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Here’s a slick and quick take on the banjo classic.

Captain, o my captain. Captain Beefheart in Toronto

Don Van Vliet — the iconic experimental musician known as Captain Beefheart — died today due to complications from multiple sclerosis at a hospital in Northern California, according to reports. He was 69.

From 1967 through the early ’80s, Van Vliet released some of the most challenging rock albums ever, which showed off his quirky knack for free-form experimental rhythms, avant-garde melodies, and his gruff, smoky howl.

via Captain Beefheart Dies at 69 | SPIN.com.

From Wikipedia: He began performing with his Captain Beefheart persona in 1964 and joined the original Magic Band in 1965. The group drew acclaim with their first album in 1967 on Buddah Records, Safe as Milk. After being dropped by two consecutive record labels, they signed to Frank Zappa’s newly formed Straight Records. Zappa as producer granted Beefheart the unrestrained artistic freedom to create and release 1969′s Trout Mask Replica, ranked fifty-eighth in Rolling Stone magazine’s 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band Live in Cannes, 1968:

This is so beautiful…. I love Playing for Change and the work they are doing. They’ve started several music schools in Nepal, Mali, Rwanda, Ghana, and elsewhere. You can help — make a small donation and direct toward a drum, a stringed instrument or, hell, just lay some bread on these folks.

Gotta love They Might Be Giants and their new(ish) album, Here Comes Science.

Check this cat out. He’s playing some old beater archtop guitar, as far as I can tell (I don’t see a brand name on the head stock), and it looks to me like he’s running this ship with only three strings. But he gets one hell of a bang for his buck.

A one-take music video par excellence by OK Go, directed by Brian L. Perkins. Booooooom asks,

Can we crown them kings of the one-take music video yet?

Hell yes.

OK Go – This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.