Okay, time for another genre switch! This time I'm starting with my favorite guy with a guitar, David LaMotte:

David LaMotte is a semi-local award-winning musician; I first heard him at a local summer camp and, back when he was touring, I'd catch his show every time he was in Greenville. If you like the music, his entire discography can be streamed from his website (see the link above) and Good Tar—a two-disc live album—is on Spotify. Yes, I'm a huge fan. Sadly, he's changed from working in music to working with missionary groups, a Nobel Peace Prize advisory committee, his own charity, and a whole lot of other stuff.

Unfortunately there are very few videos of David on YouTube and none of good quality. This is really the best one around, and it's terrible resolution. So it goes.

Up next: Chuck Brodsky, "We Are Each Other's Angels".

I recognize the song simply because David LaMotte covers it quite a lot. And honestly, I think I prefer the LaMotte cover to the live original. Chuck Brodsky seems to try to channel Bob Dylan when he sings, and that results in a weird, thin, nasal voice that just isn't terribly harmonic. Still, it's good to have heard the original at least once, and the song itself is nice.

Now, one of only a few suggestions which weren't more Chuck Brodsky or David LaMotte—Chris Wood, "No Honey Tongued Sonnet"

Hmm. The intro, at least, is mildly NSFW.

Eh. Not bad, but not terribly interesting or creative either. A shame—I was hoping for something a bit funnier, or at least clever. Well, moving on.

I'm sort of afraid that these songs might all be straying into The Cos's territory here. Folk songs inherently run that risk. So let's see... ah. "Scotland's Winter", as performed by Breabach.

...how strange. I'd sort of expected a "Celtic" sound, but it's almost pop-folk saccharine, with Scots singing. I'd expect it to be the background of a teen soap opera on the WB. Not bad though. Hmm. I'm not actually sure what I think of it.

Welp. Moving on.

I cheated a little here. I originally clicked on the video titled "SALSA CELTICA with Johnny Depp in Scotland". That one turned out to be twenty minutes long with bad mics, crowd noise and a 'supposed' Johnny Depp appearance in the crowd. Somewhere. At the 16:00 mark.

I backed up and tried again with the next video down. Can't blame me for being curious though. All right, last song:

Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, "Grand Etang / Hull's Reel"


I sort of expected to end up here at some point. Classic fiddle music. But these two are really good, the song is catchy in the way only a reel can be, and I can't help smiling when I hear it. It's good! Glad I could end this one with a good song.

Oh, we can start with a fresh song instead of using the previous?

In that case, I'll start with one of my favorite YouTube musicians, Julia Nunes:

The challenge here was just how many of the songs on the right were more of Julia, but then there was one by Kimbra, who I've only heard in Gotye's song singing the concluding verse:


Wow, that's... really good. Last time I was that impressed with a female vocalist was Jaenelle Monae, who I still won't shut up about when people start talking to me about music. No JM on the sidebar though, lots more of Kimbra, and someone from the same recording company called Cullen:


"Easily Impressed," huh? Must have been a song about whomever signed him to the label. Very bland synth-laden New Wave, which is odd to hear a new song of just because it's no longer the early 1980's. I get a minute in before looking to the right to see what's next... Neon Indian? God only knows what that sounds like, must click...


...so apparently, there are parts of the world still producing synth-pop like it never got old. This is no better than the previous track, in fact it's actually more annoying because they're clearly using autotune effects on the vocals to make them more "spacey." Blargh. Oh, there's an Adele video to the right, that' should be a good palette cleanser after this bitter journey:


That's certainly an improvement, back to naturally generated music as opposed to the canned stuff. I still like Kimbra and Julia Nunes more, though. Maybe I'll start with a different track of theirs next time.

I'm switching to Symphonic Metal for this. As such:
Slania (Eluveitie)

It's beautiful music for the most part. However, the female lead singer is far better than the male singer, and the two of them don't mix quite as well as in other Eluveitie songs.

Angel in the Dark (Nemesea)

This song isn't up to par. By the end it is fairly good, but it suffers due to being in English, and that it takes a good minute and a half to get up to speed is irritating. Moreover, there are several dissonant, repetitive parts that drag the song down.

Night of the Wolf (Nox Arcana)

This song is just shit.

Another Me (Sarea)

See previous description. The comments are also a special level of stupid.

Open Your Eyes (Sad Alice Said)

This is still somewhat shy of par. With that said, compared to the previous two songs this is incredible. I did end up genuinely liking it, insipid lyrics aside.

So, that went in a bad direction. I'm tempted to come back to this later, going from the first song and going elsewhere from there.

Very well, switching gears to something sillier, I'm gonna start off with Jon Coulton:

Anyone who's had G4 knows that one by now. To the right of it was a LOT more Coulton, except for this one:


Fairly amusing. Moved on from them to:


A bit of an improvement, I've always liked Da Vinci's Notebook, and according to the comments half of them are the group in that previous video, Paul & Storm. Since every other link on the left is now Da Vinici's Notebook or Paul & Storm, I take what I know won't be musical:


And now it's all Whose Line clips, except for one full-length Robin Williams stand up special (how did YouTube not flag that?) and...


So THAT'S where the South Park guys got the idea for that episode!

Ah well, I wound up leaving music behind, but it's all comedy.

I tried googling random songs, but ended up getting generators and similar things so let's try this:

Alright time to find something by a different band.


Is that guy wearing a Grendel mask? What genre is this? I have to admit that making a metronome your dominant instrument is pretty ballsy but I don't see myself becoming a fan.


Not at all what I expected to find but it was thoroughly enjoyable and I may give a listen to more of their stuff.


Not really my thing, but it wasn't bad.

Last one. Let's see what we have here:

Nothing terribly impressive, but I do like that woman's voice. All in all I got to listen to some music I wouldn't have otherwise.

That second (and third) video are both in the category of Electronica. Note that it contains no actual musical instruments, only synthesized ones, and the music you do hear has been heavily distorted.