HEADLINES ARCHIVE - 2007

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 first "alternative" Polish rock combos, and their 1992 number's refrain of "We live in Poland" is therefore understandably not without a bitter edge, actually it may be nothing but bitter edge, with a kind of stoic pride deep inside the bitterness in that way Eastern Europeans do so well. I find the contrast with M.I.A.'s insistence on finding out how many boys are there rather amusing. 6MB 192kbps mp3

So, the Gettin' Euros Tour continues, although I have yet to actually get any Euros, come to think of it. Anyway, whatever, I have to go back to drinking cheap beer. Soon I'm heading over to Belgium, Germany & France, and I have some more country-specific stuff that will hopefully work just as well there... we'll see.

NOVEMBER 10, 2007
WHICH WAY IS EUROPE?
Next time I'm gonna take a right turn at Albequerque. Well, I'm off tomorrow for the Gettin' Euros Tour 2007, and thankfully, I believe United's pilots know the way, thus freeing me to concern myself with making amusingly Euro-themed new mashups to play for everybody. Modern Talking, anyone? Anyway, I'm making a quick stop in Frankfurt before heading over to Warsaw, where your first opportunity to hear Party Ben do stuff will be a live set on Poland's Radio Bis at 10pm local time Wed 11.14. Unfortunately a Prague event fell through, so, sorry Czech fans (if there are any out there) but everything else appears to be a "go," so please peruse the Events page for all the details, and if you have any recommendations on, you know, local snacks, drop a line.

If you're interested in keeping general tabs on how the trip is going, or hearing amusing anecdotes about the international incidents I've caused, The Party Blog has been resurrected! This is the Blogspot page I started up before our last trip to France, anticipating I would post updates all the time, only to discover that the French have a crazy mixed-up keyboard layout that makes typing a miserable experience. But this time: laptop! Plus little digital camera that takes videos! So I'll try and post stuff over there that doesn't quite qualify for partyben.com enshrinement.

Now let's see, how many t-shirts can I fit in my carry-on bag...

In other news, I got a kind of annoying mention in Adam Graham's "My Tunes" column in the Detroit News: he includes "Tender Umbrella" in his Top 5, but then has to get sassy, saying it's "not a great mash-up" and that he just likes both songs. Well! It wouldn't be quite so bothersome if Mr. Graham hadn't also included a huge write-up on Girl Talk in the same issue, in which there's an attempt to write a history of the mash-up concept with the same old "Freelance Hellraiser/Danger Mouse/Linkin Park" timeline, with nary a mention of Go Home Productions, and apparently the only mash-up development in 2007 has been The Hood Internet's website. Nothing against the latter, but this is like the Pitchfork Alternate History of the mash-up universe, and it leaves a lot of important stuff out, I think. Sigh. One often wonders why one keeps on. I suppose I should be thankful the article didn't say "Z-Trip invented mashups" or something.

Thankfully not all the news is annoying: BBC Radio 1's night slammer Collin Murray played a Party Ben production, "Pump Up the Doorbell," on his show back in October, and I just found out about it. Thanks Mr. Murray! Also, apparently Alice 105.9 in Denver is jumping on the Snow Police bandwagon, although I kind of thought that bandwagon had, you know, run out of gas or whatever wagons run on. But if they can get 'er started up again more power to 'em.

OCTOBER 29, 2007
PARTY BEN SUCCUMBS TO THE MYSPACE JUGGERNAUT
Auto-play feature turned off. Well, I resisted for years and years, suffering through multiple fake pages (my favorite being the one that put my location, inexplicably, as Brooklyn; if only!) but I've finally given in and set up an actual MySpace page of my very own. Unfortunately, somebody's still squatting on myspace.com/partyben so I was forced to resort to the slightly awkward myspace.com/therealpartyben. Because, of course, how could I write that I'm the real Party Ben if I wasn't the real Party Ben?

Anyway, I'm still getting the hang of the completely nonsensical interface and slapdash formatting tricks (argh!) so bear with me. For the time being, there is one special reason to go there: my new Baltimore House-style remix of the Lyrics Born vs. Average White Band combo from earlier this year, "Callin' Up the Pieces." Enjoy, and if you like it, hey, be my friend or add me to your group or post an ad for your fucking strip club in my comments, whatever you kids do over there all day.

OCTOBER 22, 2007
(NOT SO) NEW ITEM: AMY WINEHOUSE VS. FOUR TOPS
Only a year or so late on this one.My first version of the Amy Winehouse vs. Four Tops track was a Bootie Exclusive a few months back, but since those kids finally got around to posting a new Top Ten I figured I could finally make it available over here, plus my Google Analytics is telling me people are searching "amy winehouse four tops mashup" and ending up over at this website, and I gotta give the people what they want... even if it's only, like, four people.

1. Amy Winehouse vs. Four Tops "Rehab (Can't Help Myself) (Version 1) This is the one I made before I had the a capella, so it just uses the Hot Chip remix of Ms. Winehouse's little tune. 6MB 192kbps mp3 2. Amy Winehouse vs. Four Tops "Rehab (Can't Help Myself) (Remix) After I got the a capella, I thought I'd make a new version with a bigger, um, beat, but now I think I like the original better anyway? 7MB 192kbps mp3 3. Amy Winehouse vs. Jmekka - "Rehab" (Breaks mix) Put this together for the Mighty Love Parade after party. 10MB 192kbps mp3

So there's that. It is what it is.

