Today, because of the rain, admittedly, I haven’t done a lot. I’m sitting in the Convention Center right now typing this, after eating some lousy chicken salad sandwich from a coffee shop in the Hilton and picking up my free business cards from MOO (which look pretty awesome, by the way.) As a first-time Interactive badge holder, I must admit I don’t really know what to do with this thing. I’ve been doing some legitimate people watching and lemonade drinking (it’s made with maple syrup! so good). Around two I plan to brave the elements once again to the Hilton where I will catch a panel called StartUp Marketing: Big Results With a Small Budget. I’ve developed a newfound interest for marketing, and I’m hoping to intern at a prominent agency, and as a person who once unsuccessfully ran a “start-up,” I hope to find the material relevant and interesting. And it doesn’t look like a panel where they’re trying to sell me something, which is always good.
After that, I’ve got some free time, so I’ll grab dinner and meander around the Convention Center. There just wasn’t a whole lot of stuff that caught my interest today. I was hoping to catch a panel at the Sheraton, but that’s quite a long walk in this weather, so it’s likely my plans have changed. At 7:30, I will be joining my film-badge-holding sister for a screening of Girl Walk: All Day, and then it’s off to the Belmont for the Do512 Interactive Party. Hopefully the weather will have let up by then. I also might hit up Tech Karaoke at the Stage on Sixth. You never know. Either way, it looks to be a fun/super wet first day of Interactive.
I recently finished up the very awesome 50 Documentaries to See Before You Die on Current TV, hosted by Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock, but apparently the documentarian is keeping busy. He’s got an interview series on Hulu titled A Day In the Life, and one of his subjects is Greg Gillis, better known as the mashup master Girl Talk. Watch the episode above and remind yourself that you’re well past due for another GT show filled with boozing and booty-shaking.
Anyone who’s followed the blog/my life knows I’m a big fan of lists/countdowns/theme mixes, so it should come as no shock to most that I’m in love with the list mashup phenom Girl Talk (aka Greg Gillis) has shared in celebration of the beginning of summer 2011. Â Speaking with Vulture (where you can find the entire list and accompanying YouTube videos), Gillis explains the overall feel of the mix and its rise-and-chill vibe, an argument I’m inclined to agree with:
“Over half of these songs you would like to party to, and the other half are songs you relax to. That’s the essence of summertime– you can be sitting around drinking beer outside or you can be up celebrating.”
Once every three months I list the best of what I heard in albums/songs/remixes for the quarter. I do this to personally keep up with all the awesome music I hear, as it ultimately helps me at the end of the year when I do my overall listing for the previous twelve months. I also do it to introduce you cool cats to tunes you may have missed independently.
Today I continue a series of posts dedicated to the best albums of the last decade, posting analysis of one album at a time.
46. Girl Talk – Night Ripper
Before 2006, Girl Talk was merely a laptop-based sound collage dude, as his 2002 debut Secret Diary reveals. It’s interesting, but as far as the Greg Gillis we know and love today, it’s worlds apart, and frankly, musically speaking, an unlistenable mess. 2003’s Unstoppable, while still pretty low-key and amateur, is more in line with the mashup style Girl Talk would be famous for. And then there was Night Ripper, a 45-minute nonstop party album, combining indie with mainstream hip-hop, modern R&B hits with classic rock staples, Motown gold with 90’s alternative.
This year, Gillis released his fifth proper LP All Day, and if one thing is certain, it’s that the man has honed his craft. Still, there are many moments of timeless brilliance on this breakthrough disc – Puff Daddy alongside the Pixies, Biggie with Elton John, David Banner rapping to Nine Inch Nails, MIA rocking out to Hum. The mixes come at you a mile a minute; it’s not an album to fully digest in one sitting, or two, or three. And the remarkable thing is this: much like another artist who takes from pop culture in its current incarnation to make something completely different (I’m thinking of Weird Al), the results have oddly aged well, even when the source hasn’t.
Since Night Ripper exploded onto the scene with glowing reviews, Gillis has remained a mainstay on the dance scene, entertaining the festival circuit with his signature brand of shows (where he invites fans to rush the stage for the entirety of his performance) and becoming a prominent figurehead in the copyright/sampling debate. Naturally, Girl Talk has as many detractors as fans – how, they ask, could someone get so famous for creating something anyone could do in their bedroom? And yet, almost five years after Night Ripper and a plethora of emulation later, no one does it quite like Girl Talk.
Greg Gillis put the Internet in a fury this morning when he dropped his latest album All Day around 8AM. The comp is available for free download from Illegal Art and highly recommended. It’s a Girl Talk album, so you already know what to expect – Gillis has been the king of mashups for many years now. Just don’t call him a DJ.
Like the classic Night Ripper and Feed the Animals before it, Girl Talk incorporates new hip-hop and R&B with old school classic rock, alternative, indie, and even 80’s synth pop. Clever mashings include Fat Joe with Spacehog, Miley Cyrus and M.O.P., Radiohead and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and (in an unbelievable moment of brilliance) Aphex Twin alongside Lady Gaga and Soulja Boy. Overall, there’s probably sixty years worth of music on here, and it all sounds like it belongs together. God it’s good to have you back, Mr. Gillis.
