Mashup Monday - 'Folsom Prison Gangsta'z' (Sunday Edition)

In today's edition of "Mashup Monday", we have a tale of two men that were considered outsiders during their respective times.  Separately, they were the cornerstones of their musical genres.  Together, they make a damn good tune.  Take one part Johnny Cash, one part Eazy-E, and you get 'Folsom Prison Gangsta'z'.



Individual tracks:

Johnny Cash - 'Folsom Prison Blues'
Eazy-E - 'Luv 4 Dem Gangsta'z'

Mashup Monday - 'Don't Stop Believin''

A late entry for the night, but I had to include it.

Norwegian Recycling has released a new mashup, and it's really quite good.  While I'm familiar with most of the artists on this track, I'm not keen on most of the songs.  The foundation of the tune comes from Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing'.  Along the way, you'll find snippits of Britney Spears, Shakira, Robyn and Bruno Mars.  The track list is as follows:

1. Journey - Dont Stop Believin'
2. Shakira - Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)
3. Brintey Spears - Till the World Ends
4. Robyn - Dancing On My Own
5. Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are
6. Tim Berg - Seek Bromance


It's quite superb.





Reminds me of a comedy routine I once saw...

Mashup Monday - 'Fat Bottom Girls'

Today's track isn't so much a mashup per se, more of a remix.  It comes courtesy of hometown DJ, and personal favorite, Z-Trip.  In honor of Freddie Mercury's 65th Birthday (see a common thread to today's posts), I thought I would post a mix of my wife's favorite Queen tune.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present 'Fat Bottom Girls'.

Mashup Monday - 'Warwick Ghetto'

I've never been a fan of Elvis.  I know. I know.  I just never liked the guy.  However, in my opinion 'In The Ghetto' is one of my favorite songs.  It has been since my childhood.

Phil RetroSpector has put together a brilliant mashup of The King, with Duffy's 'Warwick Avenue'.  With the video he has put together for the song, it becomes quite emotional.  Take a look.

Mash Up Monday

I haven't posted a "Mashup Monday" piece in a while.  Frankly, I haven't seen anything that has really captured my attention.  There was something I caught on Vimeo that made me decide to resurrect the article.

Chris at Ithaca Audio uploaded a new mix.  I love it.  It blends together the theme from 'Shaft', Darth Vader's ominous theme from 'Star Wars', Daft Punk, Q-Tip and a number of other tracks.  It's mixed together seamlessly and is quite catchy.  I hope you enjoy it.


Don't hold back, just push things forward from Ithaca Audio on Vimeo.

Mash Up Monday - And Now For Something Completely Different

Today's Mashup Monday post is unlike any other mashup post I've done.  This post isn't from a DJ, and it doesn't have any songs in it.

Kutiman is a 29 year old Youtube user from Israel.  On March 19th, he or she uploaded a video in which they pieced together a number of random Youtube videos of people singing and playing various instruments, to create a song.  There is a time or two where it seemed like things just didn't jell, but all in all, it's quite impressive.

This is 'My Favorite Color',

Mash Up Monday - Girl Talk's 'All Day'

With everything going on, I haven't had a chance to listen to a full CD in months.  I finally got smart, and burned a few albums of MP3s onto a disc to take along with us in the car this last week.  One of those albums was Girl Talk's November release, 'All Day'.

For those of you that aren't familiar with Girl Talk, he has become the godfather of mashups.  His first album, 'Secret Diary', came out all the way back in 2002.  It's hard to describe his style.  It's unlike anyone else that I have featured on my blog.  He's like a mashup DJ on meth.  I usually tell people, "If you don't like what you're listening to, wait 20 seconds".  His latest album only has 12 tracks, but has samples from 373 songs.  That is an average of 31 samples per track, or a new sample every 11.42 seconds.

I featured the first track on the album, 'Oh No', back in January.  Now that I've had a chance to listen to the rest of the album, let me play a couple more tracks that I really enjoy.

Track three, entitled 'That's Right', contains at least 15 samples, from what I can count.  It includes everything from Peter Gabriel's 'In Your Eyes', to Nine Inch Nails' 'Closer', to, believe it or not, Miley Cyrus' 'Party in the U.S.A.'.

**It does contain adult language, and is NSFW**


Track four on the album, called 'Jump On Stage', has samples from more than 18 or 19 songs.  On this one, it  carries three main background tracks, Portishead's 'Sour Times', Radiohead's 'Creep', and T'Pau's 'Heart And Soul'.  It flows seamlessly.  It's flawless.

**This contains adult language too, and is NSFW**


The New York Times once called Girl Talk "a lawsuit waiting to happen".  Seeing as he has nearly 400 samples on this album that he has not been granted permission to use, he is not legally allowed to sell this album.  He is, however, allowed to give it away for free under the "fair use" clause of copyright law.

