The Fat Rat

Music on Youtube that isn't buried under copyright issues can be difficult to find. Good, original music is even harder to find. Thankfully, artists like The Fat Rat exist. A german musician, The Fat Rat creates incredibly catchy electronic tracks. If you are familiar with some gamer Youtubers like SivHD, Mommie, or KP, (Don't worry, I'll be posting about all three of these content creators at some point) you have probably already heard some of this artist's music. It makes for great backgrounds to lighthearted gaming montages. 

All of The Fat Rat's tracks are this catchy. It's crazy. And they're newer stuff is all open sourced! If you want to use them in videos or whatever, you can without running through all the hoops of copyright infringement (But still credit artists for their work, their real people too). For anyone looking to become a game streamer that also wants to make Youtube clips of their streams, the music you play in the background of your footage can become an issue because of copyrights. Open source creators like The Fat Rat make your life so much easier. Not to mention the fact that the music on this channel is actually really good!

If you are looking for some cool electronic music, something free to download, or some open source music to put into your next Youtube video, give The Fat Rat's Youtube page a look.

Toodles!

Benny Greb

A lot of the music I've posted about has either been very mellow or from a video game. This week, I decided to branch out a little and give some exposure to an artist a lot of people probably don't know about *pushes glasses up nose*. As a percussionist and a music educator, I attend conventions that have some of the most amazing and inspiring artists from around the world. One such person is Benny Greb. Considered to be one of the best drummers in the world right now (he was a feature panelist at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, so don't bite my head off for that statement), Benny Greb has absolutely astonishing mastery over the drum set. One of his albums, Grebfruit, is almost exclusively him playing drum set overtop of multi-tracks of himself singing a capella.

Below is the title track for the album. The first few seconds are a little goofy, but then the drumming starts and it gets amazing. Try and focus on the drums while listening, and realize that the drum parts are not multi-tracked in. He's literally playing all of that live.

People ask me why I don't usually like popular music nowadays. After hearing drum parts like this, you try going back to electronically produced drum loops or listening to a rock beat played over and over for five minutes.

In addition to singing and playing drum set, Benny Greb also plays a beautiful piece on piano on this particular album. It's got a simplicity to it that just resonates with me. I tear up a little every time I listen to it, and I have no idea why.

Benny Greb's music is available on iTunes, or you can get the CD's from his official website. and I highly recommend buying his albums. Once again, please don't illegally download music. Musicians pour their body and souls into their music. It won't kill you to pay for their time instead of buying a large coffee tomorrow.

Toodles!

Mackenzie Johnson

There are a lot of musicians who make their beginning on Youtube, doing covers of popular artists (for better or worse). One such musician worth noting is Mackenzie Johnson. She takes music back to it's simplicity, before auto-tune and electronics took such a huge role in popular music. It's just her, her acoustic guitar, and a microphone. With a beautifully melodic voice, and a subtly artistry on the guitar, Mackenzie is the prime example of what I wish popular musicians tried to be nowadays (Others include Ed Sheeran, Jimmy Wong, Steam Powered Girafee, and more). Mackenzie does wonderful acoustic covers, and has also been making her own original music for a while now.

Check out Mackenzie's Youtube channel and see if one of your favourite songs already has been covered. If not, I bet you could message her and see if she'll do it! Help support young musicians, they pour their souls into this kind of life. She also seems to be a wonderful human being, with one of her original songs calling out on intolerant people (Careful when you listen to the link below, it has a few swears in it). It's such an adorable song, give it a listen.

Toodles!

Cage the Elephant

As far as games that I will remember throughout my life, Borderlands is definitely on the list. As someone who loves to play EVERY possible combination in games (Dragon Age was a nightmare for me...), I saw the opening credits to Borderlands many, many times. The title song for the game was Ain't No Rest For the Wicked, by Cage the Elephant. After listening to the song so many times, I was hooked on the band. Their lyrics are clever, and the use of slide guitar adds a unique sound to the group. For those who don't enjoy louder music, or are looking for entirely clean lyrics, maybe give this group a pass. But otherwise, definitely check them out (and actually pay for the music, musicians work hard).

A big thanks to my friend Vil for introducing me to the game, and letting me invade his room constantly to play it. I'll never hear this song without imagining a skag getting run over.

Toodles!

One Corner of the Internet

Now, to be fair, Youtube isn't exactly a dark corner of the internet. There are a lot of piano playing kittens, dogs that can't catch, and unfortunate souls being kicked in the groin. You can get to some pretty weird stuff if you stay in the "Related" tab rabbit hole for long enough. After a large amount of thinking about what the hell I was going to write about today, I decided that the answer was right in front of me. Literally. I've had Youtube open pretty much all day, listening to music.

One aspect of this blog is to show people what I think is cool (Poros), and this Youtube channel is something I love to follow. Instalock is a group of three young guys who decided that they wanted to make parodies of popular music, themed around the video game League of Legends. I personally love the game, and have no idea what popular is doing anymore. So when I came across this channel, I probably watched all of their videos in one day. They are musically quite talented and their wordplay is clever, nodding to both the original song and the game at the same time. I often find myself hearing a song on the radio that everyone else knows, but I sing the Instalock lyrics instead. While amusing for me, I probably confuse the crap out of people around me.

If you play League of Legends (Which you should), the videos are doubly impressive. You can often relate to the situations in the videos and there are lots of little things you would only appreciate if you were interested in the game. An example of this is the fact that they hide a Teemo in every video. That said, even those who don't play the game can appreciate the musical abilities of these guys.

Also, one of them just got engaged. To a gamer girl. Lucky bugger.

Let me know what you think of Instalock in the comments below! Or leave a suggestion of another random piece of Youtube you think others should heck out.

Toodles!