I've been building a playlist of songs that I would classify as, for lack of a better term, "cool" songs. The word is extremely subjective and based on my personal experience, of course. But the best way I would describe these songs would be: if I imagine myself riding in a car with a friend, and he/she puts on a playlist to show off some new music discoveries, these would be songs that I hear for the first time and think, "damn, that is a cool song."

Most of the songs that I'm about to list have similar qualities, but there are some exceptions. I know all of these songs by heart, so my objective is to find new songs that fit these obscure qualities. Also, I'd really like to know what exactly is causing me to call these songs "cool".

The songs (with Spotify links):

• The Prodigy - Breathe
• Eels - Novocaine for the Soul
• Lo Fidelity Allstars - Battleflag
• Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground
• White Town - Your Woman
• Run the Jewels - Blockbuster Night, Pt. 1

Now, you're instantly thinking: 5 out of 6 of these are songs from the 90's from groups that all probably ran in the same circles and shared pedal board setups backstage. There's probably a lot of truth to that. Aside from that theme though, here's what I've identified:

• Typically the sound is lo-fi.
• There's some sort of funky beat/rhythm. The drums are probably electronic.
• Many of these songs feature buildups into a powerful chorus or ending
• There may be vocal distortion or other effects
• Usage of electronics
• There's a dark/minor/modal sound to them
• Maybe there's a bit of industrial tie-in?
• The singers are closer to monotonous than all over the octaves

And that's all I've got so far. I've been thinking about this a lot and would love to discover some more music to fit into this theme. I want to be clear that I do NOT think this should just be a 90's playlist... unless that just happens to be where all of these songs exist.

This book uses cartoon mascots assigned to three areas of music training on the keyboard: dexterity skills, reading/writing/listening, and repertoire performance.

Each mascot starts off as a cute lil’ dude and evolves into huge powerful creatures as the child “levels up.” My ultimate vision is a book or book series that utilizes the mascots in figurine form for prize-incentives and mascot videos to offer help and guidance for individual activities.

The first prototype will only feature the books, and I expect to finish it in the next 1-2 months.

I was hoping to get a list of potentially interested parties that would beta-test the book without cost in exchange for feedback/testimonial.

If you’re interested, please send a message through my website— https://alexgoodhart.com/lessons (you won’t see any mention of the book there, but can send your contact info through the inquiry form).

If you’ve any thoughts to share here I’m all ears! Thank you — Alex

Just discovered Barbara Stant on a Spotify playlist but can't find much information about her. There is only one album on there and Discogs is only showing some features. Google is coming up with a big goose egg as well.

Just curious as to whether anyone has any info about her history.

I was watching this video and at the linked time I was wondering if there was any technique being used because it looks almost random but sounds quite good. The only thing I could see is he was using only the white keys.