Hipper music bloggers than you're likely to ever find here have been freaking out over surrealist hip hop duo Das Racist for a while now, ever since the Pineapple Express rap tune "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" came out earlier this year. Even beyond being an ode to the brilliantly efficient fast-food convergence in the first place and implicitly legitimizing the alarming concept of the pepperoni burrito, it actually consists entirely of the lines "I'm at the Pizza Hut/I'm at the Taco Bell/I'm at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell," repeated ad nauseam. It's the most bizarre lead single I've heard in a very long time, and I'm still not sure whether it's for real -- every time I hit the play button on YouTube I half expect Sacha Baron Cohen to pop out of an enchilada or something. You will regret clicking on this: Death And Taxes found 'em early and called it a "meditation on consumer identity in corporate America;" elsewhere, "Harold and Kumar existentialism". Either might still be giving too much credit to two dudes who got just got blazed one night and hit "record" a little too soon. Nobody's really sure. That's the big joke. Maybe. But then along come LA DJ duo Wallpaper. (their punctuation, not ours) with the remix, which the Fork dorks promptly knighted Best New Music, approximately equivalent to an Oprah Book Club endorsement in the indie rock world. Having now listened many more times than you'll ever get me to cop to, I'm pretty sure they did not mean it ironically, but of course you never really know with those guys. The thing that stands out most about all this, I think, is the redemption of a thoroughly useless tune via remixing with loops and samples. One version is musically competent, while the other spectacularly (if deliberately) flops in that regard and makes me want to claw my eyes out so I can get to my brain and punch it. Consider the frequency with which the artists you've recorded have expected you to work miracles with ass-awful source material; this is as close to a success story as I've ever heard when it comes to fixing epic stupidity with production. So keep at it, Ableton rats and Fruityloopers -- if pop continues on its current intellectual trajectory, you're going to be in high demand.
More Entries
Blog
Fire Extinguishers in the Studio
by Larry Crane
Fire Extinguishers in the Studio - [Note to our EU readers. I don't know if the U.S. letter conventions apply in your locale, but the fundamental suggestions in this post are universal.] It’s a really smart idea to have a couple of fire...
Blog
ASSOCIATION FOR RECORDED SOUND COLLECTIONS conference in L.A. May 11-14
by Larry Crane
This looks to be an interesting event. I'd go if I was in the area that week! -Larry ASSOCIATION FOR RECORDED SOUND COLLECTIONS 45th Annual Conference - May 11-14, 2011 Wilshire Grand Hotel, Los Angeles One hundred and thirty...
Blog
Craft Recordings: A Music and Vinyl Lovers Paradise
by Geoff Stanfield
I still listen to tons of music. I listen for work and I listen for pleasure. I listen for discovery. We are in an age where music is so readily available, in so many formats, that it’d be a shame not to take advantage of the plethora of...
Blog
Vinnie Castaldo's DVD Reviews
by Larry Crane
Vinnie Castaldo was in the new issue of Tape Op. Check out his reviews of his two fave educational DVDs. -LC Trust Your Ears: The Drum Tech Explorations of Jeff Ocheltree If you’re like me, always getting stuck tuning drums before a session,...
Blog
RSVP for Tape Op's Party in Austin March 15th!
by Larry Crane
Don't forget, if you happen to be in Austin next week for some big music even, like SXSW or something, that we're throwing a kick-ass party at the Lucky Lounge from 2-6 pm on March 15th, Thursday. Okay? RSVP HERE!
Blog
Arooj Aftab Releases New Album, Night Reign
by Geoff Stanfield
Arooj Aftab's Night Reign Arooj Aftab is a four time Grammy-nominated artist we featured in Tape Op issue #157. With Pakistani roots, she sings in Urdu and English, and became one of my favorite vocalists the moment I saw her performing on a live...
Blog
Integrating Stompboxes into the Mix
by Anthony Sarti
There has been a heightened interest lately in using stompboxes and pedals as part of the mixing process. There are a few ways to interface your pedals with your system, but here is a quick video on how I do it using the Meris 440 500 series mic-pre....
Blog
End Rant #98: Welcome to the Service Industry
by Larry Crane
When I graduated from college, I dove headlong into restaurant work in order to survive. I had a degree in Visual Communications and a minor in Art from an un- prestigious college, but near the end of my studies I'd begun playing bass in a band...