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MP3: Blink-182 – Boring

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MP3: Wale – Wonder Why feat. Mike Posner, Big Sean, & Kenn Starr

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MP3: The Bravery – Rocket (Smashing Pumpkins Cover)

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MP3: The National – The Geese of Beverly Road [Live]

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MP3: Franz Ferdinand – This Fire

I pretty much gave up news postings on this site early on; the big dogs have the monopoly on that one for everything but the most local of scene happenings.  But this is one huge tidbit of news that needs airing.

The rumors of the demise of Virgin Mobile Fest this year have been exaggerated, apparently a great deal.  Press release just dropped tonight letting everyone know the shindig this year will be FREE OF CHARGE:

Virgin Mobile USA, creator of one of the largest and most critically acclaimed music festivals in the U.S., announced today that it would host the 2009 Virgin Mobile Festival on Sunday, August 30, at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., free of charge. All tickets will be given away, and previous Virgin Mobile Festival ticket buyers and Virgin Mobile customers will have the first crack at securing the 35,000 tickets.

Some more good feelings:

To respond to the sharp decrease in national social giving, Virgin Mobile FreeFest will also host a special VIP seating area for those who complete 13 hours of community service at designated homeless youth shelters around the country.

When are these miraculous free tickets being handed out, and how you may ask:

Tickets to the 2009 Virgin Mobile FreeFest will be available to the public at http://www.ticketmaster.com at 10 am EST on Saturday, June 27^th. Virgin Mobile customers and previous Virgin Mobile Festival ticket buyers will be invited via email to a private “free-sale” (much like a pre-sale, except free) to be held Thursday, June 25^th and Friday, June 26^th.

Ticketmaster is waiving the convenience charge when fans pick up their FreeFest tickets at Merriweather or the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Customers also have the option to pay Ticketmaster to deliver their tickets. For more details on the ticketing, including options for donating money to youth homelessness and buying limited edition FreeFest T-shirts, check out virginmobilefreefest.com.

The lineup is not bad at all, especially in light of the new pricing plan.  Performers include Weezer, the newly resurrected Blink-182, Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy, Jet, The National, Girl Talk, The Bravery, The Hold Steady, St. Vincent, Wale, and Taking Back Sunday, HOLY F*CK, Pete Tong, Danny Howells and Lee Burridge.

So enjoy some flashback tracks above, and get ready to click for free/benefit causes.

All Girl Talk Photos: Josh Sisk

At 16 I hit a crisis—I walked away from the classical training I began 10 years earlier. I didn’t give it up entirely, but I decided I wasn’t going to pursue becoming a classical cellist as a career. Very quickly the musical void left by the absencesof practicing multiple hours a day was soon filled by electronic music. I was introduced to avant-garde electronic music at an early age; so making sounds on the computer didn’t seem odd while all my friends were out starting punk bands. I eventually fell into Electronic Dance Music, and I never looked back.

My take on popular music may be somewhat unique, given that I moved from the more esoteric to the more mainstream, not the other way around. To make a generalization the more vanguard electronic acts, though they may be pushing into new territory, are also the lesser-attended live acts. The more trite, derivative acts, though lacking in that exploratory nature, are the larger draws. I think it is safe to say that this generally holds true for any genre, and I’d get into the realm of speculation if I were to attribute reasons to why this happens. But here are some concrete examples from last week. Read the rest…

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MP3: Girl Talk – Bounce That from Night Ripper (2006)

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MP3: Girl Talk – Let Me See You from Don’t Feed the Animals (2008)

This fella probably needs little to no introduction.  Girl Talk has undoubtedly exploded.  Look no further than the utterly and completely sold-out shows lining his tour trek, including his stops at 9:30 Club this Friday Oct 10 and Sonar this Saturday Oct 11.  So let’s just get right to it.

Aural States- Talk a bit about how you actually put together the mash-up. You don’t use Ableton, correct?

Gregg Gillis- I use Audio Mulch. Basically Audio Mulch is a program that you can do a variety of things in. It is primarily used for sound processing, running things through it and putting effects on it, or manipulating pre-existing source material. But I use it in a way that utilizes the looping functions on it. I use a lot of loop players, and kind of work around having hundreds of loops in front of me. I then isolate the actual pieces of music that you hear as much as possible.

Typically, during a set there will be two to ten loops playing at any particular time. The actual combination of material is usually pre-thought out. It’s not like I’m improvising on the spot. But the transition from segment to segment is often times not as thought-out. So basically it is a whole bunch of loops in front of me, a variety of material, usually a bit more than I want to play, so I have a bit of freedom to jump around. I put together sound collages in real time basically. The software, I have always just basically used it to bring in ideas. When I record an album, that’s how I edit myself. But live it’s all triggering the loops and samples on the fly.

AS- You did a video during Whartscape, where you threaten Youtube fan video makers with legal action. This must be a joke? Read the rest…

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MP3: Girl Talk – No Pause

I guess I’m going to music industry hell.

Last Thursday morning, Girl Talk’s fourth official release, “Feed the Animals” was made public by Illegal Art, posted for download on the record company’s website, using the illustrious “pick your own” pricing schematic.

And…. I didn’t pay a single cent for it.

The peeps at illegal art made a few changes to the “Radiohead Model” of online aural distribution– After paying $0.0– the website asked me why. Great idea. Why not gain some insight into the demented brains of cheapskates, hobos, and assholes like me!

Read the rest…