I wasn’t planning to attend Sled Island this year due to the financial costs but the great people at the Kids Up Front Foundation kindly gave myself and some other youth the opportunity to check Sled Island. The Kids Up Front Foundation provides children and youth the opportunity to attend events that they wouldn’t normally be able to attend. I know my friends and I wouldn’t have been able to attend because of the costs and many of us are trying to save up for school. Thanks to the Kids Up Front Foundation for this amazing opportunity. For more information or to donate your unused tickets please check out their website.
The headliner for the first night of the 2010 Sled Island main-stage was simply one man playing two laptops. Despite the dull mental picture that description promotes the performance was phenomenal. Girl Talk is one of the most involving live music experiences I’ve had the pleasure of attending.
Gregg Gillis, AKA Girl Talk exists within of subgenre of electronic music called mashup. What this typically entails is taking usually two or more pre-existing songs, sampling them, cutting them up, and mixing (or mashing) them together into a completely new song. A mashup you may be familiar with is “United State of Pop 2009” by DJ Earworm which surfaced near the end of 2009, mashing up the top 25 Billboard hits. DJ Earworm has also created mashups for the hits of 2007 and 2008.
Girl Talk inhabits a lot of the same territory as DJ Earworm, using lots of songs with high radio play. But perhaps what helps distinguish Girl Talk is that his use of sampling material isn’t limited to hits. Moments after a Lil’ Wayne or Beyonce cut you might hear a sample from a Radiohead or Yeah Yeah Yeahs song, and then some Jackson 5 or Isley Brothers or might be thrown in. And that’s what makes the live show so compelling. Particularly with an indie-oriented Sled Island crowd, you’re part of an audience that knows the whole spectrum of Girl Talk’s material. Everyone sings along to the nonsense sounds in Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, recites the verses of Jay-Z’s 99 Problems, and vocalizes with the choral arrangement in Arcade Fire’s Wake Up.
In addition to the music, plenty else is done to make the performance a party. Audience members are invited up on stage to dance alongside Gillis as he mixes, pop-able inflatables containing confetti are used, and toilet paper is shot over the crowd through use of a modified leaf blower. Everyone in a five meter radius of the stage is dancing wildly, though space is very limited. Crowd surfers are not uncommon.
If you’d like to check out Girl Talk’s recorded you can download his most recent album Feed the Animals at his record label’s site. It’s ‘pay what you want’, and $0.00 is an option.
When you order frogs legs at a restuarant what do they do with the rest of the frog ? – Well surely they just throw the rest of the frog away and take it to the tip.
I couldn't agree more.