green day

Top Mashups of 2013 (30-16)

Recipe: mash up with down, left with right, off the wall with no way that'll work together and enjoy.

Recipe: mash up with down, left with right, off the wall with no way that’ll work and enjoy.

The proliferation and popularity of mashups has exploded over the past few years. The technology to meld songs together is accessible and the appetite for the style is voracious. Music in general has become more accessible, and as people become exposed to new sounds, artists, and songs, it only follows that they become more and more curious to hear what songs, disparate or otherwise, would sound like when thrown together in a blender. Luckily, for those who dig mashups, there are a tonne of musicians, knob fiddlers, and computer/audio wizards who are seeking to serve such sonic smoothies.

Yeah, there are a million and one mashups out there in the ether. Are they all good? Of course not. For me, the best mashups must: a) be technically proficient, (ideally, technically superb); and b) make the listener say, “Merlin’s beard, these songs fit perfectly together,” or “Son of a snitch, if I didn’t know this was a mashup, I’d have sworn that vocal was created with and for that music.” Does this happen? Not all the time, but when it does, it’s pure magic.

Lastly, as a music fan, I’m appreciative of the gamut mashups can run because there really are no rules when it comes to picking source materials. 1960’s music can be fused with stuff from the 2000’s. Heavy metal can meld with piano pop. Dance can mix with television theme songs. When the mashup is done right, it feels real (and it’s spectacular).

Here then, are my favourite 30 mashups of 2013:

30. The Beatles x Macklemore – Eleanor Rigby Can’t Hold Me Down (The Melker Project)

 

29. System Of A Down x. Daft Punk – Bring Your Own Luck (Lobsterdust)

It seems like 46,733 mashups involving Daft Punk were released in 2013. This is one of the better ones.

 

28. The Little Mermaid x Bubba Sparxxx – Under The Booty

From 2012 I think, this clever mashup made it big in 2013. Bubba’s getting royalties from this right?

 

27. Frank Ocean x Purity Ring – Pyramidspeak (The Hood Internet)

 

26. Green Day x Peter Gabriel – American Candy

 

25. Imagine Dragons x Kendrick Lamar – Radioactive Swimming Pools (Isosine)

 

24. Foo Fighters x David Guetta – Best of Titanium (The White Panda)

 

23. Kanye West x Kavinsky – Protolife (Carlos Serrano remix)

Kanye loves this mashup. Kanye wishes Kanye made this mashup. Therefore, Kanye hates this mashup. The circle of Kanye. Kanye.

 

22. Skeevie Tricks (possibly the best mashup name ever: Stevie Nicks + Trick Daddy) – Rhiannon & Rihanna (The Melker Project)

 

21. Wu Tang Project x Hall & Oates – Wu Tang’s Maneater (The Melker Project, from the awesomely named EP, Ballin’ Oates)

So, so good.

 

20. The Beatles x Santigold – Disparate People (Jimi Needles Blend)

 

19. B.o.B. x Chromeo x 2 Chainz – Over Your Head (The Hood Internet)

This sounds like it’s an original. Great mix, choice of source materials.

 

18. Notorious B.I.G. x Daft Punk – Notoriously Daft Punk (Rage Cannon Bootleg)

 

17. Metallica x Billy Joel – For Whom The Piano Man Tolls (DJ Rozroz)

By any measure, this should NOT work. By every measure, it does.

 

16. Brown Bells (Danny Brown x Sleigh Bells) – Grown Up Rivals

Another one that sounds like an original. Great mixing.

My Top 10 Songs of April 2013

March was such a good month for music it couldn’t help but bleed into April. I took my time getting to know March songs, taking them out for coffee, flirting with them, skirting the line of appropriateness between a guy and his songs, and before I knew it, the end of April had arrived and burst our little love bubble (April’s a killjoy, no wonder there’s always so much rain). As such, my list of the Top 10 Songs of April is heavily indebted to March, with a few new releases peppered in for flavour.

I also found myself listening to a few older songs — a lot. To shine a light on these tremendous older/oldish songs that captured my ears and attention so, I’ve made a mini list (directly below), and followed that with my favourite newer/newish songs.

