M Is FOR MASHUP - RERUN - February 18th, 2015
What Home Producers Think About Mashups
By DJ Useo
I have a Facebook account solely to contact people who want to interact about mashups. Many has been the time I felt like closing my account, but the people I know there are what keeps me staying. I was thinking about the assembled bootleg knowledge my contacts possess, & I got an idea to invite them to offer their wisdom on the subject. They delivered & more. Here's the thread containing what my Facebook contacts think about mashups.
Voicedude - It's apparently been a huge waste of my time…. ;)
Jarod Preston - Why listen to one of your favorite songs when you listen to two of them at the same time.
Boris Bolo - don't like the music in em, but the videos are pretty good. :)
Ryan Nellis - Becoming decreasingly creative (myself included). Is it because the more we mash, the less material we feel is usable?
Scott Cairo - why not?
AtoZ - That the above comments reveal a discernible wave of "why do we do this decreasingly fresh or enjoyable thing ?" Useo is chagrined to have exposed a Ghostbusters II river of discontent flowing under Mashtown !
'cept Me, who's still reaching thriving peaks (( and wid videos too plus as well !! ))
Matthew Kavanagh - Even though I now understand its a matter of matching key and timing, I still feel the magic making these today, as I felt listening to mashups on the radio 10 years ago.
AtoZ - You open an insightful window ( to a door ... which leads to a view ... of this ! ) ... Key & Timing match are crucial, but not if it's rigidly mechanized and "computery". Feel and happy-axledents keep the naturalness of life within it, and a bit a' dissonance is better than sounding too auto-crooned !
As far as "still feeling the magic 10 years on" that cuz the true artistes ( even weary Joel-Steven Voicedude ) are evolving. Just think of music 1962 vs 1972 ! (( damn !!, I just conceived another freakin' compilation .))
oki - mashups are a fun and creative hobby for the entire family.
Mistah Pok - Mashups are dead and locked in my basement.
ToToM - The quickest and most satisfying way I found to express myself through music and always a pleasure to listen to although I've become more difficult to please as ever.
Jeremy Girard - I enjoy music of all genres. However, I can only hear my own favorite albums so many times before I long for something fresh. Likewise, I can only listen to the radio looking for new sounds so many times before the same 20 songs are repeated.
Ah, but in the wonderful world of Mashups I can hear my old favorites mashed with the new! Old favs with other old favs, new with new, and I can even credit them for introducing me to artists that I may never have heard at all!
And now, so many producers have joined in the craft that one could literally find a new mashup at any given moment. Some new combination that has just been completed, fresh for your ears! It is a never ending world of musical discovery that brings together decades and genres that you would never think to enjoy at the same time, but once you do, you can't imagine it any other way.
Jared Slaff - I still love mash-ups, from the day I heard my first one in July 2004 (Chris Isaak v. CeCe Peniston). Although lately, due to its popularity, there haven't been as many quality choons (onslaught of EDM v. EDM, etc), but there are some gems that still come out of the woodwork. Sadly, Genre Clash has been put on the back burner compared to years past.
But when the songs that come out now are also down in quality, it can make it that much harder. As a fanboy (and having made a couple meh-shups also), I have a big appreciation of the hard work these DJ's/producers put in for so long..!
Eddie Pedalo - It's over. Move on.
Jarod Preston - Because it NEVER gets old -
and the possibilities are endless...
....unlessss you use the same hip hop and r&b vocals over and over again.
Sam Haynes - Need more biggie pellas.
Dave Davis - Common themes seem to blend effortlessly. However, I know there is some major work done to accomplish them.
Voicedude - It's a shame that the biggest haters of the genre are from within the genre. How will anything survive that dynamic?
AtoZ - 1- You don't mean you see "haters" in this thread right here, do ya' ? Seems like cheekiness, or contrariness at worst. You must mean other mash-sites, like how GYBO used to was ?
2- As for surviving that dynamic -- seems to be working so far ! Grist for the mill, maybe ? Certainly motivation.
I haven't seen anywhere, including well outside of mashery, that doesn't attract nay-sayers / wiseasses / & plain ol' troublemakers . . .
Voicedude - No. But I think that self-hating attitude / dynamic is unique to this genre. Plus that attitude IS why I have nothing to do with Mashstix any longer and is, I believe, what helped kill GYBO... We used to be a community of fellow artistes who would compare and occasionally critique each others work (and ended up LIFTING each other up) - like a public park where we all set up our latest pieces.
