Wednesday, 28 December 2005
Top 10 Albums for 2005
Yeah, yeah, I know ... albums are soooo "last century." Let's face it – with the rising popularity of digital downloading and iPod culture, I'm well aware that it's all about the single these days. And while there were certainly quite a few singles that I loved this year, most of them happened to be on albums that made this list anyway. So call me "old school." For now, I'm sticking with the time-honored Top 10 Albums list ... at least for this year.
Of course, this is a highly-opinionated, highly-biased list. I'm not necessarily saying these were the ten best albums of the year. These just happen to be my ten favorites, listed pretty much in order of preference. Enjoy!
1. The Lovemakers – Times of Romance
My favorite album of the year, from my favorite Bay Area band ... who I desperately hope will break nationally. This, their major-label debut, doesn't seem like it's getting a big push from Interscope, which is unfortunate. It's a catchy-as-fuck new wave-influenced electro-pop record with an emo-indie heart, replete with sugar-coated boy/girl harmonies, and bittersweet break-up lyrics. If these kids don't make it big, it's going to be such a shame.
2. Dean Gray – American Edit
Far and away the best bootleg album ... well, ever. Dean Gray, a.k.a. mash-up artists Party Ben and Team9, have meticulously crafted an amazing remix/interpretation of Green Day's American Edit. This is the new gold standard of high-concept mash-up albums, and is imminently more listenable than Danger Mouse's over-rated, over-hyped Grey Album, which just sounds like Jay-Z rapping over a bunch of mangled cut-up Beatles loops. This, on the other hand, is a true bastard pop masterpiece, showcasing the potential of the mash-up genre by cleverly mixing the Berkeley pop/punk trio with everything from Depeche Mode, Johnny Cash, the Eagles, Queen, U2, and Oasis, to name just a few. This free, internet-only bootleg album got plenty of attention when Warner slapped it with a cease-and-desist order a mere ten days after its release – which is pretty much a badge of honor in the mash-up world!
3. Various Bootleggers – The Best Mashups In The World Ever Are From San Francisco
I don't know how this bootleg compilation of mash-ups made it on to this list. It certainly wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that it says "produced by A+D" on it, or that our "Decepta-Freak-On" mash-up is the first track. ;-) It might, however, have something to do with the fact that, even though I had to listen to this damn thing a zillion times, I never once got bored with it. And that definitely counts for something. Nothing makes me more proud of our local Bay Area mash-up scene.
4. Fischerspooner – Odyssey
Fuck the haters. I still love electro. So of course, now that electroclash is official dead, many of the buzz bands from 2003 are now producing their best work ever ... two years too late. Such is the case with New York City's performance art/electro duo Fischerspooner. If their first album was all about one song ("Emerge") surrounded by a bunch of filler, this is a much more developed piece of work. While there are certainly standout tracks ("Never Win" in particular), this is more consistant from start-to-finish than their debut. There's also a bit of a '70s prog-rock undercurrent mixed in with the modern electronics, giving it a quasi-Pink Floyd-like warmth, which I love. I so hope they didn't get dropped from Capitol.
5. Dresden Dolls – Dresden Dolls
On my annual Top 10 list, there always seems to be one album that actually came out the year before – but I didn't discover it until recently. The Dresden Dolls are this year's token entry in that category. This Boston-based boy/girl duo create all their songs using simply piano, drums, and vocals – and it's intensely beautiful. "Punk cabaret" is the best way to describe them ... either that, or "Tori Amos with balls."
6. Morningwood – Morningwood
To make up for the fact that the Dresden Dolls are on this list, I'm including an album that hasn't even been released yet. (It comes out on January 10th.) But I've had an advance copy of this New York band's debut for a few months now, and I can't stop listening to it. Sexy and sassy female vocals, buzzy rock guitars, and just the right amount of electronics to keep it all dancey and shit. And what's not to love about a band that spells out their name ... on their first single! That takes a certain kind of bravado that Morningwood peddles in spades.
7. LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soundsystem
I wasn't a big fan of the singles that preceded LCD Soundsystem's full-length debut, chalking up the buzz surrounding James Murphy's vanity project as simply hipster hype. Boy, did this record prove me wrong! Forget the second disc of this double CD – it's all about the new material on the first disc that puts this on my list. Throbbing, dirty, electro-indie dance-rock goodness. This sounds so right now, it's bound to be dated by this time next year. But for now, believe the hype.
8. Kelly Clarkson – Breakaway
A guilty pleasure, to be sure ... but one that I mysteriously keep coming back to over and over again. Sure, it's pop music, pure and simple. But it's all so damn catchy! And there's just something about Clarkson's delivery, the conviction in her voice, as if she's trying to prove that she's not just a vapid, disposable American Idol has-been. And two of the best pop/rock singles of the year are from this record ("Since U Been Gone" and "Behind These Hazel Eyes").
9. M.I.A. – Arular
Until the Lady Sovereign album drops next year, this is my favorite record by a pint-sized female rapper from the U.K. Ah, fuck that – I mean my favorite rapper, period! This Sri Lankan by way of London produced the freshest-sounding hip-hop record of the year, thanks in part to Diplo's production – it's so nice to hear beats that don't all sound like they were produced by the fuckin' Neptunes or P. Diddy. Bangin' all around.
10. Mindless Self Indulgence – You'll Rebel To Anything
M.S.I. have always been a great live band, but their albums were mostly frantic jumbles of half-written songs and half-realized ideas. Bluntly put, they could put on a helluva show, but you didn't really go to hear the songs. Well, that's changed a bit with this, the first M.S.I. record I can actually sit down and listen to. Leader Jimmy Urine has figured out a few things about songwriting. But don't get me wrong: the fast-tempo electronic-punk arrangements are still crazy, and there are still time-changes all over the place. It's just a bit more focused now. Besides, what's not to love about an album that contains the lyric: "Two hookers and and an eightball! Can you believe I write this shit? Two hookers and and an eightball! Stupid people thinkin' I am cool!" Brilliant!
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Monday, 24 October 2005
Personal Jesus ... Violated
The Depeche Mode Violated project is finally completed! This is an unofficial "bootleg album," containing a mixture of covers, mashups, and remixes of songs from Depeche Mode's seminal 1990 album, Violator. I sing the version of "Personal Jesus" that appears on the album, a collaboration between myself and Australian electro-punk Dsico.
Download: Personal Jesus – Dsico featuring Adrian Roberts
DJ Tripp started this project over a year ago, soliciting tracks from various bootleggers around the globe. He posted a few preview tracks, including Dsico's original version of "Personal Jesus." A lot of people weren't too keen on Dsico's, um, unique vocal delivery. Ultimately, he pulled the track from the album, and Tripp eventually grew frustrated and abandoned the project altogether.
Download: Personal Jesus – Dsico (original mix)
However, I loved the electro instrumentation, and asked Dsico if he wouldn't mind if I took a stab at re-recording the vocals. He was game, and graciously e-mailed me a WAV file of the instrumental. Months and months later, after investing in a halfway decent microphone and pre-amp, I eventually re-recorded new vocals. That's the mix that appears on the Depeche Mode Violated album, which by this point, had been taken over by Churchill.
However, before the album was released on the internet last week, I performed yet another mix of this song at Trannyshack, for a night called "Duck and Cover." It was a show dedicated to twisted cover versions, and I had asked DJ Earworm if he could do a remix of Dsico's "Personal Jesus" for me to sing over. He thickened up the beats a bit, and added all sort of stuff to it. This is the only place where you can download this exclusive remix:
Download: Personal Jesus (Earworm remix) – Dsico featuring Adrian Roberts
Incidentally, Earworm has been working on his own Depeche Mode Violator bootleg tribute album, which was in the works even before Tripp announced his project. Supposedly, it's nearing completion, and I can't wait to hear it!
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Wednesday, 21 September 2005
My Kelly Clarkson obsession continues!
Okay, really, I think I'm done now. I just mashed her up with the Breeders, so now I think I can move forward.
A plus D – Behind These Cannonball Eyes (Kelly Clarkson vs. The Breeders)
Besides, there's so much more to life than just ... Kelly Clarkson. I've got about three other mash-ups I'm working on, but I keep getting sidetracked by things like ... throwing a mash-up club ... and being in a mash-up band. Ironic, isn't it?
