HEADLINES - 2006
2005 STORIES - 2004 STORIES

DECEMBER 17, 2006
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ALL OF US HERE AT PARTY BEN INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Look, we had punch. While the casual web surfer may not have noticed, a recent move of the PB headquarters and a big LIVE 105 concert kept us a little busy recently, thus the lack of updates here at partyben.com. That, and the ever-increasing speed of my slide into creative oblivion.

So it should come as no surprise that my holiday gift to you focuses less on my current work and more on the good old days when I seemed to stumble into a zeitgeist-channeling mashup every time I turned on the computer. "Boulevard of Broken Songs" debuted in its original form on the Sixx Mixx October 1, 2004, and I still get people texting me saying they heard it at a sports bar in New York or e-mailing to say Noel Gallagher seems to have just noticed these songs sound a lot alike. So, what the hell, let's relive my glory days. I've spent some time "remastering" (er, fixing some of the quality issues) the two main versions of Boulevard, and now, in the holiday spirit of basically flouting a C&D, I offer them to you in glorious 256kbps sound with new covers and sorted ID3 tags:

Green Day vs. Oasis vs. Travis vs. Eminem "Boulevard of Broken Songs" (Version 1 Remaster) 8MB 256kbps mp3 This is the first one from the Sixx Mixx, and of course we all know the story by now about how I was putting this together like an hour before the show was to air and realized I needed Aerosmith's "Dream On," but it wasn't anywhere in the studio or even on iTunes at that point (although it's on there now) so I had to use Eminem.

Green Day vs. Oasis vs. Travis vs. Aerosmith "Boulevard of Broken Songs" (Version 2 Remaster) 8MB 256kbps mp3 This is the second one which appeared on Best Mashups in the World Ever are from San Francisco and I don't remember exactly when I made it. It replaces the Eminem with actual Aerosmith, it used two versions of "Dream On" in fact, the regular and a live version so you get the big, silly extend-o ending with stadium cheers. Hooray mashups.

Artwork of course by Adrian for the November 2004 Bootie flyer. Anyway, enjoy. I'm off to Nebraska for a few days, then back to SF for the LIVE 105 / Aaron Axelsen Presents NYE party where I don't really anticipate DJing that much since there's like 17 bands; for more quality Party Ben time check out the first Bootie of 2007 on January 13th where I'll attempt to entertain the masses (please let there be masses) with some new tracks. Best wishes to everybody for the holiday season and here's to 2007 being better than 2006!

NOVEMBER 25, 2006
PRESS ROUNDUP

Read all about it me. I, or projects I've been involved in, have shown up in a few fine examples of printed matter over the past month, and thankfully none of them feature ridiculous, mortifying misquotes that make me feel like the writer is taking the piss, or complete factual errors that make it look like I'm taking credit for classic mashups (link to Oakland Tribune article from '04 not available). Hooray!

First of all, if you're in the Los Angeles area, pick up this week's LA City Beat which features a very complimentary article by Dennis Romero on my, er, life and times. It kind of over-hypes the supposed "Wipeout Taffy" "controversy" which in reality is kind of not that big a deal, since I never really liked that mashup so much anyway. But people love a feud so let's just pretend there's a "Wipeout Taffy" war around the Bootie offices, pitting brother against brother. Anyway, a fine article, although why I told him my real age I have no idea.

Canada's biggest mashup apologist John Sakomoto recently gave American Edit some props in his "Anti-Hit List" in the Toronto Star, calling it a rare "sustained, album-length creation that combine[s] dexterity and conceptualization" along with The Grey Album and "maybe" (har) Night Ripper. Just glad that last one got a "maybe."

The Edit also gets name-dropped in an article in the Sydney, Australia Morning Herald that references a Queensland Institute of Technology paper on "remix culture" which itself refers to Dean Gray as a "Perth group." Well, that's mostly right. The article goes on:

Dean Gray is like many of a new generation of amateur creators. They can sit at home in the bedroom and produce the most wonderful things. Most often they do not want money. Merely, they wish to share the finished product with the world.

Well, sure, but a little money might be nice someday... or maybe just an honorary degree from good old QIT?

NOVEMBER 19, 2006
HOLY CRAP: NEW MASHUPS!

Perhaps that should say "Holy Mashups: New Crap!" Everybody's been so disappointed in me. Apparently after American Edit, I was supposed to release triumphant, mind-blowing mashup after triumphant, mind-blowing mashup or maybe have a #1 worldwide smash hit with Cee-Lo. Sorry everybody, but it should be obvious by now who the real genius behind Dean Gray was.

