We live in a world filled with loads of unsigned artists. My time is spent listening to them, figuring out which one of the many, has the potential to get to the next level. That’s what I do and I love it. The only drawback is that since most of my listening time is spent with unknown, unfamiliar bands, I often miss out on new releases by some of my favorite artists, or new artists that I may not be familiar with, but who are really great. This is why I’m so late on the new Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) album, or Girl Talk in general. Of course I’ve read the press, and hear all the raves about his releases, but I never got around to actually listening until recently. It’s pretty amazing stuff. A few years ago, mash-ups were all the rage, and I liked them then, but typically one mash-up would consist of only two songs (usually from opposite genres) mixed together to form one song. Girl talk is on another level. Somehow he manages to fit what seems like hundreds of samples from literally every genre into one cohesive track, and it totally works. The common thread throughout each track on his new album Feed the Animals (pay what you want for it here) is that the melody on every song is almost always taken form a hip-hop hit. The music underneath the rap ranges from samples of Radiohead to Nirvana to The Cranberries to The Spencer Davis Group to Metallica to, well, you get the point; it’s really great and very interesting to listen to.
The best part about listening, however, is trying to figure out what each sample is from. It’s sort of like a modern day name that tune. Enter Shazam, the most functional and practical iPhone application on earth (its also available for Verizon and T-mobile users). Basically, if you’re listening to music in your car or wherever, and a song comes on that you love, but aren’t sure who’s performing it, you hold up your phone to the speakers and Shazam will not only give you the name of the artist and song title, but it will take you to the iTunes store where you can download it directly to your device. With Girl Talk, sometimes I think Shazam is going to explode due to the amount of samples he uses, but nine times out of ten it tells me exactly what I’m looking for. It’s amazing, trust me. It’s nice to come up from unsigned band-land and discover what the rest of the world is into.
Current Listening: Girl Talk “Feed the Animals”
