suvaa1cgreo.jpg

This is so complicated.

(via Stereogum)

Look, there’s no such thing as selling out. Everyone has to make it through the day and put food on the table. Besides, how much do you really think Microsoft shelled out for this commercial? I’m guessing 50 dollars and half a dozen day old bagels from the Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft commercial set. There is absolutely no shame in honest money made for a hard day’s work.

THAT BEING SAID, there is such a thing as diluting the cultural potency of your work by tossing off bland non-truths like “computer software is the most punk rock thing that’s ever happened,” while a Nintendo 8-bit soundtrack that doesn’t really sound anything like your music plays nonconfrontationally in the background so that a multi-billion dollar corporation that has consistently faced international anti-monopoly lawsuits for its market restrictive practices can scrape a little of the cool veneer off of their sleek competitor’s hipster edge. REAL Talk.

Girl Talk / Gregg Gillis | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Gregg Gillis aka DJ Girl Talk playing to an overcrowded stage. Photo ...
... for gregg gillis the girl talk project has always been about
Gregg Gillis (Girl Talk) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Screening of indie film RiP perhaps not too late for SOPA
He interviews experts such as remix music artist, Greg Gillis popularly known as Girl Talk, science fiction author and pop culture critic Cory Doctorow, Brazil’s former Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, and even an agent from the U.S. Registrar of Copyrights.
14th San Francisco Independent Film Festival celebrates cinema unbound
Girl Walk // All Day is based on a 71-minute mashup by Gregg Gillis (aka “Girl Talk”) entitled “Girl Walk.” The piece is composed of 372 pop-music samples, loops and beats interwoven into a sonic montage for the ages, or at least the next seven generations.
Comments (12)
  1. except that the background music is a snippet from his album “night ripper,” sure. except that is actually his music, gabe. “his” being used loosely, because it’s obviously mashed from something else.

    that said, i was also kind of confused by girl talk appearing in a microsoft ad.

    but then i remembered that i’m seeing him live this thursday, for the third time, and that it will explode all five of my senses in wonderful, wonderful ways. :)

    • Sure. But Night Ripper has more than 150 samples on it. So on the one hand it would be difficult to find any one element that was representative of his work (which one might argue is the whole point) and on the other hand this one definitely isn’t.

  2. he sounds like a ginormous cliche to the point that i am certain it’s a joke.

  3. The music you’re hearing is an instrumental version of a song off “Night Ripper.” In an ironic twist, Microsoft decided to cut out all the recognizable samples from the song in order to avoid copyright infringement. I just bought a copy of “Feed the Animals” in the hopes that Girl Talk never has to do anything like this ever again. Also, it’s a good album.

  4. this is from microsoft’s upcoming, “i’m a d-bag” campaign, right?

  5. strangely_brown  |   Posted on Nov 10th, 2008

    i liked jive bunny a lot more before he left the mixmasters, grew a beard and bought a bandana.

  6. WHATEVER YOU GUYS, YOU ALL KNOW GREG GILLIS HOLDS IT DOWN.

  7. tony  |   Posted on Nov 10th, 2008

    this is probably superfluous at this point but the song in question that’s playing in the background is “Hold Up” off of the Night Ripper album. Granted, most of the overlaying samples are gone, but it’s still pretty recognizable… if nothing else than for the incredible use of The Pixes which unfortunately isn’t included in the commercial.

  8. tony  |   Posted on Nov 10th, 2008

    sorry… “Pixies”.

  9. I love the random girls on the bed that are there and then not there when he decides to philosophize on his tracks. Everything about that clip rubbed me the wrong way, especially the part where the long haired bandana man in sweatpants threatens to sweat on me. I do listen to his music as an update to background muzak..it’s easy to ignore and nice to pay attention to as well. I have no idea how he justifies the ‘punk rock’ software statement.

Leave a Reply

Login

You must be logged in to post, reply to, or rate a comment.