You can go to Girl Talk's website, and download 'All Day', either as a 12 track album, or as one continuous track.  It is easily the most impressive piece of work I have heard in quite a long time.  So impressive, in fact, that on Friday, I listened to it four times in a row.  Back to back.

I haven't done that to ANY CD in probably a decade or more.

The Return Of Mash Up Monday

After a brief hiatus (four weeks), I think it's about time that I start posting one of my favorite weekly blog posts.  Regrettably, there hasn't been much that has been released lately that is...how should I put it?...noteworthy.

Norwegian Recycling released a new mashup last week, but it isn't as good as the tracks that he normally produces.  Don't get me wrong.  It's still pretty good, but just not at the "genius" level that I have come to expect from him in recent months.

SpareElbowSkin has released a couple of new tracks within the last month, or so.  I really like his Katy Perry/Genesis mashup that he released on March 29th.  I would normally post a video of that today, but I feel like I am starting to play favorites, especially since my last two posts focused on his music.

Instead, I started to do a Youtube search for mashups that included my favorite artists.  Today, I found a couple of really impressive mixes that have Radiohead tunes as their base.  I was quite a bit apprehensive when I first saw the descriptions of the songs.  Conceptually, they sound like a nightmare, but they were pleasant surprises.  In fact, the first one has become one of my favorite tracks to listen to.

The first track is taken from a site called MaxMashups.com.  Unfortunately, since this was uploaded over two years ago, I can't find where the creator of the mashup was given credit.  It's a mix of Radiohead's 'No Surprises', with Louis Armstrong's 'What a Wonderful World'.  It's called 'What a Wonderful Surprise'.  Indeed it is.



The second mashup of the day comes from Go Home Productions.  It has, believe it or not, been floating around the channels of Youtube for more than three years now.  It combines Radiohead's 'Karma Police', with The Beatles' 'A Day In The Life'.  It's entitled 'Karma In The Life'.  It narrows the song down to a manageable three and a half minutes, and takes out McCartney's lyrics from the song, which, in my opinion, never really should have been in there to begin with.  It was if the two songs were made for each other.  Peanut butter and jelly.



I hope you enjoyed the tracks.  For one, I put the 'What a Wonderful Surprise' as a favorite on my Youtube list.  It's that good.

Mash Up Monday - Belated Tuesday Posting Edition ***MUST SEE***

I wasn't able to get around to posting this last night.  Under normal circumstances, I would have just waited until next week to post again.  These aren't normal circumstances.

Last week, I did a "Mashup Monday" post from a new artist named SpareElbowSkin.  He has only been on the scene for a few weeks, but his first mashup, a mix of Goldfrapp's 'A&E' and Snow Patrol's 'Chasing Cars', was quite impressive.  Last week, he released another mashup.

I have been chomping at the bit to post it.  It is easily...EASILY, one of the best mashups I have ever heard.  In my opinion, it is the best mashup since Norwegian Recycling's September track, 'Miracles'.  In many ways, though, it's better.

Mashups today have become a conglomeration of tracks that come together to a point that you almost have to pick them apart with a microscope and a pair of tweezers.  "I think I hear such and such's beat."  Or, "Wait.  Did you just hear Jay-Z?  I think I heard Jay-Z just then.  Rewind it."  When a DJ is mixing as many as 16 tracks together in a matter of three and a half minutes, it shows both the apex of talent and lunacy.

S.E.S. is different.  He sticks to two tracks.  He doesn't try to make his mashup "dance-able".  In fact, he sticks to tracks that you normally wouldn't think of mixing together.  This week's mix is a mashup of Adele's 'Rolling In The Deep' with Snow Patrol's 'Set The Fire To The Third Bar'.

Since Adele released her latest album, '21', about a month ago, I have heard literally dozens of mashups involving 'Rolling In The Deep'.  Some good.  Some...well....um..yeah, no.  Some of the better ones have been mixed with The Rolling Stones, Britney Spears, and even Gnarls Barkley.  When I saw the song that S.E.S. had selected to pair up with Adele on this mix, my first thought was, "You've got to be kidding me.  There's no way in a million years that this will work.  For the beats to even match up he's going to have to slow her voice down considerably.  It's going to sound horrible."

