Mash-up artist Gregg Gillis, affectionately known by millions as Girl Talk, released his latest album All Day earlier today. I couldn’t be more excited. On All Day, Gillis mashes up tracks like Cali Swag District’s “Teach Me How to Dougie” to the 1987 hit “Jane Says,” Portishead with Big Boi, and Lady Gaga with Aphex Twin. His ability to make an un-danceable song danceable is pretty amazing. I’m sure a couple of these songs will find themselves on your weekend playlist.
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Artist Evan Roth has made one of the most bizarre yet awesome videos I’ve seen in a while. The video’s called “Cache Rules Everything Around Me,” a play on the phrase made famous by The Wu-Tang Clan, and was made entirely from animated gifs. The video is a bombardment of the most random (and quite possibly offensive) gifs you may or may not have seen in your time on the internet.
Several tracks from Girl Talk’s first album Night Ripper make up the soundtrack, including “That’s My DJ,” “Hold Up,” “Too Deep” and “Smash Your Head.”
Roth is also one of the guys behind the EyeWriter Project, an ongoing collaborative research effort to help those suffering from ALS with creative technologies. [read more…]
This week, I feel like showing some love to the up-and-coming rap genius Wiz Khalifa. Originally hailing from Pittsburgh, the 21-year old Wiz Khalifa has already shared the stage with the likes of Ghostface Killah, Styles P, Lupe Fiasco, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Cham, Little Brother, Clipse, Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, Lil Scrappy, Mario, T.I., Nas, and Rich Boy. Back in 2008, his hit single “Say Yeah” dropped to critical acclaim. I remember I had that track on repeat for days. Khalifa’s version of “Say Yeah” was even mashed-up in the song “Don’t Stop” off of Feed the Animals by Girl Talk. [read more…]
Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, has been known to frequently perform on college campuses and take over the college music scene. In fact, he got his start performing shows on the weekends while still a student at Case Western Reserve University. He eventually went on to graduate, and get a job as an engineer before quitting in 2007 to concentrate on music full time.
Just last month, he was one of three big artists who performed at Yale’s annual Spring Fling festival (the other two being N.E.R.D. and Wale). As expected, Girl Talk got the crowd bumping (and sweating) with his unique dance remixes and eclectic persona. Thanks to the guys over at freeculturemusic, the live recordings of Girl Talk at Yale have now been released for your listening pleasure. He performs a bunch of his classic hits the way you’re used to hearing them, as well as other tracks with subtle variations that only happen during his live sets. Enjoy. [read more…]
It was February 2007. Michael Angelakos, a student and singer/songwriter at Emerson College, was looking for that special gift to give to his then girlfriend for Valentine’s Day. What he came up with were six songs recorded under the alias Passion Pit. The songs failed to woo his lover, but spread like wildfire at Emerson and caught the collective interest of the student body. It was then that Angelakos realized he had something big on his hands.
The six songs morphed into an EP named “Chunk of Change” and was officially released in late September 2008. On it was a song called “Sleepyhead,” which has since gained over 2.6 million listens on MySpace and over 1 million views on YouTube. The success of “Sleepyhead” led to Passion Pit landing a record deal with New York City-based Frenchkiss Records and Columbia Records in the UK. It’s also helped Passion Pit gain a full-fledged quartet for live performances. [read more…]
Dick Flink and Nick Fenmore – or the Super Mash Bros – describe their group as “Girl Talk’s Hot Cousin.” Despite the abundance of family terminology, they manage to put together some extremely danceable stuff, with samples ranging from MGMT to Death Cab for Cutie to Nelly. With a few of these samples, it’s tempting to write off the group as a Girl Talk knockoff, but once you begin going through the album, listening to tracks like “Meet Me at Fantasy Island” (which samples Blink 182), or “Stop that Booty” (sampling Modest Mouse and Bubba Sparxx) you begin to understand that the Super Mash Bros sample sources much more diverse than Girl Talk. Spanning the spectrum from indie rock to Top 40 to european electronica, Fuck Bitches, Get Euros should be the next mixtape you download. [read more…]
One way to describe The Hood Internet could be “Girl Talk on Ritalin”. If you are like me, you tend to get sick of listening to mash-ups that suffer from ADD. After listening to one of these mash-up albums long enough (Feed the Animals anyone?), your head feels likes its going to explode à la Scanners. The Hood Internet is a breath of fresh air in the mash-up genre. In case you were wondering, The Hood Internet is comprised of Aaron Brink (aka ABX) and Steve Reidell (aka STV SLV). The Chicago based duo specialize in mashing up hip-hop with indie rock. On The Hood Internet vs Chicago, the two allow each sampled song to play for 30 seconds or longer which results in a much more listenable mixtape. [read more…]
Mash-up artist Gregg Gillis, affectionately known by millions as Girl Talk, released his latest album All Day earlier today. I couldn’t be more excited. On All Day, Gillis mashes up tracks like Cali Swag District’s “Teach Me How to Dougie” to the 1987 hit “Jane Says,” Portishead with Big Boi, and Lady Gaga with Aphex Twin. His ability to make an un-danceable song danceable is pretty amazing. I’m sure a couple of these songs will find themselves on your weekend playlist.
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