« 2006-10 | HomePage | 2007-02 »
Sunday, 24 December 2006
Birthdays suck
Especially when they're on Christmas Eve.
Hopefully, I'll feel better about it all tomorrow.
To the two people who gave me cards, and the dozen people who wished me happy b-day... I love you, and thank you. And thanks for all the iPod goodies, Party Ben. I'm sorry I gave you a drunkenly hard time about mixing out my song a minute early. Seriously. But to everyone else who didn't show up (without a text or email telling me why you couldn't) well...
When I go "eh" with everyone else's bday, that's why.
Our midnight mashup show didn't even show up without a phone call or text to let us know. So much for my whole midnight thing. Fuck you, Foxy.
Played a new Journey mashup we made in 45 minutes tonight at Pop Roxx ... it worked ... "don't stop believin.... hold on to that feelin'" ... but not this feeling... Ugh... But that song was the highlight of the night.
Hey, at least I came home with all our CDs ... unlike last year ... anyway ... Lane took some good pix, and there were moments.
But I'm left with this shitty feeling, and I don't know why. Maybe I should just go back to blowing off my bday. It was probably better that way.
04:35 Permalink | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this
Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Bootie Bootie Bootie, rockin' everywhere...
'Tis the season ... been busy as usual, which is why I haven't posted SHIT in six weeks. Of course, lots of stuff to report -- especially a lot of stuff about Bootie.
We heart Eric Kleptone
A few Bootie parties have come and gone, including our Bootie British Invasion with Bastard USA in the upstairs lounge, and guest DJ Eric Kleptone -- who also DJed at Bootie LA. Here's a silly pic of me and Eric at Bootie.
So nice to meet a mashup artist whose work we love and respect -- especially when he turns out to be SUCH a nice guy, and totally on the same page as us in regards to mashup bootleg culture. Such a similar aesthetic and attitude as ourselves. He totally rocked it at both Bootie parties, and it was so great hanging out with him and talking shop, comparing notes, etc. His shit is totally The Shit.
Bootie British Invasion
So in addition to Eric, we also had seven -- count 'em -- SEVEN other bootlegger DJs from the UK come over to take over the upstairs lounge at Bootie, doing Bastard USA. Bastard was the first mashup/bootleg club night in the world, which used to take place at a tiny bar called The Asylum in London. The night before Bootie, D had set up a dinner, which we jokingly referred to as the first meeting of "The Order of the International Bootleggers," or something like that. There 14 of us in total, as we invited all our local mashup DJ friends, and got everyone together for a four-hour marathon dinner/drink session! Anyway, here's a shot of us, as we took over the secret basement room of O'Reilly's Holy Grail...
The British Invasion party at Bootie the following night was a helluva a good time. We had around 850 people there, and Smash-Up Derby did a British-themed rock set, featuring only mashups by UK artists. The Bastard USA upstairs lounge was definitely something different for our crowd, as the British boys spun a lot of drum n' bass and other fast tempo bootlegs, which ended up being ... interesting. Anyway, here's a pic of Smash-Up Derby in full-on Union Jack glory...
Bootie NYC ... coming soon!
After that insane weekend, D and I flew off to New York City to do a DJ gig at the Hiro Ballroom, where we met quite a few people, including DJs ATOM, Moldover, and Lobsterdust. We stayed with our dear friends Halycon and Sam, and we pretty much barely saw daylight the entire four days we were there. We were out every single night until the wee hours of the morning, and we tried to hit quite a few parties. We even DJed a Burning Man-esque sexy party at a Brooklyn warehouse/loft.
Had a meeting with our potential Bootie NYC co-promoter, and it's looking like it's going to happen, so ... details coming soon!
BTW, I just gotta say that I totally LOVED New York on this trip. On previous excursions, I've always been a bit ambivalent about NYC ... like, it's a big city, and there's a lot going on but ... whatever. It's that "we're the center of the fucking universe" attitude that most New Yorkers seem to have that kinda turned me off. Like, "if it's not happening in New York, then it's not happening." And that's patently NOT TRUE. (Where's the equivalent of such San Francisco institutions as Trannyshack, Midnight Mass, or hell, even Bootie? That's right ... there's NOTHING LIKE ANY OF THEM in New York).
But this time, I was filled with this sense of excitement and opportunity. Sure, there's nothing like Bootie in New York. Therefore, I want to MAKE IT HAPPEN! Because, from what I hear ... if I can make it there, well ... I can make it anywhere! ;-)
My first Thanksgiving in San Francisco in 11 years!
