mashup my makeup

It definitely took me a while to get back to full speed after last night. I woke up, splashed water on my blurry, mascara-ringed eyes, and begrudgingly started my day. Usually I guess you wouldn’t think of Monday nights as the crazy ones, but last night was different, last night was…a pinning. What's a pinning? WELL...Pinnings are essentially mock engagements for 4th year couples in the Frat/Sorority system. Yes, this is the part of our reader-writer relationship where you stop reading because I am in a sorority. Or, you grow a pair and open your mind a little.

To continue- Pinnings involve limos, candles, singing, black dresses, a venue for dancing, and maybe a bottle or 20 of champagne. I don’t know how the guys feel about the whole thing, but for the girls, this can be a highly emotional event. It’s kind of like in Wedding Crashers, how Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson bank on the women in attendance to be super down to hookup because they are reminded, by the wedding, of their own loneliness. Everyone is just lookin’ for some love. It’s like fishing with dynamite. However, my focus for the night wasn’t a guy, it was dancing. I’m sorry but if you don’t like to dance, please don’t waste my time. Dancing is to my body what music is for my ears. And a pinning is simply another excuse to dance. I don’t care what the music is, as long as it has a loud, pulsating beat that you can feel deep down in your chest. Of course, when you go out to a club with 20 something year olds in LA, there’s only one kind of music you’re going to hear: welcome to the good life, just dance, crack a bottle and blame it on the alcohol… boom boom pow. As much as I love my guilty pleasure pop-rap, I thought I would take some time now to suggest a different type of music to dance to: mashup. I’ve come to appreciate mashup recently, along with electronica, which is quickly reaching its neon stained fingers into the cookie jar of every musical genre out there. Similar to electronica, which often involves remixes of popular songs set to a sick dance beat, mashup employs the art of remixing and sampling to create new, original, and often surprising music. Girl Talk, Milkman, and The Hood Internet are the frontrunners in taking mashup to the clubs. Girl Talk is perhaps the most well known of the three. The tickets for next week’s performance at UCLA sold out in less than a day, so it’s obvious that his sound is catching on. I remember first listening to Night Ripper, and how the first track “Once Again” introduced me to the concept of blending classic rock songs or pop classics with current pop and hip hop. It’s like my guilty pleasure music met up with all my old favorites and had a love child. Nine seconds into the track, the violent, head banging sounds of the organ, clavinet and driving bass in Boston’s “Foreplay/Long Time” interrupt Ciara’s sensual “Goodies” and seamlessly meld together with snippets from Fabolous’ “Breathe” to create an intense, completely danceable track that is both classic and novel. Not only does it remind me of the songs my dad played in the car during family road trips, or the albums he blasted during weekends just to appreciate his speakers and bug the neighbors, but also of my favorite songs on the radio now. DJ Milkman uses a similar technique on his albums, the amalgamation of new and old. He’s a young alum from UCSB, and aside from dropping the beat once and a while and drawing from the same collection of music as Girl Talk, he has the potential to be great. My personal favorite, however, is The Hood Internet. You can download their mixes for free on their website, and you should, as soon as you’re done reading this. Unlike Girl Talk and Milkman, The Hood Internet blends new with new. Hood Internet draws from rap and hip hop favorites and mixes them with the dopest beats from the electronica-indie rock scene. One of his songs, “Shut Up, American Boy”, a mashup of “Shut Up and Let Me Go” by the Ting Tings and “American Boy” by Estelle ft. Kanye ended up creating a sensation felt by the original artists themselves, and they made The Hood Internet’s song a reality by performing it live at the Brit Awards 2009. Other favorites from Vol. 3 include Chromeo v. Rihanna, The Dream v. Cut Copy, Ludacris v. She & Him, T-Pain v. TV on the Radio, The Cardigans v. Ratatat, and Spank Rock v. Burial. Noteable mashups from Vol. 2 include Eve v. Radiohead, Dr. Dre v. Fujiya and Miyagi, Genesis v. Justice, Birdman v. Tunng, and M.I.A. v. Oceleot. As you can see, there’s something for everyone. I love playing Hood Internet at parties when they give me the chance to play DJ. It’s amazing watching die hard rap haters realize that they’re actually enjoying rap, or people who don’t know a thing about indie and dance music decide that it’s their new favorite thing. You can dance to it, walk with swagger to it, and play it at any party, because as I said before, it has something for every music lover out there. Go download this magical music, and spread the good word. The genre for our generation has come, and its name is mashup. Congrats guys, beautiful night. Next time let me dj? “Girl Talk’s music is a lawsuit waiting to happen.”—Rob Walker, NY Times Eargasm waiting to happen: The Hood Internet, Milkman's new album Circle of Fifths, Girl Talk Feed The Animals, Night Ripper

