The Hood Internet at The Central, Santa Monica, August 3rd, 2012

Say what you will about The White Panda and Girl Talk, but The Hood Internet bake a different brand of mash up pie. There's a real theme to their selection process that goes well beyond BPMS. At least I like to think there is. They craft fine paired pieces of art. The coupled songs complement each other so damn well, sometimes obvious as hell like the Ma$e/Puff Daddy/Notorious B.I.G. & Penguin Prison marriage of "Fuck With Mo Money" and Kanye West and Snap's "Power"...and even when there are pairings that aren't obvious but work in a way to totally enhance both songs and for some people who aren't always the downest of the down on the hip hop tip (Yo Del) can work to introduce you to songs you just normally wouldn't tackle. I'm looking at you "Polish City" (Tyga and Neon Indian) and "Five Seconds Don't Care" (Twin Shadow and Wacka Flocka"). Notice how the songs never have the "VS" naming convention for the artists pairings. That's because the songs are not fighting each other. These mashups are the most naturally flowing works of interweaving sounds you'll ever hear. They're not fighting each other for your ear, they're making love to each other and in turn to your ear.

How much do I love The Central and The Hood Internet? This is a question with a quantifiable answer that can be easily determined by doing a quick search of SYFFAL. Go ahead and take a look. I always welcome clicks. Yep. see? I've rocked The Hood Internet's brand of genius master mash ups on over 20 Track Marks, more than any other artist by a wide ass margin. As far as the Central is concerned I've been singing that Venue's virtues for quite some time now..but if you want a real endorsement than listen up: I chose to check out The Hood Internet @ The Central over going to Hard Summer and Lollapalooza.

Let that soak in for a moment.

If that's not a seal of approval for what The Central brings to the table than I don't know what is. Sure I also ducked out of the others because hanging out with pilled out gingers in 97 heat with 99% humidity (Lollapalloza) and surrounding myself with babies with pacifiers questioning the lack of bass drops during Miike Snow's set would have been too much for me to stomach. That said I passed on two chances of seeing a reunited Bloc Party. Anybody who knows me is well aware that skipping that would require a Herculean effort by whatever act filled the void.