Anyhoo, I haven't just been sitting on my ass watching Aqua Teen (and the new episodes, kind of disappointing!). I've continued to make new tracks, I just haven't been that happy with a lot of them. Although I have been inflicting them on the crowd at Bootie. So either I've made some better stuff lately or my standards have fallen sufficiently low for me to release a few new things. In fact there are so many new tracks (like, five!) that I'm just going to direct you over to the Downloads page. Enjoy.

OCTOBER 31, 2006
PARTY BEN LIVE AT BOOTIE

No tricks just treats. Well, I was commissioned by one of those space-radio outfits to contribute a mashuppy mix for their Halloween weekend broadcast, and rather than actually do any work I thought "Why not just record some of the Bootie excitement for posterity's sake and give 'em that?" Of course setting things up to record a whole hour of a DJ set, with the crowd correctly mic'ed for the appropriate ambiance, is a bit of a to-do. But we got it worked out. (Thanks Adrian for use of the laptop.) So for those of you who want to relive my 1-2am set at Bootie on October 14th, or for those of you who've never felt comfortable showing up there but have always been kind of curious as to how one DJs mashups and why that might be fun, here you go.

OCTOBER 11, 2006
MORE VIDEOS FEATURING PARTY BEN STUFF

Plus: I learn to embed! Whitehouse continues his expert spelunking of the YouTube and (shudder) MySpace caverns and comes up with more inexplicable uses of some of my bootleg productions as accompaniment for some form of homemade video, with a variety of results. Let's try that video-embedding feature and see if that works.

So, that YouTube thing is totally worth a couple bil, right?

• First, a seriously out-of-tune but oddly compelling performance here. Love the curtains by the way.
• Here's some guys dancing around half-naked and trying to lip-synch to Boulevard. The random shouts I hear seem to be in some sort of Slavic language, but I can't place it, any ideas?
• Now this is more like it: apparently at a benefit performance of some sort, these two guys nail most of the original and add some of their own stuff. Bonus amusing commentary from the cameraman or his cynical friend: "This is totally unnecessary." Truer words have never been spoken.

The Hacker points out some more music-video-style creations over at americanedit.org (click "news & media" at the lower left) including:

• A couple videos where people have edited together some animation with Boulevard as the accompaniment, this one is kind of nice.
• This here seems to be the most popular of the traditional editing-together-of-the-original-videos type of video.
• And here and here, some, uh, covers.

Thanks for the links guys.

SEPTEMBER 13, 2006

J Dilla "Workinonit" (Party Ben remix) 5mb 192kbps mp3 I've been telling anybody who'll listen how much I love J Dilla's Donuts. Go buy it. I've been itching to play something from it out in the clubs but it's all pretty mellow, so I figured I'd try and make a little more uptempo and slightly extended/dubby mix of one of my favorite tracks. This has nothing to do with Bootie at all since I'll never play it there, but it doesn't really deserve its own headline, so here it is in this post. If you like J Dilla you might like this, if not don't sweat it. Mixmaster Mike did nod approvingly at this when I played it for him at Mighty a few weeks ago though.

BOOTIE 3-YEAR BY THE NUMBERS

Time doors opened: 9:04pm
Time it became difficult to move on the dancefloor: 10:30pm
Number of new pre-produced bootlegs I played during my sets: 0
Number of bootlegs I created on the spot with an a capella track cause I got a little bored: 1
Ratio of amount of time I spent DJing to amount of time I spent running lights: 2:3
Total number of Bootie staff working or performing (not including DNA staff): 33
Number of times I seem to remember DJ Tripp interrupting his set to get on the mic and say some stuff: 4?
Number of vodka drinks I had: only 5!
Number of words I shouted in my cameo as Eminem during Smash-up Derby's performance of "Boulevard of Broken Songs": 5 ("sing," "sing it," "come on")
Total # of homemade T-shirts with my name on them: 2
Actual attendance number appearing on door girl's clicker at end of night: 999
Number of current and former LIVE 105 employees in attendance: 8
Total length of the archived stream at dnalounge.com: 6 hours 43 minutes
Time at which I told Adrian to purposefully kill the still-grooving dancefloor and call it a night: 3:43am
Date of next Bootie SF: Friday, September 8, 2006

What a night! Thanks to everybody who came out and all the Bootie personnel. Photos are everywhere. A flickr set from SwellKH, a photobucket group from Frienemy, a smugmug gallery from SweetLiberty, and the best of the best up at GYBO. Video of the Dean Gray Rock Opera coming soon...

AUGUST 9, 2006
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ATTENDING THE BOOTIE 3-YEAR ANNIVERSARY THIS FRIDAY AT DNA LOUNGE

In 5 easy steps.

1) All (er, both) previous Bootie anniversary events have hit capacity. This time, we have a larger venue with a great staff, and a separate guest list line, so hopefully things will run more smoothly, but still, it'll be crowded, so get there early.

