Davidjtate.com

What you see above is not a woman playing her cello to a bunch of pre-recorded tracks. What you're hearing is live. As the video demonstrates, she is controlling how her computer loops what she's playing with some software and a pedal board.

Almost miraculously, Zoë Keating has learned how to use some really cool tech to compose and perform entire songs by herself. And the result is absolutely gorgeous!

If you like what you hear, check out her website. zoekeating.com

If you grew up as a Christian in the 80's and 90's, chances are pretty good that you grew up listening to Christian music. Some households (such as my own) went so far as to ban all music that was not Christian!

Surprisingly, I'm not bitter about this fact.

And though my taste in music has improved greatly since I began exploring the world of "secular" music, there are still a few, choice, Christian albums that I listen to every now and then. I call them "guilty pleasures".

I am convinced that all Christians have certain old Christian albums they still pop in and enjoy from time to time. Albums that they know they would be ridiculed for listening to, were any of their music-snob friends to find out that they still do.

A couple of my "guilty pleasures" are Amy Grant's "Lead Me On" and DC Talk's "Free At Last".

What are some of yours? Go on, don't be shy. This is a safe place.

Rock-afire Explosion is a band you've likely never heard of. That's probably because, technically, they don't exist. They were/are the robotic, in-house band of Showbiz Pizza, a precursor to today's Chuck-E-Cheese's.

The other day, my buddy Eric and I were sending each other YouTube links, and I stumbled upon some videos of old Chuck-E-Cheese and Rock-afire Explosion acts that I actually remembered from my childhood. Turns out there's an active community of people nostalgic for these robotic performances of old. I sent a link of one of these to Eric and he sent me the link you see above.

Yes, the video above is a custom performance for the robotic band set to the song "Electric Feel" by MGMT. Turns out the guy who originally produced the shows for Showbiz Pizza, Aaron Fechter, still has a soft spot in his heart for the robotic band, and frequently creates custom performances of current popular songs, as evidenced in these other videos.

As weird as it is seeing characters from my childhood performing moderns songs, it's not without it's charms. In fact, when MGMT found out Aaron Fechter was still producing custom performances for the band, they featured the characters in their official "Electric Feel" music video.