M Is FOR MASHUP - January 27th, 2010
What To Mash?
By DJ Useo
It's a fascinating subject to me deciding what music to mash up. I've been told I'm the Frank Zappa of bootlegging because of my sometimes 'eclectic' choice of artists to mix. Not a bad thing to be called, in my mind. I don't think too many other mixers would like that comparison,though. Mainly they want to be referred to as being likened to Go Home Productions, Soundhog, or Frenchbloke, three dj's who helped trailblaze mashups in general. I've often noticed a tendency of the scene is to instruct you to do as they do. For me that's not remotely possible. Through the combination of my instruction in classical music production & my personal tastes range to the adventurous & less commercial, I'm driven to just go my own way & damn the mainstream.
Still, there's a warped part of me that finds some appeal in top forty tunes. I reckon it's because of my Mother giving me her collection of 45's when I was about 8 years' old. There were twist records, surf music & a good handful of R 'n B mainstream among those vinyl goodies. It led to me going from singing silly versions of 'On Top Of Old Smokey' to memorizing the latest Moody Blues & Beatles. I quickly went through the glam scene & then into punk rock where I was happy as der clam. Would'a thunk I would even give techno/dance a second glance, but soon the sheer creativity of that style also held me rapt. Among all the really good music I also aquired a new penchant for novelty music like The Bonzo Dog Band, Martin Mull, & Devo, a band that was novelty & not.
When I got into the world wide web, I found an expanded amount of all the types of tunes I liked. I was searching online for novelty tracks when I first found a wild mix of the Monkees & the Beatles by Go Home Productions. It struck me funny, yet also was clearly one of the best pop gems I'd ever heard. Soon, I found there were more people working in this new vein of rhythm & melody. Mashups really hooked me in & soon I overcame my view of them as novelty. When I'd hear a mashup it might be any kind of music combined from The Stone Roses vs TLC vs Tears For Fears, to The Stranglers vs Electric Six to Chemical Bros vs Righteous Bros. If you want to sample some of the early mashups I found, check out this podcast of mine - Mashups 2003 Podcast ( djuseo.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-11-24T23_23_00-08_00 )
I got a very supportive response to even my earliest mashups like 'Do You Love V-2 Schneider' (The Contours vs David Bowie), 'Hate Me Radio Dub' (Nas vs Members), & 'Mighty Pink' (Ghostface Killah vs The Fabulous Poodles) so I continued mixing & posting. Every so often I'd hear from some rare voice say to me "you need to make more accessible, mainstream mashups", but I didn't agree. Yet, somewhere along the way I did start popping out tracks that used more mainstream-y artists. I even quit posting the silly mashups I'd make regularly, instead, I only played them in my QRADIPS SHOW weekly radio hour.( qradip.blogspot.com/ ) Check out the past archive & you'll see tracks like 'Wow They're Coming' (Napoleon XIV vs Front Office), 'Nobodies Mountain King' (Marilyn Manson vs Lawrence Welk & His Orchestra) & 'Bounce 2 Hardstyle Bubbles In The Wine' ( The Lawrence Welk Orchestra vs Dj Alligator vs Blutonium Boy). I plan to release a couple compilations soon collecting those goofier mixes. I'll let you know when they appear.
In the most recent days for me I think you can see a good tight-rope walk between the mainstream & the not with tracks like 'Viva La Emergency' (Coldplay vs Wolfgang Gartner), 'Groove Times Two' (Madonna vs Deee-Lite vs Daft Punk), & 'Tax Machine' (The Beatles vs Pink Floyd). Many is the masher reliant on whatever a'capellas & instrumentals are available. I thank mixers like MP3J & Tizwarz who urged me to learn to cut & loop my own instrumentals & learn software to extract my own a'capellas. Thanks to those mixers & methods I can make tracks with just about anyone I like. Currently, I'm working up an albums' worth of GOTH vs GOA I call 'DARK DEADLY DEATH'. Look for the release of that in the next few months. I certainly don't think of those mixes as anything near mainstream. lol.& yet I still make very accessible mashups like 'Get Sexy Chick' (Sugababes vs David Guetta f/ Akon) which combines 2 tracks that were both in the UK top ten at the same time. Look for that mashup on 'Culture Bully 2009 Mashed' ( www.culturebully.com/2009-mashed ).
