Spring Break
'Feed the Animals' is delirious, awesome follow-up for Girl Talk
Caity Cudworth
Issue date: 10/2/08 Section: Entertainment
10/02/08 - These days popular music is meant to be disposable: it's rushed out to be enjoyed for a brief, shining moment and then forgotten.
The sad fact is most top 40 songs last about as long in pop culture as John McCain would in a pick-up basketball game in East L.A. (about four seconds, I'd imagine … depending on the size/street cred of his opponents).
But classic, random songs (like Rick Springfield's "Jesse's Girl" or - at the other end of the spectrum - Dr. Dre's timeless "Bitches Ain't Shit") deserve to live on. Songs like that shouldn't be forgotten and abandoned, doomed to play only on weird radio stations and VH1 countdowns.
Thankfully, DJ Gregg Gillis, better known as "Girl Talk," is recycling a lot of the songs you know and love … and making them even more awesome for your listening pleasure. On his latest LP, Feed the Animals, Girl Talk takes mash-up to new heights, mixing beats and melodies with mathematical precision to create a musical mosaic perfect for the ADD set, the wildly indecisive and pretty much anyone who can appreciate Daft Punk spliced over Fleetwood Mac.
Each track on Feed the Animals is it's own pulsing universe of chords, beats, notes, and inescapable nostalgia. Gillis has a knack for blending unlikely tracks into a seamless and addictive new song.
If your iPod had a raging coke habit, it would sound kind of like this. It's dizzy, frothy, party music that jumps between decades and genres at the drop of a (fitted) hat.
GT's work is delirious, awesomely random and ultimately, satisfying in a way that listening to Roy Orbison mashed with Snoop Dogg can only be. Because in America, no one should be forced to make a choice between Busta Rhymes and The Police … especially when the option exists of listening to them both simultaneously.
What a true testament to Gillis' talent though? He can even make Avril Lavigne sound good. Though this feat had previously been thought impossible by anyone over the age of 13, Gillis' laptop wizardry knows no bounds.
The sad fact is most top 40 songs last about as long in pop culture as John McCain would in a pick-up basketball game in East L.A. (about four seconds, I'd imagine … depending on the size/street cred of his opponents).
But classic, random songs (like Rick Springfield's "Jesse's Girl" or - at the other end of the spectrum - Dr. Dre's timeless "Bitches Ain't Shit") deserve to live on. Songs like that shouldn't be forgotten and abandoned, doomed to play only on weird radio stations and VH1 countdowns.
Thankfully, DJ Gregg Gillis, better known as "Girl Talk," is recycling a lot of the songs you know and love … and making them even more awesome for your listening pleasure. On his latest LP, Feed the Animals, Girl Talk takes mash-up to new heights, mixing beats and melodies with mathematical precision to create a musical mosaic perfect for the ADD set, the wildly indecisive and pretty much anyone who can appreciate Daft Punk spliced over Fleetwood Mac.
Each track on Feed the Animals is it's own pulsing universe of chords, beats, notes, and inescapable nostalgia. Gillis has a knack for blending unlikely tracks into a seamless and addictive new song.
If your iPod had a raging coke habit, it would sound kind of like this. It's dizzy, frothy, party music that jumps between decades and genres at the drop of a (fitted) hat.
GT's work is delirious, awesomely random and ultimately, satisfying in a way that listening to Roy Orbison mashed with Snoop Dogg can only be. Because in America, no one should be forced to make a choice between Busta Rhymes and The Police … especially when the option exists of listening to them both simultaneously.
What a true testament to Gillis' talent though? He can even make Avril Lavigne sound good. Though this feat had previously been thought impossible by anyone over the age of 13, Gillis' laptop wizardry knows no bounds.
