#i have criticisms. it lacks a bit of compassion towards brian in the same way the retellings of syd's story lack compassion

[asurrogateblog]

iconic behavior from brian wilson

[mynameismichaelkern]

Mouth Moods and the Mouth Trilogy: The Dangers of Nostalgia

An auditory disaster of a mash-up album is a good vehicle for dissecting nostalgia. The Mouth Trilogy is the trio of mash-up albums by Neil Cicierega. They are notable for inducing dissociative episodes and confusion. For some it elicits pure revulsion, and for others, they’re just some dumb fun. The evolution of the trilogy is what is probably the most interesting part of the series. On its face they are simply mash up albums, but they are more than that. They are directly critiques of nostalgia and it’s values.

Mouth Sounds was a much more violent experience. It had teeth to it - it was destroying the idea that nostalgia is a comfortable thing. It used nostalgia to launch an auditory assault upon the listener. It continues to incur Smash Mouth’s “All-Star,” a song from the Mystery Men, The Digimon Movie, Rat Race, and most notably, Shrek soundtracks. It is easily recognizable and immediately incurs nostalgia of one’s youth, if one was born in the 90s. Because of the boom of the internet just as someone from that generation would begin to feel nostalgia for their youth, it’s spread is easy to see. It’s a silly, upbeat song that has lyrics that are easy to remember. It’s the perfect target to pin to the wall if one wants to skew  nostalgia. This constant reiteration of this target continues to slam home the message: “Fuck your nostalgia.”  It’s mocking those that think their past is worth celebrating.

It’s never more clear than when Imagine by John Lennon is mixed with a horrifically slowed down version of the lyrics of All-Star. The former is a song about a dream for a better world, while the latter is a song about going with the flow and being the best you can be despite a world that fights against oneself. It is synthesis of two of the most recognizable songs of their respective eras. They are both mockeries of each other and by doing so, Cicierega accomplishes the feat of skewing not just a reverence of 90s nostalgia but nostalgia in general. It mocks John Lennon’s dream of a better world in the future, by saying “This is the future we inhabit,” by slowing down All-Star’s lyrics to such an absurd degree it can only be seen as farce.

Mouth Silence, the follow-up to Mouth Sounds, deemed a prequel, is a clearer album. Mouth Sounds is furious but Mouth Silence decides to subdue it’s rage for the sake of clarity.  It relies on songs that are much slower than it’s predecessor. In the grand scheme of things it was partly a thank you for listening to Mouth Sounds, while also asking for the audience to take a clearer look at the unsaid thesis statement of these albums. Each of these album’s first minutes is full of distorted sounds as it struggles to find it’s themes and ideas. It’s as if the sounds themselves are adjusting to their shell and morphing. Mouth Silence has an almost choral sound about it. It’s a promise things are going to be a bit more clear. This can be seen in it’s splicing of using news clips. It’s firing spears not just at the music but the culture that reacted towards the mainstream. It shows the silliness of the media as it overreacts to the Pokemon trend.

While putting larger culture in its crosshairs, the album does not ignore the disgust at nostalgia and that is never more clear than in Crocodile Chop, the mash up of Crocodile Rock by Elton John and Chop Suey by System of a Down. Chop Suey is about how death is treated differently depending upon one’s cause of death, while Crocodile Rock is a song about appreciating nostalgia itself. One is obsessed with the future, the other the past. Crocodile Rock is a much more carefree song and together, they seem to simply mock the ideas of death. On a deeper level though, it can be seen as those that are obsessed with the past see the future as a joke.

The most interesting part of Mouth Silence is its relating of Death and Nostalgia. It’s My Life by Bon Jovi and Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen are lyrically featured, acknowledging death and its inevitability. These memories of the past are vital to thoughts of death - one cannot exist without the other.  These songs are not mocked in their mash ups. These three songs are actually unique in that each of them are mashed up with songs that lack lyrics. Born to Run is mixed with Alley Cat by Bent Fabric. It’s My Life is mixed with The Liberty Bell, a traditional military march that is most associated with being the theme song of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. With only the lyrics on display it emphasizes the lyrics that settle on death. In Born to Run, there is the idea that death is inevitable so it’s best to keep going and not settle on the past. In It’s My Life, the theme is that again, Death is Inevitable so live your life how you want.

