Archive Category: Music

Fun With Webcams

(YouTube link)
This is a music video for “Hibi no Neiro” (Tone of everyday) by Sour. The people in it are fans of the band, and the whole thing was shot on webcams all over the world. At first, you think that using fans and webcams would be the cheap and easy way to produce a video, but then you see the result and realize how challenging this must have been to coordinate and edit. -via Metafilter

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Who’s the Biggest Musical Icon of the Past Century?

With the passing of musical legend Michael Jackson, the game of comparative history can begin: who do you think is the biggest musical icon of the past century - Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, or Frank Sinatra?

Asylum blog has the low down comparing The King, The King of Pop, and the Chairman: Link

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Web Side Story: Internet, The Musical

What could be better than the Internet? How about the Interweb, the musical? Here’s Web Side Story (but of course), a musical by College Humor about all the good things on the Net in the style of West Side Story. Leonard Bernstein is probably spinning in his grave.

Web Side Story, written and directed by Sam Reich, produced by Eva Wong.

Hit play or go to Link [College Humor Video] - Thanks Stephanie!

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Winston Churchill, Techno Star

(YouTube Link)

Musician Michael Schmoyoho Gregory remixed a 1941 speech by Churchill with a techno beat. That is techno, right? I don’t know anything about music, but I do know that this is awesome.

via Double Plus Undead

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Otter Plays Piano

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has trained this cute little guy to play piano. Of course, he’s not the next Beethoven, but it’s still too cute to look away.

Link Via Cute Overload

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Don’t Stop Believin’

(vimeo link)
Eight-year-old Riley Silos sings in this video recorded and edited by his dad. It was a Fathers Day project they did together. -via Buzzfeed

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Michael Jackson Found Dead

Photo Via Brennheit Bakst [Flickr]

M.J. was just found dead at the age of fifty, apparently from a cardiac arrest.He was scheduled to perform a number of comeback concerts next year.

“We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back,” the entertainment website [TMZ] said.

Regardless of how you feel about his personal “issues” this is a sad day for pop music fans and weird art enthusiasts everywhere.

Link

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To Protect and Serve … and Dance!

Sometimes you just gotta let it loose, though this short video clip shows that even when you think you’re alone … Big Brother is always watching!

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

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Soviet Russian Album Covers

English Russia has a collection of record album covers from the 70s and 80s. Looking through these, I get the feeling that I’ve seen these before, just with different faces and a language I understand. Link -via Metafilter

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Segway + Marching Band + Fire = Awesome!

What do you get when you put a marching band on segways, then set them on fire? Here’s Glissendo, a street performance by Le Snob at the French art festival, playing "Lightning" by Philip Glass (concept and technical design by Ulik, the Mechanical Clown)

Miss Cellania has the video clip: Link [embedded YouTube clip]

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Music Tidbits: Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper is one of my heroes. I saw her a few years ago and even though she was around 45 at the time, she had the energy of a teenager. Her style has changed over the years, but it is as unique as ever. If you get the chance to see Cyndi live, do it. She’s an amazing performer with an excellent voice.

That being said, I was excited to write about Cyndi for the Music Tidbits today. It’s in a new format that should make it a bit more fun and readable. Hope you like it!

She Keeps it Real

Or at least, her name is real. Unlike other pop stars, Cyndi Lauper was born in New York in 1953 and was named Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper.

Cyndi Does it All

Image Via danorbit. [Flickr]

While she’s best known for singing, she can also play guitar, write lyrics and act. She started writing songs and playing guitar at only twelve years old. She’s acted in quite a few movies and tv shows, including Mad About You, the Ron Howard movie Vibes and Life With Mikey beside Michael J. Fox. Her role in Mad About You almost turned into a spin off, but network executives thought the show concept was too out there.

She’s always Been So Original

When she was only a middle-schooler, she was already dyeing her hair crazy colors and wearing her weird clothing styles she’s known for. Speaking of her wardrobe, it actually became a problem during the1985 taping of “We Are the World,” when a weird clacking noise showed up on the tape. Audio engineers finally tracked the noise down to her jewelry bonking against itself.

