The Dust Brothers: OVERDOSE!

Not a real overdose of course, but I figured I might as well hit you with all of this in one shot as there is a lot here and I don't want to drag this out over a week.

I feel kinda bad for the Dust Brothers as they are clearly great producers but seem to get hired for lots of odd stuff that doesn't really utilize their abilities. There are a lot of their remixes that never really blew my mind but it seems like some of them were simply quick jobs for labels they may have been contractually obligated to produce. I can't wrong them for making money and their productions are always quality, it's just they seem occasionally rushed and don't get to feature a lot of their creativity. On the other hand, the labels may limit their work by not allowing them to use excessive samples or stray from certain defined genres. Whatever the reason, it's a shame because when they're hot, they're simply amazing! With that, I'm posting a collection of their remixes and productions as well as three rare albums they produced. A little information on each one will be provided below.

The Dust Brothers - Productions, Remixes & Other Things
NOTES: Some of these tracks appear in my previous Dust Brothers related post entitled dusted. Sorry for the repetition, but I like those tracks so much and think they're of such high quality that I couldn't help but re-post them. Also, the quality is low on this one (128kbps) so it would be an easy download, hope that doesn't disappoint anyone. One more thing, if anyone is wondering why tracks like the Offspring, Technotronic and other various remixes aren't included here, I either didn't think they were that hot or there simply wasn't enough space. I know, I know, what makes me qualified to judge? It's my site after all, isn't it? That said, if enough people want to hear the other stuff, let me know and I'll do another post with more remixes and such.

NOTE 2: This has been reuploaded in hope that it repairs problems with the previous version. Please let me know if anyone has any problems opening this version.

01 Mellow Man Ace - Hip Hop Creature

02 Machines Of Loving Grace - Richest Junkie Still Alive (Cherry Valley Mix)

03 Eels - Susan's Apartment (Mike Simpson Remix)
As the title implies, this remix is the sole work of EZ Mike. Also, it's actually a remix of the Eels' track Susan's House from their debut album, Beautiful Freak.

04 White Zombie - Grease Paint and Monkey Brains (Sin Centers Of Suburbia Mix)

05 Searchin'
A Dust Brothers instrumental contributed to Mo'Wax's Headz 2 compilations.

06 Def Jef - God Made Me Funky
The Dust Brothers actually contributed four tracks to Def Jef's Just A Poet With Soul album. This is my favorite.

07 Money Mark - Cry (Dust Brothers Remix)
This is a really great remix. Just sayin'.

08 The Folk Implosion - Insinuation (Dust Brothers Remix)

09 Nitzer Ebb - Fun To Be Had (Dust Mix)

10 Hanson - Mmm Bop (Radio Version)
If you're not familiar with this one, I want to know what year you were born! But seriously, I know this one is super-ubiquitous, but it's a great track and kind of important to the whole run-down of their productions.

11 Filter - Hey Man Nice Shot (Nickel Bag)

12 Smash Mouth - Virgin Girl (feat. Chopper)
Ooh, how I LOVE to mock Smash Mouth! Their first album was pretty good and their second wasn't too shabby, but it's not like anyone should expect anything earth shattering from these guys. That said, this is a really funky reggae-esque track from the Half Baked soundtrack which is, as you'd expect, all about getting stoned. I guess if you want records about getting stoned, you contact people with a name like the Dust Brothers. I'd say to contact Tricky too, but the producers of that soundtrack did, so they clearly knew their musical demographic.

13 They Might Be Giants - Snail Dust (Dust Brothers Remix)
Dust Brothers remix of Snail Shell.

14 Fluke - Bullet (Afro Funk Remix)

15 Squirrel Nut Zippers - Suits Are Picking Up The Bill (Dust Brothers Remix)
Another favorite of mine, this is a simple enough remix but it's a ton of fun.

16 The Chemical Brothers - Elektrobank (Dust Brothers Remix)
Chemicals vs. Dust! Short but sweet remix for which the favor was later returned when the Chems remixed a Dust track for the Dead Man On Campus soundtrack. As good as that track, named Realize, is, I'd really like to hear the original version, but it remains unreleased.