Speaking of said band, we're gigging a lot this month. Three gigs last week (including one on TV!), and two gigs this weekend. It's pretty much the same songs every time, so it's not like we need to rehearse. But damn, we really need to put together some new songs. I mean, each show has been a completely different audience, so it's not that big of a deal. But still, it keeps it interesting for us.
One of the shows this weekend is at the Folsom Street Fair, far and away my favorite street fair ... ever. I just realized I've been booked to be on stage there every single year since 1996. Wow. Ten years. Seven years with Blue Period (although we got rained out one year), one year modelling in the Stormy Leather fashion show, and now this, Smash-Up Derby's second year. I'm really looking forward to it ... hell, any excuse to wear black PVC chaps!
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Tuesday, 21 June 2005
I love The Lovemakers!
Sometimes, when I discover a new band I like – I mean, really really like – I get a little obsessive. For instance, a few weeks ago, I was all ga-ga over the Dresden Dolls, downloading every piece of audio and video I could find, and listening to them constantly for a week.
This week, it's The Lovemakers. Truth be known, it's actually been a few weeks now. I just can't stop listening to them! First, it was their independently-released CD, which is now out-of-print, but Matt Hite burned a copy for me. Then it was their new tracks that they posted up on MySpace. Then Party Ben got me an advance copy of their new major-label album, "Times of Romance," which was sent to Live105, but isn't being released by Interscope until August 23rd. Fuck, this record is SOOOO good. I try to listen to other music, but then I just go back to putting on The Lovemakers again. Like I said, sometimes I can get a bit obsessive.
But seriously, this is a great record. I saw it written somewhere that "they're the Bay Area's version of the Scissor Sisters, but not as gay." That's a bit off-the-mark, but there's a hint of truth in there. They're definitely cute and sexy and write total ear-candy pop songs that get lodged in your head for days. They're also a really great live band, with tons of energy, crazy dancing, and "spontaneous" make-out sessions on stage. So in that respect, they're a bit like the Scissor Sisters. But their musical ancestry is a bit different. Where the Sisters take their cues from '70s disco, soft rock, and Elton John, The Lovemakers are like the best '80s band you've never heard – but with WAY better production.
You can hear a bit of Berlin, Depeche Mode, Missing Persons, and The Cure in them (they even do a cover of "A Forest.") But at the same time, there seems to be something shockingly fresh about their music as well. I can't quite put my finger on it, but part of it has to do with the indie-sounding jangly guitar which sits atop all the electro burbles of the synths. The boy/girl vocal interplay is nice too. But really, what makes this album is the outstanding songwriting, which contains hooks and hooks for days.
I know it's not cool to want your little secret local band (they're from Oakland) to make it big, but damn it, I want these guys to become huge and blow up all over the world. They deserve to be heard! I'll be very curious to see how they do when the record finally gets released. I hope they don't become yet another major-label casualty like so many other local bands.
I like them so much, I even made a mash-up using their song "Dance." Of course, you can't "Dance" without "Music," so despite D forbidding me to ever use Madonna's "Music" acapella, I mashed them up anyway. At first she was against it, but after she heard how beautiful and bittersweet The Lovemakers sounded with ol' Madge, she came around. Besides, even as overdone as "Music" is in the bootleg world, I've always wanted to make a Madonna mash-up of my very own.
So here it is: of course, we're calling it "Dance Music." (right click and save as)
A plus D – Dance Music (Madonna vs. The Lovemakers)
I know we're a few months ahead of the curve here by using The Lovemakers in a bootleg, but since we mashed them up with something as old and tired as Madonna's "Music," the truth is, this probably lands somewhere in the middle of the "hipster meter." Enjoy.
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Tuesday, 31 May 2005
Turntablism vs. Mash-ups
Just coming off a weekend of four DJ gigs in four days. Whew! All of them were for parties we were hired out to do, rather than our own clubs that we were promoting, so it was a little less stress. The only pressure really was to spin good sets – which we did.