Doctors Said She’d Never Sing Again…Then She Did

In 1977, Cyndi severely damaged her vocal cords. Three different doctors told her she would never sing again. But she didn’t give up and started seeing vocal coach Katir Agresta, who helped Cyndi recover by teaching her a series of vocal exercises.

She’s Got High Standards

In 1978, she started a music group, Blue Angel, with saxaphonist John Turi, where they performed original music. When labels started showing interest in Cyndi’s vocal abilities (she can sing in four octaves and has perfect pitch), they wanted to sign her as a solo artist. She refused to sign with any labels until Polydor Records opted to take on all of Blue Angel.

Write On!

Photo Via t_a_i_s [Flickr]

When Cyndi signed as a solo artist with Portrait Records, the label wanted her to sing all only their pre-written pop songs. Cyndi changed most of these songs to suit her personality, which also let her claim co-writer credits and royalties later on. The most well-known song she did this to was “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which was originally written for a male singer. Cyndi thought the original lyrics were a little misogynistic, as it was all about a woman pleasing a man.

Although the label didn’t trust her writing abilities, the record producer decided they needed one more song on her first album and convinced the label to let her write a song. She co-wrote Time After Time with Rob Hyman. The song ended up being the biggest single of 1985 and has since been covered by over 100 artists. The title came from a 1979 sci-fi movie starring Malcolm McDowell.

Girls Just Want to Have Trivia

Video Link

In the video for “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” Cyndi’s mother was played by her actual mother. Also in the video was Cyndi’s dog and pro-wrestler Lou Albano. Cyndi’s famous red dress in the video was from the boutique she was working at between being signed for Blue Angel and her solo career. The video won the first ever award for Best Female Video at the MTV Music Awards. The album it was on was so popular that she became the first female artist to have four consecutive Top 5 hits from a single album.

The World Wrestling Foundation Loved Cyndi

And vice versa. Aside from having Lou Albano appear in her first video, Cyndi had frequent interactions with the stars of the WWF. Her video for the Goonies included a number of wrestling greats, including Andre The Giant and when she recieved her first Grammy Award, Hulk Hogan appeared with her, pretending to be her bodyguard. She also made quite a few appearances at WWF events, the most famous event was at the Inaugural WrestleMania event. She appeared as the manager of Wendi Richter and entered the area to “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”

She Hates The Goonies

Or rather, the song she wrote for the album, “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough.” It doesn’t have too much to do with the song itself, she was just traumatized by the physical exhaustion she suffered during the taping of the video. The director was too much of a perfectionist and ran the entire crew ragged. She left the song off of her best of album and only started singing it at concerts again back in 2003.

PeeWee’s Playhouse Lied To You

Cyndi wrote and performed the theme song for PeeWee’s Playhouse, but was credited as Ellen Shaw for some reason. When Cyndi was married, PeeWee (aka Paul Ruebens) was at her wedding, along with Little Richard, John Tuturo and other celebrities. Although Cyndi threatened to show up dressed as a Christmas tree, she wore a traditional white gown.

Cyndi Loves Guest Appearances

Throughout her recording career, Cyndi featured a number of guest stars on her albums, including Billy Joel, The Bangles, Rick Derringer, Bootsy Collins, Eric Clapton, Shaggy, Ani DiFranco, Jeff Beck, Paul Reubens (PeeWee Herman), Sarah McLachlan, The Hives and more. In her recent 2008 tour, she had appearances from Joan Jett, Rosie O’Donnell, The B52’s, Indigo Girls, Regina Spektor, Wanda Sykes, Sarah McLachlan and more. Lastly, although it may not count as a guest appearance, Julia Stiles, appeared as young Cyndi in the video for “Sally’s Pigeons” before she was a famous actress.