my car and my guitar

There is nothing better than bumping music in your car while you’re flying down the freeway. It is one of the best ways to listen to music; you’re jacked up on adrenaline from the sound and the speed- you feel invincible and one with the moment. Last Wednesday, a few friends and I went to go see Star Trek for the second time. The first time at the Arclight in Sherman Oaks, and the second…IMAX! There is definitely no shortage of nice theaters in LA, I’ve gotten spoiled rotten on theaters. So much so that it didn’t even cross my mind that the movie was playing at the Fox in my own little Westwood, the site of countless premiers. Hard life...

I don’t drive, but Miller does. He LOVES his car. He’s had it for 5 years and you can tell it’s his baby. A cobalt blue ’98 Mustang with flame seat covers, and dice caps for the door locks. Could you guess he’s in a band? Plays guitar like a fiend, saxophone, oh and the flute. He’s a musical madman. I still remember walking down the halls of our freshman dorm and hearing him blast Incubus, and then later on harmonizing with him to Imogen Heap in the study lounge. Always wearing flair of some kind- bandanas around the wrists, guitar picks caught at shows hanging around his neck, and he definitely owns a couple spiked bracelets (definitely borrowed those in moments of weakness/experimentation). Now, I always turn to him for musical advice, and last Wednesday he surprised me yet again with another musical jack-in-the-box.

We trudged back to the car totally stoked but totally exhausted from the movie, but once Miller pressed play on his stereo, I woke up. Silversun Pickups’ new album Swoon flooded the car with chaos. God knows how many strings died to make this album; layers upon layers of distorted guitar tracks, winding bass lines, and crazed violins bombarded my ears with sound.

LOUD NOISES.

Loud, beautiful noises. I had never heard of Silversun Pickups before so I was of course, stoked to explore something new. Miller picked a great song to introduce them too, the first single off the album, “Panic Switch”. As we drove down the 405, with the lousy suspension in his car letting us feel every unpaved bump along the way, the music blasted, and I was surrounded by overwhelming, unadulterated rock sound.

The band’s style is extremely similar to Smashing Pumpkins, bringing elements of a heavy rock sound to a contemporary indie rock audience. The tracks are thick with music, so much so that sometimes you can’t tell which instrument is which. But somehow they achieve a balance with the understated, semi-feminine vocals that leads to a sort of mysterious haunting feeling at times. For instance, “Growing Old Is Getting Old” has a kind of creepy, gothic factor that I think of on albums like A Perfect Circle’s Mer de Noms or Thirteenth Step and Dredg’s El Cielo. Whatever it is, I like it.

The album in its entirety is so epically drenched in musical sweat that I would urge anyone out there to give it a go. It is brooding, smart, experimental, and energizing. After borrowing the cd from Miller, who yes still purchases actual cd’s (thank god someone still enjoys the last remainders of album art), I laid out at the pool and listened to the entire thing while tanning and relaxing in the sun.

Even in the most laid back setting, this cd works. The track “Draining” is particularly soothing, and brings you back down to earth after the preceding track “Panic Switch” gives you a bit of a sugar rush. The ethereal vocals and floating violins of “Draining” allow you to melt into your pool chair and soak up sun. The album is inspiring in its versatility; you could play it at the beach, in the rain, in a car, or at the gym; when you’re sad, when you’re mad, when you’re happy, or when it’s time to take a nap(py)?

Thank you Miller, for an solid listening experience.

"I hear my voice, and I'm like, 'Oy, who's that guy? He sounds like a chick.'" -- Silversun Pickups Frontman Brian Aubert (In an interview with Seattlest.com)

P.S. The tracks "Panic Switch" and "It's Nice to Know You Work Alone" can be downloaded for Guitar Hero: World Tour if you're into that kinda thang.