I recently got an invite to contribute a new track to a SEX-themed mashup album, so I mixed up '(I'm A) Sexeater' (Berlin vs Dubatech). It turned out very accessible I think. You tell me when it comes out shortly. In the meantime, feel free to write me if you want to hear some particular artist mashed. I enjoy hearing from y'all. Thanks for listening.
Mix Of The Week
Hear some of my more left-field mixing in 'Music To Imbibe To', a new long mix found on the excellent BMBX website. It's full of appealing weirdness, & people tell me they like the set. Find it here - ( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2010/01/music-to-imbibe-to-long-mix.html )
Mashup Tip : Change your DJ name every so often to avoid being pigeon-holed.
DJ Useo's Podcast
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Nathan Harden: "The Death of Air America: Why Liberals Fail at Talk Radio" (huffingtonpost.com)
Conservatives like to say that liberals aren't successful on the radio simply because their ideas don't hold up. But I have a formula that better explains it.
Frank Rich: After the Massachusetts Massacre (nytimes.com)
It was not a referendum on Barack Obama, who in every poll remains one of the most popular politicians in America.
Andrew Tobias: Daily Comment (andrewtobias.com)
For all our enormous challenges, there is a lot to be encouraged about and a lot to be proud of: 1. America's standing in the world has been restored. Most of the world now once again respects our leadership, is now once again rooting for us.
Charlotte Northedge: "What I'm really thinking: The teacher" (guardian.co.uk)
There are children you can't help but dislike, and usually, when their parents come in for parents' evening, you find out why.
Serpico on Serpico (nytimes.com)
He looked like some sort of fur trapper, this bearded man walking through the snowy woods here in upstate New York. But then, Frank Serpico has always been known for his disguises.
The last abortionist (guardian.co.uk)
Warren Hern is no ordinary doctor. He has lived under siege for 25 years, and seen eight of his colleagues assassinated. Even some of his own patients want him dead. John H Richardson meets the last late-term abortionist in America.
The Tell-Tale Line (cprw.com)
Poetry hardly ever gets reviewed, which leaves readers to their own devices. It's not so hard to be your own poetry critic. Lessons from Joan Houlihan...
"Just Kids" by Patti Smith: A review by Gerry Donaghy
My first introduction to Patti Smith, as it probably was for most listeners, was through her remake of "Gloria," where she transformed Van Morrison's ode to teenage lust into a frenzied whiplash of ur-punk bliss.
Joseph Epstein: Prodigy in Pictures (weeklystandard.com)
When films were movies, Irving Thalberg was the (young) man to see in Hollywood.
Connie Schultz: In These Tough Times, Orchestra Hits a Sour Note (creators.com)
Cleveland Orchestra musicians are world-renowned for the magic they produce, but when it came to presenting their side in a recent labor dispute, they were remarkably tone-deaf.
Miranda Sawyer: Idris Elba (guardian.co.uk)
Best known for his portrayal of 'Stringer' Bell in the 'The Wire,' Idris Elba has several films in the pipeline and is about to take the lead in a new British cop series Luther. But the thing he is truly excited about is his new EP.
Tim Teeman: "Kate McGarrigle: tributes from Rufus, Martha and Anna" (timesonline.co.uk)
The legendary folk singer passed away on Monday [Jan. 18]. Here, her family discuss their raw grief and the music they all shared.
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Sublime Prime Time Programming' Edition
Which TV network has the best prime time programming line up?
1.) ABC
2.) CBS
3.) NBC
4.) Fox
5.) FX
6.) PBS
7.) Other
Send your response to
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Michelle In AZ
Reader Suggestion
vPike
I Found This Interesting
vPike.com provides Google street views, driving directions, maps, and local area photos from Panoramio.
You can use vPike.com to acquaint yourself with an area before you go there or you can call up places from your past to see what they look like now. vPike.com includes a driving simulator that enables you to simulate a drive-by of an area while you watch the scenery.
MAM
Thanks, Marianne!
Wikipedia Trying To Delete
Church of Reality
Wikipedia is trying to delete the Church of Reality again.
Here's the link to vote to stop it . Vote KEEP. You have to click the EDIT link and add lines to vote. Wikipedia has been in a censorship war with the
Church of Reality for years and has started it up again. This is the always fabulous Marc Perkel's church.
Your support is appreciated.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Today is dear old Dad's 85th birthday!
