Awesome Music

20-year-old alternative artist Julien Baker (Sprained Ankle) performed a cover of one of Death Cab for Cutie’s early hits for The Onion’s AV Club, turning the brooding Photobooth into a sincere ballad.

Costumed as Catwoman, composer Sonya Belousova plays her own wonderful arrangement of Danny Elfman’s classic theme song from Tim Burton’s Batman. As much as we liked the music from The Dark Knight, we always preferred Elfman’s take.

From the underappreciated corner of YouTube comes musician Simon Fransman. He loves to make covers and original songs using voice synthesizers, then combines them with hilariously creepy computer animation.

YouTuber syou2at made a cover of Glorious Crown from the rhythm arcade game Maimai Pink using nothing but notification sounds and other audio samples from Windows XP and Windows 10. Download links are on the video’s description.

Metal is home to some of the most genre-blurring artists, but Boston-based quintet Astronoid takes the bar and throws it to space. Blood Music calls the band’s product “dream thrash” – melodic vocals rising over thick shredding, like emo aged to perfection.

Get loose… with the luminous moose! Beck’s new single marks a return to Odelay form of sorts. It’s smooth and creamy blend of slow jam and catchy funk track that could also double as Owen Wilson’s theme song. The new album drops 10/21/16.

Guitarist ERock presents his head-banging edition of the earworm that is the opening title music from the 1990’s X-Men animated series. Seriously, we have no idea why they don’t start using this as the theme for the new movies.

A fantastically rich and layered cover version of Radiohead’s recent track Burn The Witch, played on cello and cajón by Break of Reality. Seriously, we’d love to hear Thom Yorke’s vocals combined with these guys performance.

The students of Quebec’s École de l’Harmonie St Édouard and École secondaire de La Seigneurie turned in this performance back when The Force Awakens opened. If their musical abilities weren’t enough, their lightsaber bows pushed them over the top.

(PG-13: Language) New York’s premiere garage rockers The Strokes have a pleasant surprise, a new EP that slowly but surely harkens back to the band’s Room on Fire days. Go straight for Threat of Joy, ye of little faith, then give the other two tracks a shot.

Mondo celebrates the 25th anniversary of David Cronenberg’s dark sci-fi drama by making its soundtrack available on vinyl for the very first time. The haunting jazz score was composed by Howard Shore, Ornette Coleman and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

A record player that streams to Sonos and Airplay devices as well as over Bluetooth. It can even turn your Spotify account into a radio channel by streaming music through the service. The catch? It has no wired output options.

(NSFW: Language) “She said, “Invade my cave with your special unit.”” Another track from The Lonely Island’s soundtrack for Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping sees the movie’s hero meet a girl with a very specific fantasy.

(PG-13: Language) “I been wanting one more, then I wanted like four. I been having some guilt, I been feeling so blessed, but stressed all day for real.” Pop rapper Kristine Flaherty aka K.Flay uses her earworm flow to talk about moderation and keeping herself in check.

If The Strokes and Cake had a baby, their offspring would be Car Seat Headrest. The band deftly melds founder Will Toledo’s sharp vocals and lyrics with raw garage rock, trumpet and trombone in this track from the new album Teens of Denial.

(PG-13: Language) Vox points out a few verbal tricks that some of the most technical rappers invented and perfected. These go beyond rhyming words to matching the syllables, flows, and of course the beats behind them, all while telling a story.

Band of Horses lets their freak flags fly in Ben Fee’s video for their awesomely catchy new single, set at a party filled with strange and wonderful creatures. It’s like the alt-pop version of Cantina Band. Lyrics here.

The sixth album from transcendent post-rockers Explosions in the Sky dials down the band’s trademark micro-raptures in favor of shorter but sustained payoffs. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad album, quite the opposite in fact.

Castell & Moreno Films upcoming crowdfunded documentary looks at the growing popularity of 1980s style Synthwave music, and the musicians, technology and sounds that provide their inspiration. Sizzle/concept reel here.

We can’t remember the last album we heard that had such a fitting title as this one. Brooklyn-based musician Brian Bo aka Bois lets his soft and thin voice waft over slow and dainty cymbals, saxophones and his vibraphone.

The Lonely Island join The Tonight Show‘s Jimmy Fallon and The Roots to play a radio-friendly version of their hit single I’m On A Boat using classroom instruments. Although apparently Black Thought didn’t get the memo.

Shiwar Awaz Berai Boo Ray. YouTuber Jim Jarmo put together another one of his pun-filled music videos, this time paying tribute to the late, great artist Prince, and as usual, using nothing more than actual social media profile names to provide the lyrical subtitles.

Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia’s video for Coldplay’s single combines visuals of real world settings filmed at dramatically different distances. The result is a surreal world in which soccer is played on a sponge, volcanoes spew popcorn, and babies fly on airplane wings.