Also, thanks for the recent Party Ben shout-outs, John Sakamoto at the Toronto Star in Downtown Canada, and you feisty kids over at Mashuptown.com. Also if you really want to know a bunch of boring trivia about how and why I've made all these silly things, Butch over at The Island of Misfit Songs did a like 7-billion-word interview with me here.

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OCTOBER 17, 2007
PARTY BEN'S EUROPEAN VACATION TOUR!!!
Zut alors! / Wypas! / Scheibenkleister! / Haluzit! / Frickin' awesome! Settle down polyglots. Yes, the rumors are true, I'm heading to Europe for a while to take advantage of the favorable exchange rate. Coming up in November and December, I'll be DJing for the first time in Poland, Germany, Belgium and possibly the Czech Republic, and returning (triumphantly? confusedly?) to France. It's all a bit seat-of the-pants, so to speak, so a couple gigs are still up in the air, but I've been waiting for like two weeks to put up this silly graphic, for Kaczyńskis' sake.

I'll be kicking off the tour in Poland on Nov. 16 and 17 in Krakow and Warsaw with El Barto & Liam B (with more dates probably to come), then heading over to the Czech Republic and Germany (where things are still a bit hazy). After that I meet up with DJ Zebra for a night in Liege, Belgium on Nov. 23, then I'm heading back to Germany for a still-in-the-planning-stages Bootie Munich on Nov. 24. After that I hook up with the Zebramix tour featuring the aforementioned Zebz along with rock-'n'-roller DJ Moule for four exciting dates across France. That's about three weeks of bouncing around Europe, and I'm going to attempt to do this out of one little carry-on bag, with room for like two shirts, so if you notice a kind of rancid stench in the Bordeaux area in late November, that might not be the pot au feu.

For all the info, dates, and locations (plus even some links to buy advance tickets!) head over to the events page, and keep checking back for updates. Of course any of you who are actually in Europe, it would be great to say hi, so come on by. Or if you know any good (cheap!) restaurants in the area, drop a line.

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OCTOBER 10, 2007
MORE BOOTIE TRAXX
Just like other traxx, except they get played at Bootie. Any of you who frequent America's Premier Mashup Nightclub (TM) at any of its multiple locations (or listen on the interwebs) know that I'm always making new stuff to keep the dancefloor's attention; alternately, you could look at it as me using unwitting Bootie attendees as my mashup guinea pigs. Often these are silly throwaways or random experiments, but sometimes a few people will take a liking to them and want mp3s for their very own. So here's a couple of things I've been playing around this year. Grab individual mp3s here or get them all jiggered together into an RAR file via rapidshare here, and read more about them over on the Downloads page.

1. Faithless vs. Yaz vs. Steve Miller Band - "Don't Go (Insomnia Airlines)" 8MB 192kbps mp3 2. INXS vs. E-40 "Need U to Go" 4MB 192kbps mp3 3. Junior Boys vs. Rod Stewart - "(Do Ya) Think I'm Sexy (In the Morning)" 7MB 192kbps mp3 4. Timbaland vs. The Supremes - "The Way I Keep Me Hangin' On" 4MB 192kbps mp3 5. Le Tigre vs. D4L - "Deceptataffy" 5MB 192kbps mp3

Hmm, what else. Oh yeah, final European tour dates coming soon, I promise.

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SEPTEMBER 22, 2007
MORE NEATO VIDDYS!!
Thanks, anonymous internet people with free time and video editors. My Dutch friend Whitehouse (who also seems to have some time on his hands) e-mails me a veritable slew of new clips people have edited together utilizing Party Ben productions. I suppose you just have to search "Party Ben" on YouTube to find these, but it's so much easier when somebody else does it, you don't have to look at all the "Here we are at Ben's birthday party" ones. Yes I know my DJ name is stupid.

Okay enough of that. I promised Bootie Traxxx and Europe Dates this week, but due to, um, work, those things have been delayed, hopefully only til next week. But hey, I'm already ahead of the one-post-a-month average here, which I think is pretty good.

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SEPTEMBER 13, 2007
PARTY BEN IS WEIRD
Like that's news. I know that this entertaining website has the distinct odor of "late-career self-referentiality," with endless blathering about press mockery or radio attention to a cheesy mashup I made like 3 years ago, but I promise, I'm always working on new stuff. I'm just rarely satisfied enough with what I make to post mp3s. Or I'm just lazy. But lately I've got a newfound, er, shamelessness, so I thought maybe I'd post a couple things I've been revising for a while, just to get them off my hard drive. They're a bit odd and probably not exactly Prime Time Bootie Floorfillers, but hey, maybe you can enjoy them on your Zunes.

