Awesome Music

Teenage Engineering’s third batch of Pocket Operators is now complete. Accompanying the PO-32 Tonic drum machine are the PO-33 K.O.!, a micro-sampler with 40s memory, and the PO-35 Speak, a voice recorder and sampler.

Musician Vinheteiro kept his fingers off the keys for his latest video, instead allowing his player piano to tickle the ivories. The goal? To see how easy or hard it is to recognize well-known pieces of music when the tempo is cranked up to insanely high speeds.

Leo Moracchioli’s latest heavy metal cover takes 4 Non Blonde’s 1992 quirky pop hit What’s Up? and sharpens its edge on his grinding stone. Though we kind of miss Johnette Napolitano’s distinctive yodel. Her hat, not so much.

Polyphonic summarizes the stories and the overarching tale of Green Day’s 2002 concept album American Idiot. It follows a man who lashes out at society and his family, only to realize too late that he should have taken control of his life.

Bluegrass musicians Iron Horse performa a decidedly more upbeat version of Nirvana’s classic All Apologies than we’re used to hearing, applying their jangly country sounds to the 1993 grunge rock track. One of 11 great covers from their album Pickin’ on Nirvana.

Smaller than a stick of gum and weighing less than 0.4oz, Zorloo’s ZuperDAC-S might be the most portable digital-to-analog converter (DAC) ever made. It’s based on the ESS Sabre 9018 and comes with three cables for all sorts of mobile devices and computers.

During their 2017 world tour, Rivers Cuomo and the gang shook it like a Polaroid picture, performing one of the more unlikely cover versions we’ve heard – a garage surfpunk rendition of Outkast’s 2003 hit Hey Ya! His haircut can’t keep up with André 3000’s though.

Multitalented musician Elise Trouw turns in an wonderful live-looped mashup of Foo Fighters’s 1997 hit Everlong by Bobby Caldwell’s 1978 jazz-soul classic What You Won’t Do for Love. There’s a lot of talk about the “it” factor in the music biz, and Elise has got “it” in spades.

We already know that a rubber chicken can be used to make music. But Andrew Huang amped things up with Hexinverter’s mutant rubber chicken that uses compressed air to allow it to be played electronically. This is some serious mad scientist sh*t. Crazy sounds start at 1:59.

“Leave the car running, I’m not ready to go. It doesn’t matter where, I just don’t want to be alone. And as long as you’re not tired yet of talking, it helps to make it hurt less.” The sublime Julien Baker returns to NPR Music to sing songs from her album Turn Out the Lights.

Musician, songwriter, and video effects great Bill Wurtz presents a lighthearted little tune which, despite being completely cryptic, is also catchy as hell and gonna be stuck our heads all day. What does the fox say? La de da de da de da de day oh…

Tinkerer of things DoodleChaos set up a maze of Jenga blocks, dominoes, sticks, magnets, and other bits and bobs, and precisely placed them such that a series of ball bearings dropped into the them syncs up perfectly with Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers.

The latest creation from the analog synthesizer greats at Moog, the semi-modular DFAM (or Drummer from Another Mother) is designed specifically to create distinctive rhythmic sounds for use as the backbeat to electronic music tracks. Listen to sample tracks here.

The Melodicka Bros turn in a sweet cover version of System of a Down’s classic B.Y.O.B., performed entirely on a pair of ukuleles. Just because they’re playing tiny musical instruments doesn’t mean they can’t shred with the best of ’em.

We’ve heard a few interesting cover versions of Toto’s Africa, but we’re particularly enamored of the jangly and twangy country sounds of Doug and Cletus as their band turns in a catchy bluegrass arrangement of the 1982 pop hit.

The very talented animator Felix Colgrave presents a charming, insect- and plant-filled music video for this jazzy and soothing piano track by Nitai Hershkovits and featuring MNDSGN. Kudos to artist Trugglet for the sweet painted backgrounds too.

DJ Cummerbund has done it again. This time, he’s made a miraculous mashup of Pearl Jam’s Jeremy with Kenny Loggins’ Footloose, with just a sprinkle of Proud Mary tossed in for flavoring. The resulting track is shockingly upbeat given its subject matter.

Puddles Pity Party masterfully performs a smoosh-up of Electric Light Orchestra’s classic Telephone Line and Adele’s hit Hello, applying his smooth and buttery voice to two tracks about reaching out and touching someone.

NHK Blends presents a wonderfully mellowed-out version of AC/DC’s 1980 rock classic Back in Black, performed on traditional Japanese instruments, including the shime-daiko, shakuhachi, and koto with a few owl calls thrown in for good measure.

With his natural beatboxing skills, godly knack for hooks, and the people he grew up with, it was almost impossible for Timbaland to not blow up. But he also fell into the trappings of success. He sat down with Complex to look back on his career.

Watch the Fab Four go from fresh-faced youth down to two remaining knights as their hits play in the background. YouTuber Angel Nene says they used dozens of photos from different sources to create the morphing effect. Cue the Sir Paul McCartney conspiracy theorists.

(PG-13: Language) “Confrontation ain’t nothin’ new to me. You can bring a bullet, bring a sword, bring a morgue, but you can’t bring the truth to me.” From one king to another. All the Stars is from the soundtrack of the upcoming Black Panther movie.

Between WhoSampled and Everything Is a Remix, we know that there’s not a ton of 100% originality in music production. But we had no idea that Hall and Oates Rich Girl appeared in so many hit songs. Then again, this is a video from The Onion, so the joke’s on us.