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December 9, 2007 2:19 PM   Subscribe

 
No online mashup discussion can be complete without linking out to DJ Riko ...
posted by chinese_fashion at 2:37 PM on December 9, 2007


Really? Tell me more.
posted by 2sheets at 2:38 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


Anyone ever made a mashup of The B-52s 'Rock Lobster' with 'California Uber Alles' by The Dead Kennedys? That'd be so... wrong...
posted by spoobnooble at 2:38 PM on December 9, 2007


Digital Eargasm is the go-to blog for house music mash-ups and remixes.
posted by empath at 2:42 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


spoob, you just made me want to hear a mashup of DK's 'Too Drunk to Fuck' and Britney Spears 'Hit Me Baby One More Time'.

I don't know whether to hate you or thank you.
posted by Kickstart70 at 2:42 PM on December 9, 2007


Or Ray Parker Junior's Ghost Busters mashed with Huey Lewis' I Want a New Drug.

That's some sweet mashin'
posted by mattoxic at 2:52 PM on December 9, 2007


Y'know, I consider myself a pretty major music fan, but this whole "mashup" thing is just totally, totally uninteresting to me.
posted by Dr. Wu at 2:55 PM on December 9, 2007 [6 favorites]


i want Aztec Camera's "Birth of the True" mashed with Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like a Lady" - link please.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:56 PM on December 9, 2007


Anyone ever made a mashup of The B-52s 'Rock Lobster' with 'California Uber Alles' by The Dead Kennedys?

No, but during the 80's, I alternately mixed the DK's "At My Job", with the Birthday Party's "Mr. Clarinet" and Big Black's "Dead Billy". Apart from the swarm of locusts that bothered me for weeks afterward, nothing happened.
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:00 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


Dr. Wu, I felt the same until I listened to some of this stuff. I'm not convinced there's any lasting value there, but many tracks will, in fact, cause booties to shake.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 3:00 PM on December 9, 2007


Mash Up
is the new
Cover Song
is the new
Dance remix
is the new
Live Version
is the new
Cover Song
is the new
Dance remix
is the new
Live Version
is the new
Cover Song
is the new
Dance remix
is the new
Live Version



posted by Uther Bentrazor at 3:08 PM on December 9, 2007 [11 favorites]


I don't have time to go through all those links right now, but I don't think you've got Jason Forrest behind any of them. His latest album is definitely mashups, but to the point where the original sources are easily lost; they're there, but the end product is wholly it's own piece of music. Here's the music video for War Photographer, a song off of his last album, Shamelessly Exciting. What he had to say about the song:

For some reason, my parents seemed to only love bands with “&” in their name. And one of these was Blood Sweat & Tears. This is cut up from about 3 of their songs, and cut with more stuff to expand it. Anyway, BS&T fucking rock man. They were progressive in a very grassy way. You always see them in corduroys. This is some how related to why this is called War Photographer. If songs were people, then this would be a late 60’s war photographer with thick dark hair and beard, draped in olive and khaki photographers gear.

----

Another point of interest is Daft Punk's Alive 2007 tour and now album. If you're not familiar with it, they've basically been touring and playing mashups of their own songs with their own songs. Video for Around The World/Harder Better Faster Stronger. Has anyone else done self-mashups before? It seems like someone must have, but I don't know any offhand.
posted by Arturus at 3:12 PM on December 9, 2007 [3 favorites]


I sure do like mashed potatoes, though, I'll tell you that right now. Yup, mashed potatoes are good. That's some damn good eating, and I ain't lying. With some butter and salt, y'know? Or gravy?Mmmmm, mashed potatoes!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:14 PM on December 9, 2007


There is a sad lack of the Fucking Dewaele Brothers in this list.
posted by meehawl at 3:18 PM on December 9, 2007


Oh, if you're looking for mashups that are just "wrong," this was just released.
posted by flatluigi at 3:19 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


Oh yes, the Official Term for poppy mashups is now Bastard Pop.
posted by meehawl at 3:20 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


I'm not convinced there's any lasting value there

Bollocks.

Whoever mashed up Candi Staton's 'You Got the Love' with Frankie Knuckles/Jamie Principle's 'Your Love' at the end of the 80's made both a record that defined an era, that was copied by a legitimate record company (and released as The Source feat. Candi Staton), made it into a top ten hit, and spawned a genre that people are still playing with over fifteen years later.

How long does something have to last to have lasting value?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 3:33 PM on December 9, 2007


Arturus: No, I don't have him in the links. However, I consider tracks like that a whole different kind of music. Something in that style is Girl Talk's music -- have you heard of him?
posted by flatluigi at 3:43 PM on December 9, 2007


s/in that style/between that style and mashups
posted by flatluigi at 3:44 PM on December 9, 2007


John Truelove did the Staton/Knuckles mix.
posted by meehawl at 3:47 PM on December 9, 2007


Did we skip The Hood Internet?

