10-year-old sensation Nandi Bushell released s drum cover of The Who classic 'My Generation' describing it as - "one of the most difficult covers I have ever made. I think this song really suits my style. Fast, Fun and Rocking with a Punk edge!”. Apart from showing talent and plenty of practice in the video, she’s a bundle of energy and joy behind the kit.
'Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell' docu on the life and career of The Notorious B.I.G. is officially coming to Netflix on March 1, and the streaming service unveiled the first trailer. The documentary is executive produced by the late rapper's mother Voletta Wallace and his friend and collaborator Diddy, both contributing candid interviews to the film.
Manchester Orchestra have just premiered 'A Black Mile To The Surface: The Global Concert Film' which saw the band perform their most recent album - 2017's 'A Black Mile to the Surface' - live in its entirety in Echo Mountain Recording in Asheville, NC, the same location that they recorded the album. The sound is great, as well as the band and the songs (from their, probably, best album).
An all-around nice guy with a profile name Old Composer does a reaction and a breakdown of 'Passenger' by Deftones and Maynard James Keenan of Tool on his YouTube channel. He goes just slightly into theory and really appreciates how the band has built the song. There's plenty of videos he uploaded, one of the newest was his reaction to Mudvayne's 'Dig' which he really - dug! He also did a video 'Why Led Zeppelin KASHMIR Makes Your Face Melt'. He is a composer, real name George “GiBi” del Barrio.
The YouTuber Rick Beato shares a very interesting video about how people lose their perfect pitch, without even realizing it. Beato realized that this happens to almost everybody when they reach 50 years of age, and, interestingly, it's almost always by half step.The ear can't hear
The oldest person in Wales and quite possibly the oldest person on TikTok, the 110-year-old Amy Hawkins has become an overnight singing sensation on TikTok, The Sun reports. Her rendition of the popular World War One song 'It's A Long Way to Tipperary' was captured by her great-grandson on her milestone birthday., and since then the video has clocked up 100,000 views on TikTok. Ms. Hawkins, aged seven at the end of the war, has sung songs from that era ever since, and she was also a performer as a teenager and toured the UK - but her mother banned her from the stage, as it was not "respectable".
Anthony “Bones” Reid has posted a number of videos on YouTube and Facebook showing his impressive use of Chinese hammered dulcimer known as yangqin to cover rock and pop songs. Reid performs under the moniker Horns of Pan, and among his standout performances are covers of Tool’s 'Lateralus' and 'Descending', along with Nirvana’s 'Heart-Shaped Box', The Cure’s 'Close to Me', Radiohead’s 'Like Spinning Plates', Tears for Fears' 'Mad World', and Billie Eilish’s 'When the Party’s Over'.
Music theorist Adam Neely made a challenge - he asked several musicians to make ugly music using the Lydian scale, which is intrinsically pretty. Music is Win, Aimee Nolte, Shubh Saran, Justice Cow and Adam Neely try really hard to make something ugly with a pretty tool.
Filmmaker Jed I. Rosenberg directed a documentary 'System Shock' which provides an intriguing and insightful overview of how the MP3 set in motion a series of events that completely disrupted the music industry. The bottom line of this docu is that the MP3 technology nearly destroyed the music industry, but that its principle made much more money elsewhere.
Producer Terrace Martin narrates a video about how jazz influenced New York graffiti artist Basquiat. Martin delves into how the genre, and especially artists like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, played a role in his artistic vision.
SOHH shares an amazing video of UCLA Bruins gymnastics dancer Nia Dennis showing off big moves while dancing (gymnasticing?!?) to hip-hop classics. The star athlete delivers jaw-dropping moves dancing to Kendrick Lamar and 2Pac.
"My daddy said I am starting to go through an emo phase as I discovered My Chemical Romance this week" - drum wonder-girl Nandi Bushell said about her latest video where she covers dark-emo band's 'Welcome to the Black Parade'. The 10-year old says she loves "being able to let out all my energy after a stressful week of home learning and online exams".
Sea shanties are antiphonal music - one where there is a call and an answer in the song - and as such perfectly fitted for TikTok, music theorist Adam Neely says in his latest video about the latest viral trend. Neely, with help from his mom, explains how it works.
A parrot Tico who likes to "sing" classic rock songs by Led Zeppelin, Guns N’ Roses, Coldplay, U2, Rolling Stones and more, has achieved internet fame this week after the former NBA player Rex Chapman shared a rendition of 'Stairway to Heaven' with his 1.1 million followers on Twitter. The clip amassed over three million views on the platform. Videos have been captured by its owner Frank Maglio, who has been uploading them to his YouTube since April. The parrot doesn’t sing any of the actual words of the songs it “covers”, but is able to quite accurately replicate each track’s vocal melody. Their latest cover - Neil Young's 'Hey Hey My My'.
Scottish postman Nathan Evans has become a worldwide sensation after he posted a shanty song on his TikTok, which has started a new trend. In late December he shared 'Soon May the Wellerman Come', a sea shanty song about sailors on a whale-boat, which went on to become upgraded by other singers, and has reached up millions of views by now. Sea Shanty TikTok has exploded in the meantime, and Spotify also now has a “sea shanty season” playlist. BBC, Guardian, and many others report on the story.
