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The sounds of Seinfeld: when cult comedy and music collides The sounds of Seinfeld: when cult comedy and music collides
(35 minutes later)
The iconic Seinfeld 'slap bass' - a sound which is in fact played on a keyboard - has been recreated by Vampire Weekend singer Ezra Koenig. The frontman's vocal only version of the TV sitcom theme will be used, rather bizarrely, in a video game version of the episode The Junior Mint, in which players must pick either Jerry Seinfeld or Kramer to throw mints into a patient's open surgery wound. You can listen to Koenig's theme here, but it should be brought to your attention that if you leave the track on a loop for long enough you will almost certainly loose all sense of sanity. The iconic Seinfeld "slap bass" – a sound which is in fact played on a keyboard – has been recreated by Vampire Weekend singer Ezra Koenig. The frontman's vocal-only version of the TV sitcom theme will be used, rather bizarrely, in a video game version of the episode The Junior Mint, in which players must pick either Jerry Seinfeld or Kramer to throw mints into a patient's open-surgery wound. You can listen to Koenig's theme here, but understand that if you leave the track on a loop for long enough you will almost certainly loose all sense of sanity.
While this might be the most recent musical tribute to the cult sitcom, it's not the first time Seinfeld has found a precious place in musicians' hearts. Take alt-rock group Yo La Tengo - in 2011 the band embarked on a tour whereby each night they invited a crowd member to spin a giant wheel, and would play whatever set the wheel instructed them to. One of the options on the wheel was for members of the band to act out "a classic sitcom", with the crowd at the Metro in Chicago being treated/subjected to a reading of the entire script from the famous Seinfeld episode The Chinese Restaurant. A snippet of which is below: While this might be the most recent musical tribute to the cult sitcom, it's not the first time Seinfeld has found a precious place in musicians' hearts. Take alt-rock group Yo La Tengo. In 2011, the band embarked on a tour, during which each night they invited an audience member to spin a giant wheel and the band would play whatever set the wheel instructed them to. One of the options was for members of the band to act out "a classic sitcom". The crowd at the Metro in Chicago was treated/subjected to a reading of the entire script from the Seinfeld episode The Chinese Restaurant. A snippet of which is below:
That was back in 2011, however, before it became much, much easier to simply create a video mash-up to show your appreciation: the below video became particularly popular online a year later, featuring the music of pale-faced producer Skrillex and clips from Larry David's creation. Although it was not commissioned personally by the musician, the vision of Kramer jerking to this skull crushing sample is symbiotic enough to suggest that Skrillex has in fact based his entire career in pursuit of the perfect sountrack to such a spasm. Reading on mobile? Click here to view Yo La Tengo's Seinfeld video
Perhaps the most direct and committed show of love however, has come from rapper Wale, who put out The Mixtape About Nothing in 2008. Inspired by the comedy, the mixtape samples dialogue from famous episodes and features an appearance by Julia Louis-Dreyfuss herself, as she divinely and dorkily chimes: "Don't you think my kids are gonna think I'm so cool that I'm on this mixtape?? Mothafucka! Word up." That was back in 2011, however, before it became much, much easier to simply create a video mashup to show your appreciation. A year later, the video below – featuring the music of pale-faced producer Skrillex and clips from Larry David's creation – became especially popular. Although it was not commissioned by the musician, the vision of Kramer jerking to this skull-crushing sample is symbiotic enough to suggest that Skrillex has based his career on a pursuit of the perfect soundtrack to such a spasm.
The cultural crossover could continue further, too: according to Jerry himself, the comedian once approached Puff Daddy about working together on material. "I said to him, 'Hip hop's words, right? Why don't you take my words and do something with it?' I didn't know how to do it but I thought, 'Just take the words!'," he explained. My fingers are tightly crossed for some slap bass heavy Seinfeld sampling on Puffy's forthcoming album MMM. Reading on mobile? Click here to view the Kramer video
Perhaps the most direct and committed show of love, however, has come from rapper Wale, who put out The Mixtape About Nothing in 2008. Inspired by Seinfeld, it samples dialogue from famous episodes of the show and features an appearance by Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as she divinely and dorkily chimes: "Don't you think my kids are gonna think I'm so cool that I'm on this mixtape?? Mothafucka! Word up."
The cultural crossover continued. According to Jerry himself, the comedian once approached Puff Daddy about working together on material. "I said to him, 'Hip-hop's words, right? Why don't you take my words and do something with it?' I didn't know how to do it but I thought, 'Just take the words!'," Seinfeld explained. I have my fingers tightly crossed for some slap bass-heavy Seinfeld sampling on Puffy's forthcoming album MMM.