Mixed Up

Dude! Have you heard about mashed-ups? They're the latest trend! You take two songs that are vaguely similar and blend them together to make a whole new song! It's brand-new!

Pah.

Me and my band-geek friends in high school were doing this back when people still called hip-hop "breakdance music" and Dangermouse was just a cartoon. Slick Rick mixed with Madonna mixed with Public Enemy mixed with the theme from Sesame Street. Looping and sampling through the fine art of pausing and rewinding your cassette deck. Busting out break-beats on a Casio keyboard. Oh Hells yes. I still have a tape somewhere of Paul Hardcastle's 19 mixed with 1940s radio ads for a series of marriage counseling books and samples played off a (then state-of-the-art) SK-1 Sampler.

So don't tell me about your mash-ups, kid. I've already been there.

Now, having said all of that. A lot of the stuff coming out lately is pretty good. Most recently, I took advantage of Dean Gray Tuesday to snag a copy of American Edit. Mr. Gray has re-mixed the entirety of Green Day's "Rock Opera" American Idiot throwing in lyrics and beats from sources as divergent as Queen, Ashanti, and the theme from the BBC series Dr. Who. That last, featured in Dr. Who on Holiday is actually a mash-up within a mash-up, as he seems to be using the Timelords' 1988 hit Doctorin' the Tardis, which blended the OOOeeeOOOs of the Dr. Who theme with the Na-NaNa-Na-NA-AH(HEY!) of Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll Pt. 2. Post- modern-y!

If you missed out on Dean Gray Tuesday, I'm sure you can find it with your Hampster or your Ka-zam! or what have you. And I suspect that lots of hipster kids will be giving and getting CDs of American Edit over the holidays. I know I plan to wrap up a few copies.