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 i
s 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” intr
oduced 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 U
p 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
s 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” intr
oduced 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 U
p 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
DUDE I still need to get into The Hood Internet. Thanks to your blog for reminding me. I'll be reading more later. I need a new soundtrack to the new life I'm starting out here in the snow. Love you and miss you!!!!
ReplyDelete