Most Work for Government
Union Members
For the First Time, Most Union Members Work for Government
Heavy job losses during the current recession have caused the ranks of private-sector unions to plummet, resulting in government employees becoming the largest unionized force in the United States. Data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows there are almost 8 million public sector union workers in the country, but only 7.4 million in the private sector. Unions in various industries, like construction and manufacturing, lost a total of approximately 600,000 members from 2008 to 2009. Today, it is estimated that only 7.2% of all private-sector workers belong to a union, the lowest rate since 1900. Meanwhile, government union ranks continue to swell, from 36.8% of all public sector employees in 2008 to 37.4% in 2009.
Union Members
Harris Poll
Favorite Movie Star
Clint Eastwood was voted America's favorite movie star of 2009, ousting Denzel Washington from his three-year hold on the top spot in an annual Harris Poll, released on Tuesday.
Sandra Bullock, the Golden Globe and People's Choice winner for her starring role in the movie "The Blind Side", was the most popular female movie actress, reentering the Top 10 and coming in 4th place, overall.
"Pirates of the Caribbean" actor Johnny Depp jumped up to the No.2 spot from 8th in 2008, and was the favorite choice of U.S. women.
Screen cowboy John Wayne -- a fixture on the list since it began in 1994, despite his death in 1979 -- slipped to 7th, but Will Smith, Harrison Ford and Angelina Jolie all dropped off the Top 10 completely in 2009.
Favorite Movie Star
When Young Republicans Attack
Sen. Mary Landrieu
Three men suspected of trying to tamper with phones at Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's office have been released from a suburban New Orleans jail.
Among them was James O'Keefe, a conservative activist who posed as a pimp to target the community-organizing group ACORN. O'Keefe said "veritas," the Latin word for truth, as he left the jail with suspects Stan Dai and Joseph Basel, both 24.
The fourth suspect, Robert Flanagan, the son of Shreveport-based acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan, was not with them. A judge said earlier all four would be released Tuesday.
Federal authorities say the men went to Landrieu's New Orleans office Monday and Basel and Flanagan pretended to be phone repairmen. It wasn't clear what exactly they were trying to do.
Sen. Mary Landrieu
"Oldie of the Year"
Joanna Lumley
British actress Joanna Lumley was named "Oldie of the Year" on Tuesday by the monthly Oldie magazine for campaigning for the rights of retired Nepalese Gurkha soldiers wanting to settle in Britain.
Thanks in part to the 63-year-old's lobbying, the British government announced in May, 2009 that former Gurkhas who retired before 1997 with more than four years' service would be eligible to apply to live in Britain.
"We would like to award her for her relentless efforts and continuing campaigning for Ghurkhas' rights and The Gurkha Justice Campaign," Oldie organizers said.
Broadcaster and television personality Terry Wogan, 71, who stepped down as presenter of the popular BBC Radio 2 breakfast show last month, will hand out the prizes at a ceremony in London and pick up his own award -- Retirer of the Year.
Joanna Lumley
Auschwitz Survivor Raps
Esther Bejarano
Esther Bejarano says music helped keep her alive as a Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz and in the years that followed.
Now, 65 years after the liberation of the Nazi death camp, the 85-year-old has teamed up with the hip-hop band Microphone Mafia to spread her anti-racism message to German youth.
"It's a clash of everything: age, culture, style," Bejarano, a petite lady with an amiable chuckle, told The Associated Press ahead of Auschwitz Liberation Day on Wednesday. "But we all love music and share a common goal: we're fighting against racism and discrimination."
The daughter of a Jewish cantor from Saarbruecken in western Germany, Bejarano grew up in a musical home studying piano until the Nazis came to power and tore her family apart. Bejarano was deported to Auschwitz, where she became a member of the girls' orchestra, playing the accordion every time trains full of Jews from across Europe arrived at the death camp.
Esther Bejarano
Donates Art Collection To Cuba
Gilbert Brownstone
A Swiss art collector has donated nine works by artists ranging from Pablo Picasso to Camille Pissarro to Cuba's National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuban media reported on Tuesday.
Gilbert Brownstone plans to donate a total of 120 works of art to Cuba and has dedicated the donation to five Cuban agents imprisoned in the United States for their role in the 1996 shooting down of two planes piloted by anti-Castro Cuban exiles, Communist Party newspaper Granma said.
Brownstone, a gallery owner and former curator of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, has donated through the Brownstone Foundation art works to other museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris.
