THE BEST Music

Doodle Chaos has an obsession with making visuals that time perfectly with music. In this clip, he built a virtual roller coaster that syncs up beautifully with the finale of Tchaikovsky’s epic 1812 Overture, complete with cannon blasts. Want to build your own coasters? Check out the software he used – Planet Coaster.

Brass Against presents another amazing rock cover track – an appropriately loud and brutish take on Beastie Boys’ 1994 classic Sabotage, led off by the vocals of Sophia Urista, and just the right amount of chaos.

Sonic the Hedgehog is still one of the greatest platformers of all time, with memorable characters, amazing level design, and a fantastic soundtrack. Pianist Lord Vinheteiro didn’t just cover the Green Hill Zone theme song, but performed it in sync with the action on screen, complete with sound effects.

Ireland-based musician Luke T Duffy shares a wonderful piano cover of the seminal MTV classic, the Buggles’ 1979 hit Video Killed the Radio Star. Be sure to check out some of Luke’s original compositions on Soundcloud.

Playing a really, really slow version of the William Tell Overture in a grade school concert was as far as we got learning to play the violin. But POV video maker Buttered Side Down is more determined to build his skills than we ever were, and he’s also got a great teacher.

This unusual guitar effects pedal changes its sound based on whatever liquid you pour into it. Unscrew the watertight lid, pour in the beverage of your choice, and the conductive properties of said liquid will influence signal gain, while its opacity affects the equalization of the sound. Demo video here. (Thanks Mike!)

From Earth, Wind, and Fire to Kraftwerk to ELO, the vocoder has been part of some of the most famous dance, disco, and electronic tracks ever. Musician Doctor Mix shows off his vocoder skills along with his nifty Behringer VC340, a modern day synthesizer that replicates the analog sounds of the ’70s and ’80s.

Musician Steve Cruickshank likes to take classic songs and change them up a bit by replacing the original harmonies with their mirror image. The resulting music is at once familiar and pleasant to the ear, but also completely different from what we’re used to. Let’s kick the playlist off with his version of The Sound of Silence.

Over the course of a year, Matt MacMillan captured sounds his baby son Ryan made, not just so he’d have the memories, but so he could catalog the samples by pitch, and turn them into a cover version of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck, thus immortalizing his tot in the Internet’s meme hall of fame.

Electronicos Fantasticos! shows us how an electric fan can be used as musical instrument – first as a sort of electric guitar, and then as a bass. The sounds are generated by a light behind the fan blades that influences a photosensor circuit held by the musician. Their wild performance of Blue Monday is a must listen.

Musician Kent Nishimura turns in a beautifully nuanced and expressive performance of Tears for Fears 1985 classic Everybody Wants to Rule the World, played deftly on his acoustic guitar. His Careless Whisper and Rock with You covers are excellent too.

Judging by their name and their musical prowess, the four members of 40 Fingers have all of their digits intact, and that makes this acoustic guitar medley of Disney songs just that much sweeter. It’s a wonderfully warm bit of ear candy for fans of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Tarzan, Hercules, and Beauty and the Beast.

There have been tons of covers of music from the various Super Mario games, but the members of the Super NES Band likes to play video game music using the actual tone generators classic consoles. Listen as they perform live medleys of tunes from Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Land.

Some songs lend themselves better to different styles than others. But we had no idea how perfectly Modest Mouse’s jangly alt-pop song Float On would transform into ska. Listen and enjoy as Ska Tune Network flips the track on its head.

One of the things we love about NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert is that it embraces all kinds of music. In this episode, musician Bridget Kibbey wows us with her incredible harp-plucking skills, and fills our ears with the most soothing of sounds.

Let Beastie Boys members Adrock and Mike D walk you through their story in “revealing and funny accounts”, from their amateur days to the release of their classic albums. Also features contributions from their friends such as Spike Jonze and Wes Anderson.

While visiting Viennna, musician Viktoria Yermolyeva stopped by the showroom of vaunted piano maker Bösendorfer, and decided to tickle the ivories a bit with a tune we’re pretty sure has never been played in their store before, System of a Down’s 2001 hit Chop Suey.

A few years back, Alexey Rom’s video of Bohemian Rhapsody performed by a 100-year-old self-playing organ was a massive hit. We recently stumbled onto one of his follow-ups, a version of ABBA’s 1974 hit Dancing Queen. For each song, Alexey painstakingly creates his own custom player scrolls.

The Flaming Lips and Deap Vally hooked up and made an awesome musical baby, blendy sultry vocals, garage rock, acoustic folk, and eclectic electronic sounds. The album drops 3/13/2020, but you can listen to Home Thru Hell and Hope Hell High now.

Musician and arranger Seb Skelly presents a wonderful one-man performance of Queen’s energetic and uplifting 1978 track Don’t Stop Me Now, played on horn, tuba, trombone, and a pair of trumpets. Feeling ambitious? Grab the sheet music here.

Jacob Koller goes by the nickname “The Mad Arranger” because he loves to take relatively straightforward pieces of music and amp up the difficulty to 9000. Here, he takes Rossini’s familiar William Tell Overture and turns it into a supremely tricky jazz version. His arrangement of Mission Impossible is worth a listen too.

Sonicware’s little electronic music maker cranks out some seriously fat sounds. It packs four synth engines, including 8-bit frequency modulation, as well as a step sequencer, effects, and looping, all for less than 200 bucks. It has 27 keys, MIDI in/out, stereo in/out, headphone out, and can run on batteries too.

Puddles Pity Party turned in a stellar cover version of Foreigner’s 1984 hit ballad I Want to Know What Love Is, accompanied by images of his fans’ furry friends, which serve as a reminder that rescue animals are the best, and to encourage listeners to adopt more pets.

BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns, & Moonage Daydreams celebrates the life of David Bowie through a series of illustrated comic panels. The 160 page hardcover graphic novel chronicles his rise from pop singer to Ziggy Stardust, and his numerous personas and reinventions. Written by Michael Allred, Steve Horton, and Laura Allred.