2) I've got a very small part in the Dean Gray / American Edit "rock opera," but from what I've seen it's going to be something to tell the grandkids about. That starts at 11pm sharp; don't miss it.

3) Dress as a pirate, get $5 off!

4) Mashups in the front room, bootleg remixes in the back. I've got a few new productions to spin but mostly I'll be playing the crowd favorites from the last year of Booties -- let me know if you have any suggestions...

5) Can't be there in person? Watch and listen online at dnalounge.com

JULY 26, 2006
BOOTIE WINS BEST CLUB

"Oh, oh my I can't believe it, there are so many people to thank, God of course, and... oh this was completely unexpected... let's see here... oh yes -- Satan..." The San Francisco Bay Guardian's annual "Best of the Bay" issue came out today, and in the Readers' Poll - Entertainment and Nightlife, right there under "Best Mixed-Use Art Space" (CELLspace), you'll find the category of "Best Club," and then you'll see the winner: our very own mashup-and-pirate-themed monthly, Club Bootie. Who knew there were enough people out there who cared enough to stuff the ballot box for us? Lord knows it wasn't me since I got overwhelmed by all the categories when I went online to vote and then put it off and missed the deadline. Oops.

Of course the award rightfully belongs to Adrian and Mysterious D who are the brains and beauty behind Bootie (not necessarily in that order) but I've been lucky enough to be involved from the beginning as resident DJ/mascot/"straight draw," so I feel just as proud. Granted, our populist music policy means we're an easy club to like, but I like to think of Bootie as a kind of musical center of gravity around which orbits a whole solar system of amazing producers, DJs and musicians, making their own tracks, searching out the best new bootlegs, and re-interpreting the classics. Perhaps more importantly, the people who come out are a bonkers mix of yuppies, hipsters, freaks and nerds, gays and straights, black white Puerto Rican Chinese boys (and girls), which in my experience is rather unusual in this town where types tend to stick to themselves. It's the eclectic, up-for-it, fun-loving people on the floor and behind the scenes that make Bootie such a good time, and it's that spirit that is deservedly rewarded here. Cheers Bootie and here's to a happy 3rd birthday in two weeks...

Also see the editors choice award to Smash-Up Derby, whose recent press attention is eclipsing all of us. Jeez, maybe I need to quit this mash-up production thing and dedicate myself to dressing up as Billy Idol full time.

JULY 16, 2006
ANOTHER TRACK FROM THE XFM MIX / PLUS NEW X-MIX

I been busy. If you attended the highly enjoyable Bootie on Friday night (pictures here) you might have heard me drop this into my later set: Gnarls Barkley vs. Donna Summer "I Feel Crazy." This is a fleshed-out version of something first heard in my mix for XFM's The Rinse (see below).

Gnarls Barkley vs. Donna Summer "I Feel Crazy" 7mb 192kbps mp3 This uses Karl G's bootleg remix as a jumping-off point and basically just layers the synth loop from Ms. Summer's legendary little number over the whole thing. I know there's like 500 "Crazy" boots out there but my excuse is this was part of the Rinse mix so it's not like a real mashup or anything and plus it sounds more like a dance remix anyway so whatever.

Also I cobbled together a new 1/2-hour mix for 91X and KJEE, it's basically all other people's mashups this time but the transitions are pretty good. Grab that on the Megamixx page.

JUNE 30, 2006
XFM/LONDON RINSE MIX AIRS; NO MAJOR INTERNATIONAL INCIDENTS REPORTED

I thought it might help us agree on some spellings. If you were near a radio in London on Friday night/early Saturday morning, I hope you ignored the government-sponsored propaganda of all that BBC nonsense and instead tuned into spunky commercial enterprise XFM who aired an exclusive and mostly new hour-long mix created by myself on James Hyman's long-running Rinse show. James kicked off my megamix with an embarrassingly flattering introduction (plus told the story about how FedEx delivered my CD to his next-door neighbors), and while I don't mean to act like I've won an Oscar here, as a long-time admirer of XFM and Mr. Hyman and Mr. Temple-Morris, it's really very cool to be, like, on it and stuff.

I'm sorry, what? You were babysitting your sister's kids and couldn't get near the radio? Well don't fret my sweet little cabbage heads. A plus-size mp3 and tracklisting is waiting for you over on the Sixx Mixx page which isn't really a Sixx Mixx page any more since there's no Sixx Mixx but my webmaster is lazy. Ahem. Just go there and get it before I change my mind.

UPDATE 7/5/06:
I'm slowly finishing up some of the individual boots/remixes heard in the mix; here's the first two that are basically ready:

Hot Chip "Over and Over" (PB's Smell of Repetition remix) 9mb 192kbps mp3 This is obviously a bit of a riff on the Boyz Noise mix of Kaiser Chiefs, but it's also got "I Feel Love" in it.