17 The Groomsman
Another Dust instrumental from the Headz 2 compilations.

18 Creeper Lagoon - Empty Ships
King Gizmo aka John King gets the production credit on this track. This and the album it's taken from was released on the Dust Brothers then label, Ideal Records, which was distributed via Mammoth. Sadly, it's out of print, which may give merit to a post eventually. It's worth it for more than the Dust Brothers connection.

19 The X-Files Theme
Not bad, but certainly nothing incredible, this was recorded for the soundtrack to the X-Files: Fight The Future movie. I don't think it was actually in the film though, although I don't believe much of anything on the soundtrack was. That's the worst type of soundtrack, but it was the mid-nineties and there was a lot of that going on.

20 Wesley Willis - The Dust Brothers
The Dust Brothers actually received the production credit for this, which even they acknowledged was kind of ridiculous, although Wesley's people insisted on it since they engineered the sessions at their PCP Labs studio. For more info on Wesley, check here.








And on to the albums! First up is Vince Neil's second solo outing, the Carved In Stone album. I haven't found much about this one online but I assume by it's non-availability that it bombed. That said, the production is top notch and the Brothers sound totally into it, although the songwriting, mostly courtesy of Neil and Marti Fredrickson, is a bit lacking.

The Dust Brothers got production credit on all tracks but one, Skylar's Song, which I believe is a tribute to one of Neil's children. There were also two bonus tracks released in Europe and Japan which aren't featured here that are assumed to be Dust Brothers productions as well.

Vince Neil - Carved In Stone








Next up is Sugartooth's The Sounds Of Solid, and this one is kinda painful to listen to. Sugartooth is probably best remembered for their song Sold My Fortune which was featured in an episode of Beavis and Butthead where they assumed the song was named Sold My Futon. That song sounded a lot better there than it did in my car stereo, so I kinda wrote them off rather quickly, but they released this follow-up in 1997. Apparently, their drummer left the band (I believe it was the excellent Joey Castillo, who has since played with Queens Of The Stone Age) and, rather than hire a new one, they decided to hire producers who knew their way around drum machines and samplers. Having just produced Beck's Odelay which was also released on DGC/Geffen, it probably made a ton of sense to get them on board, and the production is indeed excellent, but the songs are practically non-existent, kind of like Silverchair but even more boring. There is only so much the producer can do in a situation like this, and the Dust Brothers clearly did everything they could, but if the songwriting is weak it simply can't be salvaged, and at around a half-hour there wasn't much to begin with.

Sugartooth - The Sounds Of Solid








Last up is Buggin' Out by 10¢, a full-on Dust production on their own short-lived Hi-Ho/Ideal labels. This one has an oddball charm to it, being rather short at around a half-hour and kinda childish, but it's still a lot of fun. I can't promise that everyone will enjoy this, but at least half the album is truly winning and charming with the other half being subliminal growers. This one is really worth your time as it's truly a diamond in the rough. I don't know anything about what happened to 10¢ since but I know they had at least one other release prior to this with no Dust influence. This is also still available for purchase digitally via iTunes and Amazon, and while I don't normally post things that are still available, I'd feel bad for anyone paying ten dollars for an album this short if they didn't know what they were getting themselves into, so if you enjoy this please buy a download, as I'm sure the folks from 10¢ would appreciate it.

10¢ - Buggin' Out

dusted: The Dust Brothers and Matt Dike

Everyone already knows how much I love Paul's Boutique, but if you don't, explore the site and I'm sure you'll have a good idea. I love the Beasties but I'm also a big fan of the Dust Brothers and Matt Dike, which is kind of a curse when trying to follow their careers. The Dust Brothers, as in John King and Mike Simpson, aren't nearly as difficult to follow, what with their productions for Beck (Odelay, Guero, etc.) and the soundtrack for Fight Club among other contributions, although I don't get the impression that most of those other works would rank high on their resumes. I read that a lot of artists who hired them for production work treated them like magicians who should be able to work their spell on anyone, which is just not the truth. Take Odelay for instance, there aren't a lot of samples from pre-existing sources on the album, rather they built grooves from hours of recordings they made with Beck and used those as the album's foundation. Then listen to the Rolling Stones Bridges To Babylon and the songs they contributed to, it sounds like their work was included in the final mixes strictly so the Stones couldn't be accused of not being hip, but they haven't been in years so they missed the point of hiring the Brothers Dust in the first place.

