Cracked Pepper

July 30, 2007 9:24 AM

Cracked Pepperby ccc and ill chemist is a mash-up of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and an amazing array of songs you know. While not quite on par with the focus and sheer audacity of DangerMouse's Grey Album, Cracked Pepper is a smart, rich, and rewarding listen. Available track by track or as a torrent. See inside for tracks sampled.
posted by saguaro (35 comments total)

01) Cracked Pepper

The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
David Bowie - Sound & Vision
Paul McCartney & Wings - Live & Let Die
The Stone Roses - I Am The Ressurrection
The Rolling Stones - We Love You
The Beatles - It's Only Love
The Beatles - I've Got A Feeling
The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
The Beatles - Rain

02) With A Little Glam

The Beatles - With A Little Help From My Friends
Gary Glitter - Rock'n'Roll Parts 1 & 2
KLF / Timelords - Doctorin' The Tardis
Paul McCartney - Smile Away
John Lennon - I'm Stepping Out
Wings - Hi Hi Hi
The Beatles - She Loves You (Royal Variety Performance)

03) Lucy At The River

The Beatles - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Groove Armada - At The River
The Beatles - I Want To Tell You
The Beatles - Because
The Beatles - Golden Slumbers
The Beatles - Wait
The Beatles - Don't Let Me Down
The Beatles - Cry For A Shadow
The Beatles - For No One
The Beatles - Christmas Time Is Here Again

04) The Word Is Good

The Beatles - Getting Better
The Clash - London Calling
The Beatles - The Word
The Beatles - Revolution
The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows
Queen - You're My Best Friend
Queen - Killer Queen

05) Kelly Watch The Hole

The Beatles - Fixing A Hole
Air - Kelly Watch The Stars
The Beatles - And I Love Her
The Beatles - Ask Me Why
The Beatles - I Call Your Name
The Beatles - Dear Prudence
The Beatles - This Boy
The Beatles - 12 Bar Original

06) She's Slipping

The Beatles - She's Leaving Home
Kinobe - Slip Into Something
George Harrison - Microbes

07) Love Kite

The Beatles - Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite
The Beatles - It's Only Love

08) It's Far Too Late

The Beatles - Within You Without You
The Doors - I Looked at You
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Fire

09) Hawaii 64

The Beatles - When I'm 64
Brian Wilson - Blue Hawaii
The Beach Boys - Cool, Cool Water

10) Struttin' Rita

The Beatles - Lovely Rita
Primal Scream - Struttin'
The Beatles - Octopus' Garden

11) Good Pressure

The Beatles - Good Morning Good Morning
The Selecter - Too Much Pressure
The Specials - Nite Club
The Beatles - I'm Down
The Beatles - Rock & Roll Music
The Beatles - Bungalow Bill
The Skatalites - Independent Anniversary Ska

The Skatalites - Guns of Navarone

12) Cracked Pepper (Reprise)

The Beatles - Sgt Pepper (Reprise)
George Martin - March of The Blue Meanies
The Beatles - Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me & My Monkey
The Beatles - Lady Madonna
Stevie Wonder - I Was Made To Love Her
Stevie Wonder - We Can Work It Out
The Beatles - Savoy Truffle
The Beatles - Only A Northern Song
The Beatles - Long, Long, Long
The Beatles - Kansas City / Hey Hey Hey Hey

13) A Sky Blue Rhapsody

The Beatles - A Day In The Life
George Gershwin - Rhapsody In Blue
ELO - Mr Blue Sky

posted by saguaro at 9:25 AM on July 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Is this a self-link?
posted by monju_bosatsu at 9:33 AM on July 30, 2007

Thanks for the post. It reminded me that I had wanted to torrent the grey album.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 9:33 AM on July 30, 2007

Thanks a million! Looks like as much of a scream as the stellar American Edit, which I still listen to. Anybody wanna bet how many more nanoseconds it'll take for Apple Records to bring the big, ugly clawhammer down on this enterprise?
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:39 AM on July 30, 2007

I first saw this mentioned a few days ago in this mefi thread. And it's really damn great; the Grey Album is what it is and no mean feat, but given the choice between Jay-Z sampled verbatim and a whole bunch of awesome slicing and mixing all over the damn place, I've gotta go with the latter.
posted by cortex at 9:40 AM on July 30, 2007

(And no, it doesn't appear to be a self-link.)
posted by cortex at 9:40 AM on July 30, 2007

American Edit on MetaFilter
posted by ColdChef at 9:49 AM on July 30, 2007

Wow, first track has great ideas, beautifully executed. ("Sound and Vision" is especially inspired.)
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:49 AM on July 30, 2007

Well, I know what I'm downloading as soon as I get home.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:38 AM on July 30, 2007

the Grey Album is what it is and no mean feat, but given the choice between Jay-Z sampled verbatim and a whole bunch of awesome slicing and mixing all over the damn place,

I'm down for anything that samples the Skatalites, but what makes the Grey Album so audacious and so fantastic is that Danger Mouse restricted his sample usage to only the White Album. I haven't listened yet, but just looking at the set list, I think this seems to be more analogous to a Girl Talk edit than anything else. Which isn't saying anything bad at all - both Danger Mouse and Girl Talk are the shit, they just have very different styles.

