Sunday Snax! Mashup Mixtape

Because I love you all so dearly, gentle readers, I have put together another mixwit tape for your enjoyment. In this installement I share with you a variety of delightful mashups. What is a mashup, you may ask? Something akin to a remix, but in this case more focused on taking two (sometimes more) songs and melding them together in such a way that you’d never want to hear them any other way. Generally speaking, this mix is intended to at least get you chair dancing, if not full out dancing your ass off. Three from A plus D, three from Instamatic, three from DJ Lobsterdust.

  1. A plus D - Love Will Tear You Apart (She Wants Revenge vs. Joy Division vs. Bauhaus)
  2. A plus D - Sexy Peek-A-Boo (I’m Bringing Siouxsie Back) Justin Timberlake vs. Siouxie & The Banshees
    • Ordinarily I’d have nothing to do with Justin Timberlake. I really don’t go in for “pop” music. This changes things a lot. Trust me. Also, accordian.
  3. A plus D - Don’t Stop Believin’ In Planet Rock (Journey vs. Afrika Bambaataa)
    • Journey never had so much funk. Nor did they expect to have it. Yet… it feels so right.
  4. Instamatic - Crazy Marvin (Gnarls Barkley vs. Marvin Gaye)
    • That song you couldn’t get away from meets a soul master for a refreshing look at both.
  5. Instamatic - Electric Loop (Judas Priest vs. Pendulum)
    • Chosen mostly for the liberal Willy Wonka (original film thankyouverymuch) sampling, in all honesty. Fast-paced and fun.
  6. Instamatic - Ghetto Tits 2006 (Benassi mix of Outkast vs. Peaches vs. Scissor Sisters)
    • This is mostly Peaches, and therefore has liberal use of various sexually charged terms some folks consider foul. NSFW I guess. Probably my fav of the Instamatic remixes.
  7. DJ Lobsterdust - SaySayism Allstar Jam
    • When they call this an allstar jam they aren’t at all kidding. This is my favorite mashup of all time. Just listen. The transitions are masterful, the songs flow like an undeniable force of nature, and I pretty much guarantee you’ll smile at least a little.
  8. DJ Lobsterdust - RightNowRightNow (Beastie Boys - Love Psychedelico)
    • I think if the Beastie Boys had met Hot Chip, or hung out with the guys hacking their C64 to make chip tunes they might have made something like this on their own.
  9. DJ Lobsterdust - Glass Octopus (The Beatles vs. Blondie)
    • This may be the most approachable mashup for people who don’t really care for hip hop or techno or dance-oriented music. It’s Blondie’s Heart of Glass mixed with The Beatles’ Octopus’s Garden in a really fun, natural way. Still got a great beat for those who do enjoy a good excuse to dance.

That’s all for now! I hope you have as much fun with this as I have!
Image on the tape is art from P. Robertson’s Kings of Power 4 Billion %. Download it. Watch it. He’s great.

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Listen to Good Hip-Hop: The Poetic Prophet

This guy is AWESOME! Amy might not agree (and my apologies for ganking your series title for this) but I have to say that this is some of the most amusing and amazing nerd rap I’ve heard in a while. Why is it nerd rap? Well, watch for yourself.

Ignoring his awkward posing, this is by far the best lyrical treatment I could think of to describe the role of design in SEO. Everything he puts forth here is exactly correct, from clear navigation, use of standards, browser testing, and a clear call to action.

The SEO Rapper has it right, and even though you may feel like this is perhaps in the same league as the anti-drug rapping of the 80s-90s (yo yo, kids don’t do drugs, stay in schoo’, be respec-ful of your parents, ’cause no one likes a fool!), those who are new to the whole “SEO” thing might want to pay attention. For those who have had an education on the subject already, you’ll definitely get a kick out of this approach to the core concepts of search marketing.

Props to antifuchs in #ectomo for pointing this out to me.

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More Mix: Better in Pairs

In this mix, for your listening pleasure, I thought I’d slow things down, and stretch things out a little. Kind of get you all in the mood for some late night philosophy and spooning. I’m too cheap to ply all of you with booze so I thought I’d make you a mix tape, kind of give you a little something to ruminate on before I discuss the merits of an open view of love in this century and bum drinks off you all night. Hope that’s cool, ’cause we’re totally friends right broham?

Anyway, the background image for this tape is Sisters G from Gatochy’s flickr stream. I can think of no nicer image to go with the theme of “everything is better in pairs”. Except for maybe some extra-adorable mittens, but it’s Spring now and no more of THAT! Anyway, for the sake of not writing all over the lovely ladies’ faces, I just titled the tape “Pairs”.

