Watch This! (April 2019)

This year has just been flying by, and I keep forgetting to make one of these posts. I'm glad I decided to just cut these back to whenever I feel like making one, because between work, and everything else I've had going on, I have not had time. And then the past month I have been putting it off because I said I wanted to make a new graphic for every post. I haven't had time for that either. But tonight at work, it was slow, so I decided to just go ahead and make the post, and then maybe I'll be more incentivized to sit down and make a logo when I get home.

For those curious, it took me six days between writing this post and making the logo. 😆

So to begin with, I updated a previous post with a new video, so if you are a fan of Studio C's Lobster Bisque series, then check that out, the new video is at the bottom. And if you've never seen Studio C's Lobster Bisque Series, then check out the post and watch all the videos! 😆

The Lobster Bisque Post

Next we have a video from Poppy, which is just about everything I love about her. A smidge of weirdness, a dash of fake innocence, and whole lot of biting sarcasm presented as sincerity. 😆



This video from Walk off the Earth is so good, but rather bittersweet, considering it was one of the last videos they shot with Beard Guy before he passed away at the end of last year.



Another amazing video from World Order! Side note, is this their first song in English? I feel like their songs have all been almost exclusively in Japanese up until this point, save for a word or phrase here and there. Either way, I loved this video.



One of my favorite "Genres" of Peter Hollens video is when he does Disney songs, and his villain songs are always great. This one of Be Prepared from The Lion King is no exception.



One of my other favorite Hollens genres is Middle Earth music. This one is amazing.



Postmodern Jukebox recently did a jazz version of the theme song for Pinky and the Brain, featuring the real Pinky and the Brain, Rob Paulsen & Maurice LaMarche!



In February, Mike Tompkins covered one of my favorite Panic! At the Disco songs!



Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was one of my favorite movies from last year, and a bit of what made it so great was the music. Kurt Hugo Schneider arranged an amazing version of Sunflower to promote the home video release of the film, which I have to say, is one of the best examples of a brand integration video I've ever seen! I wish more studios would take this approach to marketing their films!



And then we got another Kulning video from Jonna Jinton. I don't care how many of these videos she makes, they blow me away every time.



This next video from Pomplamoose was one of my favorites, and it was only made as a ridiculous April Fools post. 😆



One of my favorite things is when a Muppet character shows up on a late night show, especially when it's a Sesame Street character. Oscar the Grouch appeared on The Late Show with Steven Colbert to promote his new book. And it worked. I bough a copy. 😆



We'll end on a high note, with my favorite music video so far, this amazing cover from Pentatonix.

Last Month Online (October 2018)

Yeah, this is late. I've got a lot going on. So much great music this month! Let's kick this off with Peter Hollens, doing a collab that I am kind of shocked hasn't happened before now, with Chester See!



And we'll follow that up with a video from Peter's wife! Evynne is singing one of my favorite Celtic/folk songs, and it is amazing!



I saw this next video on Reddit, and I knew I had to include it here. This is an utterly genius bit of editing work, they took Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up" and set it to Michael Jackson's Thriller video, which features zombies. It was such a brilliant joke I about died laughing at work. 🤣

[118/118] "Thriller" x Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up" from r/SharedBPM

Next we have a video from Pentatonix's upcoming Christmas album, which I considered saving for my eventual holiday post at the end of the year, but as you will see, the song is from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the video leans a little more toward Nightmare than Christmas. 😜



And speaking of The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Hound + The Fox covered a song from that movie this month as well!



Not every Halloween-themed video this month was based on this Disney classic though, we also got another song from Pomplamoose and Tessa Violet, mashing up The Monster Mash, with several other thematically appropriate songs. And also some really random choices, like the theme from The Fresh Prince of Bell-Aire? But somehow it all works SO well!



It has been awhile since I've shared a World Order video, but they just released a new video, and it was everything I expect from them. I just love watching them... Dance? Move? Slowly move their bodies completely in sync with each other and the music. 😜



Next we have another amazing video from Jonna Jinton, which is different that any of her videos before! I love this! It's such a great idea for a video!



