Awesome Music

Lou Reed’s 1972 track Perfect Day is one of our all-time favorite songs, so the idea of covering it makes us a little twitchy. But if anyone can pull it off, it’s Puddles Pity Party – and he did it with his usual vocal and emotional aplomb.

The Roland TR-08 looks and works exactly the same as its grandfather, the TR-808, but in a much more portable form. You can even power it with batteries. It doesn’t sound quite as crunchy as the original, but for its price and size it’s a hell of a deal.

Vocalist Tara Louise leads off one of our favorite Postmodern Jukebox covers yet, with a vibrant 1920’s jazz style version of Japanese Kawaii metal group Babymetal’s cult hit Gimme Chocolate. If you’re unfamiliar with the original, here ya go. You’re welcome.

Celebrate the peak of glam metal with the 30th Anniversary Edition of Def Leppard’s fourth album. It’s available on vinyl and CD, as well as a deluxe set that comes with B-sides, remixes, two DVDs, and four books.

If you haven’t watched last week’s episode of Rick and Morty yet, drop what you’re doing and tune in for an ample dose of Pickle Rick. Then, watch Chetreo’s awesomely songified take on Rick’s most insane incarnation yet.

Hey Beautiful Jerk and illustrator Skinner created about an hour of footage for heavy metal band Mastodon’s recent world tour, and have boiled down some of their epic animated nightmare fuel into a 4-minute video for the band’s track Sultan’s Curse.

Paweł Zadrożniak’s retro-mechanical orchestra The Floppotron is back with another great cover. Listen up as it performs a Bee Gees’ disco classic. If you prefer something a bit more modern, he also dropped a cover of Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger this week.

“A kid in class passed me a tape, a band called The Jesus and Mary Chain…” The Shins’ James Mercer dropped by NPR Music to play acoustic versions of Mildenhall and The Fear from their new album Heartworms, then closed with Young Pilgrims.

“That weird thing by his side an infantilized sequoia. The two of them walk by, people say “Oh boy-a!”” David Hasselhoff, director James Gunn and the stars of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 went full ’70s in this madcap music video for the film’s end credits song.

After regaling us with some RHCP played with red hot chili peppers, bass player Davie504 rises to the challenge of performing Lose Yourself, The Real Slim Shady, My Name Is and Stan with candies that melt in your mouth, not in your hand.

Musician Douglas Borsatti cranks out a wonderful and unique cover version of the King of Pop’s 1982 uber-hit on his squeezebox. If Michael Jackson performed while strolling the streets of Paris wearing a beret, we imagine this is what his music might have sounded like.

(PG-13: Language) “Do you have a nice car? Do you live in a cool house? Nobody knows what you’re going through.” Jazz fusion comedian Bill Wurtz plugs in the questions and platitudes from pop songs to create an optimized track that would make an A.I. feel proud.

A new single from electronic artist Charlie Yin aka Giraffage. Slowly still has Giraffage written all over it – synth hooks, cut and pitch-shifted vocals, transitions from light to dark – but it has a mature polish to it. The track is from his upcoming album Too Real.

(PG-13) The enigmatic South African rappers Die Antwoord are getting their own TV show. We have no idea what it’s about, but Ninja and Yo-Landi claim all the videos they’ve made over the last 7 years were all part of a grand plan for the show’s storyline.

(PG-13: Language) Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard recently released a cover of Teenage Fanclub’s classic album, Bandwagonesque. In an article in The Guardian, Gibbard says he recorded it as a refuge from today’s troubling times.

Pianist Amik Lanfranco cranks out a truly impassioned performance of the 1979 Joy Division classic Love Will Tear Us Apart, with a piano arrangement so good it deserves a place on the soundtrack for Westworld.

Musician and all-around madman Andy Rehfeldt is back with another death metal cover. This time, he turns our favorite mild-mannered, cardigan-wearing neighbor into an angry member of the Army of Satan. Though at times, Andy’s death metal voice sounds a whole lot like Cookie Monster.

(PG-13: Language) A hilariously cynical bit from Vice News, in which The Black Keys co-founder Patrick Carney listens to snippets of music from other artists, and rips apart most of it for lazy writing, cheesy instrumentation, or just not being his kind of jam. More here.

We’re rooting for Puddles to take the win on America’s Got Talent, but he’s got some stiff competition. Regardless of the outcome, we’ll always have his YouTube channel. Here, he picks up his guitar and turns in a dialed-down arrangement of Blondie’s 1979 hit Dreaming.

A limited edition vinyl release of Michael “Garoad” Kelly’s stunning electronic jazz soundtrack for the cyberpunk narrative game VA-11 HALL-A. It comes with a poster, a faux interview with one of the characters in the game, and digital dowload codes.

Drummer David Dockery’s latest rhythm-matching exercise lines up his drumbeats with one of the many classic improv bits from Rick and Morty, as the duo tunes into one of the multiverse’s infinite TV channels, and encounters a salesman with an eye problem.

Director Philip Andelman and Eko’s interactive music video for Know No Better provides dueling perspectives on the life of a young man. With a click of the mouse or trackpad, you can bounce between his real life and his imagined one on demand.

CANADA’s bright and punchy short film was inspired by David Bowie’s Sound and Vision. They made the video for Museu del Disseny de Barcelona’s hosting of David Bowie Is, a touring art exhibit by the Victoria and Albert Museum.