Girl Talk and Temple of the Dog

Kilgore_Trout · July 2008

havent seen this mentioned anywhere on here yet... Girl Talk samples "Hunger Strike" on the first track of his newest album... pretty sweet... theres some Who sampled in the same song...

great album too as a whole! check it out if you havent... gotta give him credit for being able to mix things the way he does... i was skeptical for awhile just passing it off as glorified DJ'ing but theres some pretty intricate transitions and genre mixing going on

you can check it out here:
http://www.myspace.com/girltalk

really into the new Atmosphere and Ratatat right now too if people are looking for something fun to check out...

Kilgore_Trout · July 2008

oh god... rapping over radiohead on "set it off" is SICK... check this record out hip hop fans... or anyone that can appreciate true production skillz... wouldve liked to see what girl talk could do with chris cornell instead of timbaland

Brain Of E · August 2008

hmmm, sounds interesting. any links?

Kilgore_Trout · August 2008

Brain Of E wrote:

hmmm, sounds interesting. any links?

im generally cool with sharing music but i think its against board policy and since girl talk is kindof still a young act i dont wanna cheat him out of any album sales... buy it and you wont regret it... check out the clips on itunes to kindof get a feel for it

he also samples nirvana, jackson 5, james brown, ac/dc, alot of good popular rap and pop songs... just too much to mention

Brain Of E · August 2008

yea i'm not looking for free music, maybe just a link to some samples or something. i'm too lazy to search for it.

Kilgore_Trout · August 2008

Brain Of E wrote:

yea i'm not looking for free music, maybe just a link to some samples or something. i'm too lazy to search for it.

ohh sorry i interpretted what ya said wrong... and i was too lazy to search when i typed my first response to ya... here ya go http://www.myspace.com/girltalk

Brain Of E · August 2008

cool, thanks. i decided to download it. i paid fifty cents.

Kilgore_Trout · August 2008

Brain Of E wrote:

cool, thanks. i decided to download it. i paid fifty cents.

haha... cant beat that price... enjoy!

beachdweller · August 2008

wow, just listened to all the songs on myspace, and its like he walked into my house and used my music collection for all his samples. Can't think of one song I don't have.

Kilgore_Trout · August 2008

beachdweller wrote:

wow, just listened to all the songs on myspace, and its like he walked into my house and used my music collection for all his samples. Can't think of one song I don't have.

yah i felt the same way... its like playing a music trivia game where you gotta pick up on every little snippet he uses... glad i was able to introduce some people to it... im probably gonna check him out at lolla this weekend... if i dont camp out for NIN all day

MonsterOfTheMidway · August 2008

YEAH
YEAH
YEAH
YEAH
YEAh
YEAH
YEAh
YEAh
YEAH
OK We poppin' champagne like we won the championship game
look like I got on a championship ring
Cause I ball hard
No bitch we ball harder
I am the Birdman
I am the J-R-Uh

adam42381 · August 2008

I figure he's ripping off everybody else so why not find it on torrent sites and download it for free?

mole1985 · August 2008

He's just taking a bunch of different songs and mashin' 'em together. Seems pretty random and aimless. Obviously he's not talented enough to come up with his own shit. Kid Rock anyone?

facepollution · August 2008

adam42381 wrote:

I figure he's ripping off everybody else so why not find it on torrent sites and download it for free?

You can download it for free from his site anyway, it's all there in the myspace link.

Jeremy1012 · August 2008

mole1985 wrote:

He's just taking a bunch of different songs and mashin' 'em together. Seems pretty random and aimless. Obviously he's not talented enough to come up with his own shit. Kid Rock anyone?

You're not familiar with the technique of sampling are you? It's an artform. Your reaction is the reaction of ignorance. Kid Rock employs a team of producers to rip off tunes to make his beats and then he "sings" and raps over them. Girl Talk makes cohesive collages of found samples. It's not the same thing.

It is not a case of recording someone else's music and throwing a beat on it, you can tell that kind of production. That's the production of P Diddy. It's not the same as listening to a DJ Shadow or Madlib album. Madlib's Shades of Blue is made up entirely of jazz samples from the Blue Note records vault but it's an original album in its own right.

Playing the "he's not even playing his own music" card is such bullshit. Go and search for Pete Rock on youtube and watch him working his samplers. Then tell me that's not an instrument in its own right.

adam42381 · August 2008

facepollution wrote:

You can download it for free from his site anyway, it's all there in the myspace link.

Eh, I've already gotten it now. Besides, he's going to take credit for download numbers. I really don't give a shit if he's illegally sampling music or not but I'm not going to feel bad about swiping his music either.

adam42381 · August 2008

Jeremy1012 wrote:

Go and search for Pete Rock on youtube and watch him working his samplers. Then tell me that's not an instrument in it's own right.

