Someone needs to use these things

Kazoos!

Fucking Kazoos!

I can only think of a handful of musicians that have used the kazoo in any of their songs. To be fair, kazoos don't make the best sound in the world, but still. I think Allison Weiss may have used one on a song. In a couple shows, Anthony Green asked people to bring in kazoos to play along with the band during the chorus' of "Drug Dealer". I thought that was a cool thing to do.

Also, let's not forget about...


The Keytar!

Actually, use of the keytar has spread like wildfire through indie and local bands. I guess it's been making a comeback for the past few years. Either that or there's just been an influx of 80s cover bands. Bands today haven't been using the next level of keytar though. Yes, the 21st century version. What am I talking about?

The QWERTY Keytar!

You can trigger tons of different loops mapped to each key, or tons of different notes/sounds. Also it's really cheap to make. Also you can look nerd-diculous!

But why make a looping machine when you can make one from an existing device? A device such as....the Nintendo Game Boy!

There's been quite a few musicians to use Gameboys. Kraftwerk even released a cd full of their songs that were made into 8-bit Gameboy music. The band I'm going to note for using it though is Grey Does Matter from NYC. Jason Crawford was without a band. The members went off to do their own thing, so Jason sought replacements to do some shows with him. So, he got a Gameboy. The Gameboy became his backing band for a series of solo shows in clubs around NYC.

The instrument I MOST want to see being used is the reacTable.


This monstrosity of tech uses a Tangible User Interface translucent tabletop together with a virtual synthesizer to create music or sound effects. The blocks and other shapes you see are called "tangibles". They represent different parts of an analog synthesizer. When they are placed on the table, various animated symbols appear around them, and a line (called a waveform) may connect them to the center. These usually show what the tangible is doing, and can be manipulated with a fingertip to control the amplitude or rotated to change the frequency. A tangible called a filter can be put in the middle of the waveform connecting the module to the center and act like an effects pedal of sorts.

Bjork is the first musician to actually use the thing in a live performance. I haven't heard of any others using it.