HEADLINES

SEPTEMBER 4, 2008
BOSTON, HERE I COME; NEW TRACKS, HERE THEY ARE
Long-winded commentary, here it is. New Englanders! Put down your chowdah and listen up! I'll be making my debut Massachusets DJ appearance this coming Tuesday at Bootie Boston, one of two East Coast outposts of that venerable bastard pop disco dance party. Also in the hizzay will be Boston superstars like DJ BC, Lenlow, the lovely and talented Kenlow, as well as technical support from Adambalm, who seems a little more concerned than I am about hooking up all the video stuff. Video stuff, you said? Yes, that's right, I'll be performing a slightly-updated version of the Party Ben Alive all-video mashup experience, which may be nearing the end of its shelf life as a concept but I figure I get a good year out of my goofy ideas, and at least I'm not wearing an Obi Wan Kenobi robe around any more, right? Anyway, hooray Boston, it all happens at Middlesex Lounge (which is technically in Cambridge) on Tuesday night. Hey, I was pretty popular in Ireland for about 15 minutes, so I should be okay there, right?

Anyway, what else. Everybody sick of my electro-style dancey bootlegs will be even more annoyed since I'm going to post a couple new dancey tracks right now. Neither are really that exciting but they might be useful for other DJs.

M.I.A. - "Paper Planes" (Party Ben's Fly Like High Like Remix) Download: 11MB 256kbps mp3 Listen: Wow, so MIA's like a Top 5 Artist in the US of A, how neat is that? Now I've done a lot of other MIA mixes so I think the fact that I'm like a year late to a Paper Planes mix can be excused, can't it? Anyway this is pretty straightforward: get in at dance tempo, slow down for some MIA, speed back up to dance tempo, crowd goes wild or maybe just goes to get a drink.

Fake Blood vs. Purple Ribbon All-Stars - "On Mars All Night" Download: 7MB 256kbps mp3 Listen: Wanting to play that Fake Blood track out at the clubs but feel like the lack of vocals makes it a little too tough of a sell? Hey, let's add a space-referencing rap (Kryptonite is from space, right?) and get the party started. Or, just play the original, since it's freakin' awesome. Whatever, I don't care.

See you Tuesday, Boston!

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AUGUST 20, 2008
PEOPLE WILLING TO VISIT CALL IN SICK'S MYSPACE PAGE GET A FREE SONG
Yeah, well, it's not like I can give you free snacks. I don't mean to turn this upstanding website into Club Promotion Central Dot Blargh, but indulge me for a moment. Call In Sick is the free little club night me and DJ MyKill do over at Beauty Bar on Thursdays, a place for us to indulge our love of fidget house, cheesy Bmore and classic hits from our glowstick-waving rave days, plus stuff we make that isn't exactly ear-friendly enough for that other club. Last month we had this crazy crowd of lunatics dancing up a storm til the bitter end, so this month we're hoping for even more of that.

To encourage readers to learn more about Call In Sick, I've posted a link to a new Party Ben electro-funk production over on the blog on the MySpace Page. It's called "Pop" and it uses stuff from other songs but isn't really a mashup. Plus it's the last thing I used my vintage Korg Poly-800 on before it conked out. Snif! Anyway, go ahead and be our friend or whatever you kids do on the MySpace zone, and if you feel like a shimmy, come out to Beauty Bar tomorrow night.

AUGUST 13, 2008
BOOTIE SURVIVES 5-YEAR ANNIVERSARY MAYHEM;
RADIO 1's CHRIS MOYLES GETS CRUSHED OUT ON PARTY BEN
It's the best anniversary present ever. Holy moley, our little baby done growed up. The little club Adrian & Mysterious D started 5 years ago to play some kooky mashups (bringing me on for the second one) has become a gigantic, uncontrollable monster: from what I understand, the 5-year anniversary party at DNA Lounge Saturday night brought out 1500 party people. Yikes! A+D had an insane performance full of drag queen lip-synching and nutty dance troupes; I was lazy and just decided to play tunes (and, er, "sing" with Smashup Derby, see above left). What tunes did I play, you may ask? Well, you can relive my sets, even if you decided to stay home and eat chips Saturday night.

As always, DNA Lounge archives audio from their club nights on their web site here, but I pulled my sets from the feed and saved them as MP3s so you can load them up on your Zunes. Check them out (and their playlists) over at the Long Mixes Page.

Just a few hours earlier, at 6:00 Friday night London time, BBC Radio 1 morning show host Chris Moyles was participating in a "soundclash" DJ battle with fellow Radio 1 personality "Comedy Dave" live on stage at a festival in Newquay (that's pronounced "nukey") on England's west coast. Apparently the point of this event was that Chris and Dave would take turns playing songs of their choosing, and then judge the victor by audience response. Well, apparently Mr. Moyles has some unresolved mashup issues, since he played six (6) Party Ben productions during the hour-long battle, including a dance mix of "Snow Police," "We Will Jump You," "Led Snooppelin," "Rehab (Can't Help Myself)," "Galvanize the Empire," and "Ooh La La Summer Nights." Listening to the broadcast feed, some appeared to work better than others; the crowd just wanted to sing along with some of their favorite tunes, but Party Ben mashups do tend to move things around a bit, making singalongs a bit difficult. Thus, the "Rehab" boot, for instance, just seemed to confuse everybody. Ah well. Moylesy cut off a few of them before they finished in an apparent acknowledgement of that fact, although by the end, he was scored the winner, so I guess everything turned out okay. Either way, it's kind of exciting hearing my tracks played for a crazy festival crowd. The whole show is up for a few more days on the BBC iPlayer [edit, it's down now] or check out an edited version below.

BBC Radio 1 - Chris Moyles vs. Comedy Dave "Soundclash"
Friday, August 8, 2008, 6-7pm (edited to include just the Party Ben tracks, 24 minutes long)



Thanks to Chris and to everybody in Newquay who cheered. Now, if I could just figure out how to get a DJ gig in the UK, I could capitalize monetarily on all this.

