copyleft infringement.

Gregg ‘Girl Talk’ Gillis received a fair bit of attention in today’s edition of The National Post (reprinted from The New York Times).
regarding copyright laws, and his knack for skirting them.
a subject i find intriguing, and have discussed on a few occasions...

just how does he get away with sampling so many artists and songs?
he doesn’t.
the Fair Use laws which he operates under don’t really apply to his means or ends.
but he does have the fear of setting precedents on his side,
hense the lack of major legal action to date.

i have yet to hear of an artist that is appalled by the representation of their music.
everyone seems to just want a cut of the profits.

i love Girl Talk
listening to his music doesn’t affect my feelings or spending behaviour
towards any of the artists he uses.

bottom line if i want to see Radiohead,
i’m not going to go to a girl talk show to hear the few samples he uses,
i’ll attend a Radiohead show.

i appreciate the controversy being stirred up.
i have a rather entertaining picture of middle aged lawyers,
filing through tall stacks of paperwork late at night,
while hundreds of people dance it out at a club alongside Gregg.

an ambiguous thought on art vs. money:

“everybody has won, and all must have prizes.”
- Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll.

Steal This Hook? - Robert Levine

Loveapallooza + Muxtape.

This weekend, Girls 1 through 4 headed to Lollapalooza for a long weekend of live bands, love and sandal tans. It was an incredible line-up, with headliners Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Kanye West and Nine Inch Nails.

Chicago was beautiful, the weather was amazing, and the festival was one of the most well-organized events I have ever seen. Well done, Illinois.

My personal favourites:

Girl Talk – While I was sceptical about the kind of show a man with his laptop can put on, this dude blew me away. On a secondary stage, he gathered thousands to watch and dozens up on stage to dance to his mash-ups. People watched from trees, Spider Man crowd-surfed and toilet-paper and confetti were propelled into the audience. Not the most eco-friendly of performances though :(

Radiohead – Thom Yorke + fireworks + insane lighting + Idioteque = sheer and utter brilliance. Totally bought their overpriced t-shirt.

Hammock Haven – An area in Grant park located under lush trees, this oasis contained a plethora of hammocks inviting tired concert-goers to rest and avoid heat exhaustion. The greeting crew welcomed you with water guns, for an extra cool bonus. But be warned : swingy hammocks make for spilly beer.

Amadou & Mariam – This adorable West African couple had the entire audience dancing, clapping their hands and singing in French. Who doesn't enjoy a bit of that? One of the most original acts of the festival, by far.

Honorable mention goes to the two story Chicago McDonald’s, which left me in awe of its escalator, velvet ropes and ice-cream counter. There were even leather couches and a 'please wait to be seated area'. I totally ate Big Macs daily, just so I could keep revelling in its glory.

And now for the important stuff: here is a playlist I made for all of you who couldn’t make it to this unbelievable event. Suckers.

Sweaty Chicago Muxtape

Weekend update!

(NOTE: This is a bit late and has been sitting in our drafts for a while, waiting patiently to be spell-checked. Yeesh.)

Friday kicked off the weekend quite early – I don’t even think it was 10am when my brand new Zune was delivered to my office! So I spent the rest of the day excited to go home and play with it (which happened at 1:30 because my job is awesome). Upon getting home, I briefly charged my new toy, threw the new Girl Talk album on it and bolted outside for a run.

At this point I must mention that the Zune comes with these amazing noise-reduction earphones – so as I left my apt, I was convinced that the strange men drinking beer in the alley had just told me to “throw some D’s on that bitch”. Frightening.

Alas, this line was but a snippet of Girl Talk, aka Gregg Gillis’ new album, Feed the Animals. Possibly the best sound to run to, Gillis’ work consists of sample-based remixes ⁄ mash-ups. In his fourth LP, he continues to seamlessly mix old gems and current hits, combining genres and pairing up top-forty songs to indie tracks. For those unfamiliar with Girl Talk, it’s like being at a super-tight iPod battle, with songs popping up that have you going ‘yesss...’ (fist pump suggested). Think track after track of your favourite guilty pleasures mixed with the artists you’re not embarrassed to list on your Facebook profile. Ok, I’m sure I’ve made my point. It’s pretty good.

Now for the Zune. It was free in exchange for me talking about it on here. Which is a fair bribe, because it’s effing fantastic! Full color video screen, two pairs of earphones, wireless sync to your computer, FM radio... My co-worker and I have been sending each other songs at work, without having to get up or plug in silly wires. Craaaazy. For someone who has an unjustifiable aversion to Apple products, it’s the perfect mp3 player. So yes, check it out!