I can't tell.

Someone already covered the bizarrely-forgotten Girl Talk. Check out this cool rotoscoped thingy for one of his songs.
posted by sparkletone at 3:50 PM on December 9, 2007


I can't believe I've forgotten to link many of these that all of you are showing up to link, but I assure you that there has only been one or two things so far that I haven't been familiar with. I promise.
posted by flatluigi at 3:52 PM on December 9, 2007


It's almost buried in the Party Ben stuff, but Dean Gray - American Edit is a pretty amazing piece of work.
posted by pupdog at 3:57 PM on December 9, 2007


American Edit is amazing, but I hesitated to post it because I didn't want any C&Ds leveled at MeFi. Though, I did post the Kleptones' A Night at the Hip-Hopera, so I'm not sure what I was thinking.
posted by flatluigi at 4:03 PM on December 9, 2007 [2 favorites]


The last thing this thread needs is more links, but I'm gonna do it anyway: Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg vs. Grease. A hell of a toe-tapper, this one.
posted by jeffj at 4:05 PM on December 9, 2007


I want someone to mash up Morris Day and the Time's "Jungle Love" with Steve Miller Band's "Jungle Love".

I don't, however, especially want to listen to it.
posted by Cookiebastard at 4:32 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


Where does mashup end and audio collage begin?
posted by not_on_display at 4:49 PM on December 9, 2007


There's the Naked City (one of John Zorn's past projects) cover of Ornette Coleman's Lonely Woman, which deftly interweaves Ornette's beautiful melody with the familiar bass line from Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman. No sampling or anything, though, they just conceptualized it and performed it on their own musical instruments. Old-school mashup.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:53 PM on December 9, 2007


The most recent mash-up I heard that really moved me is Magenta 4 Love -- A mash-up that Eric Prydz did of Arno Cost & Arias - Magenta with the Chariots of Fire theme song and Robin S, Show Me Love. (Sorry, horrid quality video). I've never seen it dropped where it didn't absolutely destroy the dancefloor and have people singing along at the top of their lungs.
posted by empath at 4:54 PM on December 9, 2007


Some mashers tend not to do "proper" music, so the "cover version" jibe is true, if you care about "authenticity" and "performance" as necessary parts of what you consider pop music. Then again, many of the mashers can do "proper" music videos, live, and remix themselves. I think a lot of the perceived lack of performance props by mashers results from lack of opportunity and lack of interest in such activities. This perception is probably stronger in north America than in Europe and the Middle East, where DJs have a higher profile relative to non-DJ performers outside the hip hop scene.
posted by meehawl at 5:04 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


Where does mashup end and audio collage begin?

Audio collage is probably something like Osymyso's Introinspection (here), which blends 100-odd intros into 12 minutes. This is too dense to be called a mash. Kind of like Osymyso's collage of Spaced clips. Nicholson/Osymyso takes the collage thing seriously - he also did the Bushwacked psychotic collage of George Bush phrases for Chris Morris on JAM. He reminds me a bit of Simon Begg, who also does a lot of extreme cut up remixes.
posted by meehawl at 5:19 PM on December 9, 2007


meehawl, I get the feeling that your defense of mashup DJs and (music sampling culture in general) might've been in answer to my above comment ("old-school mashup"), but I'm not dissing sampling or mashups or anything like that. In fact, I've made wide use of sampling in my own music in years past, and I don't think any of this is not "proper" music or anything like that. As far as I'm concerned, the fact that a piece of music uses samples or appropriates someone else's music in that way is not, by itself, any indicator of whether or not it's "good", or "proper" or whatever. Anyway, just wanted to clarify that.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:22 PM on December 9, 2007


I hjave to add RIAA (no, not those other guys) to a list of fab stuff - Sounds for the Sun-Set I downloaded on a whim, and after the first listen thought 'I'll probably delete this soon' - some 2 1/2 years later it's still on my iPod in rotation. The (almost) cheese veneer works.
posted by pupdog at 5:25 PM on December 9, 2007


A great Feist + Sufjan Stevens mash-up, plus the mashup tag over at Metafilter Music.
posted by micayetoca at 5:32 PM on December 9, 2007


I love a good mashup, but it's a laborious process finding one I like.
Favorites:
Salt 'n Peppa VS Iggy Pop
Fugazi VS Destiny's' Child
Black Sabbath VS Missy Elliot
posted by PHINC at 5:45 PM on December 9, 2007