First up: it's M.I.A. vs. Kate Bush. I was thinking, hey, Boyz is in 6/8 time, and so is that good old Kate Bush song "The Dreaming," so why not play them at the same time. Plus there's that whole, you know, "third-world" theme, with Kate singing about aboriginal Australians and stuff, perhaps someone smart could write an essay about all of this. M.I.A. vs. Kate Bush - "Dreaming of Boyz" Download: 6MB 192kbps mp3

Next, it's my attempt at a remix of the new Jose Gonzalez track, "Killing For Love." Since I'm too dumb to make my own beats, I go steal them from other songs, in this case an atmospheric Cirez D electro track called "Horizons." There's actually some originally Party Ben bleeps and bloops in it as well. Neat. Jose Gonzalez vs. Cirez D - "Killing For Love (Remix)" Download: 8MB 192kbps mp3

If you're like, "where the hell is the stoopid Party Ben megajamz at dammit" well, yes I still make those too. I'll be releasing a slew of Bootie Traxx ( i.e., stuff I've been playing on the dancefloor at America's Premiere Mashup Nightclub) as well as announcing some exciting European tour dates next week. Hey, anybody in Prague, or Dublin, want me to come DJ? And anybody in Poland, Germany, Belgium or France know any good cheap restaurants? And anybody anywhere want to give me a job?

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AUGUST 27, 2007
Q MAGAZINE SAYS PARTY BEN SMELLS LIKE CHEDDAR
I've always thought of myself more as an Emmentaler. Friend of Party Ben James Rocchi strays from his usual cinematic focus to point out that the September, 2007 issue of Q Magazine features "Every Car You Chase" in its "Digital" section. Check page 120: they're actually talking about the video (jeez, 317,000 views?!) expertly put together by VJ Brewski, although they don't mention either of us. What they do mention is that the bootleg is "cheeky," which is true enough, but then they say that it emits the strong whiff of cheddar, which I suppose is also kind of true, and they give it three out of five stars, which is pretty much right on the money as far as my mashup is concerned but Brewski's video deserves a "five." However, they make it seem like they thought of my cheeky, cheesy title! Damn you, Q Magazine, and your tired articles about, like, Jimmy Page, aimed at 60-year-olds!

Eh, actually, I'll take what I can get these days. See below for the video and the clipping.

So this seems like a perfect time to update the Snow Police Radio Tally! Two stations on American soil this time, let's wheel out the big board Jim:

STAR 101.9 FM - Honolulu, Hawaii This is nuts. So I'm texting my friend Mary who's on vacation in Honolulu with her family, and I'm like "whr u at," and she's all, "just lving genki sushi," and I'm all, "that rulz," and then she's all like, "U R ON TH RADIO RT NOW!!!" and I'm like "WTF?" So then she calls me and holds the phone up to the radio in the car, and yes, "Every Car You Chase" has come on the radio at the exact time we were texting each other. How weird is that? Jeez I need a vacation.

94.7 KRNK FM - Portland, Oregon Jeff writes from Portland to say he's an "unattached journalist," and I think by that he's trying to tell me he's single. I don't date journalists, you're all scum! Okay, actually he means "freelance," and he's investigated a situation at 94.7 where they're apparently playing "Every Car You Chase" two or three times a day. Awesome!

Trixxxie Carr and Party Ben sing the hits

AUGUST 26, 2007
BOOTIE BLOWS UP
Kablooey! No no, I mean it in the "awesome!" sense, not like an actual explosion. Breaking the attendance record set back in January when, well, the headliner was lil' ole me, Bootie brought 1300 people to the DNA Lounge on Saturday night (8/11) for our 4th anniversary and the premiere of the A+D show. There were some technical difficulties during the night (note: never put Party Ben in charge of an iPod slide show) but Adrian and Mysterious D (and their cast of thousands) put on an amazing performances, complete with a sing-along and 99 red balloons. We were pretty busy all night, but from what we hear, people had fun. If you want to relive the experience, you can as always go to dnalounge.com and click on "webcasts" then "archive" (or just click here) to listen to the audio feed from the night for the next, er, certain amount of time. Also for some pictures check out Kristi and Netik's Flickr pages, or the Napkin Nights page. Thanks of course to DNA Lounge and everybody who's a part of Bootie for all their work, and of course, to everybody who came out.

I know the night was all about A+D, but I tried to make some new tracks as well, just so people didn't forget about me. Of course not all of them turned out satisfactorily (Bootie attendees, you're my guinea pigs for new stuff), but one seemed to get attention if only for the notoriety of one of the mashed-up artists: Amy Winehouse vs. The Four Tops. It is of course called "Rehab (Can't Help Myself)," and it's pretty silly but it's, as I like to say, functional. It's an "exclusive track" at the Bootie Blog in this week's Top Ten, so go over there and marvel at how much better the other 9 mash-ups are.

More of my "Bootie Exclusives" coming soon to celebrate our club's longevity... stay tuned...

Who knew this thing could last four years

JULY 31, 2007
BOOTIE WINS BEST CLUB AGAIN AND AGAIN
It's an honor just being nominated. Hey, remember Bootie? It's that club that plays mashups, you know, those dumb indie-vs.-hip-hop combos that aren't cool at all, that whole trend that died in like 2003? And again in 2005? Well, anyway, readers of the San Francisco Bay Guardian still like it apparently. They're kooks! Congrats to Adrian & Mysterious D, Dada, Smash-Up Derby, everybody at DNA Lounge, and all the DJs and performers who have graced our stage. And thanks for having me at 95.83% of all Booties since it began in '03.