Two rappers moved to the Colorado desert to grow weed and make SoundCloud rap. Their friend, director Marnie Ellen Hertzler visited them for a week to make a documentary. Animal Collective, also deeply affected by life in the desert, made music for it. 'Crestone' had its debut during last year’s virtual SXSW festival, and it is coming out February 16.
Julien Baker has shared an animated music video for her new single 'Hardline', coming out on album 'Little Oblivions' end of February. The stop-motion video was created by Joe Baughman who said he spent 600 hours making it - "a fun and ambitious challenge creating something that could accompany such a compelling song".
DÆMON combines his intense lyricism with industrial hip-hop production by Endgame, a style the duo describes as “cybernetic warfare melodies”, for their new songs 'Eye Teeth', the Fact reports. The video is equally on that level - director Brandon Tauszik captures both artists in a guerilla trip through a sprawling hardware store.
King Crimson's Robert Fripp and his wife Toyah Willcox are just having fun during lockdown covering rock classics, but not really doing it the usual way. Their last cover was Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' with Fripp playing his Les Paul all buttoned up, and Willcox very much not. And she also rides an exercise bike while singing. Previously they covered Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love' with a bit of an S&M theme, Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid' while in "prison", The Kinks' 'You Really Got Me' with Willcox dressed as the devil, and more.
Super-group Kings of Quarantine, featuring members of Limp Bizkit, 311, Mastodon, Filter, The Used, Veruca Salt, and In Flames, teamed up to perform a socially-distant cover of Jane's Addiction's 'Mountain Song'. The project is in collaboration with the Roadie Relief effort, in hopes to raise awareness for touring industry workers whose jobs have been affected by the pandemic. Buy the song on Bandcamp.
Mogwai have shared a beautiful, positive new song ‘Ritchie Sacramento’ dedicated to the late Silver Jews'/Purple Mountains' frontman David Berman and all the musician friends that they’ve lost over the years. The band goes from post-rock to pop-rock on this song, and it's one of the rarer to feature vocals. The track’s video was created by director Sam Wiehl, who “created a whole first person multi level computer game for the song, which then formed the animations and narratives for the video” (watch it below). The song will come out on the band's new album ‘As The Love Continues’, recorded during lockdown but, as Mogwai's frontman Stuart Braithwaite explained NME, it's a "positive" and "warm" record.
YouTuber and professional musician Adam Neely shares a video where he gives his opinion on videos musicians have sent him playing. There's classical music, gypsy-jazz, and rock played on bass, guitar, violin... Fun and pleasure even for a non-musician.
Rhye shared a video for his latest single, a mellow funk-soul song 'Come In Closer'. Rhye says the song explores how "as relationships deepen and you invite someone into your world, your life, your home, layers of appreciation, vulnerability, and patience reveal themselves”, while the video shows two little girls having outdoor adventures with a couple of kittens. So, just some simple beauty.
Felipe Salmon of the Peruvian club duo Dengue Dengue Dengue is the latest guest in Fact magazine's Against The Clock segment where an artist gets 10 minutes to make a song. Salmon here samples Afro-Peruvian percussion instruments made of animal bone and wood, to combine it with synthesizers and really dark and minimal music. Salmon says it usually takes him two to three hours or even a couple of years to make s song.
Canadian producer and vocalist Lubalin posted hilarious videos chronicling "random internet drama into songs". Grandiose music and vocals in songs about a misunderstanding and stolen broccoli add to the comedy.
Run the Jewels have shared a stop-motion music video for their RTJ4 song 'Walking in the Snow' featuring action figure version of Killer Mike and El-P leading a revolution against an icy, authoritarian regime. “Everyone was very aware of the gravity of the subject matter and RTJ didn’t want to be too obvious or on the nail with the visuals, so we went with an ’80s style fantasy look with evil snow warriors and their icy king oppressing the bedroom toys. It was great to be involved with a project with a positive vibe to end a pretty fucked up year" - director Chris Hopewell said.
The 10-year-old drum-prodigy Nani Bushell declared herself a “total metal head” in her latest video. To prove it, she rocked an impressive drum cover of Slipknot’s 'Unsainted'. She played a double kick pedal on the bass drum for the first time, all while barefoot, and she also rocked a Slipknot-style red jumpsuit.
R'n'b singer and TikTok star Zaria posted a couple of clips with a Metallica T-shirt on, which made some TikTokers attack her for rockin' Metallica merch, with one asking her to "name three Metallica songs". Well, that's when she stole the show - "Really? Only three? Only three songs? How 'bout I play 'em on guitar for you", Zaria replied and played parts of three Metallica songs on guitar, 'Master of Puppets', 'Enter Sandman' and 'One'. Loudwire really enjoyed the don't-judge-the-book-by-its-cover story.
Minnesota Hardcore is a docu-series about the hardcore scene from 1980-1985 in Minnesota, with episodes about The Replacements, Husker Du, and Soul Asylum, as well as smaller bands like The Blu Hippos, Todlachen, Rifle Sport and Red Meat. Friendly outcast people, really...
Brazilian-UK metal-electronica duo Petbrick - a collaborative project between Big Lad’s Wayne Adams and Iggor Cavalera of Sepultura and Mixhell - performed the last Fact Live set of 2020, combining metal and hardcore to create what they call “horrible noises”. Petbrick’s 30-minute performance offers a taste of the duo’s touring set, as well as two tracks never before played live from their Deafbrick collaboration with Brazilian acid punks Deafkids. Psychedelic visuals are by Cavalera’s partner Laima Leyton.
