No thread on the Girl Talk album, surely some mistake

basically I was Girl Talk was more "what would DJ Muggs do?" and less "what would Jive Bunny do"

basically I wish, rather

In fairness SOS is a pretty good example of how to do the obvious sample thing well because a) the chorus is totally different to Tainted Love and b) Tainted Love is an R&B song in the first place so it's not too incongruous. But yeah, most of the appeal of this stuff appears to be "OMG it's Prince, OMG it's Nirvana!" If I was at a party I'd much rather hear the originals than something that ceased to be a novelty EIGHT YEARS AGO.

ppl like to talk too iirc

some people talk better than they girl imo

don't think "SOS" is a good example at all tbh

I don't really care about whether Girl Talk is a "good DJ" or whether he's better at what he does than anyone else.

What I care about is the effect that his mixes have on me. And when I listen to Girl Talk, there are a lot of interesting things happening, phenomenologically!

There's the simple pleasure of recognition, sure. But the recontextualization of songs I know also creates some distinct pleasures, too. There's the simple sonic joy in hearing lots of different sounds mixed and combined. There's a charge I get from the smushing together of competing musical resonances or associations (the R&B song I sang in the car last summer vs. the rock song I made out to in high school). There's the intriguing way in which, after I've heard the album multiple times, parts that initially seem dissonant (like Ciara vs. Sonic Youth, or Rihanna vs. Fugazi) acquire a strange logic in the mix's overall flow. I like anticipating each musical shift. I like getting sequences stuck in my head. I like having songs transformed for me, having multiple contexts and textures in which to experience them.

^^ This

The "In Your Eyes" bit on "That's Right" is soooooo clumsy.

A-Trak is a perfect example of a much, much better party DJ working in a similar vein (I dont even like most of the styles a trak spins -- he just has a better feel for 'mindless party kitchen sink' vibes, reads his audience better, does more interesting & more multi-dimensional djing stuff.

Is he making albums like this, though?

I mean, I've seen both A-Trak and Girl Talk live, once each, and I think A-Trak probably put on the better live set, but I don't even remember that much of either.

no. i mean, i do get that this dude is doing something somewhat unique; im just arguing w/ the oppressive amount of evangelizing i get about him that feels totally in excess of the kind of 'he does nice juxtapositions'-type stuff u get out of it

I'm sure I've posted this link before, but I think it is the perfect demonstration of why Girl Talk lacks any excitement for me. Jeff Mills was doing the same thing on turntables back in the 80s, he did it much better, and he pretty much invented Techno in the process. By comparison, Girl Talk is a rehash, and a predictable one at that. I wouldn't deny that it might be fun in a club setting, but as an enjoyable listening experience, it leaves me cold.

A-Trak is an actual turntablist, won the DMC champs aged 15 etc. pretty different thing, but like Dexter and most of those purists i'd expect him to be sniffy about someone like GT who's never dealt with vinyl...i don't know what exactly GT would do live but it's probably on the same low level as 2 Many DJ's ie minimal mixing...people go to dance and enjoy those combinations and that's it which is fine in itself (i don't think they try to sell themselves as Proper DJ's).

I think the criticisms of him as not hugely original are perfectly valid - he's like a really good party DJ that is technically capable, makes sure you and your non-ILM-reading cousin have a good time but doesn't see it as his job to challenge his audience or invent new ways of living. I don't think that projecting uncool traits from his fans onto him is worthwhile.

this is correct and the "it's all recognition" criticism i can also see to an extent--like i said, i don't have dude's albums because the novelty does wear off--but it seems to me like he approaches shit as a genuine music lover and not as a lolzy ironist.

but this is one of those acts ppl are going to get really weird about for one reason or another and i find the overpraisers (who i've never actually encountered) and the serious haters to both be kind of hilarious considering how m.o.r girl talk actually is

m just arguing w/ the oppressive amount of evangelizing i get about him

where do you hear this anyways?

i figure he'll move into original production and remixes more a la a-trak.

i don't know why he would do this...pretty sure he makes enough money off his live shows that he doesn't have to mess with anything else.

i enjoy gt, don't really care when people get all "thats some stars on 45 bullshit" about it. i'm pretty mor anyways.

still, i dont think this is as good as previous stuff of his. aside from cuts being used longer on this mix, he seems to be using samples that have more going on in them, and it starts sounding sorta clumsy and muddy. it's like there's not enough space for raps and choruses at times.

where do you hear this anyways?

Was about to ask the exact same thing.

Jeff Mills was doing the same thing on turntables back in the 80s, he did it much better, and he pretty much invented Techno in the process.

Who cares? I was doing the same thing on a simple Windows .wav editor in the 90s.

aside from cuts being used longer on this mix, he seems to be using samples that have more going on in them, and it starts sounding sorta clumsy and muddy. it's like there's not enough space for raps and choruses at times.

― potholes and esso assos (Hunt3r), Wednesday, November 17, 2010 1:23 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

ya i agree. it just sounds like a cacophony.

where do you hear this anyways?

Was about to ask the exact same thing.

