The fight for diverse and conscious voices

I don't know where these things come from, but sometimes they just blossom up an the world is so much more awesome when they do.

Start with Rihanna's "Rude Boy" (http://www.last.fm/music/Rihanna/_/Rude+Boy). Standard pop tune, hip-hop. It's not a bad track, really. Got to #1 on the Billboard charts, so go her.

Of course, if you have a popular tune, lots of people are going to cover it. Some of them are going to cover it in other genres. For example, classical. Wait, what?

Yes, classical. I give you Australia's Aston covering "Rude Boy" - http://audioporncentral.com/2010/06/monday-kick-aston-rude-boy-classical-rihanna-cover.html

It's actually quite a good cover. They've mostly transposed the vocal parts to piano - though the violinist and cellist are rockin' out too - and they've got a percussionist who is having WAY more fun on the kettle drums than anyone wearing that bad of a sweater really should be having. Dude looks like he should be knocking back beers at a Skull & Bones private affair. But I digress.

I had that video marked for eventual posting, when this showed up: http://audioporncentral.com/2010/06/world-premiere-rihanna-ft-aston-rude-boy-mashed-by-pheugoo.html

Phuegoo (http://pheugoo.com/) took the Aston cover and mixed the Rihanna vocals back in, which is just freaking perfect. You can hear exactly how Aston adapted the track and Phuegoo makes the best of both the classical ensemble and the original lead vocals.

This remix got me curious about Aston, so I headed over to their web page (http://www.astonmusic.com/) and just fell in love. I mentioned they're from Australia. And they really need some fashion help (dude, lose the soul patch, please; and you, on the left - need less frumpy). I read that Perez Hilton tweeted their cover so maybe he can help them in that department.

But anyway, they're cute and earnest and they have other covers of mega-hit pop tunes. You can listen to them doing Gaga's "Telephone" and Kylie Minogue's "Confide in Me" (with harp!). You should also vote for which track you want them to cover next.

And then join me in being sad that they're in Australia and there's no way I'm ever going to get to see them do this stuff live. Because the one thing that is missing from these videos is the sight and sound of an audience going bananas with joy at the end of each track. You can see the Aston members looking at each other as they stop playing, as if to say "did we really just do that?" Yes, kids, you did. And it was AWESOME.