I’ve finally uploaded my second t.A.T.u. vs. Klaxons EP, it’s available to download in the music section along with the previous EP. The videos have also been uploaded to YouTube. Here’s the pretty artwork!
1. Vremya Luny (Magick Mash Up)
2. Snegopady (Two Receivers Mash Up)
3. 30 Golden Skans (Russian Vocal Mix)
Track one combines the t.A.T.u. album track from Happy Smiles, Время Луны (Vremya Luny), with the Klaxons single Magick. Track two mashes together the verses from t.A.T.u.’s new single Снегопады (Snegopady) with the Myths of the Near Future track, Two Receivers. Finally, track three is a revisit to a previous mash up, 30 Golden Skans, but remastered with the Russian vocals from 30 Mинут (30 Minut).
Gah! It’s 5am, and I’ve been up since 9am after having 2 hours sleep… what am I doing? You know what I’m doing; I’ve told you my dirty, shameful secret many a time before… I’m essentially googling myself… except not on Google… on Last.fm … the weird thing is I shouldn’t have found anything about me as me, myself, Tom McNab… BUT I DID! Here I am – yep, those are my mash ups.. but upon closer inspection… there are three mash ups there that I haven’t made available for download since *counts the fingers on one hand* well … not for a very long, long time! The weirder thing is… the person who decided to scrobble them with my name did so in the past SEVEN DAYS…. Speaking of SEVEN DAYS… I started reading Ring today by Koji Suzuki!
It’s all a sign… it all means something… I just don’t know what that is yet.
I’m having a little trouble trying to figure out why the hell it has taken so long for The Veronicas to crack America. Their album, one of the best albums I’ve ever heard, was released over a YEAR AGO, yet only now has their second single from Hook Me Up, Untouched, made an impact in America (so far reaching #17 on the Billboard Hot 100). I saw the twins, Jessica and Lisa Origliasso, on E! News this morning and I’m really happy for them. I’d never heard of them until their song 4Ever popped up on the soundtrack for the Amanda Bynes flick She’s The Man. It may have been before that when I found out they had been part of the team behind t.A.T.u’s 2005 comeback hit All About Us (check out their, some might say, better sounding demo via YouTube). Then, in September of 2007, my awareness of them sparked, I saw their debut video from their second album, Hook Me Up, on YouTube. Initially I was hostile! Confused at their almost t.A.T.u-esque relationship displayed in the video… despite being sisters! But then I got my hands on some tracks from the album (my other recommendations: Take Me On The Floor (2nd Single), Popular, Revenge Is Sweeter (Than You Ever Were), I Can’t Stay Away & Goodbye to You) and all was forgiven, falling instantly in love with Untouched and eagerly anticipating the video (which, ultimately, I was let down by and wish they’d re-shot now it’s getting airplay).
So now, over 14 months later, that video and single is ready to drop over here in Britian, and I thought I’d use this opportunity to remind you that I actually mashed up Untouched last year, and it’s one of my favourite mash ups, but unfortunately due to the lock-down WMG has on YouTube I can’t make a video for it. So you’ll just have to make do with the audio…
The Veronicas vs. a-ha – Untouched On Me
It sort of makes me slightly hopeful that despite not setting the world on fire initially, perhaps t.A.T.u’s Happy Smiles / You and I era will eventually see it’s time to shine.
Question: What do you get if you take Lady GaGa’s current worldwide chart-topping single, Just Dance, and mix it with a two-year-old, should-have-won-Eurovision entry from Russia?
Answer:
Lady GaGa vs. Serebro – #1 Dance Song
There’re two versions available to download, the first has Colby’s rap in the middle, whilst the second is a tiny bit longer and has Lady GaGa’s rap in the middle. I know it’s already at the top of the charts, but it wouldn’t hurt to support Lady GaGa’s world domination and buy the song if you’re one of the 7 people who haven’t already! And despite being two-years-old, Serebro’s debut song is still as catchy as it was back when you first might have heard it along with me, being performed in Helsinki! As such, you can also buy it from iTunes, and loads of other places.