Pairs are exactly what you’ll get on this tape. Let’s explore the contents, shall we?

  1. Jesus and Mary Chain - April Skies
    • I listened to this song the other day on the way to work and it improved my mood like nothing else could at that very moment. Music to soothe the savage neurotic.
  2. Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
    • The second J&MC track is one of my favorites. “I wanna move, I wanna go, oh I wanna go, do-do-de-do-do-doo…”
  3. Donovan - There is a Mountain
  4. Donovan - Epistle to Dippy
    • I went with one I’m unfamiliar with, to avoid the folly of ignoring deep tracks. It’s got a bit of a Velvet Underground feel. Check the pedigree though!
  5. Jonathan Richman - Satisfied Mind
    • I chose this track because it’s a classic (1955 by Porter Wagoner), and Richman’s treatment of it is a great introduction to his style.
  6. Jonathan Richman - Springtime in New York
  7. Cocorosie - By Your Side
  8. Cocorosie - Butterscotch
  9. Harry Nilsson - You’re Breaking My Heart
  10. Harry Nilsson - Moonbeam Song
    • From the sounds of this song, you can see where he fits with Richman and Donovan. Rich metaphor paired with a bare-hearted, literal approach combine for maximum enjoyment.
  11. Jeff Tweedy - California Stars
  12. Wilco - Jesus, Etc.
    • Rounding out this mix is Jeff with the rest of his usual band, Wilco, in a tune off of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The opening violin reminds me of Yoshi’s Island.

I hope you all enjoy this! What are some of your favorite pairs of songs?

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Keep Digging: Temple of Damanhur

The Damanhurians are a lot of things. A small group of semi-private spiritualists, architects, philosophers, ecologists, and revolutionaries, for starters. In 1978 they began building a complex series of temples into a mountain in Italy. They finished this construction in the 90’s. They were constructed with the use of whatever labor they could find, and construction was done in secret so they didn’t have to deal with legal constraints. According to wikipedia, Damanhur was an ancient Egyptian city whose name translates literally to “City of Horus”.

For your edification, here’s a short video on the history of the Damanhurians. Check out the Damanhur websites and scope around for more videos. The temples are absolutely gorgeous. There’s so much more to the Damanhurians than just the temple though, they’re a fairly good sized group at this point, with ecologically conscious installations all over the world.

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Best You’ve Never Heard: Guided By Voices

Although Guided By Voices were around between 1983 and 2004, there is a good chance you’ve never heard of this band. I know I wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for the combined efforts of a cover by …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead and Ian’s prodigious musical knowledge.

The song I’m sharing with you is the one I’m desperately, madly in love with these days. Clocking in at a meager 1:45 (2:14 on the Trail of Dead cover), it’s hard to believe it could be so moving. This brief sampling off of 1994’s Bee Thousand is slow and delicate like an aged alley cat and just like that old cat it still resonates like the graceful killer living at its core. That, and you know, there is all that rusty yowling.

The lo-fi buzz permates the latter half, sending the song from a quiet mystery into a trip into the past, when records were cut in one take or bust, all the instruments in one room, and you’d better hope the drums were properly muffled because we aren’t doing this again, dammit.

I highly recommend giving the rest of Bee Thousand a listen. If you have an interest in early R.E.M., Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, or perhaps some of these newer lo-fi and indie darlings like The White Stripes or Trail of Dead, then you should really be listening to Guided By Voices. For those less interested in the actual audio aspect, you can stun all your hipster friends with your new found, old school indie cred, you trend whore.

For musicians, the Guided By Voices website has the chords available for a bunch of their songs (Caution: Frames! T_T). In that same section are MP3s and Real Audio files of live performances, as well as a couple videos.

Gold Heart Mountain Top Queen Directory (lyrics by Guided By Voices)


Cold hands touching my face
Don’t hide… the snake can see you
Old friends you might not remember
Fading away from you
The Gold Heart Mountain Top Queen Directory
The Gold Heart Mountain Top Queen Directory

And we looked
And we passed
Through the hallways of shatterproof glass

She runs through the night as if nobody cares
She screams and she cries and ignores all the stares
She wants me to come, but I’m never going there
The Gold Heart Mountain Top Queen Directory
The Gold Heart Mountain Top Queen Directory
The Gold Heart Mountain Top Queen Directory

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