Best of Bootie 2008 released!

We have just posted -- for free download -- the Best of Bootie 2008 CD, our annual mashup compilation. This 77-minute continuous mix contains 20 of the best mashups from the past year -- perfect for parties! And be sure to check out the 13 bonus tracks on the web site as well! Click the cover above to get to the downloads!

This took longer to put together than we thought, simply because there were so many good mashups released this year! We had a really rough time narrowing it down, and a lot of it came down to what we could fit on a CD, and our desire to have a "little bit of everything," but not to repeat songs or artists.

But of course, that's why we also posted 13 bonus tracks, to showcase all the stuff we wanted to put on there, but couldn't.

Here's what's on there:

1. Party Ben - Bootie Intro

2. DJ Tripp - Paper Rump (Wreckx-N-Effect vs. M.I.A.) - Santa Cruz, CA

3. ComaR - I Want You D.A.N.C.E. (Justice vs. Jackson 5) - Paris

4. Lobsterdust - It's Fun To Smoke Dust (Queen vs. Pastor Gary Greenwald vs. Midfield General) - New York City

5. Earworm - No More Gas (Rihanna vs. Kardinal Offishall vs. Akon vs. Ne-Yo vs. Estelle vs. Pussycat Dolls vs. Leona Lewis vs. Danity Kane vs. Madonna vs. Timbaland vs. Justin Timberlake vs. Lupe Fiasco vs. Matthew Santos vs. Britney Spears vs. Flo-Rida vs. T-Pain) - San Francisco

6. STV SLV / The Hood Internet - Shut Up, American Boy (Estelle vs. The Ting Tings) - Chicago

7. DJ Zebra - Roxanne Should Be Dancing (The Police vs. The Bee Gees) - Paris

8. Overdub - Come As The Starlight (Nirvana vs. The Supermen Lovers) - France

9. DJ Y Alias JY - Duffy Train Running (Duffy vs. Doobie Brothers) - Munich

10. DJ Magnet - Chicago Bump (Bootie edit) (Chicago vs. Amanda Blank vs. Spank Rock vs. Bloodhound Gang vs. Greg Kihn Band vs. Detroit Grand Pubahs) - Denver

11. DJ Shyboy - You Spin Me Upside Down (Diana Ross vs. Dead Or Alive) - Los Angeles

12. Divide & Kreate - Dance Dreams (Lady Gaga vs. Eurythmics) - Stockholm, Sweden

13. ABX / The Hood Internet - Bonde Do Roll Out (Ludacris vs. Bonde Do Role) - Chicago

14. DJ Fox - Low Dog (Bootie edit) (Flo-Rida vs. The Stooges vs. Dakar & Grinser) - San Francisco

15. The Illuminoids - Gimme Shelter (Illuminoids remix) (Rolling Stones) - Los Angeles

16. Divide & Kreate - Until It Talks (Metallica vs. Coldplay) - Stockholm, Sweden

17. A Plus D - Believe In Sexual Eruption (Snoop Dogg vs. Cher) - San Francisco

18. Totom - Every Kind Of Creep (Zebra remix) (Radiohead vs. Robert Palmer) - France

19. Earworm - If I Were A Free Fallin' Boy (Beyoncé vs. Tom Petty) - San Francisco

20. Brat - Easy Heaven (The Cure vs. The Commodores) - Los Angeles

BONUS TRACKS:

Party Ben - Single Ladies (In Mayberry) (Beyoncé vs. "The Andy Griffith Show" Theme) - San Francisco

A Plus D - $20 Monday (M.I.A. vs. New Order) - San Francisco

DJ Schmolli - Justice For Billie Jean (Justice vs. Michael Jackson vs. C&C Music Factory) - Vienna, Austria

Mash2Mix - Shut Up Your Delight (The Ting Tings vs. Sugarhill Gang vs. N.E.R.D. vs. Chic) - The Netherlands

The Illuminoids - Get It On At Le Disko (T. Rex vs. Shiny Toy Guns) - Los Angeles

Wax Audio - Sad But Superstitious (Stevie Wonder vs. Metallica) – Sydney, Australia

Lobsterdust - Pussycats Gone To Heaven (The Pixies vs. The Pussycat Dolls) - New York City

Clivester - Funky Touch (Bella Love vs. Soulwax vs. Lipps Inc.) - Vienna, Austria

Electrosound - Supermassive Rainbow (Muse vs. Klaxons) - France

DJ Gauffie - Kung Fu Dancing (Carl Douglas vs. Scissor Sisters vs. Wham!) - Sweden

DJ Maxentropy – Low A Prayer (Madonna vs. Flo Rida) – Philadelphia

Divide & Kreate - Every Bleeding Breath (Leona Lewis vs. The Police) - Stockholm, Sweden

DJ Schmolli - Wicked Wedding (Billy Idol vs. Chris Isaak) - Vienna, Austria

BOOTIE New Years Eve Pirate Party!

