A Mashup Mixtape To End All Mashup Mixtapes

Image from The Hood Internet

by Shani

Hey all, I'm happy to be part of the cadre of bloggers taking caring of you all while Alyssa is in Cambodia. Now let's get down to business.

The Big News: I've found something to interrupt my Neko Case obsession*.

It's a nearly perfect mixtape by The Hood Internet, a Chicago-based DJ duo that specializes in hip-hop/indie pop mashups. Volume Four (yes, there are three others, and they are all available for free) starts with David Banner's "Get Like Me," and his swaggering flow contrasts perfectly with the electro dance-y rock of Fujiya & Miyagi's "Pterodactyl."

Some mashups work better than others. For example, Ludacris vs. She & Him is a little flat (not enough Zooey Deschanel, I think), but Michael Jackson vs. Ratatat really, really meshes.

Like Alyssa, I don't listen to the radio, (and unlike Alyssa, I don't have TV -- well, I have a television, but no cable, so I only turn it on to watch DVDs) so all of the big pop songs I see mentioned on my friends' Facebook and Twitter statuses are known to me in lyric only.

Soulja Boy's "hop up out the bed and turn my swag on" isn't really very lyrical. However, when it's laid over the estimable Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out," you get something really special -- and it's a good introduction to an otherwise not-great song.

In trying to figure out why I like this mix, I concluded that it's because it takes really mediocre pop and hip-hop songs, cuts them down from four minutes to a far more appropriate length of about a minute and a half, and gives them much better beats.

Hmm, I think that's an idea that could save the recording industry.

*I only discovered Neko Case this year, and listened to her solo albums nonstop, every. single. day. for months on end.

Smiley / Pot Sounds

image courtesy of WFMU's Beware of the Blog

By Bryan H, Washington, DC.

Preparing to help take care of Alyssa's house while she is away I wanted to channel her inner critic the way that I often get my game face on -- by listening to music. The laid back and sophisticated sounds of the Beach Boys are a good match for Alyssa's style; what more, she is a big fan. Knowing what I needed to do, I started thumbing through my CDs before I realized that I don't own any Beach Boys.

Next step, the hard drive. I have some MP3s of the Boys rehearsing in the studio, and I figure that will get me close. Wanting more, I found a forgotten oddity digitally shelved next those sessions. Its a Japanese record called 'Smiley / Pot Sounds' by a group named Toru & Kojima.

B.C. Sterrett found the album while visiting a friend in Japan and looking for rare records. At the time he was dead set on finding an LP with excerpts of the then un-released Beach Boy opus, Smile. Instead, he ended up with a CD that sounds like it was recorded in a closet by solo male vocalist and karaoke machine as back up. He was disappointed.

I'll let B.C. take it from here: Sometime later I came back to the mystery of this cd. And quickly realized that I had found something even more rare, before I even knew about the labeling of Outsider Music. I would often play tracks for friends during one of those, "Look what I found" occasions. I've grown to love it, though it's headache inducing at times.

I'm no Alyssa Rosesnberg, and nor was meant to be, but I'm looking forward to my time here and reading what the other esteemed guest bloggers have to say. And as long as my efforts don't result in any Toru & Kojima stlye headaches, I will consider my efforts a success.

Anyway, for your listening pleasure / displeasure, here is a collage I made of some of the highlights of 'Smiley / Pot Sounds.' If you want to download the whole thing head over to the best radio station in the world, WFMU, and check out their unbeatable MP3 blog.

Songs by Brian Wilson or Toru Kojima or Paul McCartney-ish:

Surfer Girl | Meant for You | I Want to Eat Whale | I Wanna Pick You Up | Suffer USSR | God Only Knows