You know how it is: it’s late at night… you’re feeling somewhat amorous… your hands begin to wander… and before you know it… you’re googling your own name! Yes, now you know my dirty secret – don’t act like you’ve never done it! Sometimes I just like to see if I was mentioned anywhere without my knowledge. As you know I like to make mash ups and unleash them upon the unsuspecting world, mostly to mediocre success, but sometimes I find them mentioned in the weirdest of places (NME magazine’s website, played on a Belgium, and a French radio station to name a few places).
Well, during tonight’s googlebatory session I discovered my newest mash up (t.A.T.u vs. Bronski Beats) was included in a weekly podcast, recorded last December, called Ramdom Thoughts. I’m not sure how popular it is, but the Facebook page has 91 fans so I take that as a big compliment, to not only be included amongst the likes of some amazing talent like Divide & Kreate, Norwegian Recycling and Hi-Brid (who is ultimately responsible for my Bronski Beat mash up, given that I’d never really heard the song before his mash up of it with Klaxons), but paid the compliment, “How can you make that song better – tomsbrain certainly did!”
I’m sorry, I’m done gushing, but I just want to put it out their and say I am grateful. All this Internet stuff, you never really get an accurate measurement of how well received your work is, so it’s nice to actually hear some feedback! In terms of my next Mash Up, unless anything jumps out it at me (I’m really into Shiny Toy Guns and Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head at the moment), It’ll be back to my ol’ faithful t.A.T.u gals and an attempt at mashing their biggest hit, All The Things She Said… so not a job I’m taking lightly! Speaking of never knowing where my name ends up, if anyone with contacts at the BBC is reading this, can you please book t.A.T.u to appear/perform in this misguided attempt at getting us out of the bottom places in Eurovision thing on a Saturday nights with Graham Norton and Andrew Lloyd-Webber. I know they’re in LA at the moment, but you’ve got 5 weeks to make it happen.
First of all, site updates! Two new Mash Ups over at My Music – one for Christmas, and one sampling the 80s (my second trip back to my decade for a mash up). As for what’s to come, a few more mash ups hopefully, and something spectacular as a little dedication to my old website Amanda Bynes UK, which went offline a few months ago due to Orange being a super-beeyotch and deleting their free members only FTP service (whatever, their loss, we’re getting Virgin broadband now). Intrigued? Come back December 31st to find out what it is! Oh, and do you like my new favicon? WordPress updated their features! The only good thing about Orange closing down it’s service was that I found this place!
Now serious stuff: I had a nosebleed! It’s been so long since my last one it took my three attempts to spell it right! Back then I decided to take a stand. I was having a lot of them, so something must have been causing it. I cut out caffeine and more importantly – Cola! Following on from that, I specifically targeted artificial sweeteners as the source of my bleeds. Aspartame and Phenylalanine were my enemies! I found them in nearly every “sugar free” chewing gum, and unfortunately Sweet Chili flavoured Sensations Crisps. Since that cold and dreary day some 18 months ago, I’ve reintroduced the odd caffeine boost in the form of my beloved instant cappuccinos and Lucozade and things seemed fine. During my research on artificial sweeteners I discovered Pepsi were marketing a new “natural” alternative to Pepsi called Raw. Despite being available in Leeds, I had never seen it… until last night! I was so excited, for the first time in what felt like forever I was going to be able to have cola! It was nice… really nice… but about an hour after polishing off my second bottle, the disaster struck!
Okay so it was only a bit blood – but still! It’s more the fact I thought I’d been smart and health conscious, but the science of sugars is confusing! Oh, and I cannot just put it down to a freaky coincidence… despite the fact that if anyone in the world were to have a freaky coincidence like this – it’d me! It has to be that whatever used to cause my nosebleeds that was in regular, crap-filled Pepsi is still in their “natural” Pepsi… The only suspect ingredient I noticed was Xanthan Gum, so I guess I’ll be keeping an eye out for that now! Unless of course this is all just psychosomatic and I’m going crazy (pfft, going).