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AUGUST 5, 2008
PARTY BEN ALIVE: THE HOME EDITION!
So easy even grandma can play! Boy, was it only six months ago that I put together a special set for Bootie featuring video accompaniment to a bunch of my goofball tracks, with a cheeky nod to Daft Punk's ground-breaking tour? Well, yes, yes it was. Since then not only has San Francisco enjoyed the multimedia experience, but also Los Angeles and New York, uh, did. Pretty soon, I'll be taking the show to Boston for the Bootie outpost there, but for some reason, I decided it might be time to show the rest of the world what the fuss is about. So, I've mixed together some of the tracks and videos into a few easy-to-digest segments, which, when listed here together with some of the videos I've already posted, can give you a good idea of what Party Ben Alive was all about. Now, of course, this stuff was put together specifically for a live club setting where I had three big video screens going, so big flashes of color and stuff were a little more "atmosphereic." On your home computer, it may seem a little goofy. But hey, like I care what you think.

Before we begin, let me point out that many of these clips incorporate work by VJ Brewski, VJ Jaren, and , FL1PB01T4M1DL35, although I rearranged a lot of their stuff after they gave it to me, since I can't leave well enough alone. Either way, though, their contributions were invaluable and many thanks for their assistance.

Anyway, thanks again of course to A+D as well as the staff of DNA Lounge in SF, The Echo in LA, and The Vault in NYC for their help, and to everybody who came out to watch me spin DVD. See you soon, Boston.

In other news, if this web site doesn't provide enough Party Ben blather for you, click on over to BartCop E! where DJ Useo has posted a far-too-indulgent interview with me. Boy, I talk a lot.

And finally, don't miss the Bootie 5-year anniversary party this Saturday night, where I'll be doing a "Bootie Greatest Hits" set around 11:30 and then spinning some new stuff after A+D's show. Can you believe we've been doing this for five years? Oh, Bootie; you don't look a day over 3.

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JULY 4, 2008
OH HEY DID I FORGET TO POST SOME OF THESE THINGS?
Roops. I was just giving a fellow-producer/remixer/pop bastardizer pal a hard time for sitting on his tracks, all worried if they were good enough to put out, concerned about what people would say about them. "Just put 'em out there," I exhorted him, "and who cares if they're not perfect or whatever. Even Oscar (TM)-winning actors have piles of crap films on their resumes, and who knows, even if a track sucks, maybe somebody out there will love it." But then I remembered I'm totally the worst at that: I have like 439 half-finished tracks on my hard drive that I'm too embarrased to post up here. Hypocrisy! So, taking a bit of my own medicine (aaagh, it burns!), here's some random PB crap from the last few months.

	Chemical Brothers vs. John Williams "Galvanize the Empire" (PB's Galvanize the Ghetto Rerub) Download: 10MB 256kbps mp3 Listen: Crazily, I put this together on my laptop whilst sitting on DJ Zebra's couch in Paris (er, Neuilly-sur-Seine) back in November, 2007; 3 weeks into my Gettin' Euros tour and just barely beginning my recovery from a particularly virulent form of what I can only guess was Belgian Bird Flu. Hopped up on French Actifed, I sat down to make a guest Zebramix show, and this is one of the things that came out. It's gone through about 7 different versions (the first one had Destiny's Child in it, for some reason) but here's the latest arrangement.
	Ting Tings vs. Eddie Money - "Baby DJ" Download: 7MB 256kbps mp3 Listen: This is floating around on a Bootie CD from a few months back (hey, remember those days?) and, crazily, I've already gotten quite a few e-mails about it. I say "crazily" because it's not much of anything, just the Ting Tings song I like so much with some of the Eddie Money song they stole the guitar chords from laid on top of it. Sorry no covers for these.
	Howard Jones vs. Lily Allen - "Smile (Things Can Only Get Better)" Download: 8MB 256kbps mp3 Listen: Okay, back to my usual "80s classic + random new vocal" formula. This has been sitting on the hard drive so long I forget what came first, a craving for old HoJo or a need for a new mix of Ms. Allen. Either way this kind of doesn't go anywhere but has a few nice parts.
	M.I.A. - "Bamboo Banga" (Party Ben's Racy Re-edit) Download: 8MB 256kbps mp3 Listen: Dontcha always wanna play "Bamboo Banga" out in the discotheques, but it's all wonky on the intro like? So, here's a re-edit/remix/whatever that I play out sometimes, and now you can, if you want.

So, enjoy. I've made some things that probably would have been more popular in the last 6 months, but jeez, does the world really need another "Shorty Get Low" mashup? Sometimes, even I have to draw the line.

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JUNE 17, 2008
NEW CLUB NIGHT OFFERS MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO SEE PARTY BEN PLAY CDS HE JUST BURNED THAT AFTERNOON
They're funky fresh. While I'm probably best known for my turgid rock ballad mashups, my first love is electro, and I continue to be blown away by recent movements in dance music: thumpy fidget house, zoomy bassline, skittery Bmore. That's why I'm so stoked to have a new venue to play stuff I like as well as my own more electro-riffic productions. I've gotten together with DJ MyKill of stalwart Sunday night party French Kiss for a new monthly Thursday we're calling Call In Sick. Cause, get it, you won't go to work on Friday? We think it's cute. Anyway, it's at Beauty Bar, the cozy spot on Mission & 19th in San Francisco, and hopefully the entry price of "free" will help entice people to stop by.

What can you plan on hearing? Well, while both MyKill and myself enjoy anything with that big laser bass noise, we're both big cheeses, so you'll hear a lot of recognizable samples and some 80s silliness thrown into the mix. Plus, we're both pumping out remixes and edits faster than you can say "mixdown all tracks" so there'll be tons of "exclusives" as they say. We did a test night a few weeks ago and I played a new mix of MIA's "Bamboo Banger" I made and Debbie Deb and like 3 Herve tracks, if that gives you any idea.

CALL IN SICK!
Electro / Bmore / 80s / Bassline / Fidget / Niche / Cutups / Mashups / Edits / Stoopid Fun
With DJs Party Ben & MyKill
Thursday, June 19th - 10pm-2am
Beauty Bar (photo at right)
2299 Mission @ 19th, SF - 21+ - Free!

