Girl Talk – Feed the Animals

This is an awesome musician/dj from Pittsburgh.  Greg Gillis takes popular songs and mixes them together creating crazy combinations that you would never expect to sound good, but actually works really well.  He has about 11 tracks on his newest album, Feed the Animals, and it really works here.  From the first track, he drags you into foot-tapping new worlds.  He is never afraid to mix interesting artists, as the best songs here are ones that mix Jay-Z with Radiohead and Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl” with 3 Six Mafia’s “I’d rather get some head.”  Overall, this cd is one that you could play at a club and get everyone dancing and it really does make music fun to listen to as you try to identify which song is playing in the background of the latest rap songs.  Unfortunately, its usually very short samples that he takes, so on average, each track will be about 2 -3 minutes long with the longest clips being 30 seconds long, so each song sounds totally different than when it started.  The standouts are Set It Off, In Step, Let Me See You, and Here’s the Thing, the latter which mixes Kelly Clarkson with some hot rap beats.  I wouldn’t recommend this if you don’t like to try new music, and if you hate rap,  you might not like this, because the majority of the lyrics are ripped from hit rap songs.  He does manage to avoid the repetitiveness of rap, but overall, i found myself wishing that the best mixes lasted longer, and the mixes that didn’t work as well ended up giving the cd a boring background music feel to the songs.  Girl Talk obviously has talent, but there is not really enough amazing substance  in each song to latch onto.  If you liked Night Ripper, his last cd, i highly recommend this, because I definitely think it’s an improvement.

Overall: 8.5/10

Tracks to try: Set it Off, Here’s the Thing

Recommended if you like: new things, bumping club beats, a wide variety of music, from classic rock to modern rap

Black Kids – Partie Traumatic

This is a young band with more of a disco-esque feel, despite their Floridian origins.  This band
gives me the feeling that they have more to give to the music scene, but definitely know how to pick their songs.  “Listen to You Body Tonight” is an engaging song that makes good use of some great synth playing, with a cheesy back and forth between the male lead vocals and the female lead, that didn’t appeal to me but I’m sure is an integral part of crowd interactions at live shows.  The best song on the cd is their remake of the Ahhhh’s “Hurricane Jane”, which is never good, because if you can’t produce the best song on your own cd, there might be some problems.  The Aha-inspired “I’m Making Eyes at You” and the 50′s musical sounds of “I’ve Underestimated My Charm(Again)” are two of the more solid songs that have good beats and are typical wistful love songs that you would expect from a young band, but Black Kids seems to really mean their lyrics and the songs never seem boring or forced.  I can see all the indie kids jamming out to this at Bonaroo or just  being able to play this in the background at a party.  I wanted to rate the cd lower, because the back end of the cd is severely lacking in ingenuity, but the catchiness of the first few songs force me to rate it higher.  The first single, “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend” has all the makings of a hit and it’s hard not to want to get up and dance when this one comes on.  Overall, a very enjoyable experience and worth a couple bucks and an hour of your time.

Overall: 7.5/10

Tracks to try: Hurricane Jane, Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend to Dance With You

Recommended if you like: the Rapture, disco-synth, Aha’s “Take On Me”

And i know, my birthday isn’t for 4 months, but i will definitely forget about it by then.

In 21 years, I’ve…

gone on one spring break trip to Acapulco,

lost two people close to me,

gone on three official dates,

Spent four years on my high school soccer team,

Made the five enchilada meal at the local mexican restaurant my go-to meal,

Lived in my current house for six years,

Read every issue of Sports Illustrated for the last seven years

Grown up watching number eight throw touchdowns for the Cowboys,

Seen nine Lucky Boys Confusion shows,

Lived with ten other people,

Tried to make myself learn guitar at least eleven times,

Used twelve as my number on everything from jerseys to my sn,

Started my first job at thirteen,

Waited fourteen years to find a best friend,

Moved for the first and only time at age fifteen,

Spent sixteen years wishing for a dog every time I drove under a bridge,

Had my first taste of alcohol at seventeen,

Waited until eighteen to kiss a girl for the first time,

Realized nineteen years too late that my mom didn’t run my life,

Met twenty people who have changed my life,

I am twenty-one years old.