Hey speaking of which, it's Bootie's 4-year anniversary in just under two weeks, which is kind of hard to believe, not because A & D don't put their hearts and souls into the party every month, which they do, but because the exciting world of nightlife can be a little, erm, fickle. On August 11th, A & D will finally take the stage (accompanied by a whole variety of cameo performers) for some sort of bonkers circus-like performance, and I'll be DJing as well along with some of the fine Bay Area bootleggers you know and love. Clear your schedule Sunday August 12th for recovery ay?

In other news, The Toronto Star's John Sakomoto has ranked a Party Ben mashup in his "Anti-Hit List" again. Above Thurston Moore! This time it's "Tender Umbrella" which now has sloppy artwork to match its slapdash production, over on the Downloads page. Thanks Mr. Sakomoto, and if you made mashups I would totally put them in my Top Ten, but since I stole the idea from you anyway I guess we're cool, right?

Now it's time for my favorite part of the show: the Snow Police Radio Tally! Who's up on the big board this week Jim? Thanks Party Ben! Well tonight on the Snow Police Radio Tally, we say hello to the beautiful and talented Canada! Plus, the very serious Germany! And finally, a crazy country that's mostly below sea level, you may know her as Holland, it's The Netherlands! Now let's say bring out our lovely assistant Deborah, please pull aside the Snow Police Radio Tally Spangled Curtain Deborah!

	94.7 STAR FM - Brandon, Manitoba, Canada DJ Falko writes from Star to say that "Every Car You Chase" is not only in rotation but "huge in requests." Hot phones! Hot phones!
	NDR 2 - Hamburg, Germany Hey, you can actually see when they played it, on July 17th, between, er, Raemonn and Alanis Morrissette.
	3FM - The Netherlands Apparently it got some spins on the Michiel Met show.
	WAY FM - Naaldwijk, The Netherlands Harold Zwaartman writes to say he played it on his show "The DJs"!

And, goodnight! Thanks Jim and Deborah, great job this week. Well, seeing as I'm apparently way more popular in Europe than I am here at home in the good old US of freakin' A, I suppose it's a good idea to try and get some DJ dates over there. Some events in France are already confirmed for late November, and I'm working on more dates -- stay tuned...

Nathan out of Snow Patrol: "It is what it is..."

JULY 6, 2007
NATHAN SNOW PATROL SAYS "EVERY CAR YOU CHASE" IS "...FINE"
Mercifully not adding "...if you like that sort of thing." 2fm Ireland's afternoon DJ Rick O'Shea spoke with Nathan Connolly, guitarist from Snow Patrol, on Wednesday, and after discussing a little show the band are planning to perform at tomorrow, he brought up the topic of a goofy little mashup which has turned into a sort of international semi-hit. Mr. Connolly was kind, if somewhat unenthusiastic, first taking pains to point out it's "nothing to do with us," and finally allowing that he "has heard it and it's fine." His tone of voice betrayed a bit of annoyance, however, which is too bad considering the other big rock mashup I made should have been way more insulting to Green Day since its whole raison d'etre was Green Day's wholesale lifting of the chord structure from "Wonderwall," something I don't think is implied at all in "Every Car You Chase." But, you know, I understand, it's got to be weird to have one of your songs get bastardized and show up all over the radio without your knowledge or whatever. Anyway, in an amusing aside, he reveals it was his mom who first told him about it: "I had no idea what she was talking about.. but turns out she was right." Funny imaging that conversation: "Nate, sweetie, I hair yer pretty song on the rayydio this fair mornin', but it be all sullied with Sting I tell ya!" "Aw, ma, is ya on the sauce again?!" "Nah I tell ya, 'tis true: Sting, plain as day!" Anyway, host O'Shea suggested the band get together with The Police for a crowd-pleasing performance of the mashup, but Connolly was noncommital. Listen to the interview segment here:

Well, if you see the band at Live Earth tomorrow and Sting walks out to join them, somebody call me?

So anyway, it seems like a perfect time to update the big Snow Police Radio Tally board!