Mylo vs. Miami Sound Machine "Conga Pressure" 6.3M 192kbps mp3 Well, this cracks me up at least. See cause there's that other one by those Phil 'n' Dog guys that was like a mega-smash... perhaps when they spin at Bootie in November we can have a "pressure-off"?

JUNE 29, 2006
BOOTIE LA TURNS 1

And it's already walking on its own. The SoCal spinoff of Bootie SF has hit a milestone: one year of bringing bastardized pop and its most bonkers purveyors to Los Angeles for all the movie stars* to enjoy.

This Saturday's anniversary extravaganza will include a special performance from Canadian audio/visual mashup artist Smash Hitley, plus a live show from Smash-Up Derby and lip-synch from Princess Kennedy. Your regulars Paul V, Adrian & Mysterious D and myself will be in effect of course, and rumors are swirling about that a certain bleach-blond 80s pop star might make an appearance. Who knows?

What a great time for Bootie to get some much-deserved press attention: check out a big picture of Adrian and DJ Zebra in this month's Spin Magazine, plus we're listed in "America's 101 Wildest Parties." We're name checked as a hot club in this month's San Francisco Magazine (see page 42, "All Mixed Up"), and there's also a very nice blurb (registration required) about the LA anniversary in Sunday's LA Times. Root for Bootie!

*No movie stars ever come to Bootie LA.

JUNE 27, 2006
PARTY BEN ON XFM/LONDON THIS FRIDAY NIGHT

Bush and Blair issue joint statement of extreme indifference. For the 2nd time, I've been granted the great honor of doing an hour-long guest mix for James Hyman's "Rinse" show on XFM London. For the first mix I did, in late 2004, I felt responsible to make it a "PB Greatest Hits" kind of show, with my more popular mashups and stuff. This time, however, I said "screw that" and just played a bunch of new stuff I like, some of it remixed and reedited by me and some not so much. Current musical obsessions featured in this megamix will include:

• Hot Chip!
• Scronky Digitalism/MSTRKRFT-style electro jams!
• Hyphy!
• Baltimore House Music!
• A cheeky mashup that takes the piss out of these guys!
• The synth line from "I Feel Love" for like a solid 10 minutes!

As you can see this would make the mix a very uptempo dancey set which is exciting for me since my typical prime time radio shows or Bootie sets usually require me to, you know, "play the hits." Ah sweet artistic freedom: allowing me to do crap nobody cares about!

Londoners: listen to the mix on 104.9FM this Friday night / Saturday morning 7/1 from 1am - 2am. Other UK inhabitants can easily tune in on the XFM website.

Rest-of-worlders: XFM has instituted a "UK listeners only" rule for their online stream; reports vary about whether it's possible to tune in by entering a valid UK postcode like say W12 8QT for example. (Tune in at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern on Friday 6/30). If you don't want to deal, I'll be posting the mix in full as well as some selected tracks the week after it airs.

JUNE 12, 2006
CDS ARE FUN

Almost as fun as cassettes. The mysterious producers of the "Best Mashups in the World Ever are from San Francisco" compilation have put together a sequel that's getting some love around town. "Best Mashups 2" has gone from #25 to #16 to #20 at Amoeba Records in San Francisco; reports say it's currently at #6 at Tower on Market and (drum roll) #1 at Medium Rare in the Castro (all the more impressive considering the Pet Shop Boys are #2. Beating the Pet Shop Boys, in the Castro?!) No official reviews have appeared yet but as the CD features such hot shots as Earworm, Jay-R, A+D, and ECC, it seems pretty enjoyable to me, perhaps even enough to take your mind off this.

Also good old Dean Gray continues to get some bloggy love, which is nice to see. Wonder whatever happened to him?

JUNE 7, 2006
BOOTIE BOOTIE BOOTIE BOOTIE

Bootie bootie bounce. Rememer that song? Anyway, it's also the name of our super-fun mash-up nightclub, and I highly encourage your attendance this Friday at the DNA Lounge, since our guest DJs include a guy who made one of the most popular bootlegs we've ever played on LIVE 105: Lynyrd Skynyrd vs. Nelly "Sweet Home Country Grammar." Of course I'm talking about Mei-Lwun who along with Fidelski will be doing a crazy mashup/dj/performance thing with laptops, turntables, and apparenlty even a guitar. Good times.

Oh and yeah. Recently I blew out some random tracks that I had made for the Bootie dance floor, but I forgot one of the more popular ones (well Libby likes it at least), which is now available for a limited time here at Party Ben Internet Systems. It's a bit stale at this point but it still gets 'em out on the floor: Gorillaz vs. No Doubt vs. Deep Purple, "Hella Dare You to Smoke." Enjoy it here or just come out to Bootie Friday night, I'll play it for sure like I do every time cause I'm a hack.

