate music.

(PG-13: Language) Go Fozzie. It’s your birthday! America’s favorite stand-up comic bear parties his ass off in Mylo the Cat’s latest Muppet remix video. The clip got us wondering just how does a Muppet ingest liquor and weed, since they have no esophagus or windpipe.

From Flash Gordon to Spider-Man to Ghostbusters, beatboxer Tom Thum turned in a fantastic, but all too short medley of themes from popular movies and TV series. They’re all great, but that Knight Rider one was epic.

(PG-13) “I blew cool from AC, ayy, Obama just paged me, ayy, I don’t fabricate it, ayy, most of y’all be fakin’, ayy, I stay modest ’bout it, ayy, she elaborate it, ayy” Kendrick Lamar advises listeners and competitors to know their place, sit down and be humble.

(PG-13 Language) After hearing Kasabian’s toned-down take on Cypress Hill’s pro-pot, anti-cop anthem, Leo Moracchioli is here to perform the antidote for that version, an audacious, loud, hard rockin’ cover of the hip hop classic.