If you like Silversun Pickups, go pick up: Smashing Pumpkins: anything…, Coheed and Cambria: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 and Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, Placebo: Without You I’m Nothing, Dredg: El Cielo, Autolux: Future Perfect, A Perfect Circle: Mer de Noms

falling down the rabbit hole

Fortunately for cable-less me, my friends down the street let me come over every once and a while to indulge in full-on frontal television. A while ago we were sitting around watching trailers for upcoming movies and were stoked to see the preview for “9”, a new animated movie which promises to be utterly stunning. It’s produced by the eerily enigmatic Tim Burton (Nightmare Before Christmas anyone?) and Timur Bekmembetov (director of the gloomy, matrix-esque “Night Watch” trilogy), AND the trailer features Coheed and Cambria’s “Welcome Home”. Enough of this though, just watch it here. ANYWAY…we got to talking about animated movies of our childhood, and somehow we got to talking about Alice in Wonderland. I’m not surprised- the walls in their place are decorated with a Tool poster, a framed still from Scarface, and what I assume is a stolen sign that reads “Smoking is prohibited except in designated areas”. So, as 60's-drug culture-psychadelia fanatics, we came to the conclusion that we should watch the movie again as grown up quarter-lifers. Cut to: Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”. As soon as we finished the movie, it was the first thing I wanted to hear. The song draws you in, first with the strong, uncompromising drum beat. Like a military march, it calls to mind images of the card soldiers that lead the way for their loud-mouthed and unstoppable Queen of Hearts. Grace Slick is that queen. Her vocals are booming, powerful, hypnotic. Her lyrics wrap around your head like the hookah-loving caterpillar’s rings of smoke, sensually drawing you in with tales of pills that make you smaller, and others that make you larger. Eventually, Slick builds to a crescendo in which you can’t escape her demands…it’s not “off with your head”, but “feed your head” she screams. And then silence... as you contemplate maybe taking her up on the offer. Slick is unmatched in her vocal abilities. There are few women now who are willing to showcase their vocal talent with such reckless abandon; in the words of Nigel Tufnel, her voice goes up to 11. She at times sounds like her mouth is so wide she could swallow you whole, like the fat-lady of the opera, but stoned and wearing paisley prints. I can only imagine what it would have been like to see Jefferson Airplane perform at Monterey Pop in 1967, probably the first major venue in which "White Rabbit" was performed since the album Surrealistic Pillow was released only a few months prior. I remember seeing the documentary on the festival a couple years back and being moved to think, as I have so many times, that I was born in the wrong decade. The festival featured then-unknowns Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Otis Redding, among countless other counter-culture, summer of love bands; bands anyone who wishes they had been at Woodstock would have drooled over, fallen to their knees for, and shouted at in unison “I’m not worthy!” The freedom found in the message of Slick’s lyrics is the same freedom that the counter-culture experimented with at the festival: freedom of love, music, and drugs. No wonder they needed a bad trip teepee for any attendees who had eaten the wrong side of a mushroom- even Alice ended up hitting rock bottom when she had had too much. Now, the freedom of the flower children seems far away, but Jefferson Airplane’s song still reminds us of the era’s voracious appetite for new perspectives and transcendence through experimentation. If you like Grace Slick’s evocative vocals as much as I do, drink this: The Duke Spirit: Neptune, Cat Power: Jukebox, Annie Lennox: Medusa Also…and I hate to even mention this, but Katy Perry is actually a contralto like Slick, and her music could sound just as amazing if she would just stop messing around kissing girls and touching hot and cold objects. So, you could try her out if you like. Note: Slick had already recorded "Somebody to Love" and had written "White Rabbit" by the time she was 27. Get on it, Perry. P.S. Tim Burton is producing a new Alice in Wonderland movie, due out in 2010. Dope. “Through literacy you can begin to see the universe. Through music you can reach anybody. Between the two there is you, unstoppable.”-- Grace Slick

music 101

So, here I go…

Finally. As any college student could probably tell you, procrastination is the rule and not the exception, and I’ll be damned if I don’t follow the rules. I’m finally here though, to write about music.

First, let’s get one thing straight- I have a loving relationship with music, not a “love affair". Not only would I throw up a little from using the phrase "love affair", but it would just be a totally inaccurate description of the solid thing me and my-man-Music have going. Music is not my mistress. Music isn't the dirty little secret hidden in your panty drawer; the drunk text message you delete the next day so no one will stumble across it; the home wrecker. No. Music is and forever will be my LIFELINE. It is my memory, my swagger, my sustenance, my daydream, my dance party, my message, my heart beat, my home.

I want everyone out there who possibly comes across this to understand that that is what music can be. Music unites us, it transcends and translates, it moves us physically and emotionally, and it will be here until the world comes to its last booming crescendo.

Think of this blog as a musical dialogue. I’ll cover music news, write some reviews, and hopefully get you interested in some bands you never thought you'd be into.

"Without music, life would be an error."—Friedrich Nietzsche

Peace out until next time...