Girl Talk
http://www.girl-talk.net

styles: mashup, club mix, ADD pop DJ mix
others: Kid 606, Danger Mouse

Night Ripper
Illegal Art, 2006
rating: 5/5
reviewer: tamec

Were LeBron James to skip town, Gregg Gillis would have a shot at being the most popular guy in either Pittsburgh or Cleveland. Gillis, for whom an appropriated stage name (Girl Talk = TLC song, board game, YA novels, etc) is the only appropriate stage name, is a soft-spoken, charming dude who just happened to live across the hall from me in college at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University. He's also managed to create a ridiculous oeuvre of mash-up that screams GENRE-DEFINER so loudly that you almost said it out loud and sounded like an asshole.

The first time I spoke to Gregg, he was walking across campus clad in the black-framed glasses he still occasionally sports and an Elephant 6 t-shirt he doesn't. I figured he might wanna talk about the Olivia Tremor Control or some shit. Instead, he told me he wasn't into that so much anymore. "I'm doing this electronic shit now," he mumbled. Now that Girl Talk wears Pitchfork's hallowed BEST NEW MUSIC laurels, it may be safe to say that my initial disappointment was misinformed. When Unstoppable dropped a couple years back, complete with a video for "Touch 2 Feel" showcasing Gillis' gifts for choreography, basketball, and posing for countless photographs, it became clear that Girl Talk was on the cusp of owning the party. Now that the long-awaited Night Ripper (Gregg: "Do you think people will think this is about farting in bed?") is here, Gillis has officially made your summer party his bitch.

The world is perfectly ripe for Night Ripper, a 42-minute cum fiesta of mashed-up pop, rock, and rap with original beats by Gillis. Since the minor commotion caused by Danger Mouse's Beatles vs. Jay-Z experiment The Grey Album, everyone's been waiting for this sort of masterstroke. Sure, Britney plus Biggie would be cool (they're both here, of course), but wouldn't it be tight to have Pixies, Pavement, and Neutral Milk Hotel in there for our own little gee-whiz moments? Thank you, Girl Talk. Here, Gillis takes the best parts of every song you ever liked and strings them together to create the hottest party mix you can fathom. Yeah, I know you downloaded it as soon as our friends at Pitchfork told you to, but I know this motherfucker – throw some change at his shit.

1. Once Again
2. That's My DJ
3. Hold Up
4. Too Deep
5. Smash Your Head
6. Minute By Minute
7. Ask About Me
8. Summer Smoke
9. Friday Night
10. Hand Clap
11. Give and Go
12. Bounce That
13. Warm It Up
14. Double Pump
15. Overtime
16. Peak Out

Unstoppable
Illegal Art/Spasticated, 2004
rating: 4.5/5
reviewer: tamec


Of all available musics, pop belongs least to itself. It's everywhere -- commercials, teen movies, clubs, and parties of all kinds. Pop, mainstream hip-hop, and R&B are the music of fun in its most shameless form: it's about daydream love, sex, and, most importantly, dancing. Cleveland's Gregg Gillis, alias Girl Talk, understands that what people want on the dance floor isn't necessarily smarter dance music (if it was, club nights would be saturated by joyless, tempo-shifting IDM). The kids don't want to think, they want to move.

Like Gillis' contemporaries, Cex and Kid606, Girl Talk revolves around having a sense of humor about dance music; it's about embracing all the absurdities of a music culture that endorses getting fucked up, being slutty, and, above all, shaking one's ass. The art students and recovering indie rockers who comprise the collage in Unstoppable's liner notes might be the same ones, a generation removed, who nodded their heads at Dismemberment Plan, who in turn tried in vain to call them out on it. What Travis Morrison and co. failed to realize is that there's no real need for indie rock to attempt to out-party party music. No matter what we say, Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" and "Senorita" are what's required to lose oneself in the club, not anything on Emergency & I. But I digress.

On Unstoppable, Girl Talk takes a sharp turn from the glitchy DSP antics and electro-noise of his Illegal Art debut, Secret Diary. This time out, he strikes right at the heart of the party, combining "Cry Me a River," "Pull Over (That Ass is Too Fat)," Khia's "My Neck, My Back," and Bone Thug's "Shake That Ass" -- even Creation's "Making Time" and Superdrag's "Who Sucked Out the Feeling?" put in appearances. If this sounds like a tough task, you'll be surprised at how well it works. Although some moments seem like filler, one-minute forays into "here's some other stuff I coulda done" and the record's packaging and content verge on egomaniacal, it's all part and parcel of Girl Talk's extraordinary persona. With a charismatic live act (included here in a video extra) to boot, Gillis, pending any lawsuits from his sources, seems destined not just for bigger venues, but, holy of holies, to be banged in the Club itself. Put on your hotpants, grab a case of cheap beer, and let 'er rip.

This record might escape traditional record stores, but you can pick it up direct from the label: www.illegalart.net

1. All Eyes On Me
2. Non-Stop Party Now
3. Touch 2 Feel
4. Pump It Up
5. Bang This In The Club
6. Bodies Hit the Floor
7. The Feeling
8. Happen (feat. "Chris Glover")
9. Cleveland Shake
10. Keeping The Beat
11. Step To It
12. Can't Stop