I watched a couple Pete Rock videos and agree that the sampler is definitely an instrument. Although I had no idea what he was doing you could tell it took talent to make it look so easy.

adam42381 · August 2008

I'm half-way through the Girl Talk album (Feed The Animals) and I have to say I'm loving it. So many good song samples in the background. This could be the best party album I've heard in a long time. Time to find the other albums he's got out...

Here's a list of all the songs on the album that have all been mashed up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_the_Animals

catch22 · August 2008

Jeremy1012 wrote:

You're not familiar with the technique of sampling are you? It's an artform. Your reaction is the reaction of ignorance. Kid Rock employs a team of producers to rip off tunes to make his beats and then he "sings" and raps over them. Girl Talk makes cohesive collages of found samples. It's not the same thing.

It is not a case of recording someone else's music and throwing a beat on it, you can tell that kind of production. That's the production of P Diddy. It's not the same as listening to a DJ Shadow or Madlib album. Madlib's Shades of Blue is made up entirely of jazz samples from the Blue Note records vault but it's an original album in its own right.

Playing the "he's not even playing his own music" card is such bullshit. Go and search for Pete Rock on youtube and watch him working his samplers. Then tell me that's not an instrument in its own right.

no way man. he is just pasting together other people's work. at least kid rock samples and writes his own music and lyrics around it. this dude is creating a cool sound and it certainly artistic, but to imply he's somehow more of a musician than kid rock is absurd. this is like photoshopping van gogh on your computer and claiming you're a better painter than picasso because of it. it's a talent in its own right and im sure he got the permission of these artists, but let's call a spade a spade. what he does is not better than what kid rock does, just different.

what bothers me about it is it's like when a live band goes into a cool jam/medley, only it's built for, like someone else said, parties basically. it's like every fratboy's dream album... a mix of cool and kitchy songs and none of them playing for more than 30 seconds to suit the ADD culture and attention span.

Jeremy1012 · August 2008

catch22 wrote:

no way man. he is just pasting together other people's work. at least kid rock samples and writes his own music and lyrics around it. this dude is creating a cool sound and it certainly artistic, but to imply he's somehow more of a musician than kid rock is absurd. this is like photoshopping van gogh on your computer and claiming you're a better painter than picasso because of it. it's a talent in its own right and im sure he got the permission of these artists, but let's call a spade a spade. what he does is not better than what kid rock does, just different.

what bothers me about it is it's like when a live band goes into a cool jam/medley, only it's built for, like someone else said, parties basically. it's like every fratboy's dream album... a mix of cool and kitchy songs and none of them playing for more than 30 seconds to suit the ADD culture and attention span.

Evidently we have drastically differing views about what constitutes good music and art.

I'm not even a massive fan of Girl Talk, although I think the album is good. I'm talking about attitudes like yours about musicians like this. Incohesive and plagiaristic or not, this is technically genius and a hell of a lot of fun.

By the way, Kid Rock telling his team of producers "gimme something with Sweet Home Alabama on it" does not make him a producer or adapt at sampling.

And remember, talent borrows, genius steals.

catch22 · August 2008

Jeremy1012 wrote:

Evidently we have drastically differing views about what constitutes good music and art.

I'm not even a massive fan of Girl Talk, although I think the album is good. I'm talking about attitudes like yours about musicians like this. Incohesive and plagiaristic or not, this is technically genius and a hell of a lot of fun.

By the way, Kid Rock telling his team of producers "gimme something with Sweet Home Alabama on it" does not make him a producer or adapt at sampling.

And remember, talent borrows, genius steals.

i didnt say it wasn't fun. i'm saying it's a long way from genius. and the album does sound good on the preview, and im not saying the doesn't have talent, he does. but he isn't a musician. playing on a computer does not make a musician. you have to play a musical instrument to be a musician. he's not doing that on here. he's not even writing any music or lyrics. he's taking other people's work and pasting it together. and it does take a certain kind of talent, but it's the aesthetic talent of, say, an interior designer as opposed to the craftsman's talent of the man who built the furniture.

i just don't see anything in this that could be labelled genius. beethoven was a genius. einstein was a genius. pearl jam is not, and neither is this guy. that word is thrown around so much it has no meaning. he's good at what he does, and what he does is fun and interesting. but there is nothing ground-breaking in this. people have been doing this for years and he just seems to be better than most of them at it.

if kid rock asking producers to make something does not make him a producer, how does this guy NOT playing any musical instruments or writing any music of his own make him a musician? answer me that.