But it BECAME something else: imagine your easels all set up and the very first 'peer' that comes by whips it out and takes a piss all over it. Now, there it sits. - dripping - so THAT is the first takeaway any future person sees. Now I do NOT expect fawning over every track I release - far from it! - but NO ONE expects THAT kind of reaction.
Especially when someone who ISN'T a musician starts lecturing me on how OOK ( "out of key" ) it is, particularly when I know it isn't. It's also just plain disrespectful to another who is JUST LIKE YOU, for one. Today, especially online or in other social media contexts, too many fall into SNARK as a 'go to' response, as if being an asshole is a 'right' or something. All it takes it one turd to spoil the soup, so these reactions take away all that LOVE we referred to previously that got us into this to begin with. Just imho, btw...
AtoZ - Wow, Voicedude, all eloquently said, sir. I just had a variation on that my own self :
I spent the last couple weeks on one a' own I was super, >never-did-better< Proud of . . but I ran it by a couple genuine Mash-pals cuz I went back and forth on a couple vocal phrases being "possibly" off just a squeach.
You know . . . one day ya' love it --- next day you're not sure.
( I hesitate to ask You about "nearly dones" cuz your bracingly honest assessments are so bracingly honest . . heh-heh )
Once I felt as confident as one can be, and had endorsements filling my sails, out it launched unto the whirled . . .
It got some of the most enthusiastic reactions I've yet garnered, especially getting a "Like" from Mark Vidler! ( the gosh-darn Patron Saint of Mashters ! ) . . . . but ONE damn guy said 'something' like "pitch-matching vocal from "The Word" is a waste here". And don't `cha know it . . there's the turd in That soup !!
Oh! . . should I reference the track?
Sure, then you can chase around that turd with some drippy piss!!
heh-heh
';'
Voicedude - You're talking one man's opinion amongst a bunch of favorable reviews. I'm talking the very first comment is Snark - sometimes incorrect Snark. Recently, on my Guardians Of The Galaxy mashup on one of the sites, this very thing happened. What he referred to I was somewhat aware of but not concerned with. Yet, still my work was there, dripping with piss.
But I did not respond; I did not take the bait. Instead, the song maxed out my 100 D/L in record time! Clearly the rest of the crowd disagreed with him, but there stood my work, dripping anyway... Should we care about what our peers say about our work? Well, in a word: yes. But not if we're going to act like jerks about it; in that case, who cares what you think!
AtoZ - But back on The Overall Non-Specific topic here, folks ! . . . We need to keep this all in mind from a more historical perspective :
Mash-Ups have been around, in a widely known and accepted way, for going on 15 to 20 years now ?
Eras change . . . it was in the late 80's that everybody in commercially released music was gettin' all 60's on us.
Right now, there seems to be a lot of fondness or at least references to the 90's. Mashers may fear we've hung around too long and gone "out of style", but give it a couple years and the culture will be digging out their "mash-hats", and "mash-pants" again. Oh my . . . there'll be blogs about how "Mashing is Back !"
Except, as so beautifully pointed out above in this resonant thread, mashing exists in all times and genres as a fundamental construct . . so we're in / out / and beyond fashion at all times anyway.
So stick That in your app and Mash it!
Thanks to all my pals, & contacts for all the expressions concerning mashups. I'll be back next week with more writing about mashups!
Podcast Of The Week
DJ Rudec presents the awesome "DJ Rudec - Jazztamash Vol 1 @ GenErik & Friends podcast". DJ Rudec says "Needed to recover from the pure awesome that was superstar Ralph Myerz exclusive podcast. Back with something a leeetel different this time: An hour of jazzy mashups. Some truly mind-blowing work here from DJ Rudec. Jazz standards x Pop Standards? Nu-jazz and lounge versions of your favourite songs? It's all here."
( soundcloud.com/generikmashups/dj-rudec-jazztamash-vol-1 )
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The GOP Is Not America, Clinton Is Not Rubio (NY Times Blog)
Think about Trump's obvious weaknesses, why Republicans couldn't exploit them, but why Democrats can.
Jamelle Bouie: Fundamentally Speaking, Hillary Clinton Won't Blow It (Slate)
The election won't be decided by gaffes and personality.
