Mashed Up Madness

Part 1

Part 2

I finally finished Simon Reynolds' great book Retromania a few weeks back, and now I'm having another round of researching all the references I dog-eared in the book. And there are a lot. First up is Osymyso's "Intro Inspection" -- a 12 minute long creation that stitches together the intros of more than 100 well-known pop songs. It's fun to listen and try to pick out the samples, or you can cheat and watch the samples as they pop up here and here.

See if you can guess my favorite moment -- alright, I'll tell you. It's at about 2:48 on Part Two, when Duran Duran's "Is There Something I Should Know?" is layered alongside "Sweet Dreams" by Eurythmics along with Dee-Lite's "Groove is in the Heart." That triumverate goes on for about 15 seconds before Yello's "Oh Yeah" comes in and hands off to Blur's "Song 2" and New Order's "Blue Monday" -- both intercut with the Kinks guitar riff from "You Really Got Me." Although I do like when Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" is mashed up with Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You."

It's fun, and certainly a remarkable achievement. But it's really just a novelty song in my opinion. And musically, I don't even think it hangs together cohesively as well as the stuff I've heard by people like Girl Talk.

Thoughts?

I've been reading Simon Reynolds' book Retromania (as I've mentioned at least once!) and I have a lot of fun doing YouTube searches on some of the old bands he writes about. Of course, so much of it is garbage -- like the Thamesbeat bands (like The Look) that were the UK equivalent of The Knack. And other stuff just isn't my style -- like the garage bands like Thee Milkshakes. But there is some good stuff in there -- some of the other Mod revival bands couldn't hold a candle to The Jam, but they weren't awful -- bands like The Chords and The Purple Hearts. But I found a genuinely good song in The Flamin' Groovies 1976 single "Shake Some Action." It's definitely pub rock -- and different from their earlier stuff (which sounded like the Rolling Stones) but you can hear the beginnings of Power Pop in there. And what's more, there's a nice jangly guitar riff that predates something similar by REM. Take a listen:

"Wicked Game" Redux

I'm reading Retromania, the new book by Simon Reynolds, and he references the song "Infinity" by the British band The xx. His reason for mentioning the song is its so obvious derivation from Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game". Reynolds writes "It really is a study, an exercise in technique, in the sense that the band have written a new song entirely within the very specific and immediately recognizable texture palette and emotional atmosphere of Isaak's original." Listen and hear for yourself.