D and I had a couple of good DJ gigs over Thanksgiving weekend, so this ended up being the first time we ever stayed in town over the long weekend. We used to always go on a desert roadtrip, something I've been doing every year without fail since 1995. But ... the DJ career is on an upswing, and so here we are, stuck in town.
So what did we do for Thanksgiving? GOT DRUNK. We thought it would be kitchzy fun to go to Tommy's Joynt with a couple friends ... the Thanksgiving dinner was sub-par, but the beer is always good. When we left, we decided to bar-crawl down Polk Street, but every bar was closed at 4 in the afternoon ... until we got to (where else?) our old watering hole, The Cinch. And the food was better there!
The next night, we DJed at Freaksgiving at Mighty. This was definitely one of our best DJ sets EVER. We had some chunks of our set already planned out from when we spun in New York City, but tonight, it just all fell into place and it was on fire! Some nice beat-mixed sections, a healthy dose of A+D tracks, and it all flowed perfectly. WOW! Just magical, and that so rarely happens. Lane Hartwell took some great pix here. Here's one of 'em...
The next night was Pop Roxx at DNA with our guest DJ Moldover from New York City, who we had met the week before. He does all his DJing with an Ableton Live rig... very cool stuff. Fun night, as usual.
A Very Bootie Christmas
DAMN. Last weekend's Bootie party in SF was SOOOOO much fucking fun! We were worried, because not only is December a notoriously bad month for nightclubbing (everyone is already out drinking for free at their or their friend's office Xmas party) but it was also pretty rainy out here in San Francisco.
But that didn't keep them away ... it was just like last month, we had around 850 people just going OFF! Plus, we were the after-party for the all-day Santarchy/Santacon thing happening so anyone dressed in a Santa suit got in for free. How much did I love looking out on the dance floor and seeing a bunch of drunk Santas getting down? Priceless.
We decorated the joint with Xmas decorations, and I even pulled off my hour-plus set of Xmas bootlegs without clearing the floor -- well, except for Voicedude's brilliant "Family Guy" mashup called "Carol of the Burgers" from last year's "Santastic" CD, but it was worth it for the few people who got the joke and went FUCKING NUTS when I played it!
Besides, it's only a little over a minute long, and I learned from DJ Instamatic last month that there are few things more gratifying as a DJ than deliberately clearing your floor only to bring 'em all back with the next tune! Most of what I played during the Xmas set is on our "A Very Bootie Christmas" CD, and we gave away LOTS of them tonight ... you can download it here!.
Smash-Up Derby rocked it -- we modified a few of our tunes to become Xmas songs. and we even brought our drunken Santa Claus up on stage for the last song. Our Ramones Christmas mashup -- "Christmas Bop," which mashed up The Ramones with "Deck The Halls," "Silent Night," and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" -- was our set closer, and turned out to be a big hit. We totally pulled that one out of our collective asses, coming up with it in rehearsal in probably less than a half-hour. It was sort of our tribute to Princess Kennedy's old holiday band, The Yuletards, who used to do punk rock Xmas songs. So much fucking fun!
And DAMN, the Fandango upstairs lounge was going off like it never has before (except when we do Mini-Bootie there at the club Pop Roxx ). They SERIOUSLY decorated the lounge (and made our meager efforts in the main room look lame in comparison) and also totally rocked it on the decks. DJs Malderor and Redstickman are both due for some main floor set time soon ... they had that upstairs room packed all night, and we didn't end up shutting it down until nearly 3 AM, when I finally ended it with (what else?) "Jon Whitney Houston."
DJ Jay-R turned out a great set, right after our midnight mashup show, which was Foxy Cotton doing his best Sarah Silverman impression by doing our A+D "Give Da Jew Girl Toys" mashup from the Santastic II CD. It's a "holiday party," not just a Xmas party!
I can't express enough how fucking shocked I am by how the evening went! The vibes were so good ... Santa and his elves were giving away free CDs all night, people were having a great time, it was just such a friendly, no-attitude, unpretentious, up-for-it crowd! (Which, for the most part, it always is ... but this time it was even better!)
I got stuck upstairs in the Fandango Lounge DJing till the bitter end, so Party Ben ended up doing a longer set than he was expecting, going from 1:20 or so till almost the end, when I came in to close out the night with DJ BC's "Imagine Santa" (again, from the Santastic II CD) which was so nice to see people slow-dancing to that. (And having the bar staff singing "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" afterwards!)
Like I said, it was THAT kind of evening ... it surpassed all of our expectations of what a club is supposed to be like during the worst club month of the year. Thanks to everyone who came out!
My birthday party is coming up at Pop Roxx in two weeks ... this time, I won't be getting so drunk that I lose all our CDs. Not to say that I won't be getting drunk ... just not THAT drunk!
15:30 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this