So, in exchange for a promise from you that you'll put on your snazziest T-shirt and come out on Thursday, here are a couple new mp3 items for your Zunes, in the vein of the kind of stuff we might play:

Lil Wayne - "Lollipop" Remixes Zshare link to RAR file with both mixes I tried this two different ways: first up, doing my own bassline-style version (pilfering beats from the Twocker remix of 187 Lockdown's "Gunman"), and second, doing a slightly more mellow mix that uses the funky backing track from Mowgli's mix of In the Club's "Turn You On." That's data for the trainspotters. Casual fans, all you need to know is one's hyper, one's not quote so hyper. Of course when I made these I hadn't heard the Barletta mix, which is pretty awesome, so I suppose these are kind of superfluous, but whatever. Lil Wayne - "Lollipop" (Party Ben remix) Download: 12MB 256kbps mp3 Listen: Lil Wayne - "Lollipop" (PB vs. Mowgli mix) Download: 9MB 256kbps mp3 Listen:

See you Thursday night!

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JUNE 16, 2008
DORKY RADIO DJS CONTINUE TO TAKE CREDIT FOR "BOULEVARD OF BROKEN SONGS"
That's so 2005. It's been nearly 4 years since I premiered my little novelty Green Day/Oasis/etc mix on the LIVE 105 Sixx Mixx, and wow, does that make me feel old. The track ended up on quite a few radio stations around the world, but scout's honor, I never sent it to anybody myself, and I'm still a bit confused as to how it all happened. So it's understandable that radio DJs weren't entirely sure how to credit the thing, since it was probably just their cousin's hairdresser who e-mailed it to them. But some of them took this absence of knowledge and ran with it, deciding that they could just take credit for it themselves. Most notably, Q101 Chicago's morning dipshit Mancow and/or his cronies made a big deal about how they created the mashup a few years back, causing a big feud with other Q101 DJs who apparently tried to get the truth out there (read about that here, scroll down to February). Fun times. Even though the hype over "Boulevard" has been pretty dead for a while now,, I guess word just reached Kentucky, where a local jock has decided his listeners will think he's more awesome if he told them he made it. This was sent to me by a guy calling himself "Mash1up1town," and that's alls I know, so I'm not sure what station this is or anything; if anyone out there recognizes Hammer, drop a line. Not that I'm annoyed; far from it, it's all pretty hilarious, and it's not like they're taking any money out of my pocket or anything.

Audio: Hammer Takes Credit for "Boulevard" on Kentucky Radio internet



UPDATE 6/17: Hey thanks to an intrepid reporter, we've found out that this isn't a real radio show, it's an internet-only show from a guy who lost his job at regular radio. I hate guys like that. Oh wait. But anyway, I'm guessing it was probably the Hammer himself who e-mailed me under an assumed name just so he could get some awesome Partyben.com publicity? Well, done and done.

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JUNE 9, 2008
BLOGS HELP REMIND US OF A TIME WHEN PARTY BEN WAS COOL
Or at least knew cool Australians. Was it really almost three years ago when me and Team9 attempted to combine as many songs as possible with a hit pop-punk album, in what was misreported as a desperate attempt to get Damon Albarn to pay attention to us? Wow, those were the days. Since then, as we all know, I personally thumbed my nose at the apparent promise of American Edit by producing "Wipeout Taffy"; Team9 has gone on to bigger and better things, although he still writes now and then. But like they say, the internet never forgets, and a brand new blog, called the Mashup Preservation Society, has taken it upon themselves to remind people of our glory days. They've posted a lovely couple of paragraphs about the album, calling it "the moment in mashup history where the standard for all modern mashups was set." Well, I don't know about that, but either way, they have a zshare rar file of the full album (something a now-yellowing cease-and-desist prevents me from offering), as well as a fully-functional compendium of YouTube videos for each and every track. Neat, and thanks MPS, whoever you are...

Link: Mashup Preservation Society

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MAY 14, 2008
PB ALIVE HITS NYC; PLUS, "GALVANIZE THE EMPIRE" USED AS RADIO 1 BATTLE WEAPON
Laser noises always help you win battles. Yo, East Coast Posse! I'm here in NYC for the crazy CBS ridiculousness, so while I'm in the neighborhood I figured I'd stop by Bootie NYC for a guest DJ set. I'll be reprising the Daft Punk-inspired Party Ben Alive all-video set that San Franciscans saw in January and Los Angelenos were treated to in March, and this will likely be the last time I do it, so call your friends, cancel your appointments and come on out. Bootie NYC happens at the Vault, 225 E Houston at Essex, F/V to 2nd Avenue, this Friday 5/16.

In nutty British festival news, I hear a lot about peopleplaying my tracks at random events or clubs, but this is amusing enough I figure it's worth making note of. BBC Radio 1 just held its "Big Weekend" music festival, featuring Madonna and stuff, but over on the dance stage, you could witness Radio 1 personalities Chris Moyles and Judge Jules DJing together in some sort of "battle" set. This battle took the form of them playing one track at a time and then getting on the mic to declare their superiority, much to the crowd's amusement. Anyway, Moyles' first choice was none other than "Galvanize the Empire," which I believe he's been known to spin on his show. It's hard to hear exactly from the crowd noise whether they appreciated it or not, but Moyles announced "I won" at the en of it. It was apparently broadcast on Radio 1 as part of a Big Weekend highlights reel at about 6:45am Saturday 5/10; listen to the segment below, or listen online to all the Big Weekend excitement here. And thanks Moylesy!

Party Ben - "Galvanize the Empire" played by Chris Moyles at Radio 1 Big Weekend
1.3MB mp3



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APRIL 24, 2008
LAST-MINUTE LATE-BREAKING PARTY BEN DJ SET ALERT!
Get those phone trees going. If you're heading to the desert this weekend for the big Coachella festival, like I am, and you're around tonight, then you might be interested in coming by the funnest pre-party around, the long-running Filter Magazine Coachella Kickoff. I DJed last year by the lake and had an awesome time, and the fine folks at Filter were apparently pleased enough with my set to bring me back again this year for even more DJ fun times. I'll be doing an early set lakeside once again, as well as a set on the lawn at 1am, so stop by and say hi, if you can figure out the crazy bus system that you have to deal with to get there. That's tonight, Thursday, April 24th.

Then, you know, see you in the front row for Prince on Saturday.

