Julian Velard "Last Christmas"

Go to Youtube and search for nearly any popular song, and after the first few instances of the official video, and the artist doing a live version or whatever, you start to see "Youtube covers."

It's such a modern-day convention. A person who plays acoustic guitar or piano or whatever, who sets up a camera in their room, and records and uploads a video of themselves doing their favorite song, acoustically.

People have a lot of fun turning big pop hits (like Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" or Britney Spears "Oops I Did It Again") into strummy ballads. And it's propelled a few folks to some mini-online-fame.

But it's only natural that this fun exercise shouldn't just be the province of amateurs. So occasionally you'll find people like Ben Folds busting something out on the web.

One of my favorite sources is Julian Velard, who is a great combination of super talented and super hilarious.

He's made great use of the web, frequently uploading originals and covers and concert snippets and offhanded comments. It's a great release of creativity.

Enjoy this one. I like it because, despite the initial suggestion that it will be super-goofy, I think that deep-down, Julian sincerely loves this Wham classic.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Cee-Lo Green "F*** You"

Would this song have been a success, in the pre-internet world?

20 years ago, if a song didn't get significant radio play, it simply wasn't likely to sell to many records.

And this track, splattered with a certain FCC-unapproved word in its title, verse and chorus, wasn't going to get even the first radio-spin.

But the FCC only governs the airwaves. The interweb is free to say all 7 of George Carlin's Dirty Words, and add pictures.

So this tune has, rightly, become a viral sensation, spawning a much less enjoyable but FCC-friendly version called "Forget You."

But would we have gotten to the point where there was a demand to put this on the airwaves, without the web?

(By the way, despite pronouncements that radio doesn't matter, music sales DO rise and fall, based on radio play. It's just not the ONLY factor any more.)

Janelle Monáe "Tightrope"

I'm pretty absorbed in a particular musical world. Granted, the music that comes through mvyradio's doors is pretty eclectic---I hear a lot from the world of rock and blues and folk and soul, etc.

But there are genres that just don't make it over the wall---Jazz, heavy metal, dance, to name a few---that have rich landscapes that I never survey.

I mean, we get the Norah Jones/Diana Krall Jazz songs, but those are "crossover" songs/artists. They are not the hardcore, steeped-in-it genre tracks.

Occasionally, something that is not a crossover lands in the disc player, from the R&B world. It's probably not new to, say, your kid who watches MTV. But if mvyradio is the kind of music you listen to, you may not have run across Janelle Monae.

About once every 3 or 4 years, a song like this---one that's undeniably, indescribably good---leaps the fence, without actually doing anything to crossover. Songs like Outkast's "Hey Ya" and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" come to mind as recent examples.

I know you might not usually listen to a track like this, but the insane bassline alone is reason enough embrace this track, whether it's your style or not.