The best place to be on New Years Eve! :-)

Bootie Top 20 - December 2008

The past two months have been good for the bootleg scene. In other words, we couldn't pick just ten! And since this is our last Bootie Top 10 of the year, we thought we'd share in the holiday spirit and double it up for you, including a few older tracks from 2008 that just narrowly missed the cut the first time around. So here are 20 of our current favorite mashups, listed in alphabetical order by bootlegger.

DJ Bagel - Ace of Big (Notorious B.I.G. vs. Ace of Base) - Montreal
Mashups fill our email in box nearly every day, as many budding producers and DJs send us their tracks directly. Unfortunately though, most of them suck. Current pop vs. current pop? Rap over a hip-hop beat? Wow. Clever. But every now and then, an attached MP3 (with no ID3 tags, in this case) takes us by surprise. Sure, this may just be a simple A+B ... but Biggie rapping with Ace of Base sure brought smiles to our faces ... and you know, sometimes that's good enough for the Top 10! We also love that he brings in Ace of Base to sing with Biggie at all the perfect intervals. It's all about bringing that original back in as the payoff!

Brat - Easy Heaven (The Cure vs. The Commodores) - Los Angeles
This track has been Brat's little secret for years. When he first played it at Bootie LA years ago, our jaws dropped. We had to have it. But due to some issues with the acapella, Brat felt it wasn't ready to release. But every few months, he'd show up at Bootie LA and come up to the DJ booth with a mischievous grin on his face ... and we would know that he had brought it so we could at least play it that night! It's one of the best "last song" mashups EVER. We are so glad he's finally been able to put this out there for everyone to enjoy.

Clivester - Funky Touch (Bella Love vs. Soulwax vs. Lipps Inc.) - Vienna, Austria
We weren't familiar with MySpace star Bella Love, but we fell in love with her vocal immediately. Here, Clivester cleverly mashes up a mashup, dropping her sexy vocals into a bootleg of Soulwax vs. the classic "Funkytown." The more we've been spinning this, the more we've loved it. Dirty dance floor fun!

Divide & Kreate - Party Kisser (Katy Perry vs. Bloc Party) - Stockholm, Sweden
"I Kissed A Girl" had to be one of the most mashed up songs of the past year. The only problem was that nearly ALL of them kinda sucked. There's just something about the vocal (especially the melody change from the verse to the chorus) that made it difficult to mash up well with other songs. Of all the Katy Perry boots out there, we thought that this one sounded the best. And it just felt wrong to get to the end of the year without at least recognizing the most over-played song of 2008!

Dunproofin' - Bootie Call (Blondie vs. Dragonette) - Scotland
Blondie's classic gets a contemporary electro rock update. And no, we didn't pick this for the Top 10 just because Dunproofin name-dropped our club name in the title! It's a kick-ass track that has turned us on to a new band, Dragonette.

Earworm - If I Were A Free Fallin' Boy (Beyoncé vs. Tom Petty) - San Franicsco
We've always had a soft spot for "Free Fallin," our favorite song Tom Petty song ever. Hearing him brought into this decade by forcing him to do a duet with Beyoncé is just brilliant. It seems like Earworm, master of the multi-layered mashup, is rediscovering the graceful simplicity of a clever, well-crafted A+B.

Electrosound - Salmon Rehab (Chemical Brothers vs. Amy Winehouse) - France
"Salmon Dance" is such a silly novelty tune, but here, it works seamlessly with Amy Winehouse's retro-'60s soul, making for an interesting genre-clash that never sounds forced.

The Illuminoids - Suffragette City (The Illuminoids Remix) (David Bowie vs. The Illuminoids) - Los Angeles
Seems like we always have to have at least one "Electro-Bootie" bootleg remix in the Bootie Top 10, and this month, The Illuminoids deliver an absolutely slammin' electro version of Bowie's glam classic. Oddly enough, Ziggy Stardust sounds particularly well-suited to the "future-is-now" buzzsaw electronics. We love it when classics like this get updated in ways the original artist never intended.