APRIL 2, 2008
VIDEO: THE ZEBRAMIX TOUR 2007
Seulement quatre mois en retard. Many readers of this website may remember that my Gettin' Euros Tour (way back in November and December of '07) culminated in an opening slot on the France-conquering Zebramix cavalcade of bootleg ridiculousness, featuring the eponymous Zebra as well as the fantabulous Moule. Even though I was fighting off an especially virulent Belgian strain of what I can only assume was The Black Plague at the time, we still managed to amuse ourselves. Monsieur Zebz brought along his video camera to document the festivities, and he's finally edited the footage together into a totally watchable 6-minute video, which he's posted to YouTube. Watching it now, I'm reminded of a variety of things: a) my French is terrible, b) I look like a dork when I DJ, and c) I have what they call "a face for radio." But still, we had fun, and this is some of the best footage so far of the events:



In case you're wondering what I'm blathering about in French at the beginning, I'm saying sometihng about how "I am DJ Zebra, and I forget where is the interview because I have many interviews each day," which was apropos of the fact that we had an interview scheduled in Bordeaux and Zebra had no idea where or with whom. I was just making fun but perhaps that doesn't come across in French. Anyway, thanks for posting this Mr. Masterfunk.

By the way, I'm also planning to return to the general vicinity of Europe in June and July, so for booking opportunities don't hesitate to get in touch at partyben@yahoo.com.

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MARCH 23, 2008
PARTY BEN BACK IN AMERICA; PARTYBEN.COM BACK ON INTERNET
Canada: the "Server Not Found" of countries. Just kidding. Those of you trying to access this fine website over the past couple days were denied its subtle pleasures, and I didn't know about it, since I was galavanting around downtown Canada. The paranoid among you may have imagined either an FBI crackdown on illicit use of Fergie or perhaps a dramatic decision on the part of myself to leave the world of mashups once and for all. Sadly, neither is the case, and in fact the shutdown was only a result of an unexpected (and as yet unexplained) surge in web traffic that caused my unwitting hosting company to turn the Partyben.com switch to "off," and not also, say, tell me about it. So, now I have to figure out which file(s) were getting all the internet attention and perhaps move it or them offsite temporarily; in the meantime there's a "throttle" on my site that may make things move more slowly. In both cases let me apologize for the inconvenience.

UPDATE: Turns out the offending file was "Smells Stronger," which was generating nearly 50% of my total web traffic over the last week. So that little number has moved temporarily over to Z-share. Sorry.

Anyway, Canada was Canadawesome: the gig at Hyde on Thursday night was a ton of fun (props to their resident DJ Jedi who had a crapload of the same exact Baltimore and electro stuff I'm enjoying when I'm not being Mashup Man), and then in a last-minute development that interfered with my plans to go see Canada's own Caribou at Lee's Palace, I was asked to jump in on an event at super-fancy club Maro that was loosely related to Toronto Fashion Week. We can just leave the irony of me being involved in something fashionable out of this, thank you. But while my schedule (and the freezing temperatures) prevented me from seeing much in the way of tourist attractions, I had a great time, mostly thanks to Reza and Michael at Something & Monroe productions who brought me out. I also got to hang briefly with Lock3down, saw a poster for a MSTRKRFT gig which had Bootie alums Team Canada on the bill, and perhaps most importantly, I had a donut at a Tim Hortons. Hope to see you soon, Canadians.

MARCH 13, 2008
ANOTHER PB ALIVE TRACK + CANADA FUN TIMES
Pay no attention to all that stuff I said about NAFTA. First up, here's another mp3 for your Zunes, a track from my ridiculous Party Ben Alive mega video set. I put together the original Led Snooppelin track in 2004, and I was never very happy with it, production-wise; the Zeppelin song was hard to work with, and the rhythm, from Block Rockin' Beats, didn't really sit right, in my opinion. But I put it out anyway, and probably because of the source material, some people were into it, and I resolved to someday fix all the problems.

Well that day arrived when I started putting together the video show, and I rebuilt the track from scratch, speeding it up and adding a more solid beat (Lovemakers' "Shake That Ass"). People are happily arguing over the new version's merits on YouTube, so here's the mp3 all by itself.

Led Snooppelin - "Drop It Like It's a Whole Lotta Love" (2008 Remix) 5MB VBR mp3 Mostly this is just a good way for me to try and combat my (well-earned) reputation as "that guy who mashes up songs with '80s songs. See, no '80s here at all!

Also, I'll be doing my very first DJ set in Canada next week. Oh, Canada. Thanks to the good folks at Something and Monroe, I'll be appearing at the snazzy Hyde nightspot, right in Downtown Canada itself (er, Toronto, that is) next Thursday night 3/20, for a set at their "Hollywood Hangover" event. Thankfully I already have some Canadian tracks to play, although maybe this gig will be an impetus for me to finally finish that Arcade Fire/Yes mix. Either way, hope to see a bunch of you Canadians, with your flappy heads and beady little eyes, out at the gig.

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"Could everybody please be quiet for a second I kaaann't heeear dee maaashupppzz!" Photo by Aman About Town.

MARCH 4, 2008
PARTY BEN ALIVE AFTERMATH / NEON NOISE MIX / PRESS UPDATE
Plus my recipe for tangy chicken surprise. Holy Crap, LA; San Francisco is my (mostly) happy home, but right now you're secretly my favorite. Don't tell the hippies! Bootie LA was a smashing success on Saturday night--too much of a success, to be honest; the Echo hit capacity before 11:30pm, leaving a long line of people out in the unseasonable cold. I'm still not exactly clear on how many people couldn't get in, but if anyone out there reading this had trouble, please accept all of our sincere apologies. Understandably, the energy inside the venue was a little bonkers, and my set was a ton of fun, although I had a bit of a scare at the end: in SF, I put my silly robot helmet back on to do the "thankyous" over the last song, but in LA, when I went looking under the DJ table for the helmet, it was gone. Ulp! Somebody stole my helmet! But, thankfully somebody handed it to me a few minutes later, and I was told that apperently people had been passing it around and wearing it as they danced about the stage. Oh, you crazy kids. Pictures of that are coming soon, but in the meantime here's some blog coverage from Aman About Town, as well as his Flickr set, plus FWY OK had a good time too. Thanks to everybody who came out, I'll be back in May.

So there are a couple new things in the Party Ben Alive set that I've been promising as mp3s for a while, and I'm a man of my word, so here you go:

	Daft Punk vs. Nirvana - "Smells Stronger" 5MB 192kbps mp3 Z-share link Like I said below, these are perhaps the two most mashed-up songs ever in history (outside of Eminem's "Without Me"), and so this is kind of dopey, but as part of the show it works okay.
	Justice vs. Dead or Alive - "D.A.N.C.E. (Like a Record)" 6MB 192kbps mp3 Honestly this was inspired by DJ Zebra who would end his sets with the MSTRKRFT mix of "D.A.N.C.E." all the time, so I'm like, "what goes with that?" Pete Burns goes with that. Again, silly, and I probably worked harder on the cover than the actual mashup, but hey, at least I'm still trying, right?

