Image from The Hood Internet
by ShaniHey all, I’m happy to be part of the cadre of bloggers taking caring of you all while Alyssa is in Cambodia. Now let’s get down to business.The Big News: I’ve found something to interrupt my Neko Case obsession*.It’s a nearly perfect mixtape by The Hood Internet, a Chicago-based DJ duo that specializes in hip-hop/indie pop mashups. Volume Four (yes, there are three others, and they are all available for free) starts with David Banner’s “Get Like Me,” and his swaggering flow contrasts perfectly with the electro dance-y rock of Fujiya & Miyagi’s “Pterodactyl.”Some mashups work better than others. For example, Ludacris vs. She & Him is a little flat (not enough Zooey Deschanel, I think), but Michael Jackson vs. Ratatat really, really meshes.Like Alyssa, I don’t listen to the radio, (and unlike Alyssa, I don’t have TV — well, I have a television, but no cable, so I only turn it on to watch DVDs) so all of the big pop songs I see mentioned on my friends’ Facebook and Twitter statuses are known to me in lyric only.Soulja Boy’s “hop up out the bed and turn my swag on” isn’t really very lyrical. However, when it’s laid over the estimable Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out,” you get something really special — and it’s a good introduction to an otherwise not-great song.In trying to figure out why I like this mix, I concluded that it’s because it takes really mediocre pop and hip-hop songs, cuts them down from four minutes to a far more appropriate length of about a minute and a half, and gives them much better beats.Hmm, I think that’s an idea that could save the recording industry.*I only discovered Neko Case this year, and listened to her solo albums nonstop, every. single. day. for months on end.