	KISS 98.9 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma This and the following three stations showed up on a search for "Party Ben" today on MediaBase, the company that tracks music stations play.
	Magic 93.1 - Boise, Idaho It's listed as getting spins on four US station currently but I know DC101 played it recently and that's not listed, so I don't know if it's complete.
	Power 105.7 - Fayeteville, Arkansas I'm not exactly sure why these, er, "secondary markets" are jumping on it. Perhaps there something about it that appeals to the small-town demo?
	Flounder's Mashups on DC101 - Washington, DC Hey might as well put this down, although since it's a mashup show (airing Saturdays 10-midnight) it's not exactly much of a stretch.
	98.7 The Peak - Phoenix, Arizona Mary writes to say she's a weekend DJ here and she asked her PD if she could play it and he said "OK!"
	Radio Antwerpen (102.9 FM) - Antwerp, Belgium Werner writes from Radio Antwerpen to say their station "plays and enjoys" "Every Car You Chase." I know it's true because Belgium is the country where Partyben.com currently has the highest internet popularity ranking according to Alexa.com: 46,423rd! I've long since gotten a restraining order against Canada, you miserable fat Belgian bastards, so keep your distance.
	HO FM (!!!), 101.7 - Hobart, Australia Uhhh, huh huh huh huh, it's Ho FM, huh huh huh huh!!!! Is their sister station "Slutty 97?" "105.9 The Slattern?"
	96.9 Star FM - Goulburn Valley, Victoria, Australia Apparently there's another Aussie radio network that's picked up "Every Car You Chase," meaning it's probably on a bunch of these stations, who knows.
	Nova 100 - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Is this part of Austereo or TheRadio? I can't keep any of these straight. But it's on their playlist, look!
	Cream - Liverpool, England Unconfirmed reports say "Every Car You Chase" is being, er, "caned" at Liverpool's legendary Cream nightclub. Gary writes to say the reaction has been "euphoric;" that's the drugs doing that, Gary.

So, kids, what have we learned here today? Well, most importantly, American radio station logos are all really, really ugly.

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JUNE 8, 2007
"EVERY CAR YOU CHASE" CONQUERING MORE HOT FM FREQUENCIES; PLUS NEW MASHUP
Mono mix for AM coming soon... Now that my 15 minutes of fame seems to be over in Ireland, it's apparently time for me to move on to other continents. And thus: Australia! Let's bring out the big Snow Police Radio Tally Jim! Okay!

	The Austereo network - Australia Matt writes from B105 in Brisbane to say that his music director asked him to "cart up" "Every Car You Chase" for regular airplay, and that Austereo, the radio network to which B105 belongs, is playing it nationwide. Whee! How do you pronounce that, "au-STERE-eo," or "AHH-stereo?" Or... um... ah-ster-e-OH?
	Mix 101.1 - Melbourne, Australia Brandon writes from Melbourne to say he heard it on this station which is apparently not a part of the Austereo network. Wow, competition amongst the Aussies! Time to celebrate with a nice juicy koala steak!
	Mix 98.5 - Boston, Massachusetts Back in the good old USA, here's the station that's leading the Snow Police charge stateside: Mix 98.5! Adrian from RCA Records writes to say the station actually reported "Every Car You Chase" as an official "add" this week (breaking into the station's Top 30), and thus, for the first time ever, "Party Ben" is apparently an official "artist" on MediaBase! Whatever that means!
	Mix 98.5 staff apparently found out about the thing after reading about it in the Boston Herald here. Thanks, Boston Herald!
	Star 100.7 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Yeah, Star 100.7, you know you wanna be like Mix 98.5. Come on. Keep playing "Every Car You Chase." You're only at like 4 or 5 spins, but you can catch up. Come on! You can do it!
	X96 - Salt Lake City, Utah Now here's a cool station, although I don't have independent confirmation of their playing it. They played the heck out of "Boulevard" back when I was cool, though, so it would make sense. Anybody in Utah who has the internet and can pull themselves away from their time-consuming polygamous marriage, drop a line and let me know!

Remember, operaters at Party Ben Information Systems are standing by to take your calls if you hear "Every Car You Chase" on the radio. By "calls" we mean "e-mails" and by "standing by" we mean "out having some drinks someplace" and by "we" I mean "me." Anyway, it's partyben@yahoo.com.

Oh here's a thing I'll probably play at Bootie tomorrow night:

General Public vs. Rihanna - "Tender Umbrella" 6mb 192kbps mp3

I love that new Rihanna song and just couldn't help myself.

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MAY 23, 2007
BOOTIE WINS BEST CLUB... AGAIN
And from the paper that hates me! Amidst all the insanity lately, we at Party Ben Information Systems almost forgot to mention another exciting honor that's been bestowed upon Bootie, the all-bootleg club I've been DJing at since its first or second month (I can't really remember). Bootie won "Best Club" in the SF Weekly Reader's Poll, and despite giving "Best Radio Station (Commercial)" to KFOG (?!), the readers seem like a pretty smart bunch. We're populists! While most of the Weekly staff who at one time assailed my work have apparently moved on, it's still nice to see the current writers didn't add a qualifier like "except for Party Ben and his dumb mashups" after the award, or something. Also, Smash-Up Derby, our house band, won "Best Cover Band," which is totally awesome -- take that, Superdiamond! This of course follows Bootie's win for "Best Club" in last year's reader's poll at the competing SF Bay Guardian, one of whose music writers may or may not date our ex. Ahem.

Oh and hey, while we're here, let's update the Snow Police radio tally! Three more stations added in two days! Whee! Remember, write partyben at yahoo dot com with the details if you hear the lilting strains of "Every Car You Chase" on your local broadcasting facility.