Boy, was I wrong.  When Adele's voice comes in, it gave me goosebumps.  The mix is one of the most haunting songs I have ever heard.  And that is what I quickly learned about SpareElbowSkin.  He has an appreciation for the music that other DJs don't.  That's what sets him apart from other artists.  He creates his mashups while still keeping the emotion, the heart, of the music in tact.  That is something that has been lost over the years with everyone else.  Their goal is to make something that sounds cool, or to make something with a cool beat.  SpareElbowSkin does it for the love of the song.  He's a fan.  He's not putting these two songs together simply because he thinks they would sound good together, but because he's a fan of Snow Patrol and of Adele.  He's showing his respect for the artists and their music.

If you need further proof, he even re-edited the video so that it was in 2.39:1 format, just so it would look nicer on screen.  Enjoy 'Rolling In The Third Bar'.

Mash Up Monday

After a brief hiatus, we're back with a mashup from a new DJ that I, for one, am unfamiliar with.  This week's mix comes from SpareElbowSkin.  This guy, or girl,  from what I can tell, is relatively new to the scene.  Their Youtube channel has only been up and going for about 7 weeks.  And, at the time of this posting, has only had about 350 views.

This weeks mashup is so subtle, it can almost be classified as a remix.  It's a mix of Goldfrapp's 'A&E' with Snow Patrol's 'Chasing Cars'.  I really enjoyed it.  Not only did I appreciate the song selection, but I liked the way in which the lyrics are shuffled around on the track.  It's refreshing.

I also appreciate the fact that they included the "missing" line in 'Chasing Cars'.  It's my favorite line of the song.  In the U.S. version of the single, the bridge goes,

"Let's waste time/Chasing cars/Around our heads"

Then you hear the *bing*, and the chorus starts.  But in the U.K. and International versions, the bridge goes,

"Let's waste time/Chasing cars/Around our heads...

I need your grace/To remind me/To find my own"

Then the chorus.  In my opinion, they cut out the most touching moment of the song. But I digress.

Without further adieu, here is 'Chasing A&E Cars' (I didn't name it folks.  I'm just playing it.)

Mash Up Monday - New From Norwegian Recycling

If you have been following my Mash Up Monday posts for a while, it's easy to see that I am a fan of Norwegian Recycling.  Over the last year, my eyes have been opened.  Any talented DJ can mashup two or three songs.  There are very few, in fact, only two that I can think of off the top of my head (Girl Talk and Norwegian Recycling), that can effectively incorporate anywhere from 8 to 15 different tracks and turn them into an original composition.  Norwegian Recycling is the only one that can form a new composition with original lyrics.

I published a post last September, in reference to a mashup entitled 'Miracles', in which the lyrics of 16 songs were sampled together to lyrically form a brand new song.  It was something I had never seen before.  It's a spectacular display of musical knowledge, creativity, and unbridled talent.

I received a wall post on my Facebook page at around noon, today, from Norwegian Recycling, announcing that his first mashup of 2011 had been completed.  It's called 'Open Your Eyes'.  In a nutshell, it's fucking brilliant.  Using Katy Perry's 'Firework' as a background, it takes 11 tracks and combines them into one free flowing four minute masterpiece.  It's very Snow Patrol heavy, and it's very reminiscent of it's 'Miracles' predecessor.  The chorus is, lyrically, a new composition.  Here are a list of the 11 songs that are sampled on the mashup:

1. Katy Perry - Firework 

2. Flo Rida feat. Akon - Who Dat Girl
3. Black Eyed Peas - The Time
4. Snow Patrol - Open Your Eyes
5. Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
6. Mike Posner - Please Don't Go
7. Jason Derulo - Whatcha Say
8. Usher feat. will.i.am - OMG
9. Timbaland feat. Keri Hilson & D.O.E. - The Way I Are
10. Jay Sean - Do You Remember
11. David Guetta feat. Kid Cudi - Memories

Enjoy.

Mash Up Monday

It takes confidence to tinker with the best.  You have to know that you're good at what you do, to take apart something that most people already consider perfect to begin with.  Most remixes or mashups that you hear are made up of two or three songs that are the standard pop or dance tune that's being played on the radio every three minutes.  When you start messing with The Beatles, it becomes a different matter altogether.

Interestingly, when you go searching for Beatles mashups, the vast majority of them are very good.  They're so good, in fact, that I had a difficult time making a decision as to which one to feature this week.  So, this week I'm featuring a Beatles double header.

The first track is from Electric Method.  It's a mix of Outkast's 'Hey Ya', and The Beatles' 'Paperback Writer'.  It's called 'Paperback Hey Ya'.  Have a listen.



The second of the two songs is from DJ Zebra.  It is a mashup of The Beatles' 'Come Together', and Nine Inch Nails' 'Closer'.  I have actually featured these two songs separately in other posts, but together, they make an interesting mix.  It's called 'Come Closer Together'.



As you can tell from the last few weeks of my 'Mash Up Monday' posts, I have my favorites, whether it be DJs or artists.  I need to branch out more.  Stay tuned.

