Eclectic Method brilliantly recreated 99 Problems by Jay-Z using clips from various films.

Robert Hales directed the new music video for Look Around by Red Hot Chili Peppers, from their album I’m With You.

via The Awesomer & Flixist

“The Future”, the latest music video by The Limousines, is filled with catchy hooks, DeLoreans, and disturbingly morbid endings. Sort of Back To the Future meets No Country For Old Men. “The Future”, which focuses it’s eye on how things end, eventually led to the band’s choice to leave their label:

We left the label. Gave it a year and weren’t happy so we left. They said no to the video so we made it with our own money and no help from them.

In case you missed it before, be sure to check out their fantastic video for Internet Killed The Video Star.

Here’s the new video for Stoop Sale by MC Frontalot from his album Solved. The video was directed by Max Isaacson and features an awesome puppet version of MC Frontalot on a wonderful hand-made Brooklyn set.

Oh Internet, a heartwarming love song by Hannah Hart of My Drunk Kitchen, available on iTunes and Bandcamp.

DJ Spooky (author of The Book of Ice) along with Musicsoft Arts, has developed DJ Spooky, a free and recently updated DJing app for use on the iPhone and iPad. DJ Spooky will be speaking at the PSFK Conference NYC on March 30, 2012, headlining the 2012 Plutopia FutureMusic Summit in May 2012 and participating in several other upcoming events.

via PSFK

Dan The Automator fans should get goosebumps while watching this preview for his new Pillowfight project with singer Emily Wells. The upcoming album, due later this year, also features scratches by Kid Koala (who’s worked with Dan past project such at Lovage and Deltron 3030) and well as visuals by David Choe.

Wells has been previewing some Pillowfight songs during some recent shows with Kid Koala (see video below). I’m digging the mix of soulful vocals with Dan’s catchy beats. It’s somewhat reminiscent of his Handsome Boy Modelling School track with Chan Marshall of Cat Power.

Five accordion-playing students from the Kum Song School in North Korea have taken on a cover of 1984 hit, Take on Me, originally performed by the Norwegian pop band, a-ha.

a-ha’s eternal pop evergreen performed by young accordeon players from KUM SONG School, filmed in Pyongyang, North Korea december 2011. Part of multi-genre project THE PROMISED LAND by director and artist MORTEN TRAAVIK, opening at the international arts and culture festival Barents Spektakel in Kirkenes, Norway February 8-12, 2012 (Juche 101). For more info please go to www.traavik.info and www.barentsspektakel.no

via Joey deVilla

Here’s the full-length version of Needing/Getting, the new music video by OK Go that doubles as a Super Bowl ad for Chevy Sonic (we posted the teaser trailer last week). The ad is part of Chevy’s Let’s Do This challenge.

OK Go set up over 1000 instruments over two miles of desert outside Los Angeles. A Chevy Sonic was outfitted with retractable pneumatic arms designed to play the instruments, and the band recorded this version of Needing/Getting, singing as they played the instrument array with the car. The video took 4 months of preparation and 4 days of shooting and recording. There are no ringers or stand-ins; Damian took stunt driving lessons. Each piano had the lowest octaves tuned to the same note so that they’d play the right note no matter where they were struck.

The new music video for Bad Girls by M.I.A. premiered on the launch of Noisey, the new music channel curated by VICE.

iVictrola Gramophone by Schreer Design is a 3D printed analog amplifier for iPhone that is inspired by the early 20th century Victrola wind-up phonograph. iVictrola Gramophone is produced by Shapeways, a rapid manufacturing platform.

via Anthony Volodkin

One of the members of the band The Interstate Life beautifully sings his food order at a Sonic drive-up window.

via Viral Viral Videos

Comedic songstresses Riki Lindholme and Kate Micucci of Garfunkel and Oates are set to release their new album, Slippery When Moist, on February 21, 2012. The album’s teaser trailer features ribbon dancing and exaggerated flag waving which is a good sign.

This breathakingly bizarre music video by Japanese artist Sekitani Norihiro may be less than two minutes long, but it feels like an unending seizure of frenetic, gorey, vaguely sexual insanity. The video is for the song “ACA” by Japanese grindcore producer Maruosa.

via Chris Menning

On top of working with Sesame Street on mixing primary colors, OK Go is starring in a Super Bowl ad (which doubles as the music video for song, Needing/Getting) for the 2012 Chevy Sonic. The teaser trailer has been released and so far we know that it involves one car (a Chevy Sonic, of course), 288 guitars stuck to a fence, 55 stranded pianos, 1157 homemade instruments and a singer that is a “professionally trained driver”. The full video will premiere on February 5, 2012 during the Super Bowl.

via Gizmodo

“Digitals” by Chris Crutchfield is a humorous musical short film about communication overload in the digital age. The music for the video is made up of beeps and tones from an orchestra of digital devices.

