Hello World

Worked late today, so didn’t have a chance to write much about this. This song, possibly my favorite mashup ever, is from, of all things, a Stereogum mashup album, 2007 Mashed Up. Here’s what they had to say about it:

In what is fast becoming a Stereogum tradition, we’ve once again conspired with master bootlegger team9 for a celebration of the year in singles. Of course “the year in singles” is a loaded term coming from us — relatively massive as they are, Arcade Fire, M.I.A. and Band Of Horses aren’t exactly Hot 100 fare — so we opened the door to OneRepublic and Sean Kingston. It’s not a time capsule look-back without a dash of some ubiquitous pop tracks, anyway. All free and just for you, presented on this day made for remembering and rejoicing and drinking. If you’re DJing tonight for an indie-friendly crowd, add these to your playlist and thank us tomorrow.

I added them to my playlist and, although some of them weren’t anything special, several of them were really good! I’m partial to “Smalltown Apology” and “Ratatat Under Ether, but my favorite is, without question, “Smokey Fire“. This one is really built on Arcade Fire‘s “Ocean of Noise” and Smokey Robinson‘s “Being With You“. The mashup is so good that it makes you go back and appreciate the originals even more. It’s radical. So yeah, listen to it now–you can stream it here or download it here.

Today’s mashup comes to us from SCO Network (check out that old-school website!). Unfortunately it appears that sometime between posting all of these songs in 2002 and today, they lost or gave up their webhosting, so the only download you’re going to get is from me.

Anyway, the mashup combines one song by an artist I love (Morcheeba) with another song I don’t think I’ve ever heard outside of this mashup (Sean Paul & Beyonce‘s “Baby Boy“). And wow, now that I have done so, you too should listen to the original and marvel at how much better the mashup version is. I mean seriously. Geez. Ah well, Beyonce was at her most sultry during this song/video, so that’s something at least. What ever happened to Sean Paul, anyway? He was the thinking man’s Shaggy!

Okay, here’s the song: SCO Network – Morcheeba’s Baby Boy (Morcheeba vs. Sean Paul)

Another friend cameo today! My pal James shared this DJ Hero video, which is an example of an interactive(ish) mashup. Basically, the game works like Guitar Hero, but with a turntable controller–the playlist is a set of song pairs that are pre-mixed for you. So you just follow along, pretend-DJing. The game interests me as a game, because I like Guitar Hero/Rock Band and think it would be fun to try out the turntable mechanism. But the game really interests me as a collection of quasi-mashups put together by a cavalcade of excellent DJs (among them: DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, and Daft Punk). Here’s my personal favorite of the ones I found on YouTube:

That’s a surprisingly bombastic mix of Gwen Stefani‘s now-underrated “Feel Good Inc.“, by Damon Albarn‘s Gorillaz (featuring De La Soul). And my stumbling upon it was propitious, because “Feel Good Inc.” comprises half of today’s mashup.

Continue reading »

We’re done with remixes for the moment. Now we’re back to mashups! But first, an interlude regarding what, exactly, a mashup is. My friend Dan shared “Don’t Stop the Sandman” with me–it’s a combination of “Enter Sandman” and “Don’t Stop Believin’“, performed by a ridiculous band, Rock Sugar. Dan wondered whether this arrangement was, technically, a mashup–might it instead be a medley? Dan said that he thought of a mashup as “a strictly post-production creation whereas a medley is a single performance combining multiple songs.” By that logic, “Don’t Stop the Sandman” would be a medley. I respect that argument, but I believe it is wrong. I think a medley is multiple songs performed/recorded consecutively, while a mashup comprises multiple songs edited/played so that parts of each play concurrently. So because the vocals of “Don’t Stop Believin’” overlay the instrumental portion of “Enter Sandman”, “Don’t Stop the Sandman” would be, in my view, a mashup–albeit one performed rather than edited.

This brings us to today’s song. Continue reading »