Thanks to the release of a Queen biopic last month, another trending musical genre beyond the usual October/Halloween, was covers of Queen songs. (Does that count as a genre?) I picked out what I thought were the two most creative examples of the trend, this one from 10 Second Songs:



And this massive musical mashup from Peter Hollens. We'll end with this one, which was probably my favorite song all month. I have replayed it SO many times! It's just so good!

!

Last Month Online (September 2018)

We'll start this month out with a video from the Gregory Brothers, remixing one of my favorite YouTube bakers, Rosanna Pansino! I lost count of how many times I listened to this. It was just so catchy. :)



And next we have a video from the Voca People! This group doesn't put out that many videos, but they will always be a favorite of mine, as they had literally one of the first viral videos I ever really became obsessed with. They aren't primarily a YouTube group, so they are usually too busy touring to make videos, but when they do I always enjoy them.



I also just realized that this makes two months in a row that I have featured an ABBA cover. No offense to Cher, I obviously loved her song too, but I think this was my favorite. I just love these weird a Capella aliens. :p

Another month, another video from Jonna Jinton. Don't worry, despite the title, nothing bad is happening to her cow. I was afraid this was going to be a horribly depressing video until I read the description. Stjärna is moving to another village for the winter, so she's telling her goodbye. :)



Side note: I love the name Stjärna. :)

I don't think I've featured Jacob Sutherland on my blog before, but he's done some great covers of songs from some of my favorite cartoons. When he put out this Adventure Time medley, I knew I had to feature it. It was so good, and I probably listened to it like ten times the first day it was up. :)



Here's a collab I never knew I needed, Walk off the Earth, and Gabriela from the Eh Bee Family! I never would have thought to put them together, but I loved the result!



And finally we have another hilarious video from Studio C! Tori is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors on this show, which will really help next year when the original cast leaves to form their own studio. (Sorry to break the news to you, if you hadn't heard) Tori's reactions and facial expressions here were some of the best I've seen, and I was dying of laughter the whole time.

Last Month Online (July 2018)

Not as many videos this month, but what we've got is great. :)

I will never tire of Jonna Jinton's voice. She sounds like a remnant of a time long ago. And the cinematography in her videos just adds to the overall ethereal-ness of everything.

Before this one, I will issue a mild broken glass/blood warning, however, this was too funny for me not to include. I about die laughing every time I watch it so, I'll put up with it. :p



This was just too cute, and I loved the song. :)



Mild language warning here, but this one was just too real. In a completely ridiculous way. Lilly Singh perfectly captures how I feel when I see habitual misspelling, but she also nails the reasons why I don't say anything about it. I definitely don't want to be her. :p



Mike Tompkins just keeps coming up with new ways to impress me.



This last video is me. TheOdd1sOut is my purposeful optimism and Boyinaband is the ever intrusive pessimism that (occasionally) tries to get out. Also I love animation, (semi)dark humor, and electronic music, so this video was right up my alley. :p

Last Month Online (June 2018)

Lots of music this month. I suppose to make up for the abundance of comedy last month. :)

We'll open and close this post with Lindsey Stirling, who made two amazing videos this month!

Lindsey wasn't the only busy one this month, Peter Hollens put out three amazing songs as well! I'll spread these out as well. Each one was with a different guest artist, including The Hound + The Fox, who put out a separate song of their own, which I will include later on as well. :)



Devin Graham has done a video like this next one before, and it was just hilarious. But apparently I never featured it on my blog! So if you'd like to see the original before you watch this one, you can click here. However, of the two, this one is my favorite, partially because of the hilarious, epic waterfall dive, but kind of mostly because of the HILARIOUS cameo/twist ending reveal.



Jonna Jinton is back with another haunting song. I love her voice so much!



I don't think I've ever featured Ryan Higa on my blog before, he usually does comedy skits, but this video was so creative, I just had to share. I love dancing, I love stop-motion animation, and this was like the perfect creative fusion of the two.



One of the reasons Peter Hollens had so many great songs this month, is that he just released a new album, comprised entirely of folk music. One of my favorite genres is European/Celtic folk music, which is mainly what this album contains.



Tessa Violet is back! I absolutely love the aesthetic of this video, and it's nothing more than her just singing in a grocery store! I swear, she can make the most mundane things just seem brilliantly creative!

