#18 -- Best Songs of 2008

Hands in the Air by Girl Talk

I love mash ups. I'm sure most mash ups suck big time, but I don't follow the mash up scene outside of what is popular in that indie sort of way AND whatever is being sampled by hip-hop artists these days. The idea of mash ups is perfect... instead of having to listen to some band TRY to sound like Wilco or Pavement or Jay-Z (I'm looking at you Pitchfork Band of the Week (PBW)), mash up artists (and hip-hop producers) say "Fuck it, let's just use what's actually good."

Is taking what's good and copying it/steal it supposed to be a bad thing? No. People are so obsessed with being "original" and "keeping it real" (welcome to White Suburbia!) that this miss a simple point: EVERYTHING IS STOLEN FROM SOMEONE ELSE. I think I realized this at like 20 years of age when my buddy who was an English major informed me that there are only seven stories/plot have ever been written, the only thing that changes are the names, location and time.

So note to D.J's and indie musicians everywhere in the world: don't bother being original because you'll be original by not being original AND people will like you.

(This is when you ask, Mr. Blogger Otter, do you like techno? I say no. You say 'why? It's sort of like mash ups', and I say, no it's not because the point of all techno music is to copy that same sound you heard in your freshman dorm where the room on your left two people were having sex and the room to your right was some rich white kid blasting 50 Cent).

So the song... okay we start with "Whoop! (There it is)", eventually we get some "Love Fool" remix, some Velvet Underground... but this song goes to the next level when he throws down the end of "Wanna Be Starting Something" into "Dance to the Music".

It's hard to pick just one song off this album because it's so much fun to listen to (and get five people and a few beers/gin and tonics and this album goes to a whole other level). But I can't get over the "Sunday Morning" sampling to go along with the Michael Jackson and Sly and the Family work he does near the end.

I think the video above broke every copyright law ever. Congrats!

Finally, I just have to say this but I got suckered into buying body lotion for men today at Target because it's winter in Chicago and I need something to keep my skin from flaking off... but damn this stuff makes me smell like a man. Women do not buy this.