But! There will also be some new items in my set this week! I'm scheduled to do an hour-long mix on XFM/London's "The Rinse" on June 30th, and I've been working on it this week and I can tell you it's chock full of crazy new mixes including something that might make these guys chuckle. I won't be releasing anything off it until after it airs (by "releasing" I of course mean "putting links to mp3s up here on this dumb website") but some tracks might get "previewed" at the club.

So, yeah. Many good reasons to spend your Friday night with us. I hope all this makes up for the fact that I most definitely will not be getting anywhere near the stage dressed as an 80s pop star.

Above: Trixxie, "Party Billy," Stephen Satyricon, Bootie 5/12/06. Photo coutresy SwellKH

MAY 22, 2006
PARTY BEN: A MAN WITH NO SHAME

Like this whole website isn't already proof of that. Yes, the rumors are true: I performed as Billy Idol with Smash-Up Derby at Bootie on May 12th. I know I could have posted this sooner but it's taken me a few days to get over the soul-searing embarrassment. Ahem. Watch the video here. (Thanks to Libby for the cinematography and Supercollider for the technical assistance.)

Above Left: DJ Mysterious D and dancing masses. Above right: DJ Pantshead pefroms with the "Wheel of Mashups" Bootie 5/12/06. Photos coutresy Libby

While the attendees at Bootie were enthusiastic about my, uh, singing talents, a recent caller to LIVE 105's request lines told me he watched the video and that it was "the worst thing he's ever seen." But was it funny?! Well, either way, if you missed it too bad cause I'm never doing that again.

More pictures of Bootie 5/12 here, here and here.

In less ridiculous news, please enjoy a new half-hour mix produced for 91X in San Diego and KJEE in Santa Barbara over here on the Sixx Mixx page, plus I've fixed some problems with the Downloads page. Enjoy.

And finally, back to ridiculous stuff, check it out: Google Trends! From the masterminds at Google comes a way to see how much certain things are getting searched for in the interschnitzels. Let's compare, for example, Party Ben, LIVE 105 radio, and pantaloons. For a brief period in early 2006, more people were searching for me than for both LIVE 105 and pantaloons! Let's also compare, for comparison's sake, chips, snacks, stuff and things. Hmm. Very interesting: things are big in San Diego.

APRIL 27, 2006
PARTY BEN PRE-COACHELLA BLOWOUT!

Everything must go! Long time no post, I know, but hopefully all this stuff will make up for it. I've been rather busy getting everything done at the station so I can jet off to the desert and see some, like, Dungen and whatnot, so I'm kind of surprised I had time to get these tracks ready to go at all. But I'll feel much more at ease having margaritas by the pool if I know visitors to the website are happy.

So, first of all, Bootie! it's a mashup nightclub, and it's fun for a lot of reasons, but it's mostly fun for me because I can make random tracks and have a place to play them out, like, that night. Over the past couple months I've thrown together a few bootlegs that have garnered some interest, although they're not really strong enough in my opinion to merit making a big deal about them. So, for a limited time only, I'm posting the most recent Hott Bootie Traxx. Enjoy:

--Yeah Yeah Yeahs vs. Company B -
"Fascinated by Gold" (192kbps mp3)
This is pretty silly and I wish I had the actual a capella, but the Diplo mix stands in okay here I guess.

--Switch vs. Khia vs. Laid Back -
"Get Laid with Khia (2006 remix)" (192kbps mp3)
The original is almost two years old at this point so I figured why not throw in the latest track to sample the Original Bongo Band's "Apache."

--Veruca Salt vs. Pussycat Dolls -
"Dontcha Wish your Seether, uh, blah blah" (192kbps mp3)
Make up your own title on this one.

And, bonus track that wasn't really a hit at Bootie, in fact it kind of cleared the dance floor, but it was on the radio and stuff:
--Yeah Yeah Yeahs vs. Green Day vs. Oasis vs. Love & Rockets vs. Samantha Fox - "Golden Boulevard" (192kbps mp3)
Yes I am a total hack but I just do not care.

Plus, it's a little offering to my fellow Coachella-bound partiers: a half-hour mix of mostly dancey remixes of hot Coachella artists. Nothing but. Put it on your iPods for the trip. Also, hear this Friday afternoon (4/28) as you drive out of town, on 91X San Diego and KJEE FM 92.9 Santa Barbara.