Jeremy1012 · August 2008

catch22 wrote:

i didnt say it wasn't fun. i'm saying it's a long way from genius. and the album does sound good on the preview, and im not saying the doesn't have talent, he does. but he isn't a musician. playing on a computer does not make a musician. you have to play a musical instrument to be a musician. he's not doing that on here. he's not even writing any music or lyrics. he's taking other people's work and pasting it together. and it does take a certain kind of talent, but it's the aesthetic talent of, say, an interior designer as opposed to the craftsman's talent of the man who built the furniture.

i just don't see anything in this that could be labelled genius. beethoven was a genius. einstein was a genius. pearl jam is not, and neither is this guy. that word is thrown around so much it has no meaning. he's good at what he does, and what he does is fun and interesting. but there is nothing ground-breaking in this. people have been doing this for years and he just seems to be better than most of them at it.

if kid rock asking producers to make something does not make him a producer, how does this guy NOT playing any musical instruments or writing any music of his own make him a musician? answer me that.

Evidently you did not read my earlier post advising that those who dispute the validity of sampling as a musical talent should watch some videos of legendary hip-hop producer Pete Rock sampling in real time on his samplers. Tell me, what happens when a guitarist plays a note? He plucks a string and then sounds come out. He's not actually creating noise, the string is. Sure, a lot of aspects of his particular style will affect the sound and tone of the note but ultimately, he plucks a string and a note resonates. How is that any different from painstakingly crafting a tune from other tunes, loading them onto a sampler, which is in essence an instrument, and then triggering those sounds with a selection of pads in order to build up a collage of sounds?

I'm a guitarist. I can tell you something, I reckon it's a shitload easier to play guitar than become a GOOD producer who uses samples. You can tell the hacks easily. Like I said earlier, Puff Daddy is a hack, he just literally loops other peoples songs. To an extent, Kanye West is a hack. Getting Boogie Down Productions, Faith No More, Queen (!), The Police, Argent, The Wu-Tang Clan and TERENCE TRENT-DARBY into ONE song and making it work is an example of musical talent. Not the equivalent of interior design.

Tell me, do you think Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson etc weren't artists? Because they plagiarised liberally from their predecessors and, certainly in the case of Guthrie and to a lesser extent, Leadbelly, they were hardly virtuoso musicians. They were ok guitarists playing other people's songs and sometimes changing bits here and there to make them original. Making the songs their own is what mattered.

A sampler is an instrument and it takes mastery to use well and make convincing records. It's the 21st century people, you don't need to play a string or a reed to be a musician.

mole1985 · August 2008

If you have to use other people's music to get noticed then why bother? He's got a talent maybe but i would never consider him an 'artist'. He is no different then Kid Rock. There is nothing wrong with using a sample here and there, Jurrasic 5 have done it but tastefully and incorporated it with their own music.

Unfortunatly this is becoming more and more common in today's music just rip offs and covers. Come to think of it the film industry is the same.

adam42381 · August 2008

Seems Led Zeppelin did pretty well ripping off other artists...

Just finished listening to the first Girl Talk album Secret Diary and I must say it's pretty unlistenable. He's definitely progressed and gotten much better since 2002.

catch22 · August 2008

Jeremy1012 wrote:

Evidently you did not read my earlier post advising that those who dispute the validity of sampling as a musical talent should watch some videos of legendary hip-hop producer Pete Rock sampling in real time on his samplers. Tell me, what happens when a guitarist plays a note? He plucks a string and then sounds come out. He's not actually creating noise, the string is. Sure, a lot of aspects of his particular style will affect the sound and tone of the note but ultimately, he plucks a string and a note resonates. How is that any different from painstakingly crafting a tune from other tunes, loading them onto a sampler, which is in essence an instrument, and then triggering those sounds with a selection of pads in order to build up a collage of sounds?

I'm a guitarist. I can tell you something, I reckon it's a shitload easier to play guitar than become a GOOD producer who uses samples. You can tell the hacks easily. Like I said earlier, Puff Daddy is a hack, he just literally loops other peoples songs. To an extent, Kanye West is a hack. Getting Boogie Down Productions, Faith No More, Queen (!), The Police, Argent, The Wu-Tang Clan and TERENCE TRENT-DARBY into ONE song and making it work is an example of musical talent. Not the equivalent of interior design.

Tell me, do you think Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson etc weren't artists? Because they plagiarised liberally from their predecessors and, certainly in the case of Guthrie and to a lesser extent, Leadbelly, they were hardly virtuoso musicians. They were ok guitarists playing other people's songs and sometimes changing bits here and there to make them original. Making the songs their own is what mattered.