Anyone know if this was mixed with decks, or with something like Ableton?
posted by SweetJesus at 11:00 AM on July 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Nevermind. That thing's got Ableton written all over it...
posted by SweetJesus at 11:08 AM on July 30, 2007

Mirror, mirror, anywhere?
posted by anthill at 11:20 AM on July 30, 2007

Agreed point for point, SweetJesus. I just prefer the lush and crazy and melodic, I suppose—the constraint and concept behind the Grey Album impress the hell out of me, I just don't find myself wanting to put the damn thing on again after the first couple loop-spotting listens.
posted by cortex at 11:22 AM on July 30, 2007

Is mash-up as bad as mashup?
posted by MtDewd at 11:46 AM on July 30, 2007

Yeah, but not nearly as bad as meshuga m'shup.
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:58 AM on July 30, 2007

And let's not get started on shmups.
posted by cortex at 12:12 PM on July 30, 2007

I miss Push-ups.
posted by Nabubrush at 12:57 PM on July 30, 2007

Is this a self-link?

I worried this might come up. Circumstances, etc. forced me to use my supersecret sockpuppet account that I usually only drop in MeTa. I wish I had the mad skillz to forge an album like this. Thanks for backing me up cortex, and for pointing out that previous mention. I'd missed it. Glad y'all are enjoying the link.
posted by saguaro at 1:36 PM on July 30, 2007

Yay! I really like ccc's work (Lust Train? awesome.) So now I have something new to listen to and enjoy.
posted by Lucinda at 1:37 PM on July 30, 2007

PS -> Hugs for everyone! YAY!
posted by saguaro at 1:45 PM on July 30, 2007

I wish I liked the music more. The only mashup like this I truly enjoy listening to is Night at the Hiphopera.
posted by Nelson at 1:49 PM on July 30, 2007

if you like Hiphopera, 24 Hours (by the Kleptones) is good too, with less rap. (is a rap "mashup" even really a mashup? ask Girl Talk.)

so ... anybody got a mirror for this Cracked magazine thing yet?
posted by mrgrimm at 2:11 PM on July 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Agreed point for point, SweetJesus. I just prefer the lush and crazy and melodic, I suppose—the constraint and concept behind the Grey Album impress the hell out of me, I just don't find myself wanting to put the damn thing on again after the first couple loop-spotting listens.

Very true. I'm much more interested in the technique behind the music more often than the music itself. Having listened to it, I can tell it's not for me.

If you haven't already, I suggest you look up Diplo (link to video EPK). Diplo is one of the few djs/producers that impresses with every release. He's all over the map, but it all works. He's got like 16 podcasts up under his Mad Decent imprint on ITunes, if you're interested.

anybody got a mirror for this Cracked magazine thing yet?

The Pirate Bay is the world's mirror.
posted by SweetJesus at 3:24 PM on July 30, 2007

Oh yeah, be aware - lots of vintage naked ladies near the end of that diplo link, if your workplace frowns on that sort of thing...
posted by SweetJesus at 3:29 PM on July 30, 2007

Tittsworth is good stuff, too.
posted by empath at 3:34 PM on July 30, 2007

Uh oh. As of about 7:00 pm (EDT) the pod-o-matic hosting site has a "bandwidth used up" audio message.
posted by mmahaffie at 4:01 PM on July 30, 2007

SweetJesus has it right—here's a direct link to the torrent.
posted by saguaro at 6:32 PM on July 30, 2007

Y'know, I was going to listen to the whole album in order, but dagnabit, I need to listen to "With a Little Glam" OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER.
posted by Lucinda at 7:03 PM on July 30, 2007

(And no, it doesn't appear to be a self-link.)

Ha! That's why I posted it in a thread and not as an FPP ;) I don't have anything to do with it either, other than thinking it's quite good, especially compared to most mashups these days.

I only do one FPP a year but I might end up skipping this year. Still, glad to see this getting some attention--it's really nice work. I like how they picked things in similar keys that made musical sense, instead of just stretching everything in ridiculous ways to make it fit.
posted by First Post at 7:45 PM on July 30, 2007

Also I'd have to add that, in my opinion, "Cracked Pepper" kicks the shit out of "The Grey Album".

Whereas TGA was more of a proof-of-concept exercise (which, granted, brought a lot of publicity to the already thriving bootleg/mashup scene), I think CP hangs together more coherently as a musical piece, which will hold up better over time...
posted by First Post at 7:58 PM on July 30, 2007

For your money, I also recommend Jimmi Jammes' Sgt. Peppers' Paradise.
posted by duende at 11:30 PM on July 30, 2007

Also by the same guy is Revolved, a mashup of Revolver (Google cache of Wikipedia page (now deleted), track listing). The only place I could find it to listen to was here, which doesn't let you download the files but I recorded them to mp3 with Audacity.

Not nearly as good as Cracked Pepper, which I have been annoying my neighbours with for days now, but it has a few very good tracks. I particularly like Sleeping, Rain Babe and Rush Of Love (but then, I could never stand Love You To, so to me it's definitely an improvement).
posted by bent back tulips at 3:15 AM on July 31, 2007

"Struttin' Rita" is brilliant. This is great stuff - thanks for posting!
posted by jquinby at 7:55 AM on July 31, 2007

Fixing a Hole + Kelly Watch the Stars = Awesomeness.

I have Revolved on my machine. If enough people want it, I could be arsed to put it on Rapidshare or the like.
posted by O9scar at 10:17 PM on July 31, 2007

Finally got a chance to give this a listen, and I love it. With a Little Glam is definitely my favorite...
posted by rollbiz at 8:03 AM on August 1, 2007