Lately over the last couple of shows I've been fascinated with finding Mashups of classic songs for the show because I find it a fascinating process to take one song and super-colide it with another, the results can be interesting sometimes if done well enough. On the show we've played mashups that fuse together songs such as Ozzy Osbourn's Crazy Train and A-ha's classic Take On Me which makes Take Me On The Crazy Train (as shown above and other things like Ghostbusters mashed together with AC/DC's Thunderstruck thus creating ThunderBusters. It takes a lot of elements of audio wizardry to make a mashup work such as matching up song tempo, finding compatible beats and many more.
One such band decided to do mashups in an unusual way and they made it their own gimmick, that band is known as Rock Sugar.Formed by noted Voice Actor Jess Harnell (famous for his role as Wacko Warner on hit animated show Animaniacs), Demo Producer Chuck Duran (who also does Voice Acting and hosts a weekly podcast on the subject). Rock Sugar's motif/gimmick as stated at the opening of their breakout hit, Don't Stop The Sandman is that they were stranded on an island with nothing but an iPod full of hits from the 1980s, upon their return they began fusing together some of the greatest hits of the 80s and the rest as they say is history.
Jess Harnell is one of the top Voice Actors in the field and like many voice actors he comes from a musical background so it's only natural he can rock these songs as the lead vocalist of Rock Sugar. Even on Animaniacs he was able to put his musical talents to great use such as on this little gem where Jess as Wacko names all 50 states and capitals.
It's even cooler to hear him do it in person and he can still do it without missing a beat as this next video shows. Speaking of which I'll end this blog with a plug towards an Animaniacs reunion happening in Los Angeles on April 12th featuring Jess Harnell alongside fellow cast members and cartoon siblings Rob Paulsen (he who put this whole event together as part of his podcast Talkin' Toons) and Tress MacNeille, this is a rare opportunity to see all three of these amazing actors together and having had the pleasure of meeting both Jess and Rob in the past, they are nothing short of a hoot and much laughter will be had if you find yourself in the same room as these people. More info on that can be found at this link below.
http://robpaulsenlive.com/animanics-live-41213/
Links of Interest:
Rock Sugar's official website: http://www.rocksugarband.com/
Jess Harnell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jess_Harnell
Chuck Duran: http://www.demosthatrock.com/
Chuck Duran's Voice Over Podcast: http://www.vobuzzweekly.com/
Rob Paulsen: http://robpaulsenlive.com
Talkin' Toons with Rob Paulsen: http://robpaulsenlive.com/category/podcasts/
Cool places to find more mashups:
Wax Audio: http://www.youtube.com/user/waxaudio
Leynar2204: http://www.youtube.com/user/Leyner2204?feature=watch
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