--Party Ben's Coachella Dance Party 2006
(30 minutes - 128kbps mp3)
Depeche Mode - World In My Eyes (Cicada remix)
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy (Karl G remix)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion (Diplo remix)
Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch
Daft Punk - Technologic
She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart (Richard Vision mix)
Editors - Munich (Cicada remix)
Bloc Party - Banquet (Phones remix)
White Rose Movement - Love is a Number
The Walkmen - The Rat
Eagles of Death Metal - I Want You So Hard
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out (Daft Punk remix)
Lady Sovereign - Random (a capella)
Daft Punk - Da Fun (live)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Yellow Country Teeth
Depeche Mode vs. Madonna - Just Can't Get Enough Music (Tristan Shout mashup)


And finally: I would just like to point out to anyone concerned that I did not make this page, I hate myspace and all manner of friend-collecting websites, and especially friend-collecting websites that automatically start playing music when you open them, plus this page is really ugly and says I'm from Brooklyn. Nothing against Brooklyn. So. If you go there and try to add me as a friend or post me a "big ups" or something, please do not write me later going "why didn't you add me as your friend bro." It's because I didn't see it because I didn't even know the page existed. I'm happy to be your friend if you just e-mail me like a regular person. Thank you.

See you in the desert! I'll be the guy in the ratty thrift store T-shirt, goofy sunglasses and artfully messed-up hair. Say hi.

MARCH 29, 2006
PARTY BEN IN L.A.

I, er, love it. Everybody in SoCal, you've got not one, not two, but three chances to see me play CDs in the next couple days. First, just added, I'll be doing an early set at my homegirl Lil' Lauren G's super-hip Hollywood club Total Control at Vine Bar, Thursday from 10-11pm. They've promised it'll be like Party Ben Early Bird 2-for-1 drink specials or something, so don't miss it. Later that same night I head up, er, Vine and over onto Wilcox for Trend at Nacional, for a 80s/hip-hop/party choons mashup set. Then of course don't miss the main event, Bootie LA at the Echo, featuring Paul V. and a guest set from DJ Axel. I've been busting my butt to make some new boots and some remixes of old boots, so I promise it won't be the same old set. Otherwise you'll probably run into me as I contemplate whether $15 is too much for a vintage T-shirt in some store on Melrose.

MARCH 19, 2006
RANDOM PARTY BEN / DEAN GRAY PRESS

15 minutes of fame extended by like 30 seconds. First, the American Edit album Team9 and I produced under the name "Dean Gray" has turned up in a couple magazines. The March issue of Spin featured American Edit as a "recommended" release in its reviews section, calling it a "brash spanking" to Green Day's original. Naughty spankings! See that here (opens in new window).

Also, the April issue of Esquire features an article about the "future of music" that mentions American Edit as an example of why mashups aren't just a trend. Good to know. (Scan of that coming soon).

Let's just stop briefly to give Team9 some props -- people are giving me credit for American Edit, (understandably since he's all the way in freaking Perth and can't do anything about it) but honestly he produced about 65% of the album and while he doesn't work for a big radio station he's a far better producer than me so go check out his website.

Okay back to me. A few weeks ago I was a guest on the podcast hosted by legendary San Francisco writer/musician/cyberculture icon R. U. Sirius. We discussed bastard pop, commerical radio, and whether you'll have your genitalia in heaven. It's show #36, check it out here.

I'm quoted (and given some props myself) in a great feature article on Earworm in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The competing local SF Weekly takes the opposite viewpoint, however, dissing me in their Noise Pop game; they credit me with the polarizing Grease/Snoop mashup LIVE 105 played a while back, which was actually made by Dysfunctional DJ (his website seems to be offline but I promise I really didn't make it). Their criticisms of me don't really make any sense, but if you want to check it out it's here.

Across the pond, I'm kind of shocked to have ended up at #13 on the UK Observer Music Monthly's "25 Essential Music Websites." They seem to think this website is some sort of worldwide bootlegger nexus run by a team of web producers, and not, in fact, just a stupid blog all about my own dopey attempts at bastard pop, but hey, I'll take it. See a scan of that here. Perhaps this has something to do with my high ranking?

MARCH 16, 2006
BOOTIE GETS BIGGER MASSIVE

Even in a freakin' blizzard, people want their bastard pop. After 31 (count 'em!) nights at Cherry Bar, DNA Lounge, Rickshaw Stop, and Annie's Social Club, our mashup-oriented club has stepped it up a notch. On Friday, March 10th, Bootie debuted at its new night and location: 2nd Fridays at DNA Lounge. This is despite the cold temperatures and freak snowstorm that covered parts of the Bay Area in an inch or two of icy granules (and caused a horrific accident on 101).