Oh, and on another note - I spent most of my weekend roasting in the sun at the Toronto Harbourfront for the Beats, Breaks and Culture festival. Amongst the artists on the lineup were Ladytron, Woodhands and headliners Crystal Castles. I must say that while Woodhands was spectacular and awkward and all kinds of wonderful, Ladytron and Crystal Castles were huge letdowns. Fine, the venue doesn't allow for the kind of loud sounds these bands need to sound cool, but Ladytron was simply boring and Crystal Castles were DICKS. Allow me to summarize my interpretation of their show:

9:30 - Huge crowd forms for CC show
10:15 - CC hit the stage to play a subpar set with next-to-no vocals
10:35 - Frustrated with their own mediocrity, CC leave the stage (perhaps to investigate the no-vocals problem)
10:36 - Ontario Place fireworks begin in the distance and entire crowd is distracted, turning around and completely forgetting to coax CC back onstage
10:43 - Defeated, CC come back (surely because of contractual obligations), play one more song and ruin their drumkit.

The End.
Jerks.

That’s it for now! More to come soon!

xo.

Of Montreal X 2 + Girl Talk = 12

Twelve euros isn’t a lot of money. It can buy you two pints in an Amsterdam bar. It can buy you one gram of weed in one of the numerous coffeeshops around town. And as of Wednesday, December 12th, I found out that it can also get you a ticket to see indie rockers Of Montreal. Two nights in a row. With Girl Talk. Yes, you can be jealous.

Walking into Paradiso, one of Amsterdam’s premium music venues, I had no idea what was in store for me. I had assumed that Of Montreal would play on the main stage. Instead, I was pleased to discover that they were to play in a small room upstairs that probably holds no more than 300 hipsters. Score.

The room filled fast, and Of Montreal hit the stage full force, no opening band necessary. Even though the bright, eclectic outfits of all the band members and lead singer Kevin Barnes’ sparkled eye makeup would have been enough to keep my attention the entire set, it wasn’t necessary. The band launched right into their not-quite-12-minute masterpiece, "The Past is a Grotesque Animal" off of the 2007 release Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer? (FYI, the song is also featured on my Best of 2007, in stores now). The show never slowed down as the quintet played most songs from Hissing Fauna and 1995’s Sunlandic Twins, with a few tracks from one of their numerous other albums. Barnes’ voice could only be described as heavenly, hitting some notes that I never realized were so high when listening to the albums. Highlights included a costume change for Barnes off stage as the band played the instrumental track "October is Eternal". The end of the song saw Barnes slither on stage in green, thigh-high fishnet stockings and a pair of jean booty shorts so tight that even I blushed when I first saw. I never blush.

The second half of the set was just as upbeat and energetic as the first, and after thirteen songs, the band left the stage, only to return and play "She’s a Rejector" as the encore. AND inform the crowd that they would be playing a free show the following night at the same venue with Girl Talk. This is where I would like to say thank you to the airport staff at the Athens, Greece airport. Because of your strike, Of Montreal could not play there the next night, and I got to reap the benefits. I hope your strike goes well.

The next night was just as good as the first, starting with a jam-packed room getting hot and sweaty to 1.5 hours of straight dancing to mashup DJ Girl Talk aka Gregg Gillis. He invited the crowd on stage. We went. Then we abused our power and took off his shirt to throw into the audience. And then we pulled his pants down. And that is how he dj’ed for the rest of the night. Track pants around the ankles and all.

Girl Talk ended at 12:30 and we had to wait until 2 a.m. for Of Montreal to take the stage. There were less people than the night before, seeing as the show was so late and there was a dance party going on in the main room downstairs. By the end of the show there were maybe 50 people in the room. Damn the ignorance of techno-loving Europeans. Regardless, Of Montreal played yet another stellar show, with only two tracks of the 15-song set being repeats from the night before. Even though I was a bit too drunk to fully embrace the full awesomeness that night, I definitely appreciated the cover of Prince’s "Purple Rain" as their final song. No encore came that night, as there wasn’t enough of a crowd to cry out for one. Unfortunately, the voices of myself and my friends weren’t enticing enough for Kevin and the gang. Alas, I left the room satisfied and feeling extremely lucky to witness what I did for the low, low cost of twelve euros.

Suffer for Fashion - Of Montreal
Forecast Fascist Future - Of Montreal