NPR Music

• Broadway and film legend Marvin Hamlisch died Monday in Los Angeles at age 68. Also the pops conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, he began studying at Juilliard at age 7 — and at the time, he was the youngest student to be accepted at there. "My big thing at Juilliard — because I hadn't taken that many piano lessons at that point — was not that I could play Bach or Beethoven, but that I could play 'Goodnight Irene' in any key," Hamlisch told NPR's Scott Simon in 1987.

Dysrhythmia makes the kind of highly charged, neck-breaking instrumental metal that fuels late nights spent glued to a glowing screen. Besides inadvertently creating an alternate soundtrack to Contra, Dysrhythmia inspires gape-jawed awe: These musicians are ridiculously adept at their instruments, but have also embraced an otherworldly melodicism that keeps listeners hooked — especially throughout "In Secrecy," the opening cut from the band's forthcoming sixth album, Test of Submission.

I'm trying to imagine Amanda Palmer, in Amsterdam, working on this show-stopping rocker on a ukulele. But she did, and she'll tell you the tale below. This song is from the about-to-be-released album Theatre Is Evil, billed as Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra. The record was produced by John Congleton and is out on September 11.