She’s Heterosexual, but Once Wished She Was Gay

Lauper is considered a gay icon, but she is heterosexual. Her sister and many of her close friends are gay and she has been performing at gay pride events since 1994. In fact, for a while, she thought herself to be a lesbian. She told The Times, “My sister was gay, my best friends were gay, so I figured I had to be gay. So I did everything they did. I tried kissing girls. But it didn’t feel right for me and eventually I was forced to come out as a heterosexual.”

Source #1, #2

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The Bathroom Song

Joel Veitch of rathergood.com and his wife just wanted to record a simple song with/for their kids. The second half of the video shows how difficult that process is! Oh, the “for” part is simple, but the “with” part can take all day. Link -via b3ta

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Derek Paravicini: The Musical Genius

Part I [YouTube Clip]

Born 3-and-a-half months prematurely, Derek Paravicini was so small that his doctor presumed that he was dead. Just as his mother had given up hope, she heard the faintest whimper. To keep him alive, he was put on oxygen but improper equipment left him blind and autistic. At the tender age of 2 years old, Derek discovered the piano, and his life was never the same.

Fast forward 30 years. Derek couldn’t tell his left from right and could barely count to ten but his brain is a perfectly programmed musical computer.

Press play or go to Link [YouTube, Part I] to see the amazing things Derek Paravicini, the musical genius, could do.

The rest of the clips: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Link: The Human iPod, article at Daily Mail by Harry Mount - via LiveScience

Previously on Neatorama: 10 Most Fascinating Savants in the World

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Korean Man in Uniform Dances to The Wonder Girls’ Nobody

North Korea may have gone nuclear, but that didn’t stop this uniformed South Korean officer from doing what’s truly important: dancing to the pop hit "Nobody" by The Wonder Girls.

Stay with it, it gets better and better. And soon enough, you won’t be able to get the tunes out of your head.

Link [embedded YouTube clip] | Compare to the original

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Expialidocious: Mary Poppins Turned Into Electronica

What does it take to create an electronica music? If you look at Nick Bertke’s (YouTube user Pogo) creation, the answer is simple: sine wave bass, custom drum sequences, and bits of sounds from Disney movie "Mary Poppins."

This one’s titled Expialidocious. (You can find many more examples at his YouTube and MySpace pages).

Previously on Neatorama: Nick’s more famous song: Alice

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Baierman.

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Hammer Pants Flash Mob

One minute you’re shopping for skinny jeans in a trendy hipster store and the next, you’re in the midst of a flashmob wearing Hammer Pants, dancing to U Can’t Touch This.

Sure, it’s a viral for A&E’s Hammertime, a documentary about the rise and fall of MC Hammer, but it’s worth watching if only for the old bald dude in suit & Hammer pants gettin’ down @1:25.

Link [embedded YouTube clip]

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Suco de Laranja: A Fun Little Stop Motion Animation

Brazilian artist Breno Pineschi of Hardcuore had a little fun with this Suco de Laranja (orange juice) video clip. All you need to make a funky electronic music are fresh oranges, some melba toast and a dash of humor.

Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo]

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Wedding Music Video

Forget those regular ol’ boring wedding videos. Tim Warwood and Adam Gendle of LOCKDOWN projects will take your special day and turn it into something truly sensational. Take, for example, Brian & Eileen’s wedding. Don’t Stop Them Now!

Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo] - via Attuworld

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Reznor Helps Transplant Patient

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is doing something special during the band’s final tour. By offering special concert packages and encouraging donations, they have raised over $850,000 to help Eric De La Cruz get heart transplant.

De La Cruz was turned down from transplant lists because of the lack of transplant centers in Nevada. Reznor became aware of his situation after De La Cruz’s sister, former CNN.com news anchor Veronica De La Cruz, began a fundraising campaign on her website. The campaign is as much to raise money for Eric as it is to raise awareness of Nevada’s limited transplant opportunities, and to petition Senator Harry Reid and other Congress members for improved legislation.