By the way, there's some pretty cool mashups by this "flatluigi" fellow here. Recommended!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:07 PM on December 9, 2007


Salt 'n Peppa VS Iggy Pop

That's Push It vs No Fun?
posted by meehawl at 6:09 PM on December 9, 2007


might've been in answer to my above comment ("old-school mashup")

Not at all - I just wanted to see E Talking again!
posted by meehawl at 6:11 PM on December 9, 2007


war of confusion (phil collins vs. edwin starr) - direct mp3 link
posted by LobsterMitten at 6:14 PM on December 9, 2007


By the way, there's some pretty cool mashups by this "flatluigi" fellow here. Recommended!
Ech. What does that guy think he's doing? A for effort, I guess.
posted by flatluigi at 6:30 PM on December 9, 2007


FWIW, I'm not sure if Soulwax (the Dewaele brothers) aka 2ManyDJs still do their mash-up shtick, but boy, does it sound like your youth, boiled down. 100% worth it.

Here's one of mine.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:31 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


(Didn't expect that to pop up at all; thanks midnite. I'll get some better stuff up there soon. No promises, but I've got some Beastie Boys vs Beastie Boys and MIA vs Gorillaz on the backburner, plus a little something with "Welcome to the Boomtown." Stay tuned.)
posted by flatluigi at 6:33 PM on December 9, 2007


This one is just too wrong for words:

AC/DC vs. Black Eyed Peas -- You Humped Me All Night Long

and that's why I love it so much.
posted by jason's_planet at 6:42 PM on December 9, 2007 [3 favorites]


One of the first I ever heard, and still one of my favorites: Love Will Freak Us
posted by kryptondog at 6:56 PM on December 9, 2007


So, what mixing tool(s) do people use to make these?
posted by Kickstart70 at 7:02 PM on December 9, 2007


I use a copy of Ableton Live 6 I got as a present from a friend who realized I was struggling to mix with Audacity.

And, Good News for the Insane, that Modest Mouse mashup is gold.
posted by flatluigi at 7:11 PM on December 9, 2007


For me the bummer about most mash-ups is that they usually mix two pop songs that I don't know, which takes all of the fun out of it. And then when I cut it down to just mash-ups with songs I know (at least vaguely) it's hard to find ones that stand up to repeated listens. Over the years I've managed to make three comp discs of mashups that work as songs and not just one time novelties. But there was a lot of crap to sift through to get to 240 minutes worth keeping.

Many of my fave bastard pop mixers have been discussed here, but for my money the Kleptones and Go Home Productions are the absolute kings. Extra points to Go Home Productions for repeatedly going to the XTC well for songs to incorporate into mixes.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 7:15 PM on December 9, 2007


Papa Was In The Rolling Stones - Jumpin' Jack Flash + Papa Was A Rolling Stone. It seriously has the funk.
posted by biscotti at 7:16 PM on December 9, 2007


So, what mixing tool(s) do people use to make these?

I've used Audacity for similar purposes; I could probably make a mash-up myself, come to think of it. Hmm, now, how do I find the exact BPM of chocolate and peanut butter?
posted by not_on_display at 7:17 PM on December 9, 2007


not_on_display: I'll leave you to the problem of getting them into you computer, but this is a useful BPM tool.
posted by flatluigi at 7:22 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


That's Push It vs No Fun?
That's the one and that's a fun one.
posted by PHINC at 7:29 PM on December 9, 2007


DJ BC and Pheugoo are also required listening.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 7:31 PM on December 9, 2007


I've had this recurring dream since high school where I'm in a record shop and I find this ultra-rare Joy Division/Misfits split EP. One side has JD covering "Bullet" and "London Dungeon" (or "Hybrid Moments" or "Some Kinda Hate") and the other side has the Misfits covering "Digital" and "The Drawback" (or "Shadowplay" or "Something Must Break").

Even while still in the dream I know that this is an impossible record, but the dream recurs every few months, some 20 years going strong. Some day I need to do my own Ian Curtis/Glenn Danzig mashup and see what it sounds like.
posted by mds35 at 7:50 PM on December 9, 2007




To me, mashups are only great if you are already familiar with the songs being "mashed."
posted by ColdChef at 8:17 PM on December 9, 2007


Girl Talk is the only musician who has managed to make mashups that a) are not tedious, and b) consistently sound very good together. I think it's because he never seems to use a sample for more than 20 seconds, at least in his more recent stuff.
posted by p3on at 8:24 PM on December 9, 2007


Alright, I'm a bit scared of posting a selflink, but those three new tracks of mine I mentioned earlier are up on my DJ site.
posted by flatluigi at 8:26 PM on December 9, 2007


Alright, I'm a bit scared of posting a selflink...