Even under these conditions, an up-for-it crowd of 700+ people came out to DNA to witness the mash-a-riffic insanity we've come to be known for: DJs Dada, Adrian, Mysterious D, and myself, plus another raucous performance from Smash-Up Derby (highlight: Kennedy wandering onstage to, er, "go-go dance"). A good time was had by all; many thanks to all the staff of DNA Lounge and of course A & D for all their hard work.

If you couldn't make it, DNA archives the audio from their club nights on their website for two weeks. Check it out on their archive page here, scroll down to Bootie and click on the hour you'd like to listen to. It should open in iTunes or something; unfortunately you can't really fast forward or anything. (Adrian demands I tell you that the sound mix on the band is way off from the excellent sound in the club, with way too much vocal for some reason. There's a couple skips and dropouts too, but you get the idea.) Also check out some snapshots from the night (and highly subjective wrapups) on the GYBO thread here (scroll down).

See everybody on Friday April 14th!

FEBRUARY 22, 2006
"HUNG UP ON SOUL": THE RIDE

Okay, maybe not... yet. My dance-a-riffic mix of Death Cab for Cutie's "Soul Meets Body" with (mostly the beats from) Madonna's "Hung Up" has expanded into a truly multimedia experience. First of all, a talented producer guy from Canada Boston named Ben Cohen has created a deceptively simple video mashup for "Hung Up On Soul," combining both the original videos in a way that somehow really enhances my admittedly rather lackluster production. Check it out here (opens in new window).

Also, thanks to a "listener request," I've made a version that's actually more in line with my original concept, i.e., no Madge vocals, just Death Cab over Stuart Price's disco beats. It's perfect for your Madonna-fearing straight-acting indie-rock dancefloors!

Death Cab for Maddy - Hung Up On Soul (Minus Maddy mix)

FEBRUARY 12, 2006
NEW PARTY BEN MIX-TYPE ITEMS THAT HOPEFULLY AREN'T AS BAD AS "WIPEOUT TAFFY!"

But who knows. Just when everyone was starting to believe the rumors that Party Ben had finally hit a creative wall, or at least stopped being able to make stuff anyone cared about, here are two megajams certain to get dancefloors hopping. Or not.

First up: Death Cab for Maddy - Hung Up on Soul! I'd been wanting to make a dancey remix of "Soul Meets Body" for a while; its 120 bpm tempo and jaunty melody made it seem the Alt Rock hit ripest for a dance mix since "7 Nation Army." A dancey remix, stealing Stuart Prices thumping beat, is basically what this is, but there's a little bit of the Madonna vocal sprinkled in here and there, so I guess it still qualifies as a mashup, or something.


Then there's this: John Denver - Thank God I'm a Country Boy (Party Ben's City Boy Remix). This is something I made for a guest DJ slot at Club Future; their theme that night was a sort of "Electro meets Hoe-down" cowboy thing, which I found highly amusing, and in fact I think I'm pretty highly qualified to work with such a theme, considering my small town Nebraska upbringing and summers spent driving tractors, all while listening to New Order on my walkman and dreaming of escape. However, I approached this John Denver mix with real emotion: his music was omnipresent during my childhood, and a show he did in Omaha (in the round, I seem to remember) was the first popular music concert I ever attended. It must have been like 1980. My whole family loves John Denver and so do I; I've always felt there was a melancholy depth to his music that contradicts the popular image of him as a Muppet-loving trifle. When he died in a plane crash in 1997 I actually shed tears. So, consider this a sloppy but well-meaning tribute. Plus it's made people square dance on the Bootie dance floor and how can that be anything but positive. (Thanks to GHP for the beat, this is the second time I've stolen the drums from "Rapture Riders," hope he's not mad.)

FEBRUARY 10, 2006
LIVE 105 NOW STREAMING ONLINE

Only like 10 years after the invention of the interweb. And, of course, it's a bit ironic that it's only a month or so after the end of the Sixx Mixx, a radio program that, judging by the response, would have been a popular feature on that web stream. But, if you want to get your Party Ben fix, plus hear some interesting remixes, mashups, and random new tunes, you can tune into the Untitled Friday Night Show. I'm on that with Madden and Miles and it's amusing, I guess. Check it out Friday from 8pm to midnight; for times in your locations, check the map below. To listen, go to LIVE105.com and click "Listen Online" at the upper right.

Friday:
SF 8p-mid / Denver 9p-1a / Chicago 10p-2a / NY 11p-3a

Saturday:
Rio 1a-4a / London 4a-8a / Paris 5a-9a / Moscow 7a-11a / Perth 12n-4p / Tokyo 1p-5p

JANUARY 30, 2006
WIPEOUT TAFFY: WORST MASHUP EVER?