Every time I watch this video I wonder about the logistics of the shoot. Did she rent out a whole store to shoot in, or did she just film in a store while it was open? Are the random shoppers all paid extras, or are they all just random shoppers? How did she get up on the freezers? I feel like the staff has to either be part of the shoot or were prepped in advance, because I can't see any normal grocery manager being okay with any of this. :p Anyway, sometimes I dissect these videos too much. :p



I've never been a very big country musc fan, but somehow, when it's done a capella, it's just elevated to something so much better than just 'country music.' And VoicePlay are just excellent at what they do.



Scarborough Fair is such an iconic folk song, it's hard to improve on some versions I've heard, particularly Celtic Woman comes to mind, but Somehow The Hound + The Fox manages to put their own, amazing spin on it. And the music isn't the only amazing thing about this video, just look at their locations! The lavender fields and the ancient forest are just gorgeous!



One last Peter Hollens before we close. I actually bought his new album twice, once digitally for myself, and once for my parents' anniversary gift, because they love folk music too. This music is so good!



And finally, the Lindsey Stirling video I promised at the beginning. I love this one so much! I also love that she was dancing without her violin in a lot of it! I know she learned a lot more about dance when she competed on Dancing With the Stars, so I'm glad to see her getting to use her new skills.

Last Month Online (April 2018)

I feel like the busier I get, the later these posts are going to be. They went from the last day of the month, to the first day or two of the month, to within the first week, and now it's just like, whatever. I'll do it when I have time. I've been super busy lately, so my online projects have been delayed recently. I'm planning to do a 'life update' post about why soon, so stay tuned. :)

In the mean time, here are my favorite videos from last month!

First up we have a video from animator Rebecca Parham. Normally she does animated skits and stories, but I really loved this video she did to celebrate finally hitting a million subscribers. I knew she had a great voice, but after this I really want her to keep doing animated music videos. :)



As seems to have become tradition, we have another video by Joe Jeremiah. This month it's a medley of 80's songs!



Pomplamoose is back! I haven't featured them here since January of last year, (!) but they're working on a new album, and I am loving the new songs! This video is an absolutely genius mashup, every song incorporated is one that has the word "Bad" somewhere in the title! From Taylor Swift to Micheal Jackson to Lady Gaga! For some reason this just works so well! I love it!



As Owl City's new album inches ever closer, the new, amazing songs just keep coming!



And I kow this next one isn't really a video, but I loved this song too much not to share it. I really hope it gets a video treatment in the future.



Disney seems to put together new albums every few years, featuring popular genres of music. When I was a teenager they were doing pop with Disneymania albums, then later they did a couple country ones, a few years ago they tried their hand at EDM with Dconstructed, and now they seem to have caught on that doing a capella covers of Disney songs is huge on YouTube. So I guess the obvious thing to do is jump on that trend. I mean, they own the songs after all. :) Here's the



This wasn't the only song they put out last month, they also covered Fall Out Boy's Immortals, from Big Hero 6, which you can find HERE if you're interested.

Now on to something a little more sober, as you may be aware, Avicii, one of the world's most prolific EDM artists died last month. He was one of my favorite artists of the genre, and his loss sent shockwaves through the music community, especially since he wasn't even 30 yet. As usually happens when a huge death in music occurs, online artists put out tribute videos covering one or more of their songs. I wanted to share a few here today from people I follow.







And finally we have an amazing medley from Peter Hollens, featuring guest vocals from Anna Brisbin, AKA, Brizzy Voices! In March, Peter put out a medley of music from Harry Potter, which, if you're familiar with the music from that series, it's all orchestral music by John Williams and other great movie composers.

Now, I don't mean any offense toward Peter himself, but when the video finally came out after he'd teased it for literally years, I was actually a bit disappointed. Yes, we had the great John Williams themes done in Peter's signature style, but over top of the music were lyrics incorporating a ton of internet fan theories about the franchise. And again, no offence to Peter, I just really love non-lyrical a capella music, and I had assumed that's what this was going to be. I guess that's on me for assuming. However! I shouldn't have worried, because he delivered anyway! And it was just as amazing as I knew it would be!



