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November 10, 2008

Girl Talk Is A PC

This is so complicated.

(via Stereogum)

Look, there's no such thing as selling out. Everyone has to make it through the day and put food on the table. Besides, how much do you really think Microsoft shelled out for this commercial? I'm guessing 50 dollars and half a dozen day old bagels from the Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft commercial set. There is absolutely no shame in honest money made for a hard day's work.

THAT BEING SAID, there is such a thing as diluting the cultural potency of your work by tossing off bland non-truths like "computer software is the most punk rock thing that's ever happened," while a Nintendo 8-bit soundtrack that doesn't really sound anything like your music plays nonconfrontationally in the background so that a multi-billion dollar corporation that has consistently faced international anti-monopoly lawsuits for its market restrictive practices can scrape a little of the cool veneer off of their sleek competitor's hipster edge. REAL Talk.

Posted by Gabe at 10:30 AM in
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12 Comments

Funtastik

except that the background music is a snippet from his album "night ripper," sure. except that is actually his music, gabe. "his" being used loosely, because it's obviously mashed from something else.

that said, i was also kind of confused by girl talk appearing in a microsoft ad.

but then i remembered that i'm seeing him live this thursday, for the third time, and that it will explode all five of my senses in wonderful, wonderful ways. :)

Posted by: Funtastik profile link at 11/10/08 10:59 AM | Reply
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Gabe

Sure. But Night Ripper has more than 150 samples on it. So on the one hand it would be difficult to find any one element that was representative of his work (which one might argue is the whole point) and on the other hand this one definitely isn't.

Posted by: Gabe profile link in reply to Funtastik's comment at 11/10/08 11:14 AM | Reply
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grace6697

he sounds like a ginormous cliche to the point that i am certain it's a joke.

Posted by: grace6697 profile link at 11/10/08 11:12 AM | Reply
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The music you're hearing is an instrumental version of a song off "Night Ripper." In an ironic twist, Microsoft decided to cut out all the recognizable samples from the song in order to avoid copyright infringement. I just bought a copy of "Feed the Animals" in the hopes that Girl Talk never has to do anything like this ever again. Also, it's a good album.

Posted by: Devin at 11/10/08 11:35 AM | Reply
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Funtastik

Feed The Animals has grown on me beyond Night Ripper. Both are fantastic.

Posted by: Funtastik profile link in reply to Devin's comment at 11/10/08 11:47 AM | Reply
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this is from microsoft's upcoming, "i'm a d-bag" campaign, right?

Posted by: d-w at 11/10/08 12:15 PM | Reply
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i liked jive bunny a lot more before he left the mixmasters, grew a beard and bought a bandana.

Posted by: strangely_brown at 11/10/08 2:22 PM | Reply
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I PEE GOLD

WHATEVER YOU GUYS, YOU ALL KNOW GREG GILLIS HOLDS IT DOWN.

Posted by: I PEE GOLD profile link at 11/10/08 4:08 PM | Reply
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I PEE GOLD

Gregg*

Posted by: I PEE GOLD profile link in reply to I PEE GOLD's comment at 11/10/08 5:59 PM | Reply
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this is probably superfluous at this point but the song in question that's playing in the background is "Hold Up" off of the Night Ripper album. Granted, most of the overlaying samples are gone, but it's still pretty recognizable... if nothing else than for the incredible use of The Pixes which unfortunately isn't included in the commercial.

Posted by: tony at 11/10/08 5:43 PM | Reply
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sorry... "Pixies".

Posted by: tony at 11/10/08 5:44 PM | Reply
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itsthenewjanbrady

I love the random girls on the bed that are there and then not there when he decides to philosophize on his tracks. Everything about that clip rubbed me the wrong way, especially the part where the long haired bandana man in sweatpants threatens to sweat on me. I do listen to his music as an update to background muzak..it's easy to ignore and nice to pay attention to as well. I have no idea how he justifies the 'punk rock' software statement.

Posted by: itsthenewjanbrady profile link at 11/11/08 4:04 AM | Reply
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