Weridly enough, at the exact same time as my set at the Echo, I had a guest mix going on Paul V's Indie 103.1 disco dance party show, "Neon Noise." It's suitably electro-riffic and kind of steals a couple things from recent Jokers of the Scene mixes, but it's got the secret "Galvanize the Empire" rerub in it plus other techno ridiculousness. You can download an mp3 of the whole thing and see a tracklisting on the Long Mixes page.

And finally, there's been a little bit of Party Ben press recently; nothing like a front-page feature on a Green Day mashup or anything (sigh) but we take what we can get these days. First up, the Sacramento Bee mentioned me in a weird little article on, um, "modern media gems," that recommendes mashups, in general, as a diverting entertainment option. Neat. They tell readers to just "Google 'party ben,' 'bootiesf' or 'digitaleargasm' to get started." What's a Digital Eargasm? Also, the University of Maryland's Diamondback student newspaper included a reference to "Tender Umbrella" in a review of a recent English Beat show, and I'm going to bet Dave Wakeling is sick of hearing about it at this point.

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FEBRUARY 28, 2008
PARTY BEN ALIVE COMES TO LOS ANGELES
Still no sign of light-up pyramid. Miss the first, er, "performance" of Party Ben Alive, the Multimedia Spectacularrr, back in January? Well Los Angelenos will have a chance to see me play videos and stuff this Saturday night at Bootie LA, which triumphantly returned to the Echo earlier this year. I've made a couple changes to the show, and still don't really have any idea how I'm going to set up the video screens, but we'll figure it out and hopefully it will be super awesome. To celebrate, let's post one more of the videos I made, this one for a new mashup I put together specifically for the vaguely Daft Punk-inspired performance:

Also, if you can't make it out to the Echo on Saturday night but find yourself in reach of a radio or the intertubes, tune them into Indie 103.1 FM from midnight to 1am (that's technically Sunday morning 3/2) when I'll have a guest mix on Paul V's electro show, Neon Noise, which he keeps reminding me is not called "Neon Nights," even though I keep saying that because I'm dumb. Paul's been doing a good job staying on top of the new electro jams over there, and while I'm all about the beats, I also can't help but put different vocals over everything, so expect a bit of an electro/mashup headspinner with a bunch of new stuff I'm enjoying.

Next week I'll post mp3s of the mixes as well as more of the actual tracks from Party Ben Alive, so, you know, stay tuned, and see you in LA!

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FEBRUARY 27, 2008
!GRACIAS MÉXICO!
Y no sólo para los tacos. I managed to stop sampling the local cuisine long enough to actually do a couple DJ gigs around Mexico last week, in the Puebla area and Monterrey, as part of the run-up to the MX Beat festival, four concerts around the country that feature international artists like M.I.A. and Cut Copy as well as Mexican combos like Plastilina Mosh and Instituto Mexicano del Sonido. Since the promoters of the gigs were interested in having me play some of the music from the bands on the lineups, and I'm also all about making special mashups for the countries I'm lucky enough to visit, I threw together a simple track using good old M.I.A. and the aforementioned Plastilina Mosh, a Monterrey band who were appearing at the Puebla festival date.

Me and the P-Mosh guys at their bar, Rubber Ducky Records, in Monterrey's old town

So, imagine my surprise when I arrive in Monterrey and mention the mashup to my local contacts, they say "hey, P Mosh are are buddies and we're actually planning to stop by the bar they own before your gig, you can totally meet them." Crazy! So, yes, we went there and yes, I met them, and yes I gave them a CD of the mashup which they put on the stereo immediately. Unfortunately I'd just made a new version of it that day on the laptop and hadn't listened to the whole thing so the first verse was a little off the beat (roops!), hopefully nobody noticed. But look: we got a picture!

Anyway, like I said, this is a pretty simple little mashup, but I figure if the stars aligned so weirdly that I actually meet the band then I guess I should probably post the track here.

Plastilina Mosh vs. M.I.A. - "Millionaire Galang" 7MB 192kbps mp3 "Millionaire" was a big hit for the Mosh in 2006 I guess so perhaps this is a little old for everybody in Mexico but it's a jaunty little tune and look, M.I.A.'s ya-ya-hey's are in the same key.

Crazy, huh: lately I'm getting kind of randomly lucky with original artists at least being aware of and giving public props to my work, whether or not I put my foot in my mouth with them. Still waiting for that call from Noel Gallagher, though. Anyway, thanks a bunch to Adan, Jose Antonio, and Marianna for their work in helping to put together the gigs, and thanks Mexico for all the tacos al pastor.

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FEBRUARY 19, 2008
DAVE WAKELING UPDATE: NOT MAKING UP KOOKY STORIES!
Who knew anybody actually read this website? Well, my dumb sense of humor has gone and gotten me in trouble once again, since I actually got an e-mail today from, er, Dave Wakeling (!!!), saying he was retelling the story accurately as he knew it, since it was his manager who told him about it. Aagh! I was just trying to make light of the situation since it seemed kind of like an X-files episode: "They talked to my manager? But I don't have a manager!! Could it have been... an alien?" But of course, after re-reading my post, it came off the wrong way. Sorry Dave. I just wanted to make clear that I'm not getting mean letters from lawyers all the time saying "How dare you," and that if I was, I probably wouldn't be doing this stuff, since I actually do respect the artists whose work I so sloppily violate.

So, yes, a legendary musican is nice to me in an interview and I say something dumb to make him hate me. Typical. Like I always say: I'm the Larry David of DJs. Now I have to go drink some tequila and try and forget what a dork I am.

FEBRUARY 19, 2008
iPARTY BEN EN MEXICO!
Holy frijoles. Well, it's not really a tour, or you know I'd have made a stupid "Gettin' Pesos Tour 2008" logo and everything, but I have a couple gigs in Puebla and Monterrey this week. Things seem to operate on a little bit of a more relaxed timeframe here south of the border, so the venues have just been confirmed (actually Thursday's gig is still up in the air), check the right column or the events page for more details.

