Mix tapes used to be the shit; I loved trying to perfect the mix, pouring through albums looking for the next great track to include or a great theme that will grab all of your friend’s attention. A few highlights from my early mix tape where the time I had "3 MCs and 1 DJ" by the Beastie Boys lead into "Meat James Ensor" by They Might Be Giants by way of pausing the tape right when Mike and the Adams shouted "Mix Master Mike, what you have to say?" and the Johns reply with "Meat James Ensor, Belgium's favorite painter.” Another time I split the sides, one devoted to N.Ogre and the other to T.Reznor matching similar songs on each, “Dig It” to “Down In It” Ogre with KMFDM on Full Worm Garden to Reznor’s remix of KMFDM’s light, Pigface live with Ogre doing “Suck” Nine Inch Nail’s re-recorded cover of “Suck” In the small world of me and my friends, a huge hit.
I never lost my love for the mix tape, but most of the world has. I still make mixes, albeit not as often. I do most of my modern mixes through itunes and have the luxury of testing them over and over. About a year and half ago, I undertook one hell of a project, the ultimate Mike Patton mix.
I never lost my love for the mix tape, but most of the world has. I still make mixes, albeit not as often. I do most of my modern mixes through itunes and have the luxury of testing them over and over. About a year and half ago, I undertook one hell of a project, the ultimate Mike Patton mix.
Tomahawk and an amazing version of God Hates A Coward
For those of you unaware (although I doubt anyone reading this wouldn’t) Mike Patton is a versatile singer/songwriter/performance artist/madman who has lead such bands as Mr. Bungle, Faith No More, Fantomas, Peeping Tom and Tomahawk, has recorded entire albums in collaboration with American hardcore band Dillinger Escape Plan, Japanese drummer eccentric Merzbow, and Norwegian composer John Kaada. Additionally he has done guest spots with the likes of Bjork, Melt Banana, Rollins Band, Handsome Boy Modeling School, and Sepultura. The point I am getting at is that the dude gets around.
Fantomas owning the Cape Fear score
So back to my point, trying to capture a snapshot of the man’s work in a single mix was a pretty difficult task. I sent the call for help out to some Raindog pals and asked what they would want to hear on there. I got plenty of input, almost too much, so back to the drawing board. I decided pretty quickly to limit the number of “guest spot” songs to a minimum, and to exclude a large amount of Patton’s more experimental work. After all Fantomas’ Delirium Cordia is a single 74 minute song and the follow up, “Suspended Animation is a 30 track Calander/cartoon music collage. These albums, while great and interesting in their own right, work best as one solid piece, and are harder to take out of context. So the focus went to more song orientated pieces trying to get as much of the experimentation in there as possible, I don’t want to misrepresent the guy after all.
It took nearly six months to complete. Not six months of slave labor, sitting under bright lights late into the night punching numbers and comparing statistics, but six months of on again-off again evaluation of how to best put this bad boy together. Eventually I came up with a track list I was more than satisfied with and have not gone more than a few weeks without pulling it up.
So what made me bring this up, I have decided it is time to begin work on part two. If you know Patton, you know there has been at least five records of his released in the year since completion and with a slew of upcoming records, might as well begin searching for the yet to be untapped gold from the catalog. Right now I am considering the title “2 Patton, 2 Bitches” just for goofiness sake. I leave you know with the track listing from “This is Patton, Bitches” so you can better play along at home.
This is Patton, Bitches
1. Dub Trio - Not Alone
2. Tomahawk - God Hates A Coward
3. Rollins Band - Six Pack (Black Flag cover)
4. Peeping Tom - Five Seconds
5. Carla Hassett - Julia (Beatles cover)
6. Faith No More - Strip Search
7. Mike Patton - Ford Mustang (Serge "the French pimp" Gainsbourg cover)
8. Mr. Bungle - Sweat Charity
9. Lovage - Take Me Home
10. Peeping Tom - Sucker
11. Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
12. John Zorn - Ballad of Hank McCain (Ennio Morricone cover)
13. Faith No More - Small Victory
14. Fantomas - Spider Baby (Spider Baby film score cover)
15. General Patton vs The X-Ecutioners - L.O.L -- ?Losers on Line!
16. Handsome Boy Modeling School - Are You Down With It?
17. Kid 606 - Secrets 4 Sale
18. Tomahawk - Rape This Day
19. Bjork - Where Is The Line?
20. Dillinger Escape Plan - Come To Daddy (Aphex Twin cover)
2 comments:
Love the Patton.
Pretty funny story. The other day I decided to lay down and take a nap. I plugged my iPod into the stereo and put it on shuffle. Two songs later it hits Delerium Cordia. I was too tired to take it off and wound up falling asleep to it. Oh the nightmares....
That would be a pain in the ass On the opposite side of things, I can't tell you the number of times that the individual Fingertips pop up on random for me.
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