	7fm - Ballymena, Northern Ireland Hey I guess that would explain the "dot co dot uk" in their website address now wouldn't it. Still getting the hang of this whole Ireland thing. Repeat after me: Bally-MEE-na. Bally-MEEEE-na.
	Radio Beverland - Somewhere in Belgium Bondjoû, Belgium! First of all, is that a beaver in your logo, or are you just happy to see me? Secondly, are you trying to get all up in Ireland's face, because they are way ahead of you. Thirdly, I'd just like to return to the subject of the beaver, because I'm still not getting it. Discuss.
	KINK FM - Portland, Oregon, US of Freakin' A Welcome, Portland! While I've never understood how this station avoids the obvious "All S&M, All the Time" format, I'm happy to have them on board

MAY 21, 2007
NYC, SNOW POLICE, ANTI-HITS, COPYCAT MASHUPS
So much to cover... and yet, so tired... Wow, I've kind of been on a world tour, if New York and LA are "the world." And they so are. First of all, thanks to everybody who came out to Bootie NYC on Fri. 5/18, and Spin Doctors in LA on Sat. 5/19. Photos of the former are up here (big ups to Reset and Lobsterdust for joining in the fun), but I was pretty jet lagged in LA and forgot my camera so there's no record of Spin Doctors I'm afraid. Did it even happen?

Moving on... to Ireland! Thanks to everyone who has written in to let me know where they've heard "Every Car You Chase." Here's a wrapup of where it's apparently been played so far:

	2fm - Ireland National Okay we've already covered how it's been on this station and how I stumbled my way through interviews with Gerry Ryan and Rick O'Shea. Love you guys... but...
	Q102 - Dublin Ray Shah writes from The Big Saturday Show on Q102/Dublin to say he was the first one to play it Q102 was the first station to play it. Erp! Don't fight over me boys! Party Ben does not endorse any radio station but just provides unbiased information so you can make up your own minds. Party Ben: Fair and Balanced
	FM104 - Dublin People are saying they're hearing it on this station quite a bit. It's on the FM dial!
	Today FM - Dublin Now that's a lovely, uplifting logo, isn't it. Takes your mind off the Troubles
	Red FM - Cork Hey, apparently making inroads all over the island, not just Dublin! Now to conquer the other colors. Is there a Mauve FM, because I think I'd fit right in
	98 FM - Dublin Back to Dublin -- whew, I was getting a little freaked out, stuck out there in the boonies
	Radio Donna - Belgium Wait, Belgium's not in Ireland. What the hell is going on? And could their logo be any gayer? Is it okay to say that if I'm actually gay?
	Q94 - Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Again with the Canucks, with their flappy heads and beady eyes. How many times do I have to tell you: keep playing my tracks, sure, but I was just using you for the free health care and marriage rights
	WXRT - Chicago, Illinois, United States of Parrrrty That's right, even a legitimate station playing quality rock like XRT has apparently jumped on the Snow Police bandwagon (although that may just be due to the lobbying efforts of my buddy Jason)

Anyway, all of us here at Party Ben Information Systems still get excited when we find out a Party Ben track has received airplay somewhere in the world, but generally we have no idea when it's happening, so please continue to write in and let us know.

Back in Canada, there's somebody else whose attention is starting to make me really uncomfortable, and that's John Sakamoto of the Toronto Star. He put my new treatment of the good old Lyrics Born a capella with "Pick Up the Pieces" at #3 on his esteemed Anti-Hit List this week, although I have to say I haven't heard of anybody else on that whole list. And yes that includes Sinead O'Connor.

And finally, a bit of an embarassment: the dippy combo I posted two weeks ago of Simian Mobile Disco and Technotronic had apparently been done first (and better) by the brilliant Dunproofin', a UK producer whose work I've always admired. It's actually kind of surprising this hasn't happened more often (what with me making a career out of slapping together pretty obvious tracks) but I still feel like a dweeb since I should be paying closer attention to what other people are doing. Sorry DP. So anyway go visit his site and grab his stuff (like this or this) if you want to hear what a real bootlegger sounds like.

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MAY 12, 2007
SILLY NEW TRACK
Like anything I do isn't silly. Okay I know I've been running all over the place doing random DJ gigs, but I still have time to throw together some amusing tracks on my shiny new laptop, so here's one to tide you over until I can do another, uh, alt-rock ballad-meets-80's-hit monster smash.

Simian Mobile Disco vs. Technotronic - "Pump Up the Beat" 9MB 192kbps mp3

Also kind of inspired by 2manydjs' stuttery rework of Technotronic.

Oh and by the way, Ireland: yes, hello, thanks for all the e-mails, and I'm doing my best to come up with some sort of guest DJ appearance in your general vicinity. In the meantime, if you hear "Every Car You Chase" somewhere, please drop a line and let me know when and where you heard it. So far, there are reports of it being played on Q102 / Dublin, FM 104 / Dublin, and of course 2fm and apparently even the far more sedate Radio 1. And to the Gerry Ryan morning show on 2fm, I didn't mean to be a smart aleck when I said that Bono calls me all the time to discuss debt relief or whatever, it was just amusing to me that you asked.