A sampler is an instrument and it takes mastery to use well and make convincing records. It's the 21st century people, you don't need to play a string or a reed to be a musician.

fair enough. i have trouble accepting sampling as an instrument. i still think the interior design analogy applies. loading other people's songs onto your computer and playing with them is different even from the examples you gave. guthrie, etc, were still able to create that music on their own with their own playing. they didn't rely on a computer to capture note-perfect copies of someone else's music. they played it with their own hands and injected their soul into it, which is what made the song theirs instead of the original person's. there's no soul in a computer recording. i feel like there is nothing individual in this music. it's like eddie van halen's guitar playing, technically impressive, but there is no soul, nothing personal from the artist in it.

kanye may be a hack producer, but his lyrics are personal and funny and they combine with the way he uses the music to produce a personal statement. daft punk only plays on computers, but they build their songs from the ground up.

this guy does not. the way he splices things together is impressive and undoubtedly takes talent. but it is all technical prowess, with no personal statement, no soul. not in the lyrics, the beats, or anything. it is ALL note-for-note built by other people. he just put it together, like a good compilation... a friend making a really complicated mix tape or a power hour cd.

i see where you're coming from and you may be right. i just don't buy it. to me, an artist has to have something personal on the line.

Jeremy1012 · August 2008

mole1985 wrote:

If you have to use other people's music to get noticed then why bother? He's got a talent maybe but i would never consider him an 'artist'. He is no different then Kid Rock. There is nothing wrong with using a sample here and there, Jurrasic 5 have done it but tastefully and incorporated it with their own music.

Unfortunatly this is becoming more and more common in today's music just rip offs and covers. Come to think of it the film industry is the same.

...

MonsterOfTheMidway · August 2008

Art is Art. Girl Talk is art. It take a good amount of skill to mix like he does.

He is taking these songs and changing them, manipulating them, and skewing them into something completely different. Sure it's not like a classical composition, but he definitely makes them his own and it's very unique.

Plus I saw him at Lolla and he was awesome and fun as hell

If you don't like it, don't listen to it, but don't for the love of god tell me Kid Rock is more of musician than him. A musician is an artist and art is an expression. Kid Rock expresses himself through bullshit rock-country-rap stuff that hasn't been popular since 1997 while Girl Talk expresses himself through extremely clever and thoughtout mashups.

And you're saying that Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing has no soul? Yeah, your opinion is now void.

catch22 · August 2008

MonsterOfTheMidway wrote:

expresses himself through bullshit rock-country-rap stuff that hasn't been popular since 1997 while Girl Talk expresses himself through extremely clever and thoughtout mashups.

And you're saying that Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing has no soul? Yeah, your opinion is now void.

i see, so because you don't like it, it's not art? and if it's not popular and "hip" at the moment, then it's not art?

so if kid rock put down his guitar and started doing this stuff, he would become an artist because now he's playing music that you like and he is cool enough for you and your pitchfork friends to admit to liking?

ps. never said what the guy was doing wasn't art. i said he's not a musician, and that taking other people's music and making it into a mix tape, however much talent and thought goes into it, does not make him a musician.

MonsterOfTheMidway · August 2008

catch22 wrote:

i see, so because you don't like it, it's not art? and if it's not popular and "hip" at the moment, then it's not art?

so if kid rock put down his guitar and started doing this stuff, he would become an artist because now he's playing music that you like and he is cool enough for you and your pitchfork friends to admit to liking?

ps. never said what the guy was doing wasn't art. i said he's not a musician, and that taking other people's music and making it into a mix tape, however much talent and thought goes into it, does not make him a musician.

To be able to mix like he does and use stuff in the same key, time signature, and etc takes musical knowledge and ability.

He is a musician. Just he utilizes electonic samples rather than standard instruments. So you're telling me that Vladimir Ussachevsky, Paul Lansky, Pauline Oliveros, and Laurie Anderson are not musicians?

And I never said that what Kid Rock wasn't art. I just said his art is rock-country-rap stuff. Please re-read what I said.

Jeremy1012 · August 2008

catch22 wrote:

i see, so because you don't like it, it's not art? and if it's not popular and "hip" at the moment, then it's not art?

so if kid rock put down his guitar and started doing this stuff, he would become an artist because now he's playing music that you like and he is cool enough for you and your pitchfork friends to admit to liking?

ps. never said what the guy was doing wasn't art. i said he's not a musician, and that taking other people's music and making it into a mix tape, however much talent and thought goes into it, does not make him a musician.

Do you disregard all electronic musicians as not musicians or just those who use other people's music? If it's the latter, PLEASE, since you've been sidestepping it for the whole thread, tell me why a sampler, or a laptop used as one, is not an instrument?

Brain Of E · August 2008

after listening to this a few times, i kinda don't like it. I mean the whole concept is pretty cool and i'm sure it took a lot of work/time/talent to put this together but in my opinion it moves to fast for me. It's kinda all over the place, going from thing to another. Maybe I don't know too much about DJ/sampling and stuff, maybe this is a masterpiece in that world, but it's not for me. good thing i only paid fifty cents.

Girl Talk and Temple of the Dog

Comments