Travis Barker, Drummer for Blink-182, The Transplants and Angels and Airwaves, the man who made a Soulja Boy track moderately listenable to and that guy off that MTV reality type show “Meet the Barkers”. He has teamed up with now unfortunately deceased DJ-AM* (who was mainly famous for being in a plane crash with Travis Barker) and made a couple of mixtapes. With DJ-AM on the decks and Barker playing live next to him, they create an audio and visual treat for their audience and both mixtapes are available to download free from their website, www.trvsdjam.com.
First up is Fix Your Face. The first track, after Fat Man Scoop has finished shouting, has some brief but accomplished scratching (in my opinion, I”™m no expert) before going into one of the stranger additions to the mix, Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire. They then proceed through some assorted hip hop and The Chemical Brothers before arriving at a highly electronic version of Rage Against The Machine’s Killing in the Name Of. I found this a little odd but enjoyable all the same. Another highlight is the end of track 4 mix into the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In contrast, the mix in the middle of Track 6 between Rock With You and American Boy is somewhat jarring, as the beat matches but the pitch of the music does not. This is a small blot on an otherwise good listen. Other musical highlights include The Police, the theme from Rocky and I Love Rock and Roll. All round a damn entertaining listen increased in quality due to a real drum kit being used.