Link to story. Link to donation information. -via reddit

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Two Girls, One Piano

(YouTube link)
They play better with their feet than I do with ten fingers and a score! The song is Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, by J.S. Bach. -via Arbroath

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Susan Boyle at the Semi-Final of Britain’s Got Talent

Y’all remember Susan Boyle, the instant sensation who took the Interwebs by storm when she sang at Britain’s Got Talent.

She recently sang at the semi-final of the show - and as you can tell, she’s got herself a make-over, though the bumbling and gosh-darn qualities that endeared her to the rest of the world are still there.

If you haven’t seen it, Miss Cellania got the clip: Link [embedded YouTube]

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Cutest Chorus Ever: PS22 Chorus Sings “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac

Now this is cute: New York City PS22 elementary school chorus singing "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac. I’d say they did just as good a job as Stevie Nicks. Great job, PS22 kids and their music teacher Gregg "Mr. B" Breinberg!

Watch it before the goons from RIAA deliver a takedown notice for copyright violation (even though Stevie likes it): Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Urlesque

More PS22 Chorus vids here: Link (including my current fave: their cover of Viva La Vida by Coldplay and Eye of the Tiger by Survivor)

Background story from the Brooklyn Rail by Sophie Gilbert:

In a school where more than three quarters of the students are eligible for free lunch, the lyrics of the song have resonance, and the performance is haunting, emotive, and delivered with far more soul than one might expect from a bunch of fifth-graders. As Breinberg plays, he makes eye contact with the kids, coaxing performances from them and letting them enjoy themselves. Later, Davoya, one of the chorus members, explains how he does it. “At first, when I sang, I had no emotion,” she says. “I didn’t move. But Mr. B taught me to sing with feeling. With feeling and heart.”

Link

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Total Momsense 2 by Anita Renfroe

Remember Anita Renfroe’s song about motherhood Total Momsense that went round the Interweb a while ago? Well, she’s back with version no. 2.

Here’s it is: Link [embedded YouTube clip] | Anita’s website

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Tiny Susan Boyle Doll

When "Uneekdolldesigns" creator Debbie Ritter saw Susan Boyle on YouTube she just had to make a doll version of her! The result is a 5 inch clothespin doll that really does well represent Susan!

I cheered for her over and over when I heard her sing… In fact, I even got teary eyed- why? Because she was showing everyone that beauty comes in different packages, and not to judge something because it isn’t carried in a pretty and sparkling package.

Link - via fluffybricks

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Maeveone.

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The Silliest of Eurovision 2009

I just experienced 20 minutes of inexplicable joy reading about and watching videos for The Guardian’s picks of the silliest Eurovision entries of 2009. The video above is the entry from the Czech Republic. [The Guardian]

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Piano Duet

Here’s a wonderful impromptu piano performance at the Mayo Clinic by 90-year-old Marlo Cowan and his wife of 62 years, Fran.  A cheerful reminder of how to have a long life and a successful marriage.

- via crainium

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Minnesotastan.

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Metallica in Bluegrass, Cello, and … Even Kazoo!

John of The Zeray Gazette has a neat compilation of various video clips of Enter Sandman, the iconic song by Metallica, as covered by others and played in um, different genres.

Included are: Enter Sandman as performed by the bluegrass band Iron Horse, the cello quintet Apocalyptica (quite famous, actually), and even a version played with a Kazoo!

Link

Previously on Neatorama: Enter Sandman lyrics in LOLcats

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Food Radio

Following a friend’s suggestion, Jonathan Ryan made a Pandora station with artists and bands with foods in their names. Here’s the result: Food Radio - via JonathanRyan

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Contrabass and Subcontrabass Instruments

Look at the size of that saxophone!

Pitched one octave below bass, contrabass and subcontrabass instruments are about as low as most instruments go. Aside from those massive pipe organs, they’re also about as big as most instruments get.

See and hear the biggest flutes, clarinets, saxophones, and more in this collection of videos. Link -via the Presurfer

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Music Tidbits: Perry Farrell

This week’s artist was quite a treat for me, although I’ve always loved Jane’s Addiction, I didn’t know much about their lead singer. Turns out he’s done a whole lot for the music community at large.

