Awesome Music

A biographical documentary about one of the most badass musicians of all time. Joan Jett cut through the male-dominated world of rock music to prove that women can be tough too, all the while creating hits that still rock to this day. From music video director Kevin Kerslake.

Pianist and self-proclaimed redneck Leslie Blake makes his fingers fly across 88 keys like few other musicians. Here, he performs a sped-up ragtime arrangement of The Chordettes 1958 classic Mr. Sandman designed to wake you up more than to put you to sleep.

We had to go way back in the wayback machine to dig up this clip, but it’s too good not to share if you missed it. Watch as The Hellacopters drummer Robert Eriksson performs a solo on a set of custom-carved ice drums. They play surprisingly well – except the cymbals.

A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad and composer Adrian Younge visited NPR Music as the jazz fusion band The Midnight Hour. They played Black Beacon, There Is No Greater Love, Bitches Do Voodoo and Mission, all from their debut album.

YouTuber ChesterCopperpot5 dug up this little gem dating back to August 1994, when Dave Matthews did a solo acoustic performance at a Blockbuster Music store (yes that was a thing), just 6 weeks before his band’s breakout studio album Under the Table and Dreaming debuted.

(PG-13: Lyrics) Myrtle Beach, SC group Oracle Blue presents a fresh take on Radiohead’s 1993 hit track Creep, giving it a polished and jazzy new sound, headlined by the buttery smooth vocals of Liz Kelley-Tavernier and a wonderful flute solo by J.P. Taylor.

Another fun medley of familiar tunes from the Super Mario Bros. universe of video games, this time performed by the Melodica Men, who manager to put a fresh spin a series of tracks we’ve heard covered a million ways already.

Animator Georgios Cherouvim’s video for Poppy Edwards aka Crøm-lus ethereal track features fantastic imagery, manipulating footage of faces using an algorithm replicating the behavior of slime mold as it forms branch-like structures in search of nutrients.

The guys from The Warp Zone turn in another excellent performance, this time taking on the familiar theme music from the Halo video game franchise, in celebration of the upcoming release of Halo Infinite. We’re dreaming of nailing enemies with sticky grenades right now.

(PG-13: Language) Remixer Eclectic Method gathered up clips from a bunch of great movies and did his best connect their scenes based on words that rhyme. For more movie line rhymes check out Screen Werks’ similar vid.

The first full trailer for the upcoming Queen biopic looks sure looks solid, with the role of Freddie Mercury in the very capable hands of Rami Malek, and the story taking us from the earliest days of the band, through its meteoric rise, to the tragic decline of one of its frontman.

(PG-13: Lyrics) Who are you to wave your finger? Brass Against the Machine and Sophia Urista once again wow us with an impressive cover orchestration, this time taking on Tool’s 2006 track The Pot and giving it a powerful new infusion of rock, jazz, and vocal energy.

We already know and love Jeff Goldblum for his many classic performances and ebullient personality, but we had no idea he was also a pretty solid jazz pianist. A couple of years back, he and comedian Sarah Silverman did a little duet of the 1927 classic Me and My Shadow.

Musician Koji Kobura shows off his $99 AKAI MPK Mini keyboard with a great solo performance of Daft Punk’s classic Around the World. The keyboard pairs brilliantly with FL Studio digital audio workstation software to bring it all together.

(PG-13) A man gets massive amounts of attention heaped upon him when he gets a new and adorable pet with a unique talent in Simon Cahn’s hilariously offbeat music video for DJ Boston Bun’s and DVNO’s catchy dance track about spreading love like a Paddington Bear.

Musician Davie504 knows a thing or two about playing bass guitar. So who better than to demonstrate how to go from zero to hero on a 4-string? Listen and enjoy as Davie starts out simple, and quickly progresses to maestro level.

“Success brings sacrifice. And if you thinking it’s a piece of cake, you can have a slice.” Hall of fame MC Rakim dropped by NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert to perform King’s Paradise from the Luke Cage Season 2 OST, as well as his classics Paid in Full and Know the Ledge.

Guitarist Luca Stricagnoli wows us with another amazing cover, U2’s 1987 hit, With or Without You. Thanks to the amazing three-neck guitar by luthier Davide Serracini, and an EBow vibrating one of the strings, he’s able to produce the song’s many layers in a solo performance.

Despite one reader who didn’t bother providing a real email address so we could respond to his complaint, we’re not sick of Leo Moracchioli’s cover songs yet. Listen up kids, and head to Bikini Bottom with this fun metal edition of the theme song from SpongeBob SquarePants.

There was very little about Falco’s 1985 hit Rock Me Amadeus that was actually rock music, so Leo Moracchioli has cured the song of its electro-pop leanings and turned it into a proper headbanger, delivering on the promise of the original’s harsh-sounding German lyrics.

In what is sure to be one of the big hits off of Gorillaz‘ new album THE NOW NOW, the cartoons are joined by Snoop Dogg and Jamie Principle for a thumping good banger of a track about Hollywood’s superficiality and chew-em-up and spit-em-out culture.

thepeterson makes us feel old with this compilation of songs, movies, TV shows and video games that were released or popular 20 years ago, in June 1998. Check out this mish mash of Kung-fu Fighting, X-Files, Banjo Kazooie and more.

The second season of Marvel’s Luke Cage just dropped on Netflix. That means another bangin’ soundtrack from producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Mondo has the soundtrack on 2 LPs, which have a sweet cover and inner sleeve art. Also on Amazon.