Awesome Music

Loy Valera’s What Is Your Profession? t-shirt is the spitting image of a visual pun: he could have had a jockey riding a disc, but his hand-drawn style really shines with a ghetto blaster.

It’s nice to know the Los Angeles Police Department not only protects and serves but does requests: Awesomer reader Alexis surprises his wife with a birthday song by Academy recruits.

YouTube music celebs Paul Dateh and David Choi break out the strings in this stirring rendition of the Super Mario Land Theme; if this doesn’t get you doing a plumber’s jig, nothing will.

Playing air guitar might look cooler, but Omer Yosha’s Airpiano actually works; it’s a virtual matrix of keys and faders triggered by hand movement, all thanks to arduino-driven sensors.

From the same guy who brought us Iron Man vs. Bruce Lee, Bumblebee Boy turns our favorite Autobot into a breakdancin’ fool; PS: the soundtrack is “Vanished” by Crystal Castles.

Dave Matthews Band may be too mainstream for some, but Big Whiskey is a solid album with emotional weight; it’s a tribute to saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who passed away in 2008.

Livid’s Ohm64 Controller takes an open approach to mixing, with an open source editor and patches; made in Austin, TX, it’ll work over USB or MIDI and sports a 64 button clip bank.

The Fab Four’s yellow submarine finally comes home with The Beatles: Rock Band; we’re loving both the nostalgia-inducing gameplay and the trippy goo goo g’joob cinematic trailer.

Belkin’s TuneBase line adds hands-free calling to its features; both models pipe music to your car stereo, via an auxiliary input with the TuneBase Direct or wirelessly with the TuneBase FM.

If you’re too lazy to tilt your Rock Band 2 controller to kick things into Overdrive, Electro Harmonix’s Overdrive Pedal lets you toe-tap it out with a foot-activated switch and 10′ cable.

The analog equivalent of Apple’s iPod Nano ads, Five Crown Clothing’s Neon Cassettes Drip t-shirt hearkens back to a time when mixtapes were literally made with tape.

Only audiophiles need apply for HiFiMAN’s HM-801; it’s a souped-up MP3 player with a modular amp bay and a Burr-Brown DAC, good for driving gobs of power to your headphones.

Renowned for their real DJ accessories, Numark’s Scratch Deck targets gamers with both PS3 and Xbox 360 flavors; it sports a touch sensitive turntable and 5 Akai-style drum pads.

It’s not the official video for Death Cab for Cutie’s “Little Bribes”, but this kickass video by Ross Ching should be; its a masterful blend of time lapse, stop motion, and live action tricks.

Simon and McBess’ WOOD starts off like an old-time cartoon (and stays monochrome throughout), but the delicious blend of urban graphics and animation style are clearly modern.

28-year old guitarist Dave Chatterson’s LEGO replica of a Fender Princeton Reverb amp looks good enough to play; it’s heavily detailed down to the tube chart, switches and knobs.

Relapse should be subtitled Return, as it brings Eminem back to his self-deprecating, darker roots with song after song skewering his and others’ shortcomings; it’s honest and raw.

Kudos to David Osborne for being ultra efficient: his traveling drum kit serves as both his ride and his gig, with a bicycle that can be transformed into a drumset in only 20 minutes.

It won’t please all audiophiles, but along with a smoked glass design, the iHome iP1 iPod Dock uses Bongiovi audio processing and features a 100W amp, 4″ woofers and 1″ tweeters.

This dizzyingly cool music video for Cortney Tidwell’s Watusii is the polar coordinate version of Still Run; it’s shot with a circle-track system which essentially is a stage on wheels.

We’re loving this hypnotic music video for indie band BrotherSister’s Still Run; it shows a continuously shifting landscape that starts off serene but gets pretty dicey towards the end.

A million voices cried out and were played in a loop: Star Wars Soundboard has dozens of squealing Jawas, growling Wookiees and whiny Lukes to mix at your mercy. Thanks, Thorir!

At $200, you could get a real guitar in place of Logitech’s new Wireless Guitar; still, for hardcore Rock Band/Guitar Hero players, you can’t beat the $50 price drop over the previous edition.