Shits and Giggles is a new odds-and-ends compilation from The Kleptones, slightly surprising after the double-album blowout that was Uptime/Downtime, and while by it’s very intention it’s a mixed bag, there are several tracks of interest:

Saturday White – Elton John’s Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting has been pretty well mashed, but not with Billy Idol, and when the vocoder/autotune kicks in it’s ‘woo!’ (< that’s a technical term)

Kill -  I think this is one of the offcuts of the A Night at the Hip Hopera Queen mashup album from many years ago – shame it didn’t make the grade because after one listen I love this track, summing up the music industry in one handy resealable easy-to-carry song.

Psycho Dreams – only here because in part I’m WTF did he get THAT acapella (although I can partly guess, I had little success with that) but also a really rare Fleetwood Mac mashup.

Highly recommended is Unwanted Whisper which is a reversal of the more famous “Careless and the Dead” Bon Jovi vs George Michael mashup, which has been posted elsewhere but is well worth checking out as is the rest of the album which can be downloaded here.

* and eats shoots and leaves, probably

Kleptones played at Glastonbury in June – this is from the Silent Disco with Eric Kleptone on DJ duties and Pete Wallace aka Butch Auntie on the visuals. Featuring the now-traditional (after it went off big style at Bootie London!) encore with BorisB’s Smells Like Song 2 Videotones videomash in the mix – yes that’s moshing. At a mashup gig.

Howdy pardner! Here’s the latest Videotones mash, ‘Exit’ from the Kleptones Downtime album. Reborn Identity has given the mash given a spaghetti feel (hmm isn’t that actually gnocchi? )

Be prepared for a brooding, tense and downbeat Western epic facing down the barrel of a gun with Beck, John Mayall, Aesop Rock, Henry Fonda, Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson amongst many.

There seems to be a desert theme (rather than dessert, that would be silly) developing amongst the Downtime bootlegs, inspired by Reborn’s excellent Untired mash, also available at this very channel – watch this space for more dusty hot action!

This is what Reborn Identity said about this video mash:

“With “Exit”, The Kleptones take a bluesy song about returning home and inject it with all the tension of a Western showdown. The words “I’ll be way up in the sky” take on a gloomier, more fatalistic edge.

This video incorporates footage from “One Upon A Time In The West” (1968), “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964), “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly” (1966) and “Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid” (1973).”

BTW we’re still looking for contributors to turn the rest of the Uptime / Downtime album into video – so give us as shout or email Eric at eric@kleptones.com if you’re interested.

Phew this touring lark in this hot weather is a bind, lugging those stacks around and…WAIT A MINUTE YOU HAVEN’T BEEN ON TOUR. Well *I* haven’t but my naughty videos have and will be – not only were my videos for the Videotones project just shown last week at Glastonbury (did I mention it? LOL…) as part of the Kleptones set, I received word a few days ago via Simon Iddol that Young Punx want to use my video of dj BC‘s excellent and indeed unforgettable Unbelievable Juice and Gin on their tour. Of course I said yes and sent them over the file.

So Instamatic – coming to a venue near you. I quite like this lazy gigging lark, actually…

Yup you read correctly – Videotones videos including the premiere of this one (Brightness and Contrast) shown at Glastonbury part of Kleptones AV set – they are playing tonight (Sunday at 11pm – Rabbit Hole Stage, The Park).

‘Tell me now how does it feel’ - Music has become branding and branding has become music; marketers want to know what the audience is doing so as TV morphs into CCTV, the hanging garden of reality shows has become king. And the irony is more choice actually means less as there’s 57 channels and there’s nothing on as the news becomes another reality show and propaganda and lies become reality…

Woah there! Yes it’s a video mashup, but one that’s more like ‘Mad Groove’ but it’s darker and more conspiracy theory prone elder sibling. The Kleptones‘ excellent Brightness and Contrast mashing up New Order’s Blue Monday, Nirvana’s On a Plain, Cure’s Hanging Garden and Bruce Springstein’s 57 Channels is added to such footage as Tommy, a rare Godfrey Reggio short, EdTV, bits of Steal This Film, MC Hammer, Slacker, the Good Consumer and Adbusters shorts, The End of Violence and many more.

Someone pointed out that Donald Sutherland was a theme in all the Videotones videos – sorry it’s actually Ken Russell Followed by TVs, Godfrey Reggio and things exploding…

Apparently the Silent Disco set at Glasto went well for Eric & co. – great news