Gilbert Brownstone
Theme Park Opens In London
ABBAWORLD
The spangly Swedish quartet that gave the world "Waterloo" and "Dancing Queen" has sold 400 million records since its 1970s heyday and spawned the hugely successful stage and film musical "Mamma Mia!"
And now there's ABBAWORLD - a new museum-cum-theme park in London with enough music, mementoes and memory-lane appeal to satisfy even the most fervent ABBA fan.
ABBAWORLD's Swedish organizers promise the exhibition - which opens to the public on Wednesday - will be "a place for total interaction" with the band. The celebration kicks off Tuesday night with a party attended by band members Bjorn Ulvaeus and Anna-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad.
The exhibition tells the band's story in 25 rooms spread over 30,000 square feet (2,800 sq. meters). Glass cases contain spangly costumes in silk, satin and spandex. Visitors can see recreations of Polar Studios, where the band recorded, and the seaside cabin near Stockholm where Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson composed the band's hits.
ABBAWORLD
CBS Changed Policy
Super Bowl
CBS responded to complaints over a conservative group's planned Super Bowl ad featuring football star Tim Tebow by saying that it had eased restrictions on advocacy ads and would consider "responsibly produced" ones for open spots in its Feb. 7 broadcast.
CBS Corp. said Tuesday it had received numerous e-mails - both critical and supportive - since a coalition of women's groups began a protest campaign Monday against the ad, which the critics say will use Tebow and his mother to convey an anti-abortion message.
Funded by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, the 30-second ad is expected to recount the story of Pam Tebow's pregnancy in 1987. After getting sick during a mission trip to the Philippines, she ignored a recommendation by doctors to abort her fifth child. She later gave birth to Tim, who won the 2007 Heisman Trophy and helped his Florida team win two BCS championships.
In 2004, CBS was criticized by many liberal organizations for rejecting an ad by the United Church of Christ highlighting the UCC's welcoming stance toward gays and others who might feel shunned by more conservative churches.
CBS said Tuesday that, under its new policies, the UCC ad would have been accepted for airing.
Super Bowl
Doesn't Want Camera In Deposition
Nancy Grace
Talk-show host Nancy Grace doesn't want her deposition in a central Florida wrongful death lawsuit videotaped.
Her attorney wants a federal judge to prohibit videotaping of Grace during a deposition Thursday or prohibit the release of the deposition if it is videotaped. Her attorneys say it's necessary to protect Grace from embarrassment. She's a host of HLN, formerly CNN Headline News.
Grace is being sued by Melinda Duckett's family. They blame her for inflicting emotional distress on the 21-year-old Florida mother during an appearance on her talk show.
Duckett was on Grace's show in 2006 after her son Trenton disappeared. Grace grilled the woman, accusing her of hiding something. Duckett shot and killed herself the day the taped interview was scheduled to air.
Nancy Grace
2,000-Pound-A-Minute Corporate Whore
Tony Blair
Former British prime minister Tony Blair will add to a lucrative portfolio since leaving power with lectures to a hedge fund that reportedly bet on the collapse of the country's banks, his spokesman said.
He will give a number of private talks to executives at Lansdowne Partners in London, in a deal that media said could net the former leader as much as 2,000 pounds (2,300 euros, 3,250 dollars) a minute.
It is just the latest engagement for Blair who already works as an adviser to US investment bank JP Morgan and Zurich Insurance.
Lansdowne is best known for making millions of pounds betting on the collapse of Northern Rock and the fall of Barclays amid the worst economic crisis since World War II, British media reported.
Tony Blair
Not Much Of A Bauer
Kiefer Sutherland
Actor Kiefer Sutherland was among cattle customers roped into an alleged scam that netted more than a million dollars.
Prosecutors say Michael Wayne Carr of Linden had agreements to buy steers in Mexico for his customers and sell them for profit in the United States. Carr allegedly took $869,000 from Sutherland, star of the Fox TV show "24," and $177,000 from a New Mexico couple.
Prosecutors say there's no record Carr ever bought the steers.
Carr is charged with 12 felonies, including grand theft, forgery and embezzlement. He was scheduled to be arraigned Monday, but a judge postponed it to Feb. 8 after his attorney was removed.
Kiefer Sutherland
Sony Sues Cable Channel
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson tributes that aired on the TV Guide channel following the singer's death last year featured Jackson's works without authorization, Sony Music Entertainment charged in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.
