Filed under: mashups
One of the few songs that perks me up every time I hear it: 'Sweet Home Alabama'
One of the songs that always reminds me of something else: 'Werewolves of London'.
A + B = right about now …
Oh, there's some Boston in there too. And some other stuff.
Filed under: mashups
When I recently rediscovered the art of the mash-up (via TheHypeMachine and some of the blogs linked from it) I thought that the best mash-ups were the ones that were based, solely or mostly, on songs I already knew. (Goldfrapp vs. ZZ Top! Green Day vs. the Timelords! Dire Straits vs. The Clash! and so on.) There's a lot of interesting stuff out there, though, and it'd be too limiting to restrict myself to old favourites.
Mind you, it's a slippery slope.
First of all I found myself listening to Gwen Stefani vs. the Soggy Bottom Boys (~6MB), an utterly splendid version of 'A Man of Constant Sorrow' from O Brother Where Art Thou, mixed with 'Hollaback Girl'.
Then Gwen vs. Sugar (~5MB). I'm a Sugar fan (saw 'em live back in the 90s, too) but not up to date with their more recent output. '(Tell me) What You Waiting For' mixes two songs I didn't know. Aren't I brave.
Finally, I decided to listen to some unadulterated Gwen Stefani.
I hated it.
The mashes are greater than the sum of their parts: they take the good parts — Stefani's voice, which has a nice timbre and occasionally reminds me of Kate Bush; competent pop beat and structure — of what's fairly tuneless, slightly rap-influenced pop, and mix it up with rock guitar / alt.country twang, and a bit of a tune. A good mash-up adds something new to a song I already like — 'A Man of Constant Sorrow', for example — but it can also induce me to listen to songs I'd never otherwise hear. And maybe one day I'll discover some new original thing I like …
Filed under: mashups
Hello. *waves to audience out there in the black*
This is where I’ll be writing about music, and linking to MP3s I’ve found. To give you some idea of scope, I have things to say about Dean Gray, Biber, Kasabian, the White Stripes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rachmaninov and Steeleye Span. Whether I get around to all these, or go off on a tangent about some new mash-up I’ve discovered, is another matter.
Your starter for 10 …
American Edit is a mash-up of the whole of Green Day’s American Idiot, mixing in tracks by Oasis, Ashanti, Roxy Music, U2, Bryan Adams … plus Bushisms and miscellaneous samples. It was the subject of a Cease and Desist order from Warner Records: it’s non-profit and fairly easy to find.
This 7MB track mixes Bush, the KLF and ‘Holiday’, and it’s fab. Especially because the two main themes fit together without any murky dissonance; and because the final reprise of the chorus is such a cheerful resolution; and because it made me laugh out loud the first time I heard it, and laughter isn’t a common response to music.