Immuzikation - Columbian Cartel (MGMT vs. The Ting Tings) - Athens, Georgia
Indie hipsters rejoice! Immuzikation has made a name for himself in the blogosphere for his "blends" (what people afraid of the word "mashup" call mashups). His specialty is mashing up indie bands of the moment, and here, he takes three Ting Tings songs and two MGMT songs (and none of them are the hits) and turns them into something that sounds so very "NOW."

Lock3down - Some Like It Hot and Heavy (The Power Station vs. Does It Offend You, Yeah? - Toronto
Speaking of songs (and bands) so very "NOW" ... here we have indie darlings Does It Offend You, Yeah getting schooled on which '80s song they inadvertently (and probably unknowingly) ripped off. The dodgy Power Station acapella extraction only adds to the low-fi "distorted coolness" of the track.

Marc Johnce - Hot N Cold Maniac (Bootie edit) (Katy Perry vs. Michael Sembello) - Germany
More '80s retro fun, paired up with the latest Katy Perry song that we're not sick of ... yet. In our heads, we picture Katy Perry in a ripped sweatshirt, doing "Flashdance" dances every time we hear this song. We even tossed in a little of the original Michael Sembello vocal for a nice little call-and-response for this "Bootie edit."

TWO FOR ONE "RICKROLLING" SPECIAL!
Mad Mix Mustang - Don't You Ever Give Up Wanting Me Baby (Rick Astley vs. Human League) - The Netherlands
Mighty Mike - Neverending (Rick Astley vs. Mika) - Paris
The Bootie Top 10 has finally been RICKROLLED! Ever since we first heard the Rick Astley acapella had been leaked, we've been waiting for him to show up here. Sure, now that Rick Astley himself has Rickrolled the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, we're sure the Rickroll phenomenon has officially jumped the shark. But still, we couldn't get through 2008 without not one, but two options: The first track is perfect for Rickrolling a packed dance floor. The second is for the end of the night when everyone's good and drunk!

DJ Moule - Fa Fa Fa Good (James Brown vs. Beatles vs. Datarock) - Bordeaux, France
James Brown as a indie rocker? It's hard not to like James Brown's funky vocal ... hell, and it even holds its own paired up with Norwegian dance rockers Datarock. Throw in some Beatles and you've got another wonderful decades-spanning mashup courtesy of classic rock and soul-loving Moule.

Party Ben - Single Ladies (In Mayberry) (Beyoncé vs. "The Andy Griffith Show" Theme) - San Francisco
After nearly a year-long detour into B-more house and remixes, Party Ben makes a much welcome return to the world of mashup making with a silly - yet insanely infectious - bootleg that reaffirms his standing as a master of the craft. Cheeky and totally fun. Welcome back, Ben!

DJ Schmolli - Wicked Wedding (Billy Idol vs. Chris Isaak) - Vienna, Austria
Bootie Munich's resident DJ places Billy Idol's classic anti-wedding ode in a much more melancholic musical setting. In the process, Schmolli recontextualizes the song to more accurately reflect the cynical lyrical content (believe it or not, Billy was NOT in favor of marriage in this song, a fact lost on any couple who requests this at their own wedding!)

HOLIDAY MASHUP!
Smash-Up Derby - Christmas Bop (The Ramones vs. three Christmas songs) - San Francisco
As the house band at Bootie in San Francisco, Smash-Up Derby has been playing live rock mashups since 2004. This song has been a part of the band's Christmas repertoire since 2006, when they first played it at the Bootie Holiday Party. They finally got around to recording it this year, and it's the first track on Santastic 4, the annual holiday mashup compilation.

Totom - Every Kind Of Creep (Zebra remix) (Radiohead vs. Robert Palmer) - France
You'd never think Radiohead could sound this SMOOVE. It makes Thom Yorke sound kinda smarmy, especially with that '70s bass, the chicka-chicka guitar, and the steel drums ... like somehow he's found himself in a fancy tropical resort hotel bar, sipping a fruity drink, and hitting on every lady that walks by and, well ... being a creep! Gives this song a COMPLETELY different feel, which is what a good mashup SHOULD do!

TWO FOR ONE SPECIAL!
DJ Y Alias JY - Can't Stand Beggin' (The Police vs. Madcon) - Munich
DJ Zebra - Back to Beg (Amy Winehouse vs. Madcon) - Paris
After hearing this "Beggin" song in a recent Adidas commercial, we were like, "Where have we heard this song before?" Oh yeah, from mashups made by two of our DJ friends in Europe, where this Frankie Valli cover by Norwegian hip-hop band Madcon was a HUGE hit. It's about to be released here in the U.S., but why not hear it mashed up two different ways, like we did? The first one with The Police is a nice genre clash that works beautifully, and the second one with Amy Winehouse sounds so seamless that we weren't even convinced it was even a mashup when we first heard it!