Josh Barro: "MARK CUBAN: Trump is that guy in the bar who will say anything to get laid" (Business Insider)
"There's that guy who'll walk into the bar and say anything to get laid. That's Donald Trump right now to a T. But it's all of us who are going to get f-----," Cuban said during an interview at the SkyBridge Alternatives (SALT) Conference in Las Vegas on Thursday night.
Neil Gross: Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal? (NY Times)
Members of the old class turned to scientists, engineers, managers, human relations specialists, economists and other professionals for help. As these experts multiplied, they realized the extent of their collective power. They demanded fitting levels of pay and status and insisted on professional autonomy. A "new class" was born, neither owner nor worker.
CHRISTOPHER CHABRIS and JOSHUA HART: How Not to Explain Success (NY Times)
… the more successful participants had higher cognitive ability, more educated parents and better impulse control. People scoring in the top half on our intelligence measure whose parents had college degrees earned more awards, made more money and were more educated than those scoring below average whose parents lacked college degrees.
Andi Zeisler: Has celebrity feminism failed? (The Guardian)
It has become fashionable to identify as a feminist in Hollywood, but a social and political force needs substance, not just award-ceremony speeches, to refocus the spotlight.
Suzanne Moore: Banksy's refugee piece shows us how to protest - and grieve (The Guardian)
Stik and Stewy are other street artists addressing issues such as housing and the migration crisis. This isn't antisocial - it's deeply social.
Supplements, Religion & Mortality: 9 Questions for Cameron Diaz (Blue Zones)
Q: I notice you don't talk much about supplements in your book. Do you believe in any them?
A: No. Our "pill society" is really what is making us sicker. We do talk about turmeric, anti-inflammatories, antioxidants; but we don't prescribe anything. I really wanted to make sure we wrote a book that was informative and not instructional.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"TRUMP'S ASYMMETRIC WARFARE"
BANG!
"WE SHOULD BE SO LUCKY."
"FINGER LICKIN' GOOD"
CONSERVATIVES HATE WOMEN.
DIDN'T JESUS TELL US TO FEED THE HUNGRY, HELP THE POOR AND HEAL THE SICK?
THIS 'AMERICA' IS FOR YOU!
THIS 'AMERICA' IS FOR YOU! PART TWO
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
More May gray. Quite nice.
Set For Wider Release
Snowden Files
The full cache of secret documents from former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden is being opened to journalists and organizations willing to work with the news organization holding the archive.
The Intercept, the news site launched by journalist Glenn Greenwald -- who was part of the team that first interviewed Snowden in 2013 -- announced on Monday that it would "invite outside journalists, including from foreign media outlets, to work with us to explore the full Snowden archive."
The move could vastly increase the disclosures from Snowden, who fled the United States with a trove of documents detailing vast surveillance programs by the NSA and other intelligence agencies from around the world.
Greenwald said that under an agreement with Snowden, the journalists reporting on these documents must agree to certain rules.
Greenwald said The Intercept has already begun to provide archive access to French daily Le Monde and other media outlets, and added that "we are excited by the reporting this new arrangement will generate."
Snowden Files
GOP Lawyer
Benghazi
The U.S. military acted properly on the night of the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, according to leaked testimony from a retired, three-star Army general who served as chief lawyer for Republicans on the House committee investigating the attacks.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Dana Chipman "repeatedly commended the military's actions on the night of the attacks during closed interviews with Defense Department officials," including a Jan. 8 interview with former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Democrats on the committee say.
Chipman, a former judge advocate general for the Army, served as chief counsel for Republicans on the House Benghazi panel from August 2014 until January.
The Democrats' letter quotes Chipman as telling Panetta: "I think you ordered exactly the right forces to move out and to head toward a position where they could reinforce what was occurring in Benghazi or Tripoli or elsewhere in the region. And, sir, I don't disagree with the actions you took, the recommendations you made and the decisions you directed."
Chipman later told Panetta that he was "worried" that U.S. officials were caught by surprise during the Benghazi raids, which occurred on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Still, Chipman told Panetta: "Nothing could have affected what occurred in Benghazi," the letter said.
Benghazi
On The Rise
Segregation
Six decades after the Supreme Court outlawed separating students by race, stubborn disparities persist in how the country educates its poor and minority children.
A report Tuesday by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found deepening segregation of black and Hispanic students at high-poverty K-12 public schools. These schools often offered fewer math, science and college prep classes, while having disproportionally higher rates of students who were held back in ninth grade, suspended or expelled.