HAH! Now we gotcha! BANNED BANNED BANNED!!!

just kiddin'.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:30 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


Woo hoo just loved that Sugar Pie Rehab no no no and wow Nelly Blackbox, awesome, makes me dance in my chair, make me want to go to a discotheque and shake it up. Thanks for this wonderful musical gift flatluigi. I enjoy this weaving together, dovetailing. Music collage, what a great idea and cool sounds.
posted by nickyskye at 9:38 PM on December 9, 2007


I love, love, love the Kleptones' two albums, which make for great music to throw on at a party or during a band's set break, but I do not understand the allure of their most recent "live" album. I already have the recordings of the Kleptones mashing up various tracks in a recording studio. What's so exciting about the Kleptones mashing up the very same tracks in front of an audience?

/still doesn't quite get this DJ thing.
posted by emelenjr at 9:55 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


I always thought that the vocals from Eminem's "My Name IS" would go grat with the backing of Queen's "Bicycle".
posted by ShawnStruck at 10:01 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


Fuck your DJ site!!







































Or also, Dsico--one of the first and one of the best.. "Fateful Pavement" is the way to go for all the indie rock girlfriends out there.
posted by sleepy pete at 10:04 PM on December 9, 2007


ShawnStruck: Check out A Night at the Hip-Hopera, already linked. One of the tracks, "Ride" is exactly that.
posted by flatluigi at 10:11 PM on December 9, 2007


I like the self mashup LOVE. I thought I was kind of a Beatles elitist, but it's a great CD.

Yeah, I buy CD's.
posted by kozad at 10:12 PM on December 9, 2007


Surfaris v. D4L -- Wipeout Taffy

(Hosted on Vox. Mixed by Party Ben)
posted by jason's_planet at 10:31 PM on December 9, 2007


Joey Musaphia's Cover Ups Vols. 1 & 2. Mashup/remix heaven featuring Michael Jackson and Juliet Roberts.
posted by Lleyam at 1:18 AM on December 10, 2007


An old Mefi favorite added here for anyone who missed it last time; Q-Unit, turning gangsta into white trash middle class faster than you can say the N word.

Have to agree that Black Eyed Peas vs AC/DC is pretty good, but not a patch on Nirvana vs Destiny's Child Smells Like Bootylicious
posted by Molesome at 6:00 AM on December 10, 2007


Public Enemy v. Herb Alpert (YouTube, comments are as awful as you might think).

Beatles v. Chicago (Jonathan Coulton's first mashup).

Black Sabbath v. Kanye West
(Gold and Iron Mambo).

Missy Elliott v. George Michael (YouTube, no comments)

Do what you can to dig up the brilliant Making Plans for Vinyl (XTC v. Tweet) by Mark Vidler of GHP.
posted by maudlin at 7:14 AM on December 10, 2007


GYBP: the community, and I am shocked that 10000 Spoons isn't mentioned yet. Ableton Live (V 7 is out recently) is the simplest tool, Reason and Recycyle work well together, but are a bit cumbersome for the straight-forward stuff.
posted by fcummins at 11:40 AM on December 10, 2007


It's GYBO ("Get Your Bootleg On")... and it is indeed the premier online community for mashup makers. Though sorting through all the mashups posted there can be kind of a letdown... there are loads, and they're of quite varying quality.

Lots of good names mentioned here, but I'd also like to add the very talented Frenchmen Loo & Placido, DJ Zebra and DJ Moule. And me?
posted by Lenlow at 12:21 PM on December 10, 2007


Gah, how could we forget you? ABC+OPP is a personal fave of mine. Kanye Mahna gets stuck in my head at the absolute worst times too, good going there...
posted by pupdog at 12:44 PM on December 10, 2007


Oh, and it's also worth point out Strictly Kev's excellent Raiding the 20th Century (previously on mefi here), which now has an expanded version you can listen to here.
posted by Arturus at 12:52 PM on December 10, 2007


The AC/DC improves that BEP song a lot...the only problem now is that every question asked of me today meets the response 'my hump, my hump my hump my hump...'

nice post...i hadn't paid much attention to these before, not expecting the quality (on some) to be this good...
posted by troybob at 1:33 PM on December 10, 2007


I make no claims to being up to the standards of the many, many links above, but I've gotten a few compliments on my one attempt at mashing. Not perfect by any means, but I'm fond of it.
posted by djwudi at 2:13 PM on December 10, 2007


girltalkgirltalkgirltalkgirltalk
posted by timory at 8:26 PM on December 10, 2007




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