127 Bands, 5 Stages, 3 Days and 1 Mean Sunburn.
"Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival - April 17-19th, 2009 or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Find 30 Reasons To Love a Weekend in the Desert."
- By Scott Butterworth
Day #15 - Artist #15 - Girl Talk:
Not a girl. And there's no talking.
Gregg Gillis, hailing from Pittsburgh, is a DJ/mashup extraordinaire that has released four albums since 2002, and is the sole proprietor of the musical chop shop persona that is Girl Talk.
I'm surprised Girl Talk's most recent album, Feed The Animals, released in 2008 by rabble-rouser sampling label Illegal Art, wasn't sold in a brown paper bag. Possibly due to the controversy it anticipated (by failing to legally license any of the sampled music), the album provides no song titles or identifing information anywhere on the packaging except for what looks like a ransom note folded inside the case, listing hundreds of songs/artists sampled for the album.
Feed The Animals encompasses the last 40+ years of music and pop culture into 53 minutes and 53 seconds of "I can't believe he just did that..." internal monologues. Think mash-up inventor DJ Z-Trip meets 80's physical comedian Gallagher. (Including plastic sheeting on the laptop. See photo -------> )
Gillis is particulary known for his raucous DJ sets that recreate your favorite karaoke bar and that first night out in Freshmen year of college, losing inhibitions with your "new best friends" that you hadn't even met twelve hours earlier. One blogger wrote, "No two ways about it, Girl Talk’s set at the Newport last Saturday night was the wildest party I’ve ever been to and one of the more memorable events of my concert-going l
ifetime."
The "sophomore slump" is a dreaded reality for a lot of musicians, but as far as Coachella performances go, the inverse seems to be true for DJs/dance acts. They seem to slide by relatively unoticed their first year of performing and return within a year or two for their second time around with a bucket of ice water to dump on your face in the morning. At Coachella in 2007, DJs Justice, MSTRKRFT and Girl Talk all performed on the same day...and I don't remember any of them. Last year Justice returned to headline the "Dance Tent"...and I don't remember anything EXCEPT them. This year at Coachella I have a feeling Girl Talk and MSTRKRFT are not going to let Justice be alone in that category.
I'm not sure what's more impressive, the mash-up songs, or these fan-generated mash-up videos.
"Like This" from the album Feed The Animals (2008):
"In Step" from the album Feed The Animals (2008):
(To see all the Coachella posts in this series, click here. And thank you to those that commented on previous posts. Please feel free to comment on what you like, don't like, and leave a suggested donation of $10.)
"Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival - April 17-19th, 2009 or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Find 30 Reasons To Love a Weekend in the Desert."
- By Scott Butterworth
Day #15 - Artist #15 - Girl Talk:
Not a girl. And there's no talking.
Gregg Gillis, hailing from Pittsburgh, is a DJ/mashup extraordinaire that has released four albums since 2002, and is the sole proprietor of the musical chop shop persona that is Girl Talk.
I'm surprised Girl Talk's most recent album, Feed The Animals, released in 2008 by rabble-rouser sampling label Illegal Art, wasn't sold in a brown paper bag. Possibly due to the controversy it anticipated (by failing to legally license any of the sampled music), the album provides no song titles or identifing information anywhere on the packaging except for what looks like a ransom note folded inside the case, listing hundreds of songs/artists sampled for the album.
Feed The Animals encompasses the last 40+ years of music and pop culture into 53 minutes and 53 seconds of "I can't believe he just did that..." internal monologues. Think mash-up inventor DJ Z-Trip meets 80's physical comedian Gallagher. (Including plastic sheeting on the laptop. See photo -------> )
Gillis is particulary known for his raucous DJ sets that recreate your favorite karaoke bar and that first night out in Freshmen year of college, losing inhibitions with your "new best friends" that you hadn't even met twelve hours earlier. One blogger wrote, "No two ways about it, Girl Talk’s set at the Newport last Saturday night was the wildest party I’ve ever been to and one of the more memorable events of my concert-going l
ifetime."The "sophomore slump" is a dreaded reality for a lot of musicians, but as far as Coachella performances go, the inverse seems to be true for DJs/dance acts. They seem to slide by relatively unoticed their first year of performing and return within a year or two for their second time around with a bucket of ice water to dump on your face in the morning. At Coachella in 2007, DJs Justice, MSTRKRFT and Girl Talk all performed on the same day...and I don't remember any of them. Last year Justice returned to headline the "Dance Tent"...and I don't remember anything EXCEPT them. This year at Coachella I have a feeling Girl Talk and MSTRKRFT are not going to let Justice be alone in that category.
I'm not sure what's more impressive, the mash-up songs, or these fan-generated mash-up videos.
"Like This" from the album Feed The Animals (2008):
"In Step" from the album Feed The Animals (2008):
(To see all the Coachella posts in this series, click here. And thank you to those that commented on previous posts. Please feel free to comment on what you like, don't like, and leave a suggested donation of $10.)
These mash-ups are seriously distorting my perception of reality! I was at work when i read this blog and then after reading i decided to watch the "Like This" video and it made me feel like i just dropped two hits of EX and then jumped into a musical wormhole in outer space that took me a journey im not sure ill be ready to take anytime again soon...but it was worth it. but, did have to leave work after that. Good stuff, cant wait for the live show.