"Segregation in public K-12 schools isn't getting better. It's getting worse, and getting worse quickly," Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia said. The analysis, he said, confirmed that America's schools are largely segregated by race and class, leaving "more than 20 million students of color now attending racially and socioeconomically isolated public schools."
The GAO report found that in the 2013-2014 school year, 16 percent of the nation's public schools had high concentrations of poor and black or Hispanic students, up from 9 percent at the start of the millennium. The student body at these schools were at least 75 percent black or Hispanic and poor - and in some cases 100 percent. The findings were based on an analysis of Education Department data.
Segregation
Diamond Fetches $28 Million
'Unique Pink'
A vivid, pearl-shaped pink diamond said to be the largest of its kind to go under the hammer has sold at auction for 27.3 million Swiss francs ($28 million) at a Sotheby's auction.
Sotheby's said the hammer price, which excludes fees, came in at the low end of the expected pre-auction range of $28 million-$38 million. Including fees, the total price was 30.8 million Swiss francs. The buyer wasn't identified.
The 15.38-carat "Unique Pink," mined near the Kimberley area of South Africa and touted for its clarity and pure structure, was the star lot in Tuesday's Geneva auction.
The current record for the sale of a pink diamond was $46.2 million, set five years ago by the "Graff Pink."
'Unique Pink'
New York's Highest Court
Trump University
A New York appeals court issued a ruling on Tuesday that apparently made it highly unlikely that a state fraud case against Trump University, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's venture, will be heard before the Nov. 8 general election.
The mid-level appeals court ruled that Trump's lawyers can argue to the state's highest court that the fraud claims against Trump University brought by the state attorney general should be dismissed.
The claims are part of a state lawsuit filed in 2013 that accuses Trump University of misleading thousands of people who paid up to $35,000 for seminars to learn the billionaire businessman's real estate investment strategies.
The trial judge in the case had been waiting to hear whether the mid-level appeals court, the Appellate Division, First Department, in Manhattan, would give Trump permission to go to the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals.
"It's no surprise that Donald Trump is using every legal option to avoid standing trial for operating a sham for-profit university," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement responding to the ruling.
Trump University
Judge Halts Strict Gun Law
District of Columbia
A federal judge in Washington halted enforcement of a portion of the city's strict gun law Tuesday in a ruling that conflicts with another judge's assessment of the law earlier this year and sets up two competing views for a higher court.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon ruled Tuesday that a section of the city's law that requires people who want to carry a gun in public to show a "good reason to fear injury" or another "proper reason" to carry the weapon "likely places an unconstitutional burden" on citizens' right to bear arms.
Leon's decision to grant a preliminary injunction stands in contrast to a ruling by his colleague, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who sided with the city in a separate dispute earlier this year and declined to issue a preliminary injunction. Kollar-Kotelly said that opponents had not shown that their lawsuit was likely to be successful, leading her to deny the request for a preliminary injunction. She also noted that appeals courts in other parts of the country had approved of laws in New York, New Jersey and Maryland that are similar to the District of Columbia's.
Kollar-Kotelly was nominated by a Democrat, President Bill Clinton, and Leon by a Republican, resident George W. Bush.
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine, whose office has been defending the law, said his office believes the city's law is constitutional and will ask Leon to put his ruling on hold while the city appeals.
District of Columbia
Most Quakes
Texas
Oil and gas activities may have caused nearly nine in 10 of the earthquakes Texas has experienced in the past 40 years, and the quakes have become more frequent as oilfield activity has picked up in the past decade, according to a forthcoming study.
Of the 162 Texas earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater between 1975 and 2015, a quarter were "almost certainly" induced by oil and gas activities, while 33 percent were "probably induced and 28 percent were "possibly induced," researchers led by University of Texas-Austin geoscientist Cliff Frohlich wrote.
A sharp uptick in oil-linked earthquakes has caused popular uproar and regulatory scrutiny in northern neighbor Oklahoma.
The researchers also criticized the Texas Railroad Commission, the agency responsible for regulating petroleum production in the state, for being "slow to acknowledge that induced earthquakes occur in Texas."
Since shale oil and gas fields like the Haynesville and the Permian boomed in 2008 due to the widespread use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies, the rate of earthquakes exceeding magnitude 3.0 has increased from 2 per year to 12 per year in Texas, the top U.S. oil state.
Texas
UN Panel Says
Glyphosate
The controversial weedkiller glyphosate, which is used by Monsanto in its herbicide Roundup, is "unlikely" to cause cancer, a United Nations finding said Monday, in a blow to critics who have called for its ban.
