The Planned Attack Mix

Razz Dazz Weekly is a playlist series providing a gateway into what's playing overhead at the shop. Listen and follow along on Spotify to hear what's currently playing in the store on Spotify or check out this week's archived playlist below via YouTube.

Here's what's playing on the speakers (and available for sale) at Razzle Dazzle Music & Movies this week:

1. The Chemical Brothers "The Private Psychedelic Reel"
2. Radiohead "The National Anthem"
3. Aphex Twin "produk 29 [101]"
4. Nine Inch Nails "Survivalism"
5. Phantogram "When I'm Small"
6. Girl Talk "What It's All About"
7. Madvillain "Accordion"
8. The White Stripes "Hello Operator"
9. Wire "Field Day for the Sundays"
10. Pearl Jam "MFC"
11. Soundgarden "Spoonman"
12. Slowdive "No Longer Making Time"
13. All Them Witches "39146"
14. Type O Negative "Set Me on Fire"
15. Wire "The Commercial"
16. Title Fight "Shed"
17. Deftones "Back to School (Mini Maggit)"
18. The Chemical Brothers "Where Do I Begin"
19. Aphex Twin "minipops 67 [120.2][source field mix]"
20. Madvillain feat. MED "Raid"
21. The White Stripes "Sister, Do You Know My Name?"
22. Beck "Gamma Ray"
23. Khruangbin "Father Bird, Mother Bird"
24. Quasimoto "Youngblood"
25. Madvillain "Money Folder"
26. The Chemical Brothers "Elektrobank"
27. Phantogram "Turn It Off"
28. Nine Inch Nails "Me, I'm Not"
29. Radiohead "Morning Bell"
30. Pearl Jam "Given to Fly"
31. The White Stripes "I'm Bound to Pack It Up"
32. Beck "Profanity Prayers"
33. Radiohead "Optimistic"
34. Aphex Twin "PAPAT4 [155][pineal mix]"
35. Phantogram "Mouthful of Diamonds"
36. Nine Inch Nails "Sin"
37. Deftones "Knife Prty"
38. All Them Witches "Don't Bring Me Coffee"
39. Type O Negative "Summer Breeze"
40. Title Fight "Safe In Your Skin"
41. Wire "Mr Suit"
42. Slowdive "Star Roving"
43. The White Stripes "Truth Doesn't Make a Noise"
44. Pearl Jam "In Hiding"
45. Beck "Modern Guilt"
46. Khruangbin "Time (You and I)"
47. Aphex Twin "CIRCLONT6A [141.98][syrobonkus mix]"
48. Radiohead "Everything In Its Right Place"
49. Girl Talk "In Step"
50. Wire "It's So Obvious"
51. The White Stripes "Why Can't You Be Nicer to Me?"
52. Deftones "Change (In the House of Flies)"
53. Pearl Jam "No Way"
54. Madvillain feat. Quasimoto "Shadows of Tomorrow"
55. Girl Talk "Here's The Thing"
56. The White Stripes "Death Letter"
57. Beck "Walls"
58. Slowdive "Everyone Knows"
59. Phantogram "Let Me Go"
60. Radiohead "How to Disappear Completely"
61. Aphex Twin "180db_ [130]"
62. Nine Inch Nails "Terrible Lie"
63. Wire "Ex Lion Tamer"
64. Sonic Youth "Starpower"
65. Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun"
66. All Them Witches "Cowboy Kirk"
67. The White Stripes "Apple Blossom"
68. Madvillain "Operation Lifesaver aka Mint Test"
69. Girl Talk "No Pause"
70. The Chemical Brothers "Dig Your Own Hole"
71. Quasimoto "Planned Attack"
72. Madvillain "Strange Ways"
73. Khruangbin "First Class"
74. The Chemical Brothers "Piku"
75. Aphex Twin "XMAS_EVET10 [120][thanaton3 mix]"
76. Radiohead "Treefingers"
77. Pearl Jam "Faithful"
78. All Them Witches "Alabaster"
79. Soundgarden "Fell On Black Days"
80. The White Stripes "Little Bird"
81. Khruangbin "Connaissais de Face"
82. Beck "Youthless"
83. Madvillain feat. Viktor Vaughn "Fancy Clown"
84. Nine Inch Nails "My Violent Heart"
85. Radiohead "Idioteque"
86. Aphex Twin "4 bit 9d api+e+6 [126.26]"
87. Deftones "Feiticeira"
88. Beck "Orphans"
89. Nine Inch Nails "Ringfinger"
90. The Chemical Brothers "Block Rockin' Beats"
91. Girl Talk "Set It Off"
92. Phantogram "As Far As I Can See"
93. Pearl Jam "Push Me, Pull Me"
94. All Them Witches "Internet"
95. Khruangbin "Shida"
96. Wire "1 2 X U"
97. Title Fight "Coxton Yard"
98. The White Stripes "You're Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl)"
99. Beck "Volcano"
100. Sonic Youth "Bubblegum"
101. Wire "Three Girl Rhumba"
102. Title Fight "Crescent-Shaped Depression"
103. Slowdive "Sugar for the Pill"
104. Khruangbin "So We Won't Forget"
105. Quasimoto "The Front"
106. Phantogram "Running From the Cops"
107. Madvillain "Rhinestone Cowboy"
108. All Them Witches "Bulls"
109. Soundgarden "The Day I Tried To Live"
110. Wire "Mannequin"
111. The White Stripes "Your Southern Can Is Mine"
112. Slowdive "Slomo"