Mash Up Monday - Singularity

I was trying to find something that was somewhat romantic to post for Mash Up Monday this week, with it being Valentine's Day and all.  It was very difficult to do.  Most DJs aren't in the practice of mashing up love songs.  I did find a nice track from my go-to guy, Norwegian Recycling.  It's called 'Singularity'.  It mashes up the following tracks:


1. Travis - Sing
2. Iyaz - Replay
3. Kelly Clarkson - Already Gone
4. Oasis - Wonderwall
5. Christina Aguilera - Genie In A Bottle
6. No Doubt - Don't Speak


It's quite pleasant, actually.

Mash Up Monday - Boulevard Of Broken Songs

This week's entry is a classic.  It's a little over 5 years old, but every time I hear it, I still get a smile on my face.  In November of 2005, a DJ by the name of Party Ben released an album of mashups based on Green Day's 'American Idiot' CD.  He released it under the name Dean Gray (get it Dean Gray/Green Day), and called it 'American Edit'.  One of my personal favorites on the album is the mashup of Green Day's 'Give Me Novacaine' with Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.  This was track number three on the disc, 'Boulevard of Broken Songs'.  It mashes up the following tracks:

Green Day - 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Oasis - 'Wonderwall'
Travis - 'Writing To Reach You'
Aerosmith - 'Dream On'
Eminem - 'Sing For the Moment'

Mash Up Monday - Oh No (NSFW)

Looking back over the months that I have been posting 'Mash Up Monday' posts, I'm surprised that I haven't posted one Girl Talk track yet.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Mashup genre, Girl Talk, aka Gregg Gillis, is truly a pioneer.  The New York Times Magazine once called him a "lawsuit waiting to happen", due to the high number of samples, often numbering 400-500, that he uses per album without permission.  To skirt copyright law, he often cites fair use and offers his albums for free to his listeners.

His most recent album, 'All Day', was released in November.  It can be downloaded, for free, from the official Girl Talk website.  The following video for the album's first track, 'Oh No', is fan made, as is all of them.  It contains brief nudity and adult language.  NSFW

Mash Up Monday - Acoustic Alchemy

Norwegian Recycling is quickly becoming my favorite DJ/mash up artist.  Just when I think I can't love his work more, I find something I haven't heard from him.  Case in point, 'Acoustic Alchemy'.  It's wonderfully arranged, and reminds you that a pair of 15 inch woofers aren't needed to enjoy a great mash up track.  Sometimes, all you need is an acoustic guitar.  The songs used in the following mix are:

1. Jack Johnson - 'Bubble Toes'
2. Green Day - 'Good Riddance'
3. Josh Rouse - 'Quiet Town'
4. Joshua Radin - 'Only You'
5. Wyclef Jean feat. Akon & Lil' Wayne & Niia - 'Sweetest Girl'
6. Christina Aguilara - 'Genie in a Bottle'
7. Atomic Kitten - 'Eternal Flame'
8. Black Eyed Peas - 'Don't Lie'

To hear more from Norwegian Recycling, check out a previous post I did on his track, Miracles.

Mash Up Monday - 50 Cent Vs. Nine Inch Nails

This one has been around for a number of years, but it's one of my favorites.  Enjoy 'Closer (In Da Club)':

Mash Up Monday - Stayin' Alive In The Wall

This week's mash up is brought to you by Wax Audio.  The only word that comes to mind when listening to this is "seamless".

Mash Up Monday - Beatles Extravaganza

I was scanning the net last night for a tune to post on the blog today, and I ended up finding two.  The Beatles are arguably the most influential rock band in history, and it's interesting to see how there influence carries over to other genres of music.

Both of today's mixes were done by DJ Faroff, who was responsible for last week's Ray No Speak Americano.

The first mash up is of the following songs:

The Beatles - Come Together
Joan Jett - I Love Rock and Roll
House of Pain - Jump Around
Cypress Hill - Insane in the Brain

The first few seconds of the song has the opening bars of Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing In The Name', which was really unnecessary.  I couldn't stop smiling while listening to the rest of the song, though.



The second mash up of the day is surprisingly quite simple.  It's a mash up of Bob Marley's 'No Woman, No Cry', with The Beatles' 'Let It Be'.  I never realized how strikingly similar these songs were in regard to tempo and melody.

Mash Up Monday - Ray No Speak Americano

A couple of weeks ago I posted a pretty bizarre hand dancing video a couple of weeks ago that featured a song called We No Speak Americano.  Well, it's back.  This time, it's mashed up with Ray Charles' I Got A Woman. Makes for a pretty jumpy tune.  Enjoy.