• Perry Farrell was born in Queens, New York on March 29, 1959. His birth name was Peretz Bernstein. His mother committed suicide when he was only three years old –later referenced in the Jane’s Addiction song “Then She Did.”
• After graduating from high school in Florida in the early 80s, Perry decided to live the surfer’s life in Los Angeles, California, living out of his car and making money by waiting tables and working construction.
• Perry’s first band was the gothic band Psi Com. The music scene the group was involved with included a lot of big name bands like X, Fishbone and Black Flag.
• When Psi Com broke up in 1985, Perry began working on Jam Sessions with Eric Avery that would help lead to the foundation of Jane’s Addiction. It was around this time period that Farrell came up with his stage name, he chose Perry Farrell because it was a fun play on “peripheral.”
• Jane’s Addiction was named after Perry’s drug addict roommate, Jane Bainter. Eric’s little sister Rebecca helped the group find its other two members, Stephen Perkins, her boyfriend, and a friend, Dave Navarro.

• The group soon started to have a big following around the LA club scene and quickly garnered interest from multiple record labels. They chose to sign with Warner Brothers Records, but insisted on releasing their first album with the independent label Triple X Records. In addition, the group received the largest signing advance ever offered at the time, around $275,000.
• In 1991, Farrell worked with Ted Gardener and Marc Geiger to create the Lollapalooza festival as a farewell tour for Jane’s Addiction. For this reason, Farrell became known as a “godfather of alternative rock music.”
• Parry Farrell and Casey Niccoli worked together on a film titled Gift that featured Jane’s Addiction. The movie is a gothic, tragic, romantic story in the LA club scene with themes of sex and drugs. The movie was released by Warner Brothers in 1993.
• After Jane’s Addiction, Perry and Stephen Perkins started a new band, Porno for Pyros.
• Around this same period, Jane’s Addition reunited with Eric Avery replaced by Flea, who had worked with Dave Navarro in The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
• A number of women dancers were hired as part of the stage show for this “relapse” tour, one of these dancers later became Farrell’s wife. He had this to say about meeting her, “Etty and I have been working together since 1997. The very first time I saw her come in and shake her… ponytail, I hired her and I fell in love with her on the spot.” She has continued to dance in every Jane’s Addiction tour since.

• In the late nineties, Perry decided to start a solo career. His first album features a number of lyrics inspired by the Kabala.
• Farrell occasionally DJs using the name DJ Peretz.
• The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival largely has Perry to thank for their continued success, as the festival was close to failure after its first incarnation in 1999. When the festival was scheduled to happen a second time there was no headlining group for a long time. Finally, Farrell volunteered to reunite Jane’s Addiction for the event, which helped bring in large crowds. Since then there has been a tradition of reuniting one major band every year. Perry has been the only artist to play every Coachella festival, occasionally as a solo artist or DJ and occasionally in a group.
• Jane’s Addiction donated all of their earnings from one show in 2001 to help negotiate the release of over 2,300 Sudanese slaves.
• In 2005, Farrell and his wife Etty began a theatrical band called “The Satellite Party.” The group’s music is focused around an imaginary version of their relationship together. Their debut album had appearances by Flea, Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons, New Order bassist Peter Hook and Fergie.

Satellite Party Image Via -EMR- [Flickr]

• Kidzapalooza is a kid-friendly stage at the annual Lollapalooza festival that was started by Perry and music producer Tor Hyams. This year represents the first time Kidzapalooza will be its own festival. It is planned for June at the Hollywood Bowl. Featured artists will include Farrell, Gary Oldman, Slash and Ziggy Marley.
• Perry celebrated his Jewish heritage by performing at the 2006 Purimpalooza, a music celebration of the Jewish holiday of Purim and the birthday of Rabbi Yosef Langer.
• The NME awards of 2008 saw the first reunion in 17 years of all four original Jane’s Addiction members. They were the first American group to win the award of “God Like Genius.”

Sources #1, #2, #3, #4

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