Party Ben’s 2007 Mother Jones Mashup: Faithless vs. George W. Bush’s SOTU

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Hello internet. I’m Party Ben. You might know me from such films as “That’s My Monkey 2: Ookin’ it Up,” and “Arm & Hammer: a Company With a Future.” Not really. Actually, I make those most mockable of musical items: mashups! Plus I also DJ in the Golden State, and do something called “creative direction” for San Francisco radio station LIVE 105. Good times.

For reasons that are not yet clear to me, I’ve been asked to be a guest blogger on this blog, focusing on musical and cultural items of note. I guess I’ll bring a refreshing lack of “writing skills” or “journalistic ethics” that they couldn’t find around the Mother Jones offices.

To celebrate my acceptance into the liberal media elite, I’ve updated one of my more political tracks for exclusive download by readers of this fine blog. It’s based on a song by Faithless, “Mass Destruction,” a deceptively jaunty anti-war number that appeared on their 2004 album “No Roots.” At that time I produced a novelty version featuring some appropriate excerpts of George W. Bush’s anti-evildoer speechifying. Despite my version’s simplicity (like, wow, echo!) it proved inexplicably popular. As is my usual method, I produced at least six different versions, including a long one that appeared on my website and a shorter one that got some radio play on my own and other stations. This new version uses excerpts of Bush’s recent State of the Union speech as well as some of the clips I used in the original mix. Compare and contrast! It’s Faithless vs. George W. Bush, “Mass Destruction” (Party Ben’s 2007 Mother Jones remix). Enjoy.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate