Breaking down Girl Talk

I've been listening to Girl Talk's latest release, "All Day," which was made available for free download earlier this week. 

The famed DJ/remixer, aka Greg Gillis, is alarmingly good at "mashing" disparate songs and musical styles into one seamless sound. I first got into his work with 2008's "Feed the Animals," which crammed 322 song samples into 14 dance cuts. It was often chaotic but surprisingly smooth and comfortable.

"All Day" isn't growing on me as quickly. Perhaps it's because I've already been exposed to Girl Talk's over-the-top skills. I'll give it more time, but I still find myself amazed at his ear for picking the right songs to layer on top of one another. 

His song "Steady Shock" is just one example, mashing 19 songs in under 6 minutes (including one short segment when five different songs become one). An fun site called All Day Samples not only streams the new album but IDs the samples the moment they are introduced into the song (Wikipedia has a text list of all samples for every "All Day" song as well). 

Girl Talk mashes 19 songs into "Steady Shock," including five disparate songs at one pointHere are the songs used in Girl Talk's "Steady Shock":

• "Lil Freak" by Usher featuring Nicki Minaj
• "Go Shorty Go" by Travis Porter
• "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult
• "Bird Walk" by Soulja Boy
• "Moving in Stereo" by The Cars
• "Fire and Ice" by Rihanna featuring Shy Ronnie
• "Dancing in the Dark" by Bruce Springsteen
• "Everyone Nose (All the Girls STanding in the Line for the Bathroom)" by N.E.R.D.
• "Flex" by Party Boyz
• "Alright" by Supergrass
• "1st of tha Month" by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
• "Over" by Drake
• "Shine" by Collective Soul
• "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger
• "I Ran (So Far Away)" -- A Flock of Seagulls
• "B.O.B." by OutKast
• "Aneurysm" by Nirvana
• "Who Run It" by Three 6 Mafia
• "1901" by Phoenix

What I find amazing with Girl Talk is his ability to "hear" a song and match it with something completely different, all while keeping the beat steady (he makes his living as a DJ, so beat is of prime importance). 

Some of his songs warrant only one listen, while some I go back to repeatedly. And there's the ongoing argument whether what he's doing is illegal when it comes to the law of the land or the spirit of creativity. The bottom line is what he's doing is polishing a very different art form that warrants attention. 

Parental advisory: As with many of Girl Talk's creations, there is some foul language in "Steady Shock."  

"An Ode to Mighty Edgar and the Champion Orange and Black"

An original Giants fan ("OG, for short; get it?) emailed me this poem someone wrote in the wake of the San Francisco Giants' World Series win.

I did a Google search to find out the author but got zero hits. So at this point, it's by Anonymous, who clearly is a hardcore Giants fan. Cornball, yes, but cool nonetheless.

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Giants by the Bay

Though they'd gotten past Atlanta, they were facing Halladay.

The Phillies were clear favorites, they swung a mighty bat.

But Bochy's band of misfits was having none of that.

Giants fever swept The City, awash in orange and black.

They would play the Texas Rangers, who had turned the Yankees back.

Timmy pitched Game 5, the Giants needed one.

With no score until the seventh, SF was hoping for a run.

Cody singled up the middle, and Uribe did the same.

Huff laid down a sacrifice worthy of acclaim.

Burrell went down on strikes, sending Edgar to the plate.

He sauntered to the box with an easy-going gait.

And now we see the pitch and see Edgar's eyes aglow.

And now the air is shattered by the force of Edgar's blow.

And somewhere folks are laughing, and little children shout.

This is happening in San Francisco, because Renteria hit one out.

Might Edgar indeed.

Pulling back the curtain on NPR

I'm catching up on podcasts and caught a very illuminating piece on NPR's "On the Media" titled "Pulling Back the Curtain."

"Pulling Back the Curtain" was played in tribute to NPR contributor John Solomon, who had died after a long illness. Solomon originally recorded the segment back in 2004 to explain "how our show, and public radio, is edited."

I had never heard Solomon's piece before but even six years later, "Pulling Back the Curtain" packs a wallop in questioning NPR editing practices. Those include the simple matter of editing out distractions ("um," "uh," "ya know") to more thought-provoking questions of whether hosts should use active voice in trying to make recorded bits come across as live interviews.