I'm here as part of run-up pre-parties for the exciting MX Beat Soundfest concerts, and the one this Saturday in Puebla looks really amazing, with Plastilina Mosh and a bunch of cool DJs I like on the bill, so I'm tring to ignore the prominent Marlboro sponsorship. As usual, I'm putting together some tracks utilizing some of the indigenous pop as well as some of the festival acts, so maybe if any of those turn out okay I'll post them up here later. But right now I'm on a quest for mole poblano.

FEBRUARY 17, 2008
DAVE WAKELING LIKES "TENDER UMBRELLA" BUT ALSO MAKING UP KOOKY STORIES
Unless I have a "manager" I don't know about. I actually heard about this a while back, as a label guy for the legendary English Beat/General Public star dropped me a line to say that Wakeling had heard and enjoyed my mashup, but now it's been confirmed in a public interview setting: Lazy Lima Bean Film Magazine (?) has posted a chat with Wakeling where he gives me some quite lovely compliments but also seems to have, well, fictionalized the situation a bit:

LL: You know what would be great? To see Rihanna perform with you, live. Did you see the mashup of her song, "Umbrella," mixed with General Public’s "Tenderness" by Party Ben?

DW: I loved it. I thought it was fantastic. I couldn’t believe how the songs fit seamlessly as they did – like a hand to a glove. For somebody to mash it up with one of our songs is a great honor, I must say.

LL: Did you know that it’s on the compilation "Best of Bootie 2007" (the best mashups of 2007)?

DW: Yes! We called Party Ben’s manager to congratulate him and he supposedly was blown away. We were told that he was like, "I can’t remember the last time someone left a message that it sounded great, instead of calling to say ‘How dare you! This is the name of my lawyer!’"

I wonder what he could do with new acoustic versions of my songs? What mashups could he come up with?

LL: How does one get the rights to use your song in a mashup?

DW: I have absolutely no idea! [laughs] Nobody’s ever asked me! I supposed somebody’s asked somebody…

Okay, first of all, thanks, glad you liked it, I mean, holy crap, Dave Wakeling, right? Like, he said my name!!! But in the interest of truthiness, I should point out a few inaccuracies in the above statement, no offense. First, I do not now, nor have I ever had, a manager, so I'm not sure who they spoke to. Was Mysterious D pretending to be my agent again? If you meant that e-mail, well, that was just me. 2) I wouldn't really say that thing about not remembering the last time yada yada, since in fact, my experience has been quite the opposite: almost all the time, when I hear about an artist coming across one of my productions, they at least tell me they like it: Ian MacKaye, Lyrics Born, Hot Hot Heat, Tegan and Sara--although Sara famously [?] once expressed some reservations about the whole thing. And let's not forget Nathan Snow Patrol! But even they didn't send lawyers after me, and mostly I've been pretty lucky. Watch me get a C&D tomorrow, now that I've said that.

Again, none of this in any way should detract from my honor at even taking up space in Dave Wakeling's brain for a brief moment, and I totally get it, upping the drama a little bit, just for fun. Like I've said, most of what's good about "Tender Umbrella," I think, is rediscovering the greatness of "Tenderness," so I bow down before his genius.

They did get one thing right: yes it would be totally freakin' awesome if Rihanna and Dave performed "Tender Umbrella" sometime. Hey, she's willing to slow it way the hell down to perform with The Time, so maybe she's up for it?

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FEBRUARY 14, 2008
A SPECIAL LYRICS BORN VALENTINE'S DAY TREAT
I hope he got the box of chocolates I sent him. As LIVE 105 listeners and readers of this fine website know, my history with Bay Area hip hop artist Lyrics Born (aka Tom Shimura) is a long one. His 2003 track "Callin' Out" made its radio debut when I played it on Subsonic, and by the way to get it on the air I had to spend an hour making a "radio edit" since I all had was the original with its repeated chant of "make this shit happen right here right now," which is naughty. Eventually I tracked down the clean a capella, and started mixing it over just about everything in the good old Sixx Mixx; later, a version using U2's "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" emerged as a favorite. Amazingly, neither Tom nor his label Quannum (represented to us by the awesome Lydia) were perturbed about my mucking about with his song--on the contrary, they started tossing a capellas and instrumentals at me like I was a one-man hit machine and not just a dippy DJ who sometimes stumbles onto amusing combos.

In the intervening years, I made a total of four separate mashups and remixes of the track, and one of them has now shown up on a new Lyrics Born mixtape. The Lyrics Born Variety Show features my 2005 remix of "Callin' on Sunday," and while they're having some website issues over at lyricsborn.com right now, once they fix it you can download the whole thing for $1.99 if you act soon.

Plus, their news page is totally making me blush: they give me a major shout-out and call me the "Mash Up King" which I've said before isn't exactly right: I'm more like the Mashup Court Jester. But anyway, jeez, thanks guys.

So in celebration of mutual Lyrics Born-Party Ben lurrvvvv, I've remastered and compiled all my versions of "Callin' Out" as well as a brand new crazy techno mix into one exciting EP:

Can't Stop Callin' Out: The Complete Party Ben vs. Lyrics Born Experience ZShare RAR file link includes all 5 tracks: 1. U2 vs. Lyrics Born - "Callin' on Sunday" (Original mix) mp3 2. U2 vs. Lyrics Born - "Callin' on Sunday" (2005 Remix) mp3 3. Average White Band vs. Lyrics Born - "Callin' Up the Pieces" mp3 4. Average White Band vs. Lyrics Born - "Callin' Up the Pieces" (Baltimore Remix) mp3 Bonus Track: SebastiAn vs. Lyrics Born - "Callin' Ross" mp3

That's right, you get the original 2004 megamashup, the 2005 remix made specifically for a big show where Lyrics himself was playing, the silly Average White Band mashup I threw together for my Party Ben: A New Beginning set in 2007, and the wacky B-more remix thereof. Plus act now and get a ridiculous bonus track: a crazy stuttery edit using SebastiAn's thumpy hit "Ross Ross Ross" that doesn't really go anywhere but is kind of amusing in a remix-y kind of way.

What a bargain! Anyway, I was just e-mailing LB, and with his new album Everywhere At Once coming out on Anti- in April (plug, plug), we might have more exciting PB/LB stuff later this... er, spring. So, thanks Tom, Justin and Lydia for putting up with me, and everybody please go spend lots of money on Lyrics Born and Quannum stuff right now, and hey, even Anti- stuff too, while you're at it.