While my TikTok feed offers infrequent windows into the modern state of bastard pop, I've long since lost touch with the world of mashups. That said, there was a time... there was a time... In a past life I found myself regularly connected with dozens of producers from around the world, releasing annual compilations (largely featuring new or exclusive tracks) on my own music blog, and writing for a several other sites and online publications about this stuff. Hell, I even made a few (albeit truly terrible!) mashups, myself. I really loved this stuff. 

While most mashups were lone wolves, each setting out with a specific singular aim, from that period there remains a few albums which stand out still: Danger Mouse's The Grey Album being one and Girl Talk's Feed the Animals being another. In 2007 I saw Gregg Gillis take the stage at Minneapolis' First Avenue for a co-headlined show with Dan Deacon and a few years later I saw him again up in Calgary at the Sled Island music festival, but sandwiched in the middle of those shows was the release of his second full-length project titled Feed the Animals.

Reading it back now, I'm actually kind of surprised how some of the thoughts I played with in my review of the release ended up coming to fruition. This was long before TikTok (hell, before Vine, even!) but the "terminally scatterbrained" label used to describe the album has engulfed huge swaths of content and media now; not necessarily a result of mashup culture but of broader trends which mashup culture reflected. Here's that review now, originally published June 23, 2008.

Attempting to explain Girl Talk‘s Feed the Animals and identify what succeeds or fails with the set can’t be done on the level of an album in its entirety, it’s hard to even approach each track on an individual basis considering what they are. Mashups aren’t anything new, nor is Gregg Gillis’ mix-heavy approach, but what’s detailed on this album is a new offering that exceeds everything that is out there - even 2006′s Night Ripper. And while attempting to explain the album may be difficult, explaining why it succeeds is not – Feed the Animals may have a lot more to do with the direction our culture has taken and how the definition of music as an art is changing than how it sounds.

With Tha Carter III‘s release I wrote that I felt Lil Wayne’s album was reflecting “the nature of the environment which he is a product of – a society riddled with various revolving doors continually making it harder to focus on a single idea for more than an instant.” While I’ll stand by that statement, it’s far easier to stand by those thoughts in the context of an artist like Gillis. The end product of his work is a piece of music that is almost impossible to recall, a piece of music that is fresh every time it is heard because of the fact that it passes the listener by with lightning-like speed. The fantastic Wikipedia page that has been assembled for the release counts some 274 samples which collectively make-up the album. Falsely judging our society’s shift towards a clip-heavy viral video addiction and suggesting that we’re collectively on a path to that depicted in Mike Judge’s Idiocracy might be a bit much, but the essence for the debate remains – we are slowly shifting towards becoming a nation demanding instant gratification, no matter the vehicle. There stands a partial reason for not simply the existence of mashups and mega-mix styled releases, but the reason they continue to exist and a suggestion as to why the material on this album succeeds.

Mashups are often, at least to some degree, kitschy, sugar-coated regurgitated second generation pieces of music lacking any real substance; and I should know, I love them. When done well they are fantastic gems that reflect not simply pop music as a whole, but some of its finer moments. The club culture that Gillis is submerged in isn’t necessarily conducive to mashups however – often they are fun pieces to listen to but just as often they only serve as momentary answers to irregular “what-if” questions (Question: What would it sound like if you tried to combine Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” with some sort of disco-based club track? Answer: Shit.) That being said, Feed the Animals works – not just as a collection of intellectually curated, professionally mastered mashups, but as a piece of music that excels in a club atmosphere.

As much as I try to fight the urge, ever since the mid-90s when the Chemical Bros./Fatboy/Prodigy contributed to taking electronic music to a whole new level of popularity I’ve been a fan of that sort of music, whatever you’ll call it. And while I tend to suggest that I enjoy music with more face-value substance, I love a lot of what’s out there in the clubs these days. The club culture has evolved into something just as unique, innovative and forward thinking as anything else on the pop music’s radar… nothing could help push that statement further than last year’s amazing reception of Justice’s Cross and Daft Punk’s insane festival draw. By propelling his project with the same intensity that these electronic artists demand of their music, Gillis has prepared his output for an inevitable acceptance within that culture, it just so happens that he uses the term mashup as a vehicle for what he creates.

It’s not that Feed the Animals uses as many samples as it does and it’s not that it brings mashups to the mainstream or even invites people to further search within the genre. Feed the Animals succeeds because there may be an unspoken demand right now for such an exciting, terminally scatterbrained album. While Night Ripper was a solid release, there are contemporaries out there that are also solid – it just happens that with Feed the Animals, Gillis is the first to offer a release of such caliber. I still don’t know what Gillis’ aim was with the album or even how to critically describe what it is that I’ve been listening to for the past few days, but I can say this: the bar has been set, and it has been set high.