Last month, the European parliament urged the EU to only approve glyphosate's use for seven years instead of 15 as requested by the bloc's top regulator amid fears that the product could be carcinogenic.
A review carried out by pesticide experts from the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization said "glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet."
That appeared to contradict a March 2015 finding from the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) which said glyphosate "probably" caused cancer.
WHO said the two findings were not contradictory.
Glyphosate
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for May 9-15. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "NCIS," CBS, 16.04 million.
2. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 14.73 million.
3. "NCIS: New Orleans," CBS, 13.25 million.
4. "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 11.33 million.
5. "60 Minutes," CBS, 10.89 million.
6. "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 9.8 million.
7. "Empire," Fox, 9.81 million.
8. "Survivor," CBS, 9.51 million.
9. "60 Minutes Presents: Morley Safer," CBS, 9.46 million.
10. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 9.05 million.
11. "Hawaii Five-0," (Friday, 10 p.m.), CBS, 8.82 million.
12. "Hawaii Five-0," (Friday, 9 p.m.), CBS, 8.49 million.
13. "The Odd Couple," CBS, 8.31 million.
14. "Mom," CBS, 8.29 million.
15. "Mike & Molly" (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), CBS, 8.06 million.
16. "Chicago Med," NBC, 8 million.
17. "Chicago Fire," NBC, 7.98 million.
18. "Game of Thrones," HBO, 7.82 million.
19. "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 7.77 million.
20. "Mike & Molly" (Monday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 7.73 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Guy Clark
Texas singer-songwriter Guy Clark, who helped mentor a generation of songwriters and wrote hits like "L.A. Freeway" and "Desperados Waiting for a Train," has died. He was 74.
A native of Monahans, Texas, Clark belonged to a group of highly influential Texas songwriters that included Townes Van Zandt and Mickey Newbury. Together with his painter-songwriter wife, Susanna, Clark's home in Nashville became a gathering place for artists like Rodney Crowell and Steve Earle. He wrote songs for Johnny Cash, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Jeff Walker, Bobby Bare, Vince Gill and John Conlee.
Born in 1941, Clark's upbringing in west Texas inspired the scenes and characters for many of his songs, including "Desperados," based on an oil well digger who once stayed at his grandmother's shotgun hotel. His interest in music was inspired by his father's law partner, and most of the first songs he learned to sing and play were in Spanish.
He moved to Houston in the 1960s, where he met Van Zandt and several other folk songwriters and played in coffee shops and bars. He married his first wife, Susan Spaw, and they had a son, Travis, in 1966. After his split with Susan, he met painter Susanna Talley and they moved to Los Angeles to pursue his music career.
His dissatisfaction with the city's hectic lifestyle was the basis of his song "L.A. Freeway," which was recorded by Walker on his debut album. He and Susanna moved to Nashville in 1971, where his success as a songwriter led to a recording contract with RCA, and he released his first album, "Old No. 1," in 1975. The album included songs like "She Ain't Going Nowhere" and "Texas 1947," which Cash also recorded.
His home became a musical haven for songwriters, singers and artists, and his house was full of demo tapes of songs and Susanna's paintings and artwork. He was close friends with many of Nashville's talented musicians, including Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett and Shawn Camp.
His songs were very detailed, literary and full of imagery, such as "The Randall Knife," about the knife his father carried with him through World War II. A tribute album to Clark, "This One's for Him," which featured recordings by Rosanne Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and John Prine, won album of the year at the Americana Music Association's Honors and Awards in 2012.
Clark received the Poet's Award from the Academy of Country Music in 2012. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2004.
He recorded several albums, although he never achieved the same success as a performer, but he was beloved in the folk and Americana musical community. His final album, "My Favorite Picture of You," won a Grammy in 2014 for best folk album. The title song was inspired by his wife, who died in 2012 and who is featured on the album's cover. The picture shows a frustrated Susanna, her arms crossed and a glare on her face.
"Townes (Van Zandt) and I were in that house that she is in front of and we were drunk, drunk, just obnoxiously drunk," Clark said during a 2013 interview with the AP. "And she had just had enough."
He is survived by his son Travis and daughter-in-law Krista McMurtry Clark; grandchildren Dylan and Ellie Clark; sisters Caroline Clark Dugan and Jan Clark. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Guy Clark
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