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FEBRUARY 2, 2008
PARTY BEN CONTINUES TO INDULGE IN ELECTRO NONSENSE
You thought I was marginal before. While one could point to my post-LIVE 105 status (and subsequent freedom from hearing Foo Fighters every 15 minutes) as the reason behind my apparently rediscovered love for the dancey beats, actually if you go to my music page you'll see that I was putting hip-hop over breakbeats way back at the beginning of my so-called "career;" one could argue my forays into Green Day editing were the uncharacteristic daliances. If one cared, which one doesn't. Anyway, thankfully, lately I have more places to play these sort of remix-y sounding tracks: first up, I'll be doing another appearance tomorrow (2/3) at French Kiss, my favorite upstart Sunday night electro/indie/disco party, with my new buddies MyKill and Forever 21. Look for me to throw a bunch of the bassline-y Sinden and Switch stuff into the mix plus the awesomest B-more jams around.

Also, now that Bootie will be available for your mashup pleasure twice a month over at DNA Lounge, we're happy to be expanding the concept a little bit, and starting February 23rd we'll indulge our love for the unofficial remix, bootleg re-edits and whacked out re-versions in the back room at the appropriately named Electro-Bootie. I can't wait.

In that spirit, here's two new items that fit in this category:

	Plump DJs vs. Flo Rida - "Low Addict" 9MB 192kbps mp3 I've always been a fan of Plump DJs (and in fact, some of my first forays into the nightclub scene in San Francisco were in the Nu Skool Breaks scene; wow, those were the days) and it's nice to see they're still putting out quality tunes. This one fits right in under that Low song that's everywhere.
	Tepr vs. Shannon - "Minuit Music" 8MB 192kbps mp3 This one takes the datA remix of Tepr's "Minuit Jacuzzi," a track that already kind of seems to reference '80s freestyle, and makes it a little more obvious. I actually had to completely reconstruct the Tepr track to make this happen, it sounds pretty easy but it wasn't, I promise.

Fun. Something else people have been asking about might be appearing in a Bootie Top Ten soon as well... stay tuned.

Also, in other-country news, it looks like I'll be headed to Mexico in a few weeks for a couple gigs in Puebla and Monterrey as part of the MX Beat Soundfest warm-up schedule. I'm just happy to get away from rainy San Francisco for a few days. Anyway I'll be watching Dora the Explora to brush up on my Spanish and also putting together some new tracks featuring Mexican artists for the occasion. See the Events page for more details as they become available. iAzucar!

JANUARY 26, 2008
MUSIC PAGE UPDATED
With old stuff. After many requests I've added links to some more of the "oldies" over on the Music page. Some of the really crap things I made way back in like 2001 are left off the list (blech!) but others are there despite my shame. As always if there's something you've heard me play or heard on a radio show way back when and you're desperate to know what it's all about, feel free to e-mail me at partyben@yahoo.com.

MP3s of some of the new Party Ben Alive stuff coming soon...

JANUARY 17, 2008
PARTY BEN MAKES (MOSTLY) SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION TO VISUAL MEDIA
Also, robot. I know, it's only like 7 years after everybody else started DJing with videos (er, "VJ-ing") but I've always been a bit of a curmudgeon, preferring to focus on audio, and also I didn't know how to do it. Well, after some wrestling around with Adobe Premier (and the help of a couple more-experienced video types) I managed to put together an hour-long set featuring videos for 19 new and not-so-new Party Ben mashups at Bootie on Saturday night. Despite our best efforts we had a bit of a technical issue from about the 4-minute to the 6-minute mark (loose cords!) but everything else went off without a hitch.

Many thanks to everybody who helped out with the production: VJs Jaren, Brewski and Flipboitamidles for videos, DJ Tripp for the DVJs, The Indra for supplying umbrellas and the Boylesque boys (or is that "bois"?) for dancing around with them, Kristi for sewing the extra screens and for taking pictures, Barry, Jeremy and especially Devon at DNA for the extra help setting up all the crazy crap, Avista rentals for the equipment, and A plus D for letting me do it. Plus, of course, thanks to the 1000+ peeps who came out and danced around, although the troop of ladies on stage who were pulling down my pants while I was trying to DJ were really taking flirtation a bit too far.

If you couldn't make it, your next chance to see the exciting multimedia show will be at the newly re-Echoed Bootie LA on Saturday March 1st; and perhaps I'll do something similar again sometime soon at Bootie SF as well, we'll see...

Anyway, there were a couple new things I played during the set, as well as some new mixes of old things, and not only did I use other VJs' videos, I actually made some of my own. Here's a couple samples.

JANUARY 7, 2008
PARTY BEN SET TO ACT LIKE A DORK ON STAGE IN NEW, EXCITING WAYS THIS SATURDAY
Wonder what he'll dress up like this time. As I wistuflly noted a few days ago, it was one year ago this week that Party Ben Kenobi light-sabered his way onto the stage at Bootie for the very first time. That was fun, and lord knows I've exploited that about as much as humanly possible over the last 12 months. But all good things must come to an end, and after being defeated by Emperor Zebra in Paris, Party Ben Kenobi has decided to retire to some sort of tropical Jedi assisted-living planet. So what's next?

Well, huh, what else can I rip off. Oh, I know: one of the biggest, most celebrated tours of the year. While I won't have a 2-million-dollar light-up pyramid (well, I do, but I'm not taking it to DNA Lounge!), I will be utilizing video in the set for the first time, featuring both some clips put together by kids like VJ Brewskiand VJ Jaren, as well as some of my own ham-fisted creations. Musically, last year's set's shtick was "all new mashups," but this year will be more like "PB Greatest Hits," if there is such a thing, so be warned.

Anyway, it all happens this Saturday night at Bootie at DNA Lounge. Listen and watch on the webcast here.

DECEMBER 30, 2007
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ALL OF US AT PARTY BEN INFORMATION SYSTEMS HEADQUARTERS
Now in 27 locations to serve you better.
Well, it's that time again, time for us to remember what 2007 has given us (euros!) and what 2007 has taken away (I'd say self-respect, but 2003 got my last kernel).

