A friend of mine recently decided to take the plunge and release his latest album of awesome mashups online for free. If you’re unaware what mashups are, Wikipedia has you covered:

A mashup, bootleg or blend (also mash up and mash-up) is a song or composition created by blending two or more songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the music track of another.

It’s some really awesome stuff, and definitely worth a look into. Click the image to go to the download page:

Just stumbled upon this list of NPR’s “Best Songs (so far) of 2009″, as voted on by its listeners. While the list is distinctly indie / folk (though, does that really surprise you from NPR?), it’s not too bad.

NPR listeners cast thousands of votes for the year’s best music (so far) and kept the race tight. In the end, Animal Collective edged out every other artist for both Best Album and Best Song. Artists like Grizzly Bear, The Decemberists and Neko Case weren’t far behind. One thing was clear: that 2009 has been one of the strongest years for new music in recent memory.

In addition to being an awesome candy substance, it’s also the title of this sweet AMV I found:

Set to “Candy Pop” by Heartsdale ft. Soul’d Out. What I found out most impressive about the music (besides the sweet beat) was the mix of Japanese and English from a Japanese group without sounding Engrishy. The video is also really well done and set to Haruhi! Definitely one of the best AMVs I’ve seen. The weird silence around 0:45 is actually part of the song.

And I realize it’s somewhat old, but I just stumbled on it and loved it, so I thought I’d poast.

This one comes from Overdub, and features Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” and Radiohead’s “15 Step”.

This is probably one of the coolest mashups I’ve seen in a while. Rick Astley v. Nirvana. Supremely awesome.

So, I’ll be honest. I’ve never really looked into Pendulum before (I’ve heard them mentioned among certain circles, but never really listened).

After this video, though, I might have to go get their two LPs:

Oh yeah… “This video does contain strobe lighting!”

Smallest drumset Mike Portnoy will ever play. BRB guys, recovering from awesome.

God, new guitar strings are so awesome.

I must remind myself to replace said strings more often.

(Yes, this is somewhat of a cop-out post, but I have a “real” one coming up tomorrow. :D )

Title (and pictures!) stolen from Erin. The title comes from something Adam Lazzara (of Taking Back Sunday) said last night.

The concert last night was fucking amazing. To say the least. In the words of a friend, “It was almost too much to handle.” The only bad thing about it was that it was hot as balls. Humid outside, combined with the lack of ventilation in the venue, combined with a packed house ensured that this was one fucking hot night.

To start things off was Envy on the Coast. I wasn’t expecting much, but they were surprisingly good. Definitely worth a check-out. The lead singer (pictured below) was really crazy. One guy commented that he must have had Tourette’s or something.

Next up was Anberlin. This is the second time I’ve seen them, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. I do wish they could have performed a little longer, but I understand that they weren’t the main attraction at this show. ;) Below is lead singer Stephen Christian belting out the tunes:

Then finally was Taking Back Sunday. I was afraid that I wasn’t going to like this show as much, because TBS just recently dropped a new album a week or two back, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of it. I much prefer the older stuff. Thus, since this is the “Release Tour”, I was afraid they were going to play a lot of the new stuff. I am glad to say that my fears were assuaged after a few songs. They did play a few new songs, but most of the content was built on their older stuff. Finally, we have a picture of Adam looking pensive-like:

I have to say, the crowd at this show was fucking insane. Probably one of the best crowds I’ve ever been in, it was so ridiculous.

Now, if you’ll excuse, I’m going to get some water to continue my recovery from dehydration.