― Domingo Halliburton (jaymc), Wednesday, November 17, 2010 12:23 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

im at work so i cant really go digging around on non-ilx places right now but to kick it off ill say 'ppl i meet irl who are into him'

ppl REALLY like his stuff! they get REALLY excited about it! he generates OMG HES SO GREAT type reactions from lots of ppl

i agree with this, i had never even heard of the dude until i heard one of his records at a party a year or two ago, and my gf + friends were pretty incredulous that i wasn't familiar. these are not people who keep up with rap or dance music, at all.

pretty sure they played Girl Talk before this Electric Six show on a cruise boat in NY in 08-ish and there were some people, some young, collegiate looking people, who seemed to know every shift by heart.

this is some serious ethnographic shit we're getting into here

Yeah, obv. lots of people like his stuff, or else he wouldn't be selling out New Years Eve shows at the Congress Theater or wherever. I mean, my own girlfriend, who is not a huge music fan by any means, is really into Night Ripper. I guess I just don't personally encounter a lot of people who are waxing rhapsodic about the guy to the point of tedium.

the little sprat was doing this kind of "hey i'm a rapper now! now i'm procol harum! now i'm 80s keyboard dude" choreography, i miss that kind of leisure time

got about seven minutes into this before i decided to put 'flockaveli' on instead (i like and occasionally love the first two but this one seems kind of...inert?)

I'm resisting forming an opinion on this new album until I've heard it a few more times. On first listen, Feed the Animals was a big disappointment to me, but I ended up liking it a lot once it had mapped itself onto my brain.

where do you hear this anyways?

Was about to ask the exact same thing.

― Domingo Halliburton (jaymc), Wednesday, November 17, 2010 12:23 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

im at work so i cant really go digging around on non-ilx places right now but to kick it off ill say 'ppl i meet irl who are into him'

ppl REALLY like his stuff! they get REALLY excited about it! he generates OMG HES SO GREAT type reactions from lots of ppl

yeah I get this too. in the US at least "young ppl" think he's doing something special

I've listened to Play Your Part (pt. 1) 119 times according to iTunes.

lol

once an artist has placed in P&J, gotten mostly positive reviews in every music mag in existence, etc. it seems kind of pointless and obtuse to have a whole back and forth about "yeah he's popular but do people really think highly of him and what he does?"

mae shi mixtape for download

ppl REALLY like his stuff! they get REALLY excited about it! he generates OMG HES SO GREAT type reactions from lots of ppl

― whats goin on witchu iron mane (deej), Wednesday, November 17, 2010 12:33 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

i think deej is right about this btw

also i think it's important to note that there is ALSO a reverse of the indie fans dabbling in pop dynamic, where people who aren't big music heads but throw the radio on in the car & buy songs off itunes that they hear in clubs get the same thing out of girl talk's music except substitute fugazi & the talking heads for oj da juiceman & twista

http://www.riffmarket.com/2008/12/theoretically-unpublished-piece-about.html

this piece is way too long and overthought BUT it has some v otm points in it:

Are we as a pop culture generation easily placated to hear our "references" bounced back to us, no matter the context or skill? Recall the Weezer video for "Pork and Beans." Is the whole game now: "Hey, I know what that is!!"?

...as the Ultimate Fan, Girl Talk exists as a mover not of music but nostalgia. He is the guy at the party who says, "Remember slap bracelets?" Dude: How about devil sticks?

the important distinction obv is that those ppl don't 'look down' on indie music at the same rate that a lot of fans of girl talk 'look down' on a lot of the pop & rap that girl talk employs -- it's more of just an ignorance

idk the problem w/ that excerpt is that like it or not there is a re-contextualization going w/ girl talk -- it may be elementary, and at this point i would argue that the blends on his albums are purposefully more elementary -- but there are people who (rightfully at times) get a kick out of hearing the mash ups that girl talk does -- it's not like he's standing around at shows going "hey everyone remember trina?! well here's 'pull over'!"

also as his audience grows, and it continues to grow from what i can tell, the amount of people that 'get' the references that are being bounced back at us continues to dwindle, and that aspect of the enjoyment of his music becomes less and less prevalent, and it becomes more about tons of people thinking he's a good dj

haha i picture him holding up a 12" of Baddest Bitch and the crowd whooping with excitement (xpost)

I was about to say 'appropriate reaction' but then I rememberer the cover of 'da baddest bitch' and it occurred to me he simply meant 'hay guys, remember booty ass hoes?"

Listening to "Jump on Stage," I'm more satisfied with what he does with T'Pau, New Edition, and "Delirious" than with Radiohead, Portishead, and "Shutterbug."

man this discussion is tedious. People who like him psychoanalyzing those who don't and vice versa...no one is going to convince anyone who thinks it's cheesy cut-and-paste bullshit otherwise and to try to convince people who like it that it sucks is kind of pathetic. The idea that it's some assault on hip hop is transparently ridiculous and that it's a guilty pleasure, well duh. As far as either of those go Girl Talk is harmless simply by nature of its ephemeralness. Each new album makes (an apparently growing number of) people smile for a few spins and then it gets put away. Let us flip our shit for a little bit.

skip flips shit; crits miffed

ha

So Nick Sylvester's thing is Girl-Talk-as-Friedberg/Seltzer ('Date Movie', 'Epic Movie', etc.)? I don't think that actually plays out.
He has a weird thing about Weezer, doesn't he?

this guy is terrible

so glad lex and I agree about something lol

otm, regardless of who you're referring to (xpost)

I heard this played in the pub between rounds of music soundtrack trivia on Tuesday night

i don't know what exactly GT would do live but it's probably on the same low level as 2 Many DJ's ie minimal mixing...

he has all the sample segments he uses in Max/MSP and cues them live, but from a pre-planned set - so he can extend a break or repeat a phrase or skip a section or work some local tracks in depending on what city or country he's in, but you're pretty much going to hear the same set at every show on a tour. then he jumps around a lot in the 30 secs or minute between having to load up a vocal or tweak a mix, and eventually takes off his shirt, and invites kids to come up and jump around on stage too

given the crowd he's built around him I doubt that A-Trak would be sniffy towards non-vinyl DJs!