Back from Bootie Beijing!

We're back from our 3-1/2 day trip to China, where we did our first Bootie Beijing party at Punk, at The Opposite House. Here are some of the edited highlights:

This is The Opposite House. It's on Sanlitun Road, a street well-known for its bars, restaurants, and nightlife. Beijing is currently revitalizing the entire area, and swank-tacular boutique hotels like this are part of the developments.

Here's our room. This was SO NICE to come to after 18 hours of travelling. We got in at 6 in the morning, but didn't want to throw off our sleep schedule, so instead of crawling into that cushy bed, we fought jet-lag and hit the ground running.

Our first stops (after eating a fabulous vegetarian meal at Pure Lotus) were The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Those imperial palaces inside go on forever. And then when you're ready to leave, you realize you're stuck in the middle, and you have to go through a bunch more just to get out. But the Imperial Garden was awesome! Except for this part...

Chinese Gardening Fail!

On our way to the Forbidden City, we passed by a building I had been DYING to see: The new CCTV Building. It's an architectural marvel, and it's almost completed. The Chinese love to come up with funny nicknames for their buildings, and this one is called "Short Pants."

The next day, we hired a car for the day (taxis and car services are shockingly cheap in Beijing, especially compared to what we're used to in San Francisco and New York) and made the obligatory trip to The Great Wall of China, which is about an hour away. OMFG! It was pretty damn awesome. Who knew that starting a club that plays mashups would lead us to being at The Great Wall of China? Pretty crazy.

All and all, it's just another ... brick in the wall.

Did you know that there's a section of the Wall where they've built a tobaggan run? Why doesn't anyone talk about these things? You take ski left up the mountain to the Wall, and then you can slide down on these tobaggans. And they can go FAST! To get a pretty good idea of what it's like, check out this video.

This photo shoot cost us $3. These guys were hustlin' in style!

Mysterious D's latest hat. She does NOT know how to haggle properly and paid WAY too much for this. She thought she was being generous, until we read somewhere that when Westerners don't haggle, they don't think you're being generous ... they just think you're stupid! But who cares? She loves her new hat!

After a harrowing ride through the countryside back into Beijing (drivers are crazy in China) we went to the Olympic Village ... kind of a "compare and contrast" between (very) old China and (very) new China. This is the "Bird's Nest."

We were psyched that you could go inside the National Stadium. There were a zillion Chinese tourists there, but shockingly, not many Westerners. You can tell the Chinese are obviously proud of what they've got here.

Doesn't Adrian look like the Beijing Olympic mascot?

If D were wearing green, this might work better.

The Water Cube wasn't so impressive during daylight hours, but when it's lit up at night, it's pretty great!

The next day our friend Dean flew in from Shanghai. We first met him five or six years ago when we used to DJ on Thursday nights at The Cinch, the little gay bar down the street from us. He loved our stuff and booked us for his company Halloween parties. He has watched us grow our Bootie empire over the years and has been super supportive. Part of the reason we got to do Bootie Beijing was because when we visited him in Shanghai last year, he introduced us to DJ Teng Boon, who liked our mashup style, and then booked us at Punk! Speaking of...

Here we are at Punk, doing our first Bootie Beijing. This is before Adrian climbed up on the DJ booth to sing the live midnight mashup show, causing a beer to spill on the brand-new Rane digital mixer, which then fritzed out, grinding the show to a halt, creating havoc, but also gave us an opportunity to talk to the crowd and give out free Bootie CDs while resident DJ Ekki switched out mixers for us. Oh, Ekki, we LOVE YOU! Here she is, after the crisis has been averted:

DJ Ekki is adorable. She kicked off the evening, but then pretty much had the night off after we went on ... we DJed for six hours! Apparently, Punk usually closed down around 3 AM, but we had them dancing until 4:30! It was definitely a later crowd, and they were up for it!

Getting down at Bootie Beijing. Hey, there's Dean in the front!

There was a club photographer there who took better photos than we managed. You can check them out HERE.

Apparently in China, girls show their love and appreciation for the DJs by biting the sides of their faces off.

It was a little rough the next morning, but we made it on the plane! We loved Beijing, and hope to be back soon!

TONS AND TONS MORE PHOTOS HERE!

