Spring Break
Gregg Gillis mixes his sound at Starlight Oct. 9
Andrew Leib
Issue date: 10/3/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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These musicians rarely share a sentence together, let alone a genre. However, when Pittsburg native Girl Talk, also known as Gregg Gillis, hears these artists, ideas tick in his head that would seldom be thought of by the average person. Gillis creates mash-ups-the art of mixing different elements from tracks together to create one unified composition.
For instance, the song "Once Again," off of his album "Night Ripper," begins with lyrics from Ciara's "My Goodies," instrumentation from Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time" and an explosion of rhymes from Ludacris' "Pimpin' All Over the World."
"I was really into the idea of taking a familiar song and doing whatever you wanted with it" Gillis said.
It's this type of creativity that stands out above the rest in today's music industry. The recorded music isn't the only aspect of Girl Talk that rises above the rest-he throws a killer show. According to Gillis, he has always been drawn to a very minimal show in terms of theatrics and equipment, but his live mixing skills flawlessly make up for that.
Sporting a laptop and a microphone, Girl Talk makes concertgoers sweat and dance uncontrollably. Typically, when a deejay plays a show, they remove themselves from the audience and provide the soundtrack to your night of dancing.
But not Girl Talk-not even close. Gregg Gillis is the show. His infectious dancing and beats rev up the crowd up as they move through the whole show in pure delight.
"I'm gonna play the laptop. I'm gonna put on a live show," Gillis said.
"Live show" is a bit of a modest statement, though. His shows are all-out ragers.
Girl Talk's latest effort, "Feed the Animals," issued under the Illegal Art label has been received incredibly well after its release in June 2008. Earning four out of five stars from publications such as Rolling Stone Magazine, Girl Talk has grown in popularity since his early days of playing the local Pittsburgh scene.
On top of putting out the successful "Feed the Animals" album, its distribution proposed a "pay what you want" charge, similar to Radiohead's tactic when they released "In Rainbows" in autumn of 2007.
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