Month: April 2011

Remixes Make The World Go Round – Part 2

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In an earlier post I introduced you to Kirby Ferguson, a New York based filmmaker who was working on a four part video series known as the Everything Is A Remix Project. Click here to see the original post. The premise behind the project is that nothing in media is really new but rather a remake or blatant ripoff of existing music or film. 


In the first part, Kirby examined the history and art of remixing as it related to music. In the second installment, Kirby turns his attention to movies and shows how many modern blockbusters owe a huge debt to the originators and true innovators of the art. Check it out below.


The Everything Is a Remix Project is working on it’s third installment that should be ready for release sometime in June. Take some time to check out his site by clicking here. If you like what you see, consider dropping him a donation so he can continue his work. Don’t forget to tell him how you found out about him and his amazing work.  

Easter Kiss – It’s Not What You Think

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Any kid growing up in the 70s and 80s either loved or hated KISS. Most of the “haters” assumed their weird friends were just going through a phase and eventually would grow out of their strange fascination with the four painted people with the foot high heels and freaky costumes.

Obviously the haters were completely wrong. KISS is bigger than ever and, by utilizing some very smart business sense, were able to remain relevant after all these years and continue to tour. Their influence on our culture continues. 

Their latest plan is to take over Easter.

They’ve made so much money, that they now plan to issue their on currency. Below is a prototype for the American KISS twenty dollar bill. 

 An alternate design – still tweaking the details obviously.

 
Once the U.S. is conquered they will set their sights on the U.S.’s closes neighbor – Canada.  

Old Is New Sample Of The Day – Ducksauce

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Sampling in music has been going on for decades and even before the digital age, mashups existed though they were called edits or Mega-Mixes. One of the most famous series was the Bits & Pieces mixes where the master tapes were created by literally cutting and splicing tape recorded pieces of music samples together until a new mix was created. It was tedious work and took forever. 

Enter the digital age. In this iPod world, all you need is smartphone to get basic tools to create a decent mix of a popular song. Invest in better and proper equipment you can create something even more special. If the guys tweaking the knobs happen to be legendary DJ Armand Van Helden and Kanye West’s DJ A-Trak, then you’ve got something kinda special.

Armand and A-Track hooked up and created Ducksauce and have put up some pretty choice club cuts in recent years. One of my favorites is Barbera Streisand that features Boney M’s classic “Gotta Go Home”. 

Check it out and see if you can listen to it only once.