Awesome Covers

Wayne Coyne and gang play to a church filled with balloon audience members in the video for this David Bowie cover, which embraces the sort of enigmatic performance that itself would not exist if it weren’t for Bowie himself. A fitting tribute to the master of theatricality.

The normally hard-edged heavy metal band Disturbed recently stopped by Conan and performed their powerful rendition of the Simon and Garfunkel classic Sound of Silence, showing off a side of lead singer David Draiman that we’re not used to hearing.

Missouri-based indie rock band Me Like Bees made a cover of Van Morrison’s pop soul song Dweller on the Threshold using only the lyrics as the basis for their adaptation. Skip to 5:36 for the performance.

Futurama is one of our all-time favorite TV shows. It deftly combined humor, science fiction, animation, pop culture, and an awesome ensemble cast. While we’ll have to live with reruns, we can at least enjoy this awesome one-man cover of its theme song by SquidPhysics.

Another fun cover version of Darude’s mesmerizing dance hit, Sandstorm, this time played on marimba – and a wood box, by musician eemikun, who also does a mean remake of the Nyan Cat theme. Yeah, remember Nyan Cat? Never forget.

Musician Jack Fliegler (aka “ToxicxEternity“) arranged this heavy metal tribute that seriously expands on one of today’s most familiar sounds: a stock iPhone ringtone. Our next request: the classic Nokia ringtone. Oh wait.

Redditor Muffinizer1 says his Uncle Aoch was “super proud” of this video, in which the ol’ man sings a cover of Hugh Collins’ timeless jazz song Bill Bailey with a recording of himself. Now you can have a quartet, uncle.

REM frontman Rip Van Winkle Michael Stipe dropped by The Tonight Show to turn in a haunting performance of the David Bowie’s 1970 classic in advance of The Music of David Bowie charity concert slated for NYC on 3/31 & 4/1/16. The 4/1 concert will be streamed live.

A completely silly, low-budget 360º video featuring the vocal stylings of a capella group VOCA People. Their all-white outfits and makeup are just goofy, but there’s no denying their musical talents. Be sure to check out their impressive Disney Medley too.

Musicians The GAG Quartet turns in a lighthearted tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that combines metal, salsa, and a bit of tango. Despite how that sounds, somehow it all works. Though Mozart might not be too happy with what they did to him in the video.

Somebody’s Heine’ is crowding our icebox. An suprising and awesome cover version of Weezer’s 1994 classic Say It Ain’t So performed on cello and djembe by Break of Reality. Be sure to check out their frenetic System of a Down B.Y.O.B. cover too.

An oddly soothing (and just plain odd) cover of Radiohead’s 1997 dark societal commentary No Surprises played entirely on kazoo. The fact that it took over 5 years for the internet to discover this video is astounding.

One of our favorite 1980’s guilty pleasures is the music of German synth-pop band Kraftwerk. Andy Westphal feels the same way, and performed a fun cover of their track The Robots with the help of his son Hudson. Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance.

In the latest episode of Blind Covers, Kansas City-based alt rock band Rachel Mallin and the Wild Type come up with their own version of Cyndi Lauper’s I Drove All Night. Skip to 4:13 for their performance.

Please won’t you be our neighbor? Musician 331Erock puts on his comfy cardigan, takes off his loafers, and turns the classic childhood theme song from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood into a rock tune.

Michael Mac turns in a great instrumental arrangement of Taylor Swift’s megahit with the vocals replaced by lead electric guitar. Check out Michael’s YouTube channel to see more of his nimble fingers in action. We especially like his Dragon Ball Super theme.