Matt Dike's body of work is rather limited. Apart from his works with Michael Ross for Delicious Vinyl (Tone-Loc, Young MC, Jesse Jaymes) and Paul's Boutique (upon which he was credited as a Dust Brother which, accurate or not, was short lived) he provided a handful of remixes, several for Delicious Vinyl artists, and contributed his studio skills to works for Geffen artists (Apollo Smile for example. Remember her? Yeah, practically no one else does either.), Rick Rubin and Henry Rollins' Infinite Zero Records (he apparently mixed their reissue of Trouble Funk's Live double album) and others. For the most part though, Matt disappeared into his own little world of music and privacy. He almost made a comeback in the mid to late nineties as part of a production duo with Peter Reardon named GonsterMacher (which I believe is Yiddish for big shot) that was to release an album and provide several remixes, but the only thing that appeared was a remix for Josh Wink. I so wish he would do some more works or that I could find some of his early mixtapes or unreleased productions because he is so talented and it's such a shame to see so little from someone so sharp. An easy comparison that I'm not the first to make is that Matt Dike is the California hip-hop equivelant of early eighties New York Rick Rubin.

Anyway, after hunting Matt and the Brothers' works, I've collected a number of remixes by the Dusties and a few by Mr. Dike. I'm posting five tracks from each for your listening pleasure, although one of them may haunt you if you listen to it more than once. Also, if you've got any Dust Brothers or Matt Dike productions you'd like to share, let me know because I'd love to get them and, in turn, I'll share them here on the site for all interested.


dusted

01 Filter - Hey Man Nice Shot (Nickel Bag)
Sweet ass remix by the Dust Brothers with horns and unbridaled funkiness! Never thought you could take a song as down as the original version of Hey Man Nice Shot and make it a serious jam!

02 Young MC - I Let 'Em Know (Matt Dike Remix)
Good remix now available with the deluxe reissue of Young MC's Stone Cold Rhymin'. Proof Dike got skills!

03 10¢ - Bubble Bath
Not a remix, but a track from 10¢'s Dust Brothers produced album, Buggin' Out. The album is a bit of a mixed bag with ten tracks clocking in at around thirty minutes, but at least four are classics, and this is one of them. Worth checking out the album which is available on iTunes and Amazon for download, just don't expect brilliance.

04 Fine Young Cannibals - I'm Not Satisfied (Matt Dike Remix)
Not my favorite Matt Dike remix, but not at all bad. Maybe if it had been for She Drives Me Crazy instead.

05 Machines Of Loving Grace - Richest Junkie Still Alive (Cherry Valley Mix)
Machines Of Loving Grace are probably best remembered for their contribution to The Crow soundtrack, which is fair because otherwise they were a decent pseudo-industrial band on Mammoth when that label was being distributed by WEA at the same time as Nine Inch Nails. I'm sure you know who got the promotional push, which is kinda funny since Trent Reznor actually did a remix for them. That's all beside the point though, because this is another rather funky remix in the vein of the Dust Brothers' Hey Man Nice Shot remix. Good shit indeed!

06 Wink - Simple Man (Gonstermacher Longer Remix)
To my knowledge, this is the sole release by Matt and his partner Peter Reardon under the Gonstermacher name, which is not to be confused with the blues-rock band of a similar name. Apparently there is a Gonstermacher remix of the Barenaked Ladies' Alcohol that was supposedly sent to radio, but I can't seem to find any evidence of it's existence apart from this article.

07 Styles Of Beyond - Winnetka Exit (Dust Brothers Remix)

08 The Pharcyde - Ya Mama (Matt Dike Remix)
Already posted this before, but it's such a great remix it deserved a reprisal.

09 EMF - Lies (Dust Brothers 12" Club Mix)

10 Aerosmith - The Other Side (Matt Dike 'Honky Tonk' Version)
This is the mistake. No offense to Mr. Dike, but this remix screams contractual obligation. It's included because I can't find much in the way of Matt Dike remixes so I figured some people would like to check it out, but this is a VERY dull remix that I simply don't enjoy. Again no offense Matt, I'm just not feeling this one like I feel your other stuff.