Okay, so, even though that was the last music video, I still had one other video from this month. However, like last months post, this video was a Studio C sketch featuring an established character that I thought you might want some more context for. So, instead of adding that video to this post, I will make a second post featuring that video, along with other sketches featuring the character. That post, plus my 'life update' post will be coming soon, so stay tuned! :)

This Month in Internet (September 2017)

Not that many videos this month. Not sure if it's because my favorite creators haven't been putting out as much stuff, or if I'm just not watching as much as usual. I have been getting busier and busier with my own YouTube channel, which does leave less time for watching other people's oh well. I do have a few videos to share, so let's get on with them!

Peter Hollens released a video with 'Ten Second Songs' that I just loved, which is ironic, because I actually really don't like this song, but they managed to put a spin on it that I loved.

Also I now really want Peter to sing more opera songs. :p

A channel that I recently discovered, 8 Bit Universe, released an 8-bit cover of Toto's Africa. I never knew how much I needed this to exist!

The Warp Zone did another of their geeky acapella themes, this time mashing up the various themes from different Star Trek shows.

I haven't really gotten into Star Trek yet, but I remember watching Voyager quite a bit as a teenager, so when that part of their compilation came up, I got a bit of a nostalgia hit. :)

There haven't been that many updates to one of my favorite websites, homestarrunner.com, in recent years, but on their twitter account, run by fan-favorite character, Strong Bad, they have been releasing these ridiculous little drawing 'tutorials' by Strong Bad. They've all been funny, but this one made me laugh a lot.

We'll end this post with another Kulning video by Jonna Jinton. I just love her voice. She's like a vision of a time, long, long ago.

TIIA 27 (The Internet is Awesome)

Disney's Moana has become a huge hit, and it has a bunch of great songs, but the most popular seems to be "How Far I'll go." So many people on YouTube have been covering them, so I'm going to limit myself to just a few, but they're all great. I love how each one puts their own spin on it. :)

Evynne Hollens:



Mike Tompkins:



And Nick Pitera.



After the death of Debbie Reynolds, Evynne Hollens posted a tribute to her, and it was so good, especially considering she did it in one take, with none of her usual production values.



I posted a video similar to this before, but the artist, Jonna Jinton, has posted a new, longer version, and it is just one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.



If you are a child of the 80's/90's who grew up watching An American Tail, you need to watch this video by Peter Hollens.



Pogo is magic, and he makes Disney magic.



Let's end this post with a bang. (Or a tap. :p) I love Postmodern Jukebox, but when they do a tap dance number they reach a whole new level of awesome. :)

TIIA 21 (The Internet is Awesome)

In case you are wondering, yes I did just put one of these out, but I kind of have a backlog of these video posts, I went through my saved videos last week, and put together like 6 of these posts, so I would like to publish them a lot sooner than once a month, otherwise I'd be posting them until next year. And I'm already collecting new favorite videos, so I need to catch up before I get overrun again. On to the videos!

We'll start this post out with one of my favorite Peter Hollens videos he's ever done, a collaboration with both Devin Graham and Evynne Hollens. For like a month after this song came out I had it on a continuous loop on every drive to work. I've never even played the game that this song came from, I just love it. :p



Speaking of robots, this is one of my all time favorite songs by Tessa Violet. I only wish she'd release a full music video of the fully produced version. This is just the acoustic version, which is beautiful on its own, but I do love the more electronic-y version. :)



Nataly Dawn + Kurt Hugo Schneider + Taylor Swift = This amazingness.



As I've said before, I love it when different artists put their own spin on the same song, and Evynne Hollens definitely put her own spin on it. :)



The Gregory Brothers have been making Sad Happy songs and Happy Sad songs for awhile, but this one is one of the best ones they have ever done.



I'm not sure where I came across this next video. All I know is that it went viral awhile back, and it was hauntingly beautiful. The only problem is this video is WAY too short. The good news is that she actually has a YouTube channel where she does this every once in awhile, but this is definitely the best version.



Normally when Pogo does his Disney/movies remixes, he makes the music video using the actual clips from the movies that he cobbled together to make the music, but for some reason, as odd as it is, I kind of love this weird little lip sync video he made instead.



We'll end this with another Lindsey Stirling video, this time a music video for the song she did for the new Disney movie Pete's Dragon! I was stoked to hear she'd been invited to not just do a song, but to actually be the featured violinist for the entire film! I can't wait to hear the soundtrack!