There are two types of people who went to All Points West:
-- The type of person who listened to Prof. Robert Thurman talk about Tibet after Underworld put together another stellar performance.
-- The type of person who was wasting toilet paper and dancing like there's no tomorrow to music that has no redeeming social value what so ever.
Like Crystal Castles, I would never choose to listen to Girl Talk's mash-ups, but damn was that fun to witness and shoot. As you probably know already, the carnival/circus atmosphere is the main draw. He recruits concert goers and other personalities to get on stage to freak out. It's like Dan Deacon, but not being an idiot.
If you hate hipsters, American Appeal ads, the McCarren Pool Parties and Williamsburg/Bushwick, than you probably would have been annoyed by Girl Talk's set. With any set where people bum rush the show, it's amusing for 10-15 minutes, then you start wishing you were up there. Likewise, after I got smacked for the 10th time by a beach ball, I got out of there and went back to see Underworld.
As pointed out by myself and everyone else there, the "green" aspect of the festival was lost of Gregg Gillis's set. You wonder if all the wasted plastic and paper was worth it and if there's another way to get the fun aspect out there without all the garbage. When I was leaving at the end of the day, that whole middle stage looked like a tornado blasted through the paper products isle at PathMark.
Then there's the music -- the mash-up of hip-hop with some popular song you wouldn't associated with hip-hop culture. Basically, playing two songs at the same time. I'm sorry folks, I don't see what the big deal is. He plays Too Short against Sinead O'Connor. To me, it comes off as a novelty act. He's the polar opposite of DJ Shadow and The Avalanches. those two are making music from bits of pieces of other works, as well, but they use obscure samples we've never heard of. I think Gillis's notoriety comes from the fact that everyone knows all the songs. It's that aspect of familiarity that will take him places.
I appreciate that he's doing this on the fringes of legality, but I can't listen to Feed the Animals and consider it brilliant. To me, it feels showy, like "Look at me, I can play Jay-Z and The Band at the same time. Weeeeeeeee"
BUT ... I think the Girl Talk thing live and his idea to make it a crazy free for all worked. If it was just him and two laptops, that would been the most boring thing in the history of concerts. The black guy in the white outfit and strange facial hair, the disco girl shaking her ass, the white dude doing all these elaborate, old skool hip-hop moves -- it was golden. I know it seems contradictory to wag a finger at his music, but give props to his live show. Life is full on contractions.
My hope for Girl Talk. Two things: 1. Produce an album for somebody else, follow the track that Danger Mouse has done after he did the illegal mash-up thing. 2. Make an effort to recycle all the garbage that's collected during the show.
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