But not only is this a time to gaze back fondly at the last 12 months, it's also a time to look forward to 2008. ...Huh. What a year that's gonna be. Well, rather than dwell on the ever-nearing destruction of humanity, let's enjoy ourselves, and there are ample opportunities to do so Party Ben-style in the next few weeks.

First up, don't miss the first-ever Bootie Pirate New Year's Eve Party (or as I'm calling it, "A Very Bootie New Year," or maybe that's the name of our made-for-TV movie). Pirate-themed wear is not required, and you can totally get one of the free CDs even if you're wearing the tiniest skull-and-crossbones pin or something. I mean, if you wanna do it up Jack Sparrow-style be my guest, but hell if I'm doing that, I got mashups to make. Anyway, advance tickets are here.

Then, in only two short weeks, on January 12th, 2008, regular old Bootie is back, and I'm on stage for my now-apparently-annual January headlining set. Can it really be one year ago that the world was introduced to my alter ego, Party Ben Kenobi, and his theme song, Galvanize the Empire? Well, this year I'm doing my best to come up with something that will be even more entertaining, and perhaps just as ridiculous, and I'm working on some surprises that would be really super if they came through. Stay tuned. Plus, another thing to stay tuned for is Bootie in general: what's happening in February? Something exciting? Who knows...

And if you're more into the Baltimore-style beats and electro mayhem that I'm sneaking into my Bootie sets, come check me out at French Kiss on 1/27. It's a Sunday night party at Pink down in the Mission, and they totally let me play all the Sinden and Herve stuff I like.

Also on tap for 2008 is trying to make another mashup people like in Ireland cause that was a lot of fun.

And finally, if you're interested in what I liked this year, music-wise, I've posted my Top 20 Albums & Top 20 Singles of the year over on the Mother Jones' Riff blog where I write stuff for some reason; I'll be posting my full lists and more elaborate explanations over on my own Top Tens page here in the next day or two.

Anyway, Happy New Year everybody, and while I usually say "here's hoping (upcoming year) is better than (current year)," it seems like it never is, so now I'll just say "here's hoping 2008 isn't any worse than 2007." Lowered expectations: the secret to happiness!

DECEMBER 9, 2007
PARTY BEN SURVIVES EUROPEAN TOUR
Despite best efforts of Germany where I believe they were trying to poison me with spicy mustard that came in a toothpaste tube. Zut alors, as they say in another country whose name I can't remember right now: I just got back from the European tour and boy is my DJ finger tired. Think how many times I must have pressed "play"! Seriously, it was an amazing time, from Warsaw to Tourcoing, and it was great meeting all the co-conspirators as well as attendees at the events, thanks to all of you. If anyone's interested in reading about, like, what I ate in Prague or what I think about Calatrava, you can delve into the mundane details of everything from the trip over at The Party Blog, but let's keep this fine website a little more focused, shall we?

In that spirit, there were a bunch of things I was playing around Europe that I hadn't yet posted here, some of which generated a modicum of interest. First of all, my admittedly-late-to-the-scene fascination with Baltimore beats (I'm like Diplo minus the whole "being cool" part!) found its expression in a couple new mixes; then, there was something I made specifically for Germany that actually just seemed to confuse the Germans but I still found highly amusing.

	Lyrica Born vs. Average White Band - "Callin' Up the Pieces" (Party Ben's Baltimore Remix) Yes, this is item number four (4) that I've produced with the good old Lyrics Born a capella, although really there's just the AWB and the U2 versions which each have a "remix." But still, yes, I'm a hack, and I hope Tom isn't getting sick of me doing this. Anyway: Call, call, callin' out! 7MB 192kbps mp3
	The Chemical Brothers - "Star Guitar" (Party Ben's a Big Bright Shining Star Remix) A while back Electrosound asked me to take part in a bootleg tribute to the Chemical Brothers, and while I don't usually have time to contribute to these projects, I'd had an idea rolling around my head for elucidating the Baltimore sound that kind of bubbles under in "Star Guitar" for a while, so I was happy to have a deadline to whip me into shape. So, first I made the (mostly) instrumental version which I handed off to the project, and then I thought "hey this could use some Ludacris," so I threw "Stand Up" over it and played it a bunch all over Europe. Whee! Go here to grab tracks from Block Rockin' Boots with contributions from GHP, Moule, BC, Dunproofin' and more. "Star Guitar" (Party Ben's a Big Bright Shining Star Remix) 9MB 192kbps mp3 "Star Guitar Stand Up" 9MB 192kbps mp3
	Modern Talking vs. Gnarls Barkley "Crazy (If You Want)" So in an attempt to ingratiate myself with the many nations of the EU, I tried to put together something appropriate for each location on the tour: "Polska Boys" for Poland, a "Boulevard" mix with MC Solaar for France, and this ridiculous thing for Germany. Not familiar with Modern Talking? They're only the most successful pop group in German history, and it turns out "You Can Win If You Want" is basically the same exact chord pattern as "Crazy." I played it at Bootie Munich expecting a rousing ovation and, sadly, it almost killed my floor; are Germans now embarrassed by Thomas and Dieter? 6MB 192kbps mp3

So, will Party Ben return to the EU for more gigs, possibly sometime when it's a little warmer? Stay tuned...

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NOVEMBER 20, 2007
DZIĘKUJĘ POLSKA!
And sorry about Borat using your language and stuff. Greetings from Prague where I'm taking a needed break from the insanity of Poland, where three gigs and a live radio set went pretty well overall, the final gig in Warsaw on Saturday night especially so, but that was probably because of Poland's 2-0 win over Belgium in the Euro 2008 qualifying match only minutes beforehand. Thanks to everybody, especailly Duze Pe, DJ Spox, El Barto & Liam B, Marcin from Lolypop, DJ Lexus from Radio Bis, the crew at Forma, Prozak and Balsam, and all the awesome Poles who came out to the gigs (see some at left).

If you've been reading all about the mayhem over on the Party Blog, you'll know that I made a mashup thing with a Polish band in a blatant attempt to ingratiate myself with the local populace, and again, partially thanks to national soccer victory euphoria, it did the job, despite the fact that I threw it together pretty quickly. In fact, apparently Radio Bis is playing it in some sort of rotation, possibly heavy (reports?), but now that I have a second I've cleaned it up a little and extended the middle section a bit, and while it's still kind of sloppy I suppose it's good enough for now.

Kult vs. M.I.A. vs. Gary Glitter "Polska Boyz" Kult being one of the firs