5 pugs, labs, cats, gorillas and otters rocking out (video)

11 Sep 2015

YouTube exists for two reasons: first, as a business, second, as a way to upload videos of animals playing instruments. Do read on.

Music’s circuitous nature means we tend to hear an awful lot of the same stuff, a few decades apart.

Musicians build upon melodies, note sequences and styles, but tend to keep several key influences prominent throughout.

Of course, many of us are not musicians, unconstrained by the pressures of constantly coming up with, what our fans believe, are new tunes.

Rather, we have pets, music players and a camera. And so, we film some truly magnificent videos of animals rocking out. Here are five of the absolute best:

1: Pug and Metallica, a crossover we always wanted

Yesterday evening my phone buzzed. Well, it didn’t as I have vibration turned off, but a message came to me with just a link.

Usually wary of such messages, I hesitated for a moment before clicking on it. I now regret such hesitation.

Here is an incredible video of a pug drumming along to Metallica’s Enter Sandman. You can tell the pug is concentrating because his tongue is out.

Never. Misses. A. Beat.

2: Trench and Maple, a duet of the ages

Of course for animals playing music, we can’t really look beyond Trench and Maple.

This is the duo that constantly pops up in your Facebook feed, vines aplenty. A combination of acoustic guitar and some form of percussion, this compilation of their best work is the place to start your adoration.

Occasionally looking bored, Maple never fails to get involved at just the right time.

Like during Wonderwall, stopping Trench from playing on. Nobody wants to hear Wonderwall.

3: Charlie Schmidt’s ‘Keyboard Cat’

The video that spawned it all, Charlie Schmidt’s cat Fatso was captured doing its best Elton John impression way back in 1984.

Much like in a sci-fi movie, Charlie then had to wait decades before he could unleash Fatso’s powers on the world, with the internet, and YouTube, helping out.

It’s got well over 41 million views. And rising.

4: A gorilla, Phil Collins and chocolate (somewhere)

Cadbury’s has been using animals to good effect in its advertising campaigns for a few years now, but nothing tops the gorilla.

This ad was originally aired way back in 2007, which in itself seems crazy. But here we are, eight years later and still we can’t hear In The Air Tonight without thinking of this very well-trained drummer.

The video does not make any sense, but it works. Amazingly well.

5: Otters, surprising animals playing music

Okay, I wanted a fifth video to add to this list and my colleague said: ‘Look up otters and piano, bound to be something’.

We never expected this:

Main image via Shutterstock

Gigglebit is Siliconrepublic.com’s daily dose of the funny and fantastic in science and tech, to help start your day on a lighter note.

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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