Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Culture Jamming with TradeMark G and the ECC


Think Greg Gillis was the father of mash up? Think again!


TradeMark G (pictured above, twice) and the Evolution Control Committee have been creating mash ups or "culture jamming", as he calls it, since 1987. The experimental group "recycles" both ambient sound and sounds from other people's music, hardware and things from every day life (TradeMark plays a "Thimbletron"), packaging and ideas. "I haven't had an original idea in years," the DJ stated proudly in a recent visit to my Pop Music & Communication class.

So what exactly is a mash up? It's the combination of often disparate songs to create a new one (and frequently the new creation is better than the originals). TradeMark and the ECC are probably best known for their clever mash-up "Rocked By Rape", a combo of Dan Rather's familiar voice delivering a seemingly endless supply of somber news over ACDC's "Back in Black":



Lucky for us, the first club to highlight this danceable emulsion of pop culture is located right here in San Francisco. Bootie, founded in 2003, is a party focused entirely on mash-ups and bootlegs that happens every 2nd and 4th Saturday at DNA Lounge (375 11th and Harrison). The next one is this weekend! Go get your mash on.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice photo, Lulu. Thank you!

Lulu McAllister said...

No, thank you for not scowling at my camera in class.