Hawkins' Mashups

Oh. Hey. Sorry we haven’t talked lately. I haven’t...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:29:01 -0500

Oh. Hey.

Sorry we haven’t talked lately. I haven’t been doing much in terms of music. I’ve been rather busy getting engaged, getting a new job, and getting in car accidents. I did, however, make this in about 20 minutes tonight for /r/comeonandslam, the greatest subreddit in the world. Some day soon I will have some new real material, and I will post it here.

Fixed, Hands Down Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down vs....

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Fixed, Hands Down

Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down vs. Coldplay - Fix You

(As I listen to Jesus Christ Walks for the millionth time) and more Brand New besides Optimist Yeah? Can you maybe do Anthony Green, Gaslight Anthem, Taking Back Sunday, or something of the sort in a mashup. Thanks

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 14:00:08 -0500

I’ve exhausted my Brand New resources, I don’t think I’ll do any more unless some new acapellas/instrumentals surface.

Never listened to Anthony Green, but I did make about $100 flipping Circa Survive records, so maybe I owe them some kind of reparations.

I find The Gaslight Anthem insufferably boring, so it’s unlikely I’d touch anything they did, sorry.

I’ve got something cool with Taking Back Sunday in the can, I’ll post it in the near future just 4 u.

Where have you disappeared to?

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:55:56 -0500

I been in the lab wit a pen and a pad tryna get this damn label off

Born to Feel This Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run vs. Blink-182...

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:53:00 -0500

Born to Feel This

Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run vs. Blink-182 - Feeling This

I’m back. New tracks every Monday, I promise.

Young Folks with Lonely Hearts Yes - Owner of a Lonely Heart...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:06:18 -0500

Young Folks with Lonely Hearts

Yes - Owner of a Lonely Heart v. Peter Bjorn & John - Young Folks

Direct Link

illegalart: @girltalk tweet: “My shoes and plastic wrapped...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:35:03 -0500

illegalart:

@girltalk tweet: “My shoes and plastic wrapped laptop in the rock+roll hall of fame”

YES

I was listening to the Girl Talk Live at Binghamton bootleg as this came up in my feed. This man is a master, somehow manages to still be considered overrated by some despite being a skilled arranger live and on record, with a great ear for song selection.

Averagely. How do you go about making mash-ups? Do you find the acapellas yourself or invert the instrumental ?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:29:11 -0500

I listen to a lot of music. When I hear a riff/melody/progression that reminds me of another song, I see if it works. Usually it doesn’t, so I try something else. I have a moderately large-sized database of multitracks at my disposal, so I have a lot to choose from. I’m keeping my sources close to the vest, but suffice it to say there are some smart people who have reverse engineered some popular rhythm-based video games, and I’ve been fortunate enough to obtain some of the resulting files. Also, most great pop singles of the 80s (like Wham!) have instrumentals on the B side of the 12”, and a lot of modern pop songs have instrumentals/acapellas on the CD single. Or with creative editing, you can make your own instrumental sometimes.

IMO, phase inversion is garbage. You need two identically mastered, lossless, perfectly in-phase versions of the song to get anything usable, and the result usually still sounds like an alien walkie-talkie being dropped down a sewer pipe. I’ve heard maybe 10 good sounding phase-inverted acapellas out of hundreds downloaded. Which is a shame, I’ve got so many potential mates for Cee-Lo Green’s “Fuck You” but every DIY acapella has artifacts of the background vocals which clash keys with almost everything.

I was wondering, what are you trying to get across in your mashups? Anything in particular or are you just having fun? (I am not trying to sound condescending, I am just curious about the mind behind the mashups)

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:00:33 -0500

Whoa. Getting deep here.

I discovered mashups in high school through Limewire. I heard artists like Go Home Productions, ToToM, and Party Ben, and I was really attracted to the cognitive dissonance of hearing 2 disparate styles of music being smashed together in such a natural sounding way that highlighted the unlikely similarities in, say, Johnny Cash & The Beastie Boys. Soon, I started piecing together my own mashups in Audacity, which is a bit like doing photo retouching in MS Paint. I’ve since upgraded to Ableton Live, which is the single best DAW for sample manipulation that I know of.

As for the why? I guess I’ve always been fascinated with audio engineering, as well as intellectual property law, and this is a fun way to combine the two. It’s a good production skills exercise, since all I usually have is an instrumental and a vocal track to work with. Mostly though, I like any form of recontextualization, and this is the format I happen to be good at.

UHHHHHHHHH

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:18:00 -0500

UHHHHHHHHH

Must Have Done Something Before You Go-Go Relient K - Must Have...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:10:17 -0500

Must Have Done Something Before You Go-Go

Relient K - Must Have Done Something Right v. Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

power the casbah reached its download limit :[

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 23:39:10 -0500

Wat. That’s stupid. I am working right now on an external page with direct links to everything - Soundcloud, Dropbox, Mediafire, every external solution has flaws.

Here’s a direct link in the meantime.

This is so stupid.

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 23:10:08 -0500

This is so stupid.

frank ocean: Don henley('s label--Rhino) is apparently intimidated by my rendition of Hotel California..

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:11:44 -0600

frank ocean: Don henley('s label--Rhino) is apparently intimidated by my rendition of Hotel California..:

frankocean:

He (They) threatened to sue if I perform it again. I think that’s fuckin awesome. I guess if I play it at coachella it’ll cost me a couple hundred racks. If I don’t show up to court, it’ll be a judgement against me & will probably show up on my credit report. Oh well. I try to buy my shit cash…

Speaking as someone who messes with other peoples’ copyrighted recordings in what I hope is seen as an homage, all I can say is fight the good fight, Frank.

No more downloading? Or am I just too dumb to figure out how to...haha

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:38:09 -0600

The theme I’m using right now doesn’t appear to show the source, which is problematic. I’ll look into it, for now you can get them off my Soundcloud at http://soundcloud.com/theleadguitaristforgunsnroses/

Hairomania Pavement - Cut Your Hair v. Phoenix - Lisztomania

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:00:00 -0600

Hairomania

Pavement - Cut Your Hair v. Phoenix - Lisztomania

Photo

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:40:00 -0600

Power the Casbah The Clash - Rock the Casbah v. Kanye West -...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:57:00 -0600

Power the Casbah

The Clash - Rock the Casbah v. Kanye West - Power

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:54:14 -0600

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

Made this today after I noticed the similarities. New track tomorrow or Friday.

so, no more album artwork?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:59:08 -0600

I love making album artwork, but it’s a daunting task, and the reason there are 23 completed & unposted mashups on my computer. I’m much more musical than visual, so my (non-)creative process generally involves trying to combine the album art for both tracks in some way. That Deja Entendu art is so awesome, as is the 8 Mile poster, but there just wasn’t a way to use them both in a way that wasn’t cheesy.

That being said, I will try to make art for future tracks. Or if anyone is good at that kind of thing, show me your work and maybe we can collaborate.