Mt Fuji Fun Hour

So as I’ve said several times, even though my top ten list would be better than everybody else’s I’m not actually going to make one. The reason for this is that I’m not entirely certain I can get to ten albums. (Lykke Li was pretty rad, School of Seven Bells was basically Lykke Li but more rad and ummmmmm did I listen to other albums?) But since everybody else is doing it and I’m secretly going to spend my life wanting to be one of the cool kids I do have a few musical thoughts to share with you.

The first is that the Venture Brothers ruins everything in the nicest way. Wait for it this is actually musical and the last link was Jonathan Coulton and doesn’t count. Caitlin and I have been discussing our mutual hatred of Christmas music in general basically since we met, but recently our ire has concentrated on one song in particular. A song so vile that I had already filled out all the paperwork to add it to my list of mankind’s irredemable sins. But before I could file it with the department of irredemable sins the Venture Brothers came out with their holiday cover and made Henchman 21 and Henchman 24’s cover of Wonderful Christmastime my Christmas song of the year. I think it’s 21’s impromptu addition of “Best song ever written by children” during the mind numbing “ding dong ding dong ding dong” part (thus redeming one of the dumbest parts of one of the worst songs ever written) that really sells it for me.

However that’s my comedy recommendation. With it comes an actual recommendation. Suzan has, on several occasions this year, made fun of me for continuing to follow the mashup scene leaving me scambling to desperately try and defend it. The best I’ve been able to do is that Mashups, when done right, are like a brilliant music review and the best dance party you’ve ever been to combined into one experience. They highlight parts of songs you’ve listened to over and over and make you think about them in new ways while simultaneously providing you with AN ACTUALLY GOOD SONG that you can work with. Unfortunately the scene has largely been taken oven by hacks who put together two flavor of the month songs like a C list DJ who can’t even be bothered to let each song have it’s due and then wait for their applause.

But with the new year comes a new plan and I think I’ve come up with the perfect compromise position. The mashup scene basically only exists in Decemeber. After all that’s when the only two events of they year that make me think mashups aren’t dead happen. The first is that bootiesf makes up their year end best mashups list (which they haven’t done yet the lazy bums) collating all the half decent mashups in one place so you can easily look around for the gems. And the second, and far more reliable, method is that that team9 does their annual mashup album for stereogum. At this point you can basically just listen to Mysplice (the mashup album in question) and feel confident that you’ve listened to about 65-75% of all good mashups for the year. Take for instance exhibit A, a mashup of Gimme Shelter and Love Lockdown that I enjoy despite the fact that I despise 808’s and heartbreak (yes I know Russ, we can have our light saber battle over it when you’re all better) and which puts an interesting spin on both tracks. From there it’s easy enough to expand to other tracks like Disturbed Youth and Britney Get’s Bloc-ed that you’d might as well just grab the whole album.

So anyway there’s my Christmas gift to everybody I didn’t predict a gift for: a comedy cover and a mashup album. Feel free to laugh at my taste in the finest holiday tradition.