One day I got an email, an sms, a phone call, a Facebook message and two tweets all within about 5 seconds of one another. This video is a re-manifestation of my brain’s interpretation of that event.

via MG Siegler

OK Go has collaborated with Sesame Street on Three Primary Colors, a fun stop-motion music video that shows kids the basics of color-mixing. The video was conceived and directed by Al Jarnow. “a pioneer stop-motion animator who made numerous classic educational and experimental short films in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s for Sesame Street, Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact, and other shows.” There is also OK Go Color, a web game collaboration between the band and Sesame Street. You may remember that OK Go did the remake of The Muppet Show Theme Song for Muppets: The Green Album.

via The Daily What

Digital music service Spotify is organizing Music Apps Hack Weekend February 24-26 at SPiN Ping Pong Club in New York City. The event celebrates the launch of the Spotify Apps API and features a $10,000 grand prize.

The focus of our 48-hour event is to develop innovative products on Spotify’s new app platform. This is your chance to showcase your talent and channel your creativity towards building the next generation of music apps powered by some of the most powerful and robust APIs around.

For the first time ever, we will be welcoming product and marketing executives from CW, Doritos, McDonald’s, Mtn Dew, Showtime and State Farm who will be deeply integrated into the on-site environment and provide inspiration for the weekend’s hacks and prizing for the most innovative products.

Join us for fun, nerdery, drinks, food, ping pong, music, swag, and more.

via Andrew Mager

R. Stevens created this illuminating Venn Diagram of the song Sabotage by Beastie Boys.

Amazing Alaska musician Bryson Andres playing Secrets by OneRepublic on electric violin in downtown Spokane, WA.

via The Awesomer

Here’s a photo taken by Irish Willis Peele of what he claims is a young Jon Stewart (center) moshing at a Dead Kennedys and Front Line punk show at the Casablanca club in Richmond, Virginia. When the photo was snapped in July 1982, he was a student at William & Mary and went by his given name, Jon Leibowitz.

via Dangerous Minds and Filthy Pit

photo by Irish Willis Peele

image via Wes Harman

Over the last 3 years video artist Dicken Schrader and his kids Milah and Korben have been performing wonderful covers of Depeche Mode songs including Everything Counts, Strangelove, Shake The Disease.

via Daily Picks and Flicks

Jen Carlson of Gothamist is reporting the rumor that the owners of New York City’s legendary music venue, CBGB, are currently looking for a new space in Manhattan to reopen the club (soon). Additionally, Bowery Boogie is reporting that a CBGB Summer Festival may be planned for July 2012. The hardcore and punk rock club’s original location was at 315 Bowery and had to close in October 2006. In 2007 Scott visited the Ghost of CBGB & OMFUG.

via Gothamist and Bowery Boogie

photo by Wally Gobetz

image via Bowery Boogie

Cassette is an upcoming documentary about the cultural significance and history of the tape cassette (trailer). The film is by Zack Taylor and Seth Smoot—they’re raising funds for the project on Kickstarter.

A few months ago, the term cassette tape was taken out of the Oxford English Dictionary.

It may seem ironic, then, that the cassette has experienced a quiet comeback over the last few years, as independent labels issuing tape-only releases have begun popping up around the world.

What better excuse to take a look back at this beloved musical format?

via The World’s Best Ever

The 10th SF MusicTech Summit is less than a month away. Held twice a year in San Francisco, the Summit is a connection point for the traditional music industry and the cutting edge of music technologists. Online music services, performing artists, instrument makers, music journalists, record labels big and small, and everyone in between come together to talk about the state of the art and business of music.

The folks who run the conference have generously offered a special discount code for Laughing Squid readers to get tickets at 20% off. Just use the code promolaughingsquid.

On February 13th at San Francisco’s Hotel Kabuki, the SF MusicTech Summit will bring together 1000+ visionaries in the music/technology space, the best and brightest developers, entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, journalists, musicians and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. This one-day conference, which has been called “the best music and technology conference” by Mashable’s CEO and founder, Pete Cashmore, features 75+ prominent speakers, new technology demonstrations, great networking opportunities, and packed cocktail parties.

The long list of speakers for the February show includes representatives of companies like Spotify, BitTorrent, and Topspin, and such musicians as David Lowery (Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker), Martin Atkins (Public Image Ltd., Ministry, Pigface, Killing Joke), and the band Pomplamoose.

Below are sounds and images from the last Summit in September of last year. Including an interview with Joe Satriani(!)

photo by Brian Zisk