APRIL 30, 2007
IRELAND LOVING "SNOW POLICE"
Aren't Snow Patrol really from Scotland? This Snow Patrol vs. Police mashup is apparently getting some attention in the Emerald Isle, and to be honest, it's starting to interfere with my sleeping habits. I was e-mailed last week by producers for two separate shows on RTE Radio's s national music channel 2fm, saying they were playing the track, and wondering if I'd do a quick phone interview with them. Now as I've been blogging excessively about, I was living it up in the desert this weekend at Coachella, staying up late and possibly enjoying some drinks, and so getting a phone call from Irish radio at 8 in the morning wasn't exactly the easiest thing to handle. I actually slept through their first attempt on Friday, but early this morning (Monday), the Rick O'Shea show got in touch, waking me after only a couple hours of sleep (and quite possibly still a bit tipsy). Mr. O'Shea was effusive in his praise of the track and called it something like "the biggest thing on Irish radio right now," which seems impossible -- what about, like, Mika, or whatever? Being a bit groggy I don't think I made much sense, nor did I thank Mr. O'Shea for his kind words (sorry!) so if you tuned in at 4:45pm Ireland time and heard a scratchy-voiced doofus mumbling about mashups, that was probably me.

Afterward, word came that the long-running morning show on 2fm, the Gerry Ryan show, wanted to talk to me as well. They're on from 9am-noon, would it be okay if they called me tonight, at, uh, 3am SF time? Ugghhhh... So despite being completely exhausted from Coachella and getting stuck in traffic on I-10 and missing my flight and just getting into town a few hours ago and also just generally being unable to string together a coherent sentence, I'm staying up, and I'll apparently be interviewed as part of a longer feature on the mashup phemon, today (Tuesday) at 11am Ireland time. If you need a chuckle, tune in around Ireland on 90-92 FM, and on the intertubes here.

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APRIL 21, 2007
"SNOW POLICE" GETS INDIE LOVE + VIDEO TREATMENT
Theme park coming soon. My newest installment (see top right) in what is apparently my long line of 80s-meets-alt-rock-cheese mashup items got some attention over at the coolest music blog around town, Stereogum, yesterday. Thanks Miles for pointing it out. And here I thought they had some sort of an exclusive deal with some Aussie! Guess not. Anyway, the usually super-snarky commenters have actually gone pretty easy on me, with a current ratio of 5-to-2 positive to negative (although one of the negatives just says "mashups are so 2004," which is totally true, and isn't really negative about me, specifically, I guess). Anyway, thanks, Gum.

Also, just letting you know, I'm off to Coachella next week, and at the last minute have been asked to DJ at the good old Filter Magazine party (the whole "secret location" thing that they do) on Thursday night. Since my Coachella experience is all about extracting the most enjoyment possible from the post bands possible, that means my feets gets tired, and so my non-festival-time priority is hot tub relaxation, not hardcore hipster partying, so I'm pleased to say I'm spinning early at the Filter thing, probably like 9-ish, giving me ample hot tub time later. Perhaps I'll see some of you there (at the party or the show, I mean, not our hot tub... but, you never know). I'll be attempting to post daily Coachella updates over at the Mother Jones' Riff blog, where I continue to be a guest writer blogger for some reason.

After that I have a couple "special" projects and private gigs (gotta pay the bills here at Party Ben Information Systems; just keeping my staff in blow runs like 50 large a week!) so if I don't post for a while, please don't worry about me.

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APRIL 15, 2007

• Lil Mike has a cool history lesson on bastard pop that mentions me (as a "kid;" I wish!)
• Art La Flamme uses me as an example of how Last.fm is pretty cool
• I guess this is real news, not a blog, but it says I'm a "jack of the mashup expose;" mostly it just talks about a Girl Talk show, though, that actually sounds pretty fun
• Boulevard of Broken Songs Guitar Hero hack:
  

FRIDAY, FRIDAY FRIDAY!!!

Above: Canadians

I've become a bit addicted to Alexa.com, the website that ranks everything on the intertubes. You can look up any website, and see how popular it is, compared to other websites! It's endless hours of fun, and of course, the first thing you do is look up your own website. We here at Party Ben Information Systems have been up and down over the years (reaching a peak in early 2006 for some reason) but the most surprising statistic is lower down on the page.

Alexa shows you what percentage of your web traffic is coming from what country, and seeing as I'm a red-blooded American, inflicting my bastard pop creations on American radio listeners and American club-goers, in America, you'd think I'd be most popular here. Nope. With 34% of my "users" (twice the traffic of the USA), Canada is my #1 country. Oh... Canada?

You know when you go over to somebody's house, and they seem really excited to see you, and they have about 2,000 pictures of you all over the house, they haven't washed their hand since your prom date 20 years ago, or flushed the toilet? Wait, that's an episode of "Family Guy." But still, Canada, you're kind of freaking me out. What do you see in me? Where did you even hear about me?! Do you even have radio stations up there? ...Can I come work for one? Ahem. Anyway, if any Canucks are reading this (and apparently you are) please drop a line to partyben (at) yahoo.com and explain this to me. In English.

And Spain, I see you over there, with 13.2%

Also, I made a new thing: The Police vs. Snow Patrol "Every Car You Chase (The Snow Police)" It's a Bootie Top 10 Exclusive. Check it out and all the other current Bootie hits over here.

*Not actually taking place at the Chrysler Building... but give us a few months, we'll be like Matthew Barney, mashing shit up like crashing vintage cars in the damn lobby

And finally, if you've made it this far, you get a prize...