I didn't know I had it in me. Well, I knew it was a mess, but the mixed reaction to Wipeout Taffy has made even someone as shameless as me a bit embarassed. Let's catalog who's on the "pro" and "con" sides of Wipeout Taffy:

Well, sheesh. I guess I better step up and post some of those mashups I put in the Sixx Mixx last year to try and salvage my reputation. Plus, a remix of John Denver I did for Club Future coming soon...

JANUARY 16, 2006
PARTY BEN MAKES STUPIDEST MASHUP IN HISTORY

Er... again? In a further sign that my one-hit wonder status began and ended in the Fall of 2004 with freakin' "Boulevard" and now I'm desperately pumping out novelty jams just to try and keep my name in the press, I have successfully bootlegged perhaps the two stupidest songs created in America in the last 100 years: D4L's "Laffy Taffy" and the Surfaris "Wipeout." It's Wipeout Taffy! I had her tested, and she is most definitely retarded.

What's weird is that it turns out these songs are already in the same key, like D4L are somehow clued in to the secret chord for guaranteed retard-pop success. Well, count me in. I've always been a fan of utterly minimalist popular music and love both these songs; sometimes I feel like contemporary American hip-hop is on a quest to find the smallest amount of actual sound that can create a hit song, a project that I wholeheartedly support but unfortunately I appear to be working in opposition to. Perhaps I can start a new bootlegging trend that's based on subtracting songs from other songs.

Anyway: The Surfaris vs. D4L - "Wipeout Taffy" (192kbps mp3)

JANUARY 15, 2006
MORE AMERICAN EDIT PRESS

That Dean Gray guy's totally hogging my spotlight. Some interesting recent press on American Edit (which by now I'm sure you're sick of hearing is a production of myself and Team9 of Australia) is posted over on the simple-but-hopefully-effective AmericanEdit.net website.

JANUARY 5, 2006
PARTY BEN MAKES SOME YEAR-END BEST-OF LISTS

Not any of the big ones. A couple Party Ben productions or productions Party Ben had a part in have made it into "Best of 2005" lists, and considering my one-hit-wonder status began and ended in 2004, I'd say I'm doing pretty good.

First up, my treble-heavy mix of Tegan & Sara's "Walking with a Ghost" with Mylo's "Paris Four Hundred" landed at #5 on Seattle dance station C89.5's year end countdown. I've written before about how much I love this station and I can't tell you how happy it makes me to have my goofy, amateurish production end up on their list. Moreover, it proves my point about how making bootlegs available on my website ends up helping the original artists, since clicking C89.5's "Buy" link next to my listing brings you to a CD Universe page where you can buy T&S's fine So Jealous album. No need to thank (or pay) me, ladies!

Dean Gray, consisting of myself and Team 9, made it onto Toronto's finest music critic and bootleg supporter John Sakamoto's Top 10 of 2005, with American Edit landing at #8, a surprise considering his original mixed review of the album.

"Boulevard of Broken Songs" apparently still had some life left in it in 2005 and ended up in The End (107.7/Seattle)'s Top 107 of 2005 at #25. I guess that's my reimbursement for them getting to link to a bunch of my mashups on their site without crediting me.

This isn't really a list, but Winnipeg's Uptown Magazine music columnist Anthony Augustine named the recently-deceased Sixx Mixx the "Best Download" (of 2005?), saying that I'm equally brash and innovative, which I'll take, but also asserting that "rumors are swirling that Winnipeg may get a chance to catch Party Ben and his Bootie club night in 2006" which sounds like fun but is news to us. Winnipeg's in Canada, right?

And in a typical move for an "alt-weekly" paper, I seem to be on both the "Best" and "Worst" sections of a single list in the LA Weekly. Their current issue is rife with lists, many of them highly amusing, and their "Club Highlights of '05" list starts off well, giving props to Paul V and our southland branch office Bootie LA (although why DJs AM and Z-Trip have to get mentioned in the same paragraph is beyond me). However, the final section of the list features songs the writer says are overplayed and recommends get "nixed," at least temporarily... and of course, the last entry is "Boulevard of Broken Dreams (including the mashup, see #6)." Well, considering I'm sick of everything I do after like one listen, it's not like I can't sympathize.

And thanks to Jon Nelson of "Some Assembly Required," the bastard-pop radio show based out of Minneapolis, for putting me twice on his "best of 2005" list in the City Pages. I hate to contradict him, but I'm not actually from Minneapolis (Nebraska, actually), althought I lived there briefly after graduating from Carleton in 1992. And thus, in an even weirder coincidence, some of my productions seem to have ended up on a "Best of 2005" list of a DJ at Carleton campus radio station KRLX (88.1FM). I was co-program director of this station for a while and did a bunch of my earliest mixes and whatnot on their airwaves; I seem to remember playing Laurie Anderson and Jean-Luc Ponty records at the same time (possibly under the influence of wacky weed) and it being really cool, man.

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