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The Quick 10: 10 Awesome Tribute Band Names

I'm going to see a Beatles tribute band tonight. I know; it will never come close to the real thing, but it's probably as close as I'm going to get. Sadly, with such a huge catalog of song titles to create an awesome, punny band name from, this band is simply called "The Fab Four." But there are plenty of other sweet tribute band names out there - here are a few of them. 1. Pete Loaf. I heard Meat Loaf sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at a Phillies game a few... READ ON

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The Late Movies: Hayseed Dixie

Rob Lammle posted some great videos in an article called The Ultimate Superfans: Tribute Bands That Really Rock (you should read and watch if you haven't already). Many other tribute bands were mentioned in the comments. Commenter jewessjeans mentioned Hayseed Dixie, which isn't exactly a tribute band, but a mashup of sorts. They play hard rock songs bluegrass style. Yeah, they started out doing AC/DC tunes almost exclusively, but after some success, you gotta branch out. Hayseed Dixie is an experience no... READ ON

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Epic Musical Mashup

This is truly beautiful. In the video below, video artist Crumbs Chief mashes up an insane number of musical dance numbers, matching them to the mashup track "Come Again (Beatles vs Rare Earth vs Beaties vs Daft Punk vs Cypress Hill vs Boston)" by the Kleptones. Basically, if you can think of a famous dance scene from a movie, it shows up here somewhere. Yes, even Napoleon Dynamite. You can watch the video a bit bigger on Vimeo. Note: the abrupt ending is intentional, as this comes from a section... READ ON

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The Late Movies: Double Rainbow (So Intense)

If you haven't seen the "double rainbow" video on YouTube, get ready for something, uh, intense. The video's YouTube description simply read, "It was rainbowing for at least an hour on January 8th 2010. It was incredible. The camera could not capture the vivid intensity and brightness." This dude was way excited about that double rainbow. The video has now racked up more than 6 million views, and I present, for your viewing pleasure, a series of expansions on the video that are a whole lot of fun.... READ ON

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The Late Movies: Orchestras Go Pop

I love when classical musicians play pop songs. It gives you a whole new perspective on the song itself minus the performing personality of the original artist. We Will Rock You By the Japanese orchestra Ooedo No Hikeshi. Smells Like Teen Spirit By the Ukulele Orchestra of Great... READ ON

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The Late Movies: Covers of "Ceremony"

"Ceremony" is among the best-known songs by the band Joy Division, although it was made famous by New Order -- a band which was effectively the remnants of Joy Division, minus its deceased singer/songwriter, Ian Curtis. It's a hell of a song, partly because there are so few recordings (only three -- all live, from rehearsals or soundchecks) by the original band, including this one. So in a sense, all we have of "Ceremony" are cover versions -- there was no studio recording of this song with Ian Curtis on... READ ON

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The Late Movies: Stars and Stripes Forever

John Philip Sousa wrote the tune we know as Stars and Stripes Forever on Christmas Day in 1896, according to his autobiography. Most Americans associate it with Independence Day more than any other holiday. As we head into a Fourth of July holiday weekend, lets get into the proper patriotic mood with a variety of renditions of that old classic, Stars and Stripes Forever. Trombones A quartet of young women on trombones, called Bones Apart. Awesome! Barbershop Quartet Style By the group Delusions of... READ ON

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The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met (1946)

Here's some classic animation for your Monday morning: a 1946 Disney short about an opera-singing whale, entitled The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met. Inspired by experience in his home recording studio, Nelson Eddy voiced all the human (and whale) voices in the film, including multi-voice opera set pieces including sextets (some parts were pitch-shifted to artificially extend his range). Awesome. Part 2 after the... READ ON

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Pale Blue Dot: More Beautiful Carl Sagan Video

In this touching video, Carl Sagan reads from his book Pale Blue Dot. Director Michael Marantz shot time-lapse video and composed beautiful music under Sagan's narration. Please have a look -- it'll put your Tuesday into perspective. It begins: We were hunters and foragers. The frontier was everywhere. We were bounded only by the Earth, and the ocean, and the sky. The open road still softly calls. Our little terraqueous globe is the madhouse of those hundred thousand millions of worlds. We,... READ ON

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The Late Movies: Beck's Record Club Covers INXS's "Kick"

Beck Hansen has assembled a "Record Club" club which covers favorite songs and posts videos of the cover songs online. Recently, they've been on an INXS kick (pun intended) in which they cover songs from the famous 1987 INXS album Kick. Here's the entire album (minus the last two tracks -- they're apparently still on the to-do list), as recorded by Beck and friends: "Never Tear Us Apart A song with its own Wikipedia entry. Record Club: INXS "Never Tear Us Apart" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.... READ ON