There is one song on this album that cements the idea that nostalgia is a convenient distraction from death. It’s a track titled Space Monkey Mafia. It mixes the lyrics of It’s The End of the World As We Know It by REM and We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel. In the background is a polka/electronic track. (As far as I have been able to find, it’s an original track.) The inclusion of an original track on a mash up album is notable in itself - most mash ups rely upon the familiarity of pre-existing tracks to make an impact. The lyrics of the two songs clash and compete for prominence. Their ideals, one in which it's the end of the world and death is around the corner for all, and the other which is a collection of allusions to the past. In combination, “the fire” of We Didn’t Start The Fire can be seen as the cause of “the end of the world.” All of the past is what’s responsible for the end. Nostalgia - yearning for a past - is what’s going to lead to the end of the world in this album’s eyes.

Mouth Moods is notable because it is actually fun. Mouth Moods is the eyeroll, accompanied by a smirk, before finally succumbing to relative’s proddings and dancing at the family reunion, of the Mouth Trilogy. In its first minutes, it combines the notable lead ins for multiple catchy songs, Smash Mouth’s All-Star included. What it loses in pointed criticism towards nostalgia, it gains in playing with the format itself. Early on in the album, the piano intro for Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles opens up the possibility for literally any mash up. It breeds anticipation in the listener until the satisfaction of the screaming lyrics of AC/DC’s Back in Black. The subdued piano of A Thousand Miles actually acts to highlight the strangeness of Brian Johnson’s voice that seems so natural in any amount of AC/DC songs.

Nowhere is that fun more apparent in the track titled “Bustin’.” Simply re-doing the lyrics of the song to the theme song of the theme song of Ghostbusters. The song is introduced with a clip from an interview Bobby Brown did with Larry King, talking about having sex with a ghost while filming Ghostbusters II. The song then launches into the familiar tune of the Ghostbusters theme before manipulating Ray Parker Jr.’s lyrics to insinuate he exceedingly enjoys “bustin’,” specifically with ghosts. It’s a silly song made more for a joke than to actually point any sort of criticism. It’s a corruption of a familiar song to provide a joke.

This album is actually much more confident using the straight audio of commercials and reports. It is confident that the absurdity of the past can stand for itself and does not need to be enhanced as much. Instead of criticising nostalgia, it instead is criticising the sacred temples of culture. Ghostbusters is considered an institution but it reduces to sex with ghosts. Immediately following it is the lyrics of TLC’s No Scrubs with the dirge-like backing of Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.

In one of the stranger turns on the album is Hans Zimmer’s Time scoring the lyrics to The Village People’s Y.M.C.A. It’s an inversion of the mocking of something sacred. It’s amplifying something that is an advertisement for the YMCA or as an appreciation for a gay hook up spot - whichever interpretation of Y.M.C.A  you enjoy more. This amplification acts as an act of tearing down what would be considered awe-inspiring. In this sense, institutions and what they stand for are what is put to task. There is a further inversion going on in this track :institutions, in this case, is the score of Hans Zimmer, not the YMCA which is an actual, physical, institution. Hans Zimmer’s music stands for a sort of elevated status. His music makes moments bold. Y.M.C.A. is a song you do at the family reunion because your grandmother with a weak hip can do it.

It is in this album that Neil Cicierega has mastered his craft and knows what is expected of his mash ups. All-Star, a staple of the series is withheld for the penultimate song - a mix of Under Pressure by Queen. The lyrics of All-Star are teased earlier in the album. The audience is expectant of the All-Star mash up. Using Under Pressure is acknowledging that nostalgia does have it’s use - the song is fundamentally about the pressure of society and how it can get to people, hoping tomorrow can be better, and how there isn’t enough caring and compassion in the world. The use of All-Star here is the declaration of nostalgia being the way people ignore the issues and problems of today - a warm blanket of the past - a past which has been criticized over the trilogy of being worth mockery.

The fact that there’s another track after the All-Star/Under Pressure stands as it’s own statement that nostalgia will stand regardless of criticism. It’s the album’s acknowledging remixes and mash-ups will continue on, despite the insults levied at it and at its core, it is the shrug and laugh at the end of it all.

The Mouth Trilogy stands as a counterpoint of the Mash-up genre, while being securely within that same genre. It is skillfully done from beginning to end and maintains a cohesive theme while taking different angles of attack to get to the core of what they are supposed to represent. The Mouth Trilogy has meaning in its attack - it is not merely a wild swipe into the dark. It is precise and calculated in its mash-ups. Its message is valuable, as long as you can stand those first few minutes.