Silversun Pickups – The Pit

The only song I found to be immediately and eminently gratifying on SP’s latest, Neck Of The Woods, was “Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)”. It took months over months to finally click to the pretty awesome, brooding, and electronic-tinged “The Pit”. Better late than never.

 

Thee More Shallows – Oh Yes, Another Mother

From 2007, it’s still the number one song on Saturn’s Titan. Criminally overlooked here on Earth. A crying shame.

 

Pat Benatar -We Belong

Sing it Pat. Still sounds great almost 30 years later.

 

Green Day – Redundant

In my top 3 Green Day songs of all-time. Quite possibly the most vulnerable Billy-Joe’s ever sounded lyrically. Replete with an awesome, mind-funking video, featured below.

 

Biffy Clyro – Many of Horror

I’m convinced this is one of the best songs of the past five years. I’ve recently discovered that Biffy Clyro have a jaw-droppingly good back catalogue. Still, “Many of Horror” is their crowning achievement, and I bet it always will be. That riff. My god. (Check out the unbelievable live performance of the song below.)

 

Top 10 newish:

10. Demi Lovato – Heart Attack

It doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s catchy as hell. Good lead single in an ultra-competitive environment.

 

9. The Knife – Raging Lung

I’m still developing my thoughts on the incredible, difficult, political, dense, off-putting, personal, beautiful new Knife album, Shaking The Habitual. What I do know though, is that in such a (fracking) fluid environment, “Raging Lung” weighs the whole experience up (gravity does not apply in The Knife’s world) like an anchor. It’s a masterpiece, sure, but it’s also much, much more. I’m just not sure what else to call it. Exactly how The Knife want it.

 

8. How To Destroy Angels – How Long?

My favourite tune on Trent’s latest effort. I like it more every time I hear it. Mr. Reznor has a preternatural ability with synthetic sound.

 

7. We Are Wolves  – Sun

So flipping catchy. The explosion at the end seals it for me. I can say without pause this is and will be one of the best songs released in 2013.

 

6. Surfer Blood – Demon Dance

The guitar work. The melody. Sen-bloody-sational. I can’t seem to get enough of this song. Like its cousin (in name and vibe) below, it’s been on repeat for weeks and weeks.

 

5. Wavves – Demon To Lean On

Wavves have made a splash before, but they’ve never released a tsunami like the one they roll in on here. The guitar riff. The playful vocals. The sound of summer, and the sound of not giving a shit that it’s summer. The live version, featured below, from Letterman, is also a fantastic experience.

 

4. Psy – Gentleman

I wondered how in the world he’d follow up his ubiquitous, galactic smash. The answer is relatively simple: with something even bigger. “Gentleman” is so catchy he’s already blown way past any reasonable categorization as a one-hit wonder. He’s at two mammoth tunes and counting. And he looks like he couldn’t be having more fun doing it.

 

3. Muse – Panic Station

“Panic Station” is several months old now, but I’ve fallen so deeply for it only recently. I’d liked it before. Now I love it. Maybe it’s that it sounds nothing like anything else on The 2nd Law, or any other Muse song for that matter. Maybe it’s the unmistakable 80’s gitch. Maybe it’s the pomposity. Maybe it’s the guitar riff. Maybe it’s Bellamy. (It’s always Bellamy.) The whole proposition just got a shit-tonne more weird by the release of the absurd, hideous, car-crash-like, balls to the wall video, featured below.

 

2. Phosphorescent – Song For Zula

I would issue strong odds that “Song For Zula” will end up the most beautiful song released in 2013. Or maybe any year. I have such a voracious appetite for, and commit the time that I do to, finding new music because once in a while — once in a blue moon — something like this finds my ears. Simple, haunting, wondrous aural magic.

 

1. Daft Punk – Get Lucky

It was never going to be anything else. The kings are back — finally. And to boot, “Get Lucky” is unquestionably their catchiest/best song in over 12 years. The wait was unbearable. The joy is immeasurable.