Rock SHOCK 2

1. STROKE - Billy Squier
2. LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL - The Cars
3. LISTEN TO THE MUSIC - The Doobie Bros
4. CONNECTION - Elastica
5. LIVING ON A PRAYER - Bon Jovi
6. ROUND AND ROUND - Ratt
7. SWEET CHILD O MINE - Guns N Roses
8. JESSE'S GIRL - Rick Springfield
9. ROXANNE - The Police
10. THE FINAL COUNTDOWN - Europe

 
Production Notes:

For anyone that interacts with the Culture Shock Crew, you’d know that we were still reeling from doing the first Rock Shock issue by the time we even got around to producing Vol. 2. As we’ve said before, this is single-handedly the most difficult and labor-intensive series out there. The research, production, polishing, reviewing and re-mixing that takes place is crazy.

At Culture Shock, we call this “Tuesday”. :)

So – without further delay, lets spill the beans on some of the tracks on this issue:

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL – The Cars: We don’t think we’ll ever be happy with any mix we’d do on this track. I mean, Rick Ocasek had strong influences on the production directions of this release, so for us to attempt to re-create it would be, well, problematic at best. So what can we do? Well, we broke a little bit away from our remix mantra when it comes to classics and went “More is More”. We added beats. We added synths. We re-arranged, we re-mastered, we EQed. We fought, we tussled. In the end, we have a mix you won’t forget. Chiggity- Check it at 111 BPM.

CONNECTION – Elastica: This is another one of those tracks but may seem out of place on a Hair Band release, but hold on – this song rocks, it was in a Beer commercial, and it has chicks – how much more true to “Rock” can you get? This track was one of those songs that people considered “Brilliant Production” but was really bullshit usage of ghetto equipment in a crappy studio. (Could they compress this track any more?) So – what could we do to rectify this? We felt that we needed to bring the drums and the sawtooth synth back up in the mix, so using our bag of tricks we did just that. Add some re-arrangement for DJ-Friendliness and some re-EQing and you end up with a mix that quite literally sounds better than the original. 122 BPM for your dancefloor usage.

ROUND AND ROUND – Ratt: This mix came out great. That’s all we can say. Master tracks and all – we  bukakke’d this track with remix love to make it stay true to the original in a natural, DJ-friendly way. Not much to say except this is the first and last mix you will need of this song.

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN –Europe: Yeah yeah yeah  - we here at CS are
fully aware of the “Kitsch Factor” surrounding this song –all the more reason to play it. In fact, we like this cheesey song so much, one of us has it for their cell ringtone, but we won’t say who it is (Don’t worry, Lex.) Anyhow, we have this remix, but what exactly did we do? Well, this is more a complex answer than you think. Suffice it to say that we added new percussion and gated synth to make the mix more dramatic. We also went back to the source tracks and brought out the orchestrations a bit to make this remix stay true to this talented Sweedish Supergroups’ roots. Play it only under hairspray supervision, aight?


 Rock shock 1

1. JACK & DIANE - John Cougar
2. ROCK OF AGES - Def Leppard
3. COME AS YOU ARE - Nirvana
4. YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME - Bon Jovi
5. LEGS - ZZ Top
6. SEX TYPE THING - Stone Temple Pilots
7. GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS - Motley Crue
8. CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE - Quiet Riot
9. MR ROBOTO - Styx
10. WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT - Twisted Sister

Production Notes:

ROCK OF AGES – Def Leppard: this marks the debut of our very own ”‘Rhythm Scholar”, a Chicago-based remixer that was a fine addition to the “Remix Ninjas” known as “The Culture Shock Crew”. His remix sensibilities were exactly what we needed. “Why do ‘Pour some sugar on me” like every other service out there?” Well, he was right, so we tasked him with another hit from the British group, “Rock Of Ages”. For any of you above the age of, say, 27, you’ll probably remember roller-skating to it. For those of you younger, you likely have an older sibling/parent that remembers this songs’ popularity in the early 80’s. We reconstructed the intro, added some tactically placed stutter-edits and cleaned it up for DJ-usefulness. Play it. 106 BPM
 
COME AS YOU ARE – Nirvana: Now, some might make the argument that anything after 1989 has no place on a series that’s ostensibly for “Hair Rock”, but we  at Culture Shock prefer to be inclusive rather than exclusive and feel that we should encompass the many variants of the “Hair”-side of “Hair Bands” – that is to say, instead of Aqua-Net, how about flannel? Anyhow, our real question was this: Why aren’t there any “Real” remixes that stay true to the original of this song? That’s not to say that the OTHER release from the album ‘Nevermind’ wasn’t a hit; it’s just other remixers/remix services have already attacked that one. So, staying true to our “Pseudo-Maverick” status, we gave this one the Culture Shock once-over by adding much needed percussion and re-arrangement. In the end you have a version that stays true to the original yet still offers something new for the punters.
 
MR. ROBOTO – Styx: - This song has enough kitsch appeal to be played anywhere. And you will DEFINITELY know that not only was KILROY here, but the CS Crew was as well. For this mix, we thought that the “less-is-more” approach was advised, so we edited and tempo-mapped for time, and re-added some vocoded parts left out from alternate takes of the master. (Don’t ask…) Result? A simply clean and fun mix that will have the sorority chicks gleaming. 146 BPM for your pleasure.
 
WE’RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT – Twisted Sister: Thank god Dee Schneider has aged well – because this hit certainly needed a little help. But what can we add to such a classic? Well, we re-did the drums…all of them. We re-added every roll, crash and spin to get you a version that is not only ‘DJ-Friendly”, but one that will translate better to the more demanding soundsystems of today. DO an A/B test and we know you’ll agree; our re-mastering of this track helps this “Pop” on your eardrums. Play this track for the rebel in you. 148 BPM.

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