all mashed up and nowhere to go

Mashups...bootlegs, bastard pop, whatever you want to call them...it's the blending of two or more songs into a new creation. Some people might think it's just a cheap way to rehash music. I prefer to think of it as a creative way to make something entirely new, no different than sampling.

There are numerous sites devoted to the art of the mashup, providing new tunes virtually every day from bedroom DJs and producers all over the world. A couple of places to go include Mashuptown and Mashup Industries.

There some names in the mashup "biz" that I know persistently create amazing and thoughtful tunes: AplusD, Party Ben, the Illuminoids to name a few. San Francisco has virtually become Mashup Central with monthly Bootie parties that have spread to NYC, LA, and even Second Life.

With all this buzz around mashups you would think the trend would have trickled down to little old Tampa. Not really.

Last night we ventured out with friends to the Kennedy, which is a shiny new club on, duh, Kennedy Blvd. It's the third time we've gone. Monk aka Steve McClure spins what originally was promised to be a blend of hip hip, electro, and mashups. I don't question Monk's credentials...he's been spinning since the early 90s and his name is synonymous with Hallucination Records and Rabbit in the Moon. But each time we've gone to the Kennedy on a Thursday, hoping to hear some good mashups, we don't. The music gets consistently worse and further from what was originally promoted. I wonder if Monk enjoys spinning Big Pimpin' to the South Tampa elite. And now the Kennedy promises that Chang, who is back from obscurity, will play mashups as well on Fridays, but I'm not holding my breath. Other clubs such as Push in St Pete, and Floyds at the Hard Rock, have touted mashups as part of their lineup, but it seems to be used merely as a buzzword without any weight behind it.

With all this said, I figured I'd toot my own horn, as I consistently incorporate mashups into my sets at the Castle, and have even done all mashup nights. I play them because I like them, and they generally can work with the other tunes in my set, and provide some sense of familiarity while not needing to play the same old songs. Nine Inch Nails "Closer" again? I think not. But mashed up with "Come Together" by the Beatles? Certainly!

The Castle has afforded me a lot of leeway over the last 9 years to play what I want, but that's for another blog.

With all that said, attached are a couple of mashup mixes that I've done recently:

All Mashed Up 042108.mp3
All Mashed Up 051308.mp3

One more thing about last night....
I ordered a martini called a Dead Kennedy. A girl next to me laughed because she liked the name. She had never heard of the band. Don't get me started.