The cable entertainment channel did not seek authorization from or compensate Sony, which holds the copyright for some of the content featured in the documentaries. The shows aired repeatedly in the aftermath of Jackson's death, according to the copyright infringement lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.
The lawsuit demanded that TV Guide cease its broadcast of the documentaries and pay unspecified damages to Sony Music Entertainment, which is owned by Sony Corp.
"In a crass effort to exploit, and in the immediate aftermath of, Mr Jackson's tragic death, TV Guide produced and repeatedly broadcast on its TV Guide channel a one-hour television show depicting the entirety of nine valuable music videos," the lawsuit said.
Michael Jackson
Loses Wind Record
New Hampshire
First the Old Man, now the Big Wind. New Hampshire's Mount Washington has lost its distinction as the site of the fastest wind gust ever recorded on Earth, officials at the Mount Washington Observatory said Tuesday.
The concession came three days after the World Meteorological Organization posted a snippet on its Web site saying a panel of experts reviewing extreme weather and climate data turned up a 253 mph gust on Australia's Barrow Island during Cyclone Olivia in 1996.
That tops the 231 mph record set atop Mount Washington on April 12, 1934.
"It's obviously a big disappointment. Having the world record for over six decades was such a part of the soul of this organization and for fans of Mount Washington around the country," said Scot Henley, the observatory's executive director.
New Hampshire
Didn't Another Austrian Politician Try This?
$chwarzenegger
Governor Arnold $chwarzenegger (R-Austrian Passport) suggested California could ease its crowded prison system by sending thousands of undocumented inmates to specially built jails in Mexico.
Speaking to reporters at the Sacramento Press Club, $chwarzenegger said California could ease its strained finances by a billion dollars if 20,000 illegal immigrants currently held in the state were housed across the border.
"We pay them to build the prison down in Mexico. And then we have those undocumented immigrants down there in prison. It would half the costs to build the prison and run the prison. We could save a billion dollars right there that could go into higher education."
$chwarzenegger said he believed the financial burden of California's prisons could be eased if the private sector moved into the industry.
$chwarzenegger
Stupidity Über Alles
Dictionary Ban
Dictionaries have been removed from classrooms in southern California schools after a parent complained about a child reading the definition for "oral sex".
Merriam Webster's 10th edition, which has been used for the past few years in fourth and fifth grade classrooms (for children aged nine to 10) in Menifee Union school district, has been pulled from shelves over fears that the "sexually graphic" entry is "just not age appropriate", according to the area's local paper.
While some parents have praised the move - "[it's] a prestigious dictionary that's used in the Riverside County spelling bee, but I also imagine there are words in there of concern," said Randy Freeman - others have raised concerns. "It is not such a bad thing for a kid to have the wherewithal to go and look up a word he may have even heard on the playground," father Jason Rogers told local press . "You have to draw the line somewhere. What are they going to do next, pull encyclopaedias because they list parts of the human anatomy like the penis and vagina?"
A panel is now reviewing whether the Menifee ban will be made permanent. The Merriam Webster dictionary joins an illustrious set of books that have been banned or challenged in the US, including Nobel prize winner Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, which last year was suspended from and then reinstated to the curriculum at a Michigan school after complaints from parents about its coverage of graphic sex and violence, and titles by Khaled Hosseini and Philip Pullman, included in the American Library Association's list of books that inspired most complaints last year.
Dictionary Ban
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by the Nielsen Co. for Jan. 18-24. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NFC Championship: Minnesota vs. New Orleans, Fox, 57.93 million.
2. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 26.85 million.
3. "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 26.38 million.
4. "NFC Championship Post-Game Show," Fox, 23.83 million.
5. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 16.31 million.
6. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 15.05 million.
7. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 14.91 million.
8. "The Mentalist," CBS, 14.56 million.
9. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 14.29 million.
10. "NCIS," CBS, 14.19 million.
11. "CSI: NY," CBS, 13.54 million.
12. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 13.22 million.
13. "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 12.7 million.
14. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 12.34 million.
15. "Bones," Fox, 11.97 million.
16. "24," Fox, 11.11 million.
17. "The Bachelor," ABC, 10.67 million.
18. "Human Target," Fox, 10.46 million.
19. "How I Met Your Mother," CBS, 10.41 million.
20. "Biggest Loser 9," NBC, 9.95 million.
Ratings
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