OK, so I was just discussing mash-ups with someone, and though the genre (or practice) of mash-ups is old and tired and done to death, by its very nature it can be limitlessly inventive. Over the years, I’ve heard some frankly awe-inspiring incongruities, and here are just a few of the ones I’ve loved best.
1. Nine Inch Nails – Hand That Feeds / Ghostbusters Theme
This was created by Nathan Chase for a fan remix project
Written for Collapse Board
Before they switched off Pandora in the UK, I found its deliberately anti-genre stance interesting because it would place frivolous ‘pop’ songs next to ‘credible’ artists. It’s probably stretching it to call any of these ‘rock’, but they’re of the type admired by people who don’t generally buy records by Beyonce, etc.
Stripped of the genre tag, note for note, there’s really not much difference between the songs. Wallace Wylie pointed out what’s wrong with the package of pop. If you take that away, you’ve got some great music that the middle-aged chin-strokers would probably like if they just started thinking of it as music. For example: Continue reading
I don’t often hear the radio any more. For some reason the FM receiver on my mobile phone no longer works in my workplace, which is annoying as one of my habits was to dance around my boss’s office doing the filing whenever she was out.
Regular readers of this blog might have noticed a dearth of lengthy, thoughtful articles of late, and that’s because I’ve been channeling my energies elsewhere. Take today, for example: I spent the energy I would have spent here on shopping for pushchairs. Any spare energy that wasn’t taken up with that was focussed – as usual – on trying very hard not to throw up.
Long and short of it: I’m too damn tired to blog! Well, at least today. At least properly. So instead I’ll link to five random videos I’ve favourited on Youtube. Starting with …
1. Snow Bud and the Flower People – Killer Bud
So this year’s Glastonbury line-up sucked, much like most of the bills in recent years. Let’s take a look, shall we? U2, yuck, but at least they’re “stadium rock” so you could make excuses. Coldplay? Why did someone shoot Lennon and let these guys live?* Beyoncé? Hells, no! I mean, I bought Single Ladies along with everyone else on the sodding planet and even contemplated trying to learn the dance routine before realising that I could never get my booty to shake that way. I like Beyoncé – just not in that context. Jesse J? Isn’t she the one they’ve desperately, desperately been trying to push to not much interest from anyone? They put her on the Glastonbury bill? Janelle Monáe – I’d love to see her in concert, but that would be a concert. Somewhere with plush seats and a foyer. Ke$ha, ffs? But it’s not just Glastonbury: it’s an epidemic. It’s like people have completely forgotten what festivals are supposed to do and to be, and they’re getting it wrong.
So, here is Reinspired’s public information broadcast on how festivals are supposed to work.
You know you’ve “arrived” when you’re the subject of a Weird Al parody. It had to happen sooner or later, and Al’s take on Lady Gaga’s Born This Way is a lot better than the original. Laydeez and gennelmen, I give you Mr Weird Al Yankovic with Perform This Way.
Oh dear – Ms Germanotta’s not doing too well lately, is she? Still, let’s not dwell on the ill-advised and move to the more positive territory of 10 cheesy videos from the 1980s I’d rather be watching.
10. Irene Cara – What a Feeling (Flashdance)
[caution: violence against chairs]
While the terrifying events in Japan are still ongoing, everyone from Lady Gaga to Linkin Park, Mike Patton to Mountain Goats, has wasted no time in coming together to raise funds for those affected.
But is it a good idea to be giving money away like this? Continue reading
Here are the answers to yesterday’s quiz
If yesterday’s link to that wonderful Adriano Celentano song was not enough, Youtube user godelnahaleth has “translated” the nonsensical song into real English – without any attempt to understand what he was singing before. I’m pretty sure my mother does that most of the time – her (unintentionally) misheard lyrics drive me nuts!
Prisencolinensinainciusol
This isn’t Soramimi – (空耳, “mishearing; (feigned) deafness”) or Soramimi kashi (空耳歌詞, misheard lyrics) – since that involves changing something that makes sense in one language into something that makes sense in another language.
Continue reading
Reinspired 