Monday, July 06, 2009

MID-YEAR MASHUP MARATHON

2009 has been a good year for illegally re-arranged music. On the top of my list so far: Muppet Mashup, a various artists collection by Boston's djBC and friends saluting "The Muppets" and "Sesame Street." It's start-to-finish solid. Fun for the whole family! Martinn (from The Netherlands) kicks things off with a brilliant combo of the Stray Cats and the "Muppet Show" theme, but I think this one from da man himself might be my fave:

dj BC: "I'm Happy On Sesame Street" featuring Edwin Starr, Lou Rawls, numerous Muppets and (sez bc) "The lead vocal is an acapella done by a little girl and her friends in a playground or schoolyard. Freaking genius stuff to work with!"

And DJ NoNo would like to remind you that HE is the king of Muppet mashes.

Three strange, surreal, super-fun surf-music mashups for the summer:

g3rst: "Surfbusters" (Ray Parker Jr vs The Tornadoes)
Zo0m: "What'd The Bulldog Say" (Ray Charles vs the Ventures, remembering the recently deceased guitar genius Bob Bogle)

MadMixMustang: "Dizz and The Boyz Getz To The Beach" ('50s bebop jazz vs The Beach Boys - how the hell does this work so well?!)

Foolklegs II comes to us from France, mixing mostly European folk music with some rather unlikely pop sounds. This various-artists collection is, like much great avant-pop, simultaneously both utterly alien and accessible. It's not all computer-made mashups either. Dig this bagpiped take on the Gorillaz:

DJ Zebra: "Dirty Harry"

Zebra's tunes on this collection are performed live. Album organizer Funky Belek sez: "The children's chorus is played on turntables, but it's a real bagad (a traditional band from Brittany / France) and Zebra plays guitar."

Also from France, Totom's excellent Bob Dylan mashup album just dropped. The Pixies vs "Blowin In The Wind" track in particular confirms that Totom is one of the best sound hackers we've got.


6 comments:

Unknown said...

You are probably the King of Muppet Mashes, you've probably done more...that post was intended to be very tongue in cheek. ;-) A la King of Pop MJ self-titling :-P Although it was surprising who was asked, though...not my Top 10 of Muppet Mashers at all apart from yours truly (and I don't really include myself in that, actually!)

Still not sure about the new album...I can list about 10 other tracks that have done Muppets/Sesame etc it better. Hmm. Maybe it'll grow on me. I like your track though.

Mr Fab said...

No sir (sire?), you are the king! But, yes, there could be a companion collection of all the previously-released Muppet mashups, e.g. Phil'n'Dog's "Gay Muppet Bar," Pilchard's "Macamupppet," I think Lenlow did a "Mah-Na-Mah-Na" one. I would direct you-all to their sites, but don't know if they're still on-line. Would have to dig out my old CDs...

kukuzelis said...

Great summery feel. Thanks always. I think "What'd The Bulldog Say" (Ray Charles vs the Ventures) is missing.

kukuzelis said...

Plus, "Dizz and The Boys Getz To The Beach" is only 6 seconds long. Maybe it was intended, maybe it's a bandwidth issue... I'll try again. Amazing links.

Mr Fab said...

You are right about that kukuzelis. Strange. Will fix when I get home tonight. Thanks!

Konrad Useo said...

I enjoy all these lots.
The foolklegs is better than the first for me at least.
My Swedish chef muppet track is still available,in fact it's always been my most-downloaded.(!?)

Here's the current link-
http://groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2008/01/flying-swedish-chef-muppets-vs-beatles.html

& here's my Beeker muppet track-
http://groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2008/01/beeker-solution-pete-tong-vs-muppets.html