Let's eat a Milky Way®

November 14, 2014 6:12 AM

After releasing the two best mash-up albums of the year, Neil Cicierega's got a new song out, based on Lenny Kravitz's Fly Away. It's called Lenny Kravitz — Fly Away, and it is pretty dragonfly. (Brings to mind Wndrwll and Piss especially.)
posted by rorgy (7 comments total)

MP3 here.

Also, I don't know if these made the Mouth Silence thread: here's a Cher/Devo outtake, and here's Single Ladies meets Steve Reich meets [wouldn't want to spoil the surprise].
posted by rorgy at 6:19 AM on November 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

*rummages through looted children's Halloween candy*

Yep, got one right here, and it really does taste as good as he makes it sound.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:14 AM on November 14, 2014

Thanks for not spoiling it rorgy, I laughed so hard I scared the cat off the couch. That's some good shit right there.
posted by calamari kid at 7:27 AM on November 14, 2014

I love Neil C so much.

After 5 or 6 failed attempts to put down why I love his stuff so much*, I think that's all I can say. I love his stuff. It seems self-evident to me that his mash-ups are brilliant, and I think it's equally self-evident that he's really breaking new ground, and breaking free from the irony/sincerity** spectrum and exploring weird new avenues through humor. But apparently it's not as self-evident as I think it is, because when I share this with anyone I know IRL, all I get are blank stares.

--
* I've written like 400 words and then backspace backspace backspaced it all because "no, that's not quite right."

**I think Father John Misty is trying something similar, but in a less obviously comedic, and more overtly theatrical way. It seems that for both Neil C and FJM, the question of "is this irony? Is this sincere?" is completely irrelevant. It's a-ironic, but of course it's not, it's totally steeped in self-awareness and detachment. (this is why I've backspaced all my previous comments, I can't sort out the balance of irony and not. So I'm burying it in a footnote)
posted by DGStieber at 8:39 AM on November 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

I was just about to post ANOTHER couple of Neil C videos here (the Guide to Races of Star Wars/Trek, both of which make me laugh until I cry and can't breathe) and he has this weird ability to make something just off enough that it's infuriating and hilarious and mind-boggling at the same time. I think that Too Many Cooks taps into the same weird repetition/recursion (with a slight alteration that's just a little off) vein of humor but Neil C is definitely the king.

I agree with DGStieber about FJM, but I have lots of thoughts about J. Tillman that get REALLY inside baseball because I have been listening to records he's made for a long long time now.
posted by sleeping bear at 9:22 AM on November 14, 2014 [5 favorites]

Back in the day (circa 1993), my wife and I owned a copy of the PC simulator Coaster. While I played "by the rules" to get the best score possible, my wife just laid accelerator track after accelerator track. I tried to explain the point was to vary the pace so the "park guests" would give it a good review. She countered it was her coaster, and she wanted it to go insanely fast.

I think that's how Neil Cicierega approaches mashups.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 8:17 PM on November 14, 2014

Just the ticket at 2:07 am, thank you.
posted by Dragonness at 11:07 PM on November 15, 2014