Bootie Top 10 - November 2008

ABX of The Hood Internet - Glass Eye Of The Candy Tiger (Survivor vs. Glass Candy) - Chicago BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
When ABX from The Hood Internet dropped this at our first Bootie Chicago party a couple weeks ago, we both made a mad dash for the DJ booth to find out what it was. While the iconic music from "Eye Of The Tiger" has been used in several mashups, this is the first time we've heard the vocal used ... and it sounds slightly less cheesy when used over the icy cool electro of Glass Candy.

Clive$ter - Downtown Murder (Petula Clark vs. Sophie Ellis Bextor) - Vienna, Austria
It's not often a song as old as "Downtown" gets mashed up, but here it gets a much-needed dance floor remake, courtesy of Mashup Industries' Clive$ter, who skillfully gets these two British songstresses from different generations to sound like they're collaborating on a duet together. This track has a really warm vibe and just screams 'happy.'

Earworm - Reckoner Lowdown (Kanye West vs. Radiohead) - San Francisco
It's rare for Earworm - the king of complex, multi-layered productions - to produce a simple "A+B"-style mashup. But here, the pairing simply works, and with DJ Earworm's touch it works beautifully, creating a moody take on Kanye's new single.

DJ Gauffie - Kung Fu Dancing (Carl Douglas vs. Scissor Sisters vs. Wham!) - Sweden
A song from the '70s, mixed with a modern song that simply SOUNDS like it's from the '70s. Is it any wonder this works so well together? Carl Douglas' one-hit wonder fits like a glove while the Scissor Sisters' work out their '70s jones. And of course, a little Wham! thrown in for good measure is always good in our book!

Mad Mix Mustang - Take It Easy On Me (a-ha vs. The Commodores) - The Netherlands
We're always looking for new "slow jam mashups" to close out the night at Bootie parties, and this one couldn't be more perfect! It turns an '80s one-hit wonder into a beautiful ballad, perfect for drunken slow dancing! "Take On Me" actually sounds less like 80's cheese, and is really quite touching with the help of Mad Mix Mustang.

DJ Magnet - Brick Dick (Mickey Avalon vs. The Commodores vs. Beastie Boys vs. Jimi Hendrix) - Denver
Our friend (and Bootie go-go dancer) John-John has been quoting the ridiculously boastful lyrics of Mickey Avalon's cult hit "My Dick" for months! Needless to say, he was elated when this mashup came out, meaning he can now lip-sync every word while shaking it on a go-go platform. The Commodores make a second appearance on this month's Top 10, giving it a nice funk vibe, and DJ Magnet spices it up with just the right amount of Beasties and Hendrix for some flavor. This one is in heavy rotation for us right now.

Mash2Mix - Shut Up Your Delight (The Ting Tings vs. Sugarhill Gang vs. N.E.R.D. vs. Chic) - The Netherlands
Seemingly tailor-made for a Bootie dance floor, this track expertly mashes up the Sugarhill Gang classic (already practically a proto-mashup) with indie dance darlings The Ting Tings ... and then throws in a little N.E.R.D. for good measure. Gets the kids dancin' every time!

DJ Morsy - Lolli Lolli (DJ Morsy Remix) (Three 6 Mafia vs. DJ Morsy) - New York City
While we tend to focus on straight-up mashups in the Top 10, we also love unauthorized bootleg remixes ... especially when they're as bangin' as this. When we play a hip-hop track at Electro-Bootie, our monthly "club-within-a-club" in San Francisco, THIS is what it sounds like. We especially love the throbbing basslines and "Halloween" piano sample used throughout, making the song sound mysteriously evil.

DJ Y Alias JY - Don't Let It Be In Anger (Oasis vs. The Beatles) - Munich
Another fantastic "last song of the night" mashup. I mean, you know Oasis want to be the Beatles anyway ... and this bootleg proves it! Bootie Munich's resident DJ Y Alias JY totally nails it on this one. Is this the closing number at Bootie Munich? We hope so!

DJ Zebra - Roxanne Should Be Dancing (The Police vs. The Bee Gees) - Paris
DJ Zebra's "retirement" from the bootleg scene was obviously short-lived ... and bootlegs like this make us glad he's returned to mashup-making! "Roxanne" never sounded funkier ... this is a floor-filler for sure!

Bootie Beijing this Saturday!

OMG, we're going to China! It's our very first Bootie Beijing!

Seems like we only ever post to the Bootie Blog when we've got a new Bootie Top 10 (coming soon!) ... or when we're traveling out of the country!

So we'll be posting our travel reports here ... assuming we can access Blogger through the Great Firewall of China! Stay tuned. We'll let you know how our diplomatic mashup mission goes!

First Bootie Chicago this Thursday, October 23

For more info: www.BootieChicago.com