MECO vs. Public Enemy vs. Earth Wind & Fire "Bring the Wars" 6MB 192 kbps mp3 Here's another goofy track from my recent headlining live sets at Booties LA and SF, this one being the big finale, that was supposed to re-establish the goofball Star Wars theme of the set, and also give everyone a chance to dance around to that excellent Cantina theme song. Good times.

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Three things that are each 1/3 as important as a usual entry = one whole entry! First of all, thanks to everyone who came out to Bootie LA on Saturday (2/4) at The Echo! I promise that was the last time I'll put on the Jedi costume. I basically reprised my set from Bootie SF on 1/13; a couple more tracks from that are coming to the Download page soon, I promise. Photos soon to be posted here as well.

Second, if you appreciate my charming lack of writing skills and correct grammar, or my pretentious annual take on the year's music, or just liberal media blogs, you'll be excited to know I've been asked to be a guest writer for the Mother Jones' arts and culture blog known as "The Riff." I do try to keep my "headline" posts here at partyben.com restricted to my own mashups, DJ gigs, and press, so if you'd like to know what I think about Prince's half time show or the Mooninite terrorists threatening our cities, check it out.

Thirdly, I have a last-minute appearance to add: I'll be DJing before Lily Allen's show at Great American Music Hall tomorrow night (2/6). The show is actually sold out so it's not like you can come out and see me if you don't already have a ticket, but still, I like that Alright, Still album quite a bit and it'll be fun for me.

BOOTIE RECAP + RANDOM VIDEOS
These aren't the mashups you're looking for...

or are they. As usual I was a bit worried about attendance before last night's Bootie featuring me in the "headlining" slot on stage. The weather here in SF has been breaking low-temperature records, and January is typically a rough month in the nightlife world. However, to all of our amazement (except Mysterious D's whose spidey senses predicted a good night), we smashed our attendance records with nearly 1100 people heating up the DNA Lounge. And people say mashups are dead. Shit, I say that.

Because I love the Bootie crowd, I felt like I had to provide some extra entertainment in my set; I went with an admittedly somewhat cliche Star Wars theme, attempting my own version of the famous internet kid's light-saber performance, and then followed it up with a set of almost entirely new tracks including a few Star Wars boots and some amusingly reworked versions of classic Party Ben, uh, "hits," like a new version of the Mylo/Tegan & Sara using the amazing Etienne de Crecy remix of "Paris Four Hundred." Many of these tracks will soon be posted in MP3 form here; of course, if you can't wait, as always you can listen to the archived webcast at the DNA Lounge's website here. (Click on the link starting at 12:00 midnight, enjoy Suppositori Spelling's jazzy Bjork number, then I kick it off at about 12:15.)

Some great photos are already getting uploaded to fine photo-sharing websites:

• Kristi's Bootie set on Flickr featuring some good shots of me on stage surrounded by superstar Bootie dancers
• Lane's Bootie set also on Flickr with some pics of Smash-Up Derby;
• Aynne's got some good ones on Flickr too but you have to scroll down a bit.

Thanks to everybody who braved the cold to come out and to the whole Bootie and DNA posses for putting on a great party, plus mad props to Team Canada who ripped it up upstairs.

Moving on... to moving-picture visual entertainment! Some recent e-mails have brought to my attention a few more homemade videos posted on YouTube featuring my mashups. Let's take a look:

JANUARY 1, 2007
HOMETOWN LOVE + BEST OFS FINALIZED

Central Nebraska under a severe bafflement warning. Well, everybody thought I was a freak in high school, but 20 years later, dammit, I've proven them all... completely right. My hometown weekly newspaper, the Gothenburg Times, has just done a nice feature article on me and my production work, and e-mails are already starting to come in from long-lost high school pals who've seen it. While I've had a bit of press attention in the past, I must confess to being extremely nervous when doing the interviews for this article; my past bad luck with misquotes or errors makes me suspicious and anything that made me look like a pretentious moron would force my family, most of whom still call Gothenburg home, into hiding. The writer also threatened to use a picture of me from Halloween to accompany the article if I didn't send her a better photo, and I got one in just under the wire. Whew! Thankfully I don't appear to have embarrassed myself too much here and the writer also did a great job explaning all this stuff that I do. Check it out here.

Also check out a brief interview with me on the highly supportive Minnesota blog Some Assembly Required, Jon has always been a big fan of the mashups so thanks for that.

And of course, what you've all been waiting for, the final (?) revision of my year-end best album and single lists, complete with amusing commentary, is up here at Top 10s. If I didn't come off as pretentious in the Times article, this will definitely fix that.

Hey, looking up stuff on Flickr is fun, here's some amusing pictures of me DJing and stuff that other people have posted on Flickr:

• me djing at NSSN (by JTorrey),
• me DJing at the PS3 launch at Metreon (by CourtneyP),
• me with Mysterious D and Adrian at Xmas Pop Roxx (by fetching),
• another even more amusing one from Pop Roxx (by Maximum Mitch)

Happy New Year everybody and see you at Bootie on Saturday 1/13!

2006 NEWS ARCHIVE - 2005 NEWS ARCHIVE - 2004 AND PREVIOUS NEWS ARCHIVE