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Monday, July 14, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
ALBUM REVIEWl
Gillis delivers wild mash
MER PREVIEW
Art Fair in A2
I
By MATT EMERY
Daily Arts Writer
Gregg Gillis will never make
a bad album. That said, the man
behind the Girl Talk moniker will
never make a great album. It's just
the nature in the world of mash-ups,
and probably part of the reason Gil-
lis is makingthe
album available
in the name-7
your-own price Gid Talk
format on the
Illegal Art Feed the Animals
website. It's Illegal Art
not completely
original work,
but it's still worth a lot, and it also
doesn't mean the man can't throw
down some ballsy party bangers
that trump just about any singular
artist's original dance record out
today.
Feed the Animals isn't quite Night
Ripper 2.0, but if you've been to a
Girl Talk live show in the past six
months, most of the mashes aren't
too new. Gillis noted that he wanted
to make the album more cohesive,
not using quite as many samples
and cuts on this album, rather stick-
ing to longer samples. This is partly
accomplished here, with a fair num-
ber of tracks drawing on 30-second
portions-of more popular tracks or
hip-hop verses. But that same rapid-
fire mentality still exists in the back-
ground of even the longer samples,
creating the ultimate party ecstasy ries's "Dreams" on "Let Me See You"
we've been used to all along. could go together in sonic principle,
The same, semi-ironic lyri- but the tracks don't quite mesh in
cal juxtapositions in female vs. the smoother manner of his other
male dynamics are here (Sinead samples. And the ironic bit can be a
O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 little much when Gillis tries to use
U" against Too Short's lyrics of "I something like Phil Collins, Wilson
was gettin' some head, gettin'gettin' Pickett or Ace of Base. It's good for a
some head" on opener "Play Your rare glimpse, but some of the inclu-
Part (Pt. 1)), along with the mixes of sions are just Gillis trying a bit too
our parents' favorite tracks against hard to impress.
hip-hop staples (Webbie against A nod to the indie crowd, Girl
The Band on "Still Here"). From Talk's albums have always been a
Radiohead going againstJay-Z ("Set sort of indie take on Where's Waldo.
it Off") to Public Enemy with, yes, Part of the fun for hipsters was to
Len ("No Pause"), Gillis is still the run through the album and pick out
party music master, and Feed the which indie tracks from their favor-
Animals shows that Gillis still has ite obscure bands Mr. Gillis had
a lot of tricks up in his laptop. It's thrown into the equation against
that touch of irony that Gillis really something like T.I. or Ludacris.
capitalizes on and what often is able That element is still here - Peter
Bjorn and John, Yo La Tengo, Beck,
Air and many others slipping into a
Fusion of number of spots - but not quite as
prevalent as on Night Ripper.
disparate songs But all this is just nit-picking
on an album that still throbs in
equals success. an unprecedented, undated party
anthem way. Feed the Animals is
still the perfect album for any house
party, with a strong enough mixture
of tracks to appeal to just about any-
to draw in both the indie and main- one (He mixes Soulja Boy and Thin
stream crowds. Lizzy, and makes it too addictive
The only problem with trying to for words!). It's nearly impossible to
be a bit too ironic is that sometimes compare to Night Ripper, but to say
the combinations just sound silly that it's no better and certainly no
and rushed. The combination of worse is still saying an awful lot in
M.ILA's "Boyz" and The Cranber- terms of partyability.
By BEN VANWAGONER
Associate Arts Editor
This is not your grandmother's
art fair.
That's the message the Ann
Arbor ArtFairs wantyou to believe,
and truth be told, they're right. The
phrase "art fair" may call to mind
kitschy wooden dolls or intricate-
ly bent wire sculptures - more
an excuse to
spend cash on Ann Arbor
"summer col- Art Fairs
lectibles" than
anything else. Julyl6-19
But the Ann Campuswide
Arbor Art Fairs
are more than
that. Perhaps, to differentiate, we
can take advantage of their proper
noun status and call them just "the
Fairs." They've earned it.
The Fairs are widely recognized
commercial exhi-
bitions of some
of the finest art, H alf a
both professional a
and amateur, to art uf
be found in the
country. They
will be filled to overflowing with
artists in every medium imagin-
able: clay, jewelry, printmaking,
mixed media, wood, glass, fibers,
photography, drawing and sculp-
ture. Between the four loosely
collaborated fairs, there will be
more than 1,000 artists sprawled
practically everywhere on campus.
On Ingall's Mall, the Ann Arbor
Street Art Fair; on State, East Lib-
erty and Maynard, the State Street
Art Fair; on South University, Ann
Arbor's South University Art Fair;
and on State in front of the Union,
The Guild Ann Arbor Summer Art
Fair.
The artists themselves are only
the tip of the iceberg: The Fairs
are expected to draw upwards of
500,000 people over the course of
three days - that's more people,
three days inarow,thanare inAnn
Arbor for football Saturdays. For
residents of Ann Arbor, it's a mixed
bag. It means great.business, but
it also means unavoidable artistic
chaos for three long (long) days.
Streets so lately punctuated
almost solely by the treading of
the few remaining med school and
summertermstudents willbecome
on Wednesday the
. i. lively playground
m iliion of the imagina-
s 2 tion. Our advice?
sinA .Resist harboring
the cynicism of a
local and let your-
self enjoy it.With staged music and
performances punctuating the 3-
day fair in addition to the rich art
on displayand sale, there should be
something of interest for just about
everyone. If all else fails, sell your
parking space and hunker down
- for these three days, art rules.
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