ADRIAN DOES STUFF

Nothing to see here, move along

2009-01-23T11:56:47-08:00

This was meant to be my personal blog, but obviously, I don't really have enough time in my personal life to maintain it with any real regularity. If you're interested in keeping up with what I'm doing, I highly suggest clicking on the links to the left.

Bootie, and all it entails -- Smash-Up Derby, A Plus D -- has kind of taken over my life. Therefore, check out the Bootie Blog, which does a much better job of documenting what's going on in my life, especially our various travels (that's really the most interesting part).

You can also check in with me on Facebook, which is really the only social networking site I can deal with. I can't stand MySpace, so really, don't even bother.

Of course, email is actually still the best way to get in touch with me. I'm old-school like that. ;-)

Three weeks of relative calm

2007-06-27T15:32:48-07:00

Ahhh ... I'm currently in the midst of a three-week period of relative calm. Sure, there have been some gigs – DJing a super-gay set at Pop Roxx on Gay Pride weekend, a couple of local Jameson Bartenders Balls for Smash-Up Derby to play, the San Francisco Magazine Best of the Bay party, performing as Princess Kennedy at Trannyshack – but overall, it hasn't been this crazy feeling of GO GO GO!!!

It's three weeks between Bootie parties, so that helps. Time for us to get all caught up, before the cycle starts all over again, as we launch headfirst into summertime, and all that that entails: Bootie anniversary parties in both LA (two years!) and SF (four years!) ... moving Bootie NYC to Luke & Leroy in July ... doing the The A+D Show in August ... recording a Smash-Up Derby album ... getting ready for Burning Man, and doing the last year of my Black Rock City newspaper, Piss Clear.

But right now, it's all good. D and I have actually (gasp!) hung out with friends, and have gone out to dinner with people! We actually went to somebody else's club for a change! We saw a movie in the LGBT Film Festival! (Okay, so that was kinda work-related -- Motherfucker: The Movie, a documentary about the famed NYC club night)

But anyway, it's been nice, although I know it's going to be ending soon, and then it's going to be Bootie-related stress all over again (I just realized how fucking ridiculous that sounds!)

Success is killing me

2007-05-08T15:04:05-07:00

I'm barely keeping my head above water.

This month, I'm promoting and DJing a Bootie mashup party every fucking weekend ... two in San Francisco, one in LA, and starting on May 18th, we go monthly in New York City.

Smash-Up Derby is playing five shows this month -- Philadelphia, Denver, New York City, and two in San Francisco. One of them is an acoustic show.

Plus, we have three other random DJ gigs ... which are almost kinda nice, seeing as none of them are attached to parties that we have to promote as well. We just get to show up and play.

I'm performing at Trannyshack tonight -- it's Pink Floyd: The Wall. I'm doing "Comfortably Numb" ... which is insanely appropriate for how I'm currently feeling. The entire performance is pretty much a metaphor for my life right now.

Except that I have no one to help carry me out the door.

Remember when I used to update this blog?

2007-02-20T15:55:16-08:00

I mean, at least even just every month or so. Good times...

Bootie Bootie Bootie, rockin' everywhere ... San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City ... and it keeps me damn busy.

And you know ... stuff and things. Stuff more important than keeping up with this blog, apparently.

To find out what the hell I'm doing, just click on the links at the left.

Unless it's my MySpace page. I fucking hate MySpace. Mysterious D now deals with all my MySpace correspondence. So if you get a message from me through MySpace, chances are, it's actually Deidre who is writing for me. Seriously. I can't stand MySpace. It's like surfing web pages in 1996 ... clunky, shitty, hard-to-read, crash-prone, buggy, and just plain ugly. WTF? How does a web site with such a horrible interface get so damn popular? Never underestimate the stupidity of 15-year-olds.

Now that I think about it, I probably would have said the same thing when I was 15. I hated all those people in high school!

Anyway, random tangent while I'm at the decreasingly important day job. Back to doing important Bootie club work, in-between the other work...

Looking at my schedule, I'm sure it'll be another three months before I post here again....

Birthdays suck

2006-12-24T04:38:24-08:00

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.

Bootie Bootie Bootie, rockin' everywhere...

2006-12-15T01:47:15-08:00

'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!

Wow, I seriously suck at updating my blog!

2006-11-01T15:17:58-08:00

Seriously. Seems like I'm just too fucking busy with Life to bother with WRITING about Life. Which kinda sucks, because there's a lot of cool shit going on with Life.

Okay, here's the brief update:

We made a bunch of new mashups. Six in total, actually. We just went on a bootlegging rampage, which we needed to do, since we hadn't exactly been very productive lately in the mashup creation department. Here's what we made:

Sexy Peek-A-Boo - Justin Timberlake vs. Siouxsie & the Banshees
Promiscuous Walk - Nelly Furtado vs. Aerosmith vs. Run-DMC
Nelly Furtado's Crazy - Nelly Furtado vs. Gnarls Barkley
You Believe Me All Night Long - Cher vs. AC/DC
Love Shack On Wheelz - B-52's vs. My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
Gold Lion Tale To Tell - Yeah Yeah Yeahs vs. Love and Rockets

You can also find them all at www.RebelDJs.com.

Bootie Bootie Bootie, rockin' everywhere ... besides Bootie SF (with DJs BC, Lenlow, and Adam Balm from Boston's Mash Ave!) and Bootie LA, we also did a couple Bootie-style parties for corporate clients ... hell, we even DJed at a trade conference! Also, been working on launching Bootie Paris, Bootie NYC, and Bootie San Diego. It's all in the works, and very very exciting! We're even in the midst of trademarking the Bootie name and logo. Frickin' cuh-razy. How has it come to this? The whole bootleg mashup DJing and throwing parties thing was just supposed to be something we were doing because we thought it was fun and new and interesting ... and now it's somehow turning into an actual career. Funny how life goes...

We got a really nice article written about us the SF Weekly. It was for their Music Awards Issue ... we were nominated in the "Best DJ" category, and we spun for the VIP reception at the awards ceremony at The Warfield. No, we didn't win ... but neither did Mike Relm, who is fucking amazing, and we would have been quite happy to lose to him. Instead, some dance music DJ we'd never heard of from KALX Berkeley won. Oh well... at least we got that nice article.

Smash-Up Derby played at the Cow Palace! Yup, the same stage I saw Rush, Nirvana, and Queensryche! We played the Exotic Erotic Ball, and it was a blast! Got to try out my new confetti cannons too ... I think they'll work better in the DNA Lounge than the cavernous Cow Palace. Anyway, got to wear a corset from Dark Garden and rock out. BTW, that's the SAME corset that Budgie from Sioxsie & the Banshees/The Creatures has worn!

Good stuff coming up ... one of our bootleg heroes, Eric Kleptone from The Kleptones, is guest DJing at both Bootie parties, in LA and SF. And we've got a bunch of rowdy Brits coming to San Francisco for the Bootie British Invasion, doing Bastard USA in the upstairs lounge. Can't wait!

And then we're heading to New York for a couple DJ gigs, in anticipation of doing Bootie NYC. Woo-hoo!

There's the update ... like I said, lots of good stuff ...