This Place About To...

It's Friday, Friday!



Boy, THAT sure lasted a while, didn't it? Though I'm amazed it somehow managed to get over 72 million views. Even still, looks like her 15 minutes of fame are up.

No, today, with my drink in my hand and in my stomach, I figured I'd pay tribute to Ke$ha's newest outputs: her video for "Blow", which apparently released much earlier than I expected, and her latest album, a remix jaunt entitled I Am The Dance Commander + I Command You To Dance: The Remix Album.



"Blow" was far and away my favorite song off of Cannibal, and I totally called it to be the next single. Go me.  As for the video... Miss Ke$ha seems to be taking a page out of Lady Gaga's playbook. Unicorn heads on human forms? Subtle romantic cues? Absurdist lines such as "edible lactose gold"? All here. However, while Gaga has a flair for being able to take something out of the ordinary and run with it, Ke$ha falls flat. Too much of the video is focused on her, as opposed to her surroundings. Yes, it's a pop video, she's the star, yada yada yada... but look at the video for "Bad Romance" (if you don't check the links, its up there). The focus is on the pop star, but it's done in such a way that you notice the surroundings, and you notice how bizarre the whole thing is. The appeal is enhanced tenfold.

Ke$ha, on the other hand, spends too much time prancing around backlit trying to act all sexylike. We get the schtick already. By the time we hit the climax of the video, where Ke$ha and her male counterpart, so lovingly referred to as "James Vanderdouche", start fighting each other with guns that shoot rainbow bullets, injuring/slaughtering many of the unicorn/human hybrids frequenting the establishment, its too little too late. Interest has been lost. Though the end is kind of incredible in a psychotic kind of way, the rest of the video pales in comparison.

Song's great though. Awesome beat, catchy as hell melody, good use of pop form... it's an obvious single.

As for the remix album?

Forgettable.

Except for the "Blow" remix. Listen to that.

Now, off to a grunge thesis. Enjoy your FRIIIIDAAAAYYYY.

Remixed And Loving It

Apologies for not sticking to the "song a day" mantra I set out to do last week. Living the life of a full time student and composer doesn't leave me with very much free time; none at all, to be exact. This weekend was exceptionally hectic, between rehearsals with the Salvation Denied ensemble (it sounds so much more badass when I say it like that), beginning the production of arrangements for Alice Unraveled, and realizing that the Amanda Palmer remix was due a lot earlier than I expected.

It's a great feeling, opening the contest page on Saturday and realizing that the song has to be submitted by Monday. Panic set in, I didn't leave my room for a good 5 or 6 hours at a time, and through the sheer power of will and the magic of copy/paste, the remix was completed. Mixing occurred the following day, on Monday, thanks to my housemate and longtime friend and collaborator James Perrella, to give it that extra grit, drive and side chain compression, and I submitted with a little over 2 hours until the completion of the contest. Whew. I work best under pressure.

The remix is an amalgamation of Paul Van Dyk esque trance, Salvation Denied's own eccentric brand of electronica and my first foray into dubstep. Dubstepping bass sounds was one of the most exciting parts of this project, as I had never done it before. Running into problems with getting my LFOs to work (which is how most dubstep musicians get that WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP that's so prevalent in the genre), I devised a simple workaround: FILTER PLUGIN. It's not the smoothest, but it gets the idea across and works wonderfully.

James provided me with additional amusement with his frustration at mixing in Logic. It's somewhat of an oxymoron; Logic is completely illogical with the way its set up. I don't think I've heard the phrase "piece of shit" used more times than in that hour of mixing. Quite humorous, to say the least.

Download It Here. Additionally, if you want to check out any of the other submissions, click here. There's quite a few of them, some of which are incredibly good, some of which are... not so good, shall we say. But then again, I'm a cranky music major.

As for Alice Unraveled, I'll have to talk to Kelly, but I'm sure she won't be opposed to posting some scratch arrangements that we did up on here.

Also, thanks a bunch for reading. I've noticed I've been getting hits every day. From who, I'm not sure (I have to find the little widget that shows me where my readers are coming from), but it means a lot that you care about my ramblings and music. I promise I'll bring you goodies from the archives of music on my computer soon.