We were asked to play mash-ups at all of these gigs ... in fact, two of them were miniature Bootie parties. I guess we're turning into the "go-to" mash-up DJs in San Francisco ... which I guess we are. We shared three of these gigs with Party Ben, who is sort of our mash-up DJ brotha. Together, we make a pretty decent team.
Too bad only one of the gigs – Pop Rocks at the DNA Lounge – turned out to be successful. All of the other ones were a bit woefully under-attended. Oh well. We'll be back at DNA for their next one, now called "Pop Roxx," to avoid copyright infringement. We always have a really good time there, and the DNA feels a bit like nightclubbing family. I love the idea of them trying to build a nightlife community by involving all of these different DJs and clubs and putting them together. It makes the club scene seem collaborative, rather than competitive, which I like. I'm so sick of DJs and clubs feeling the need to be cut-throat. I mean, we all just really like music, right?
Turntablism vs. Mash-ups
Like this whole thing about using turntables vs. using computers. What the fuck? DJ Z-Trip and his ilk just go on and on about how great it is that they're using turntables to mix "blends" – yet if you craft a mash-up on a computer, it's somehow "cheating," and that mash-up artists suck and are not really DJs. What they're not getting is that we're not trying to MIMIC what they're doing. What we're doing is actually quite different, cutting up and manipulating tracks in a way that can't possibly be done using turntables. So why all the defensiveness?
While I certainly appreciate the art – hip-hop turntablism "mixturbation," basically – it's simply not what most of us bootleggers are about. It's really a case of "apples and oranges," and we're sick of attitudinal vinyl DJs putting down mash-up artists, simply because we create our art in a different way. Turntablism is not the same thing as crafting a mash-up. (And if any of them ever sat down at a computer and attempted to make one, they would understand that.) Simply mixing a hip-hop beat over some cheesy rock song from the '80s may be really cool – but it's not really a mash-up. (Yes, I'm talking to you, Z-Trip.)
There's a really cool, open-minded, inclusive scene of DJs here in San Francisco who make mash-ups. No, it's not turntablism, and no, it's not done live – but it's music that you can't create simply with two vinyl records. Yet for some reason, other DJs feel the need to dis it, because it's different from what they do and they don't understand the principles behind it.
The funny thing is, no one is the bootleg/mash-up community disses what people like Z-Trip are doing. Yet other turntablists feel the need to trash it, like it's not art. Guess what, dude... you're still just playing other people's records – there's certainly no need for the elitist attitude.
We create this stuff, crafting it meticulously -- and then we play it out, beat-mixing when it's appropriate. And seeing as that we don't have cheap access to an acetate pressing plant, yes, it's on CD and not on vinyl. Big fucking deal. That's basically how the mash-up community works – MP3s and CDs. If these vinyl purists opened up their minds to pay attention and take a look, rather than being DJ snobs, they'd understand that. Instead, many of them come off like attitudinal assholes, talking smack about a different scene they don't even know about.
The truth is, I have nothing but respect for the sort of turntablism these guys do. Maybe they're just being defensive and over-protective, worried they're going to be replaced by technology they don't understand, and clinging on for dear life to their Technics 1200s. But they don't need to worry about them being replaced by computers. It's an artform that not going to go away – just like TV didn't replace movies, radio didn't replace live performance, and turntables didn't replace guitars.
CDs did kill off cassettes though ... and turned vinyl into a niche market only for DJs. But hey, digital music files and iPods will probably eventually kill off CDs and turn THEM into a niche market only for DJs. Our Pioneer CDJ decks will end up becoming the next Technics 1200s. Anyway, I'm rambling now.
My point is, music is still music, no matter what it's played on, and as long as the love is there, that's the important thing. I just wish some of those vinyl-purist DJ snobs would remember that.
11:35 Posted in Music | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this
Tuesday, 15 March 2005
BOOTIE ... woo-hoo!
To give you an idea of what a fun night BOOTIE was last night, it's now 4:30 in the afternoon on Sunday and I'm just waking up (after going to be bed at 10 AM).
And D hasn't even come HOME yet!
Anyway, DAMN! A very kick-ass night. DJ Axel was impressed, seeing as that when he spun at Bootie a year ago, it was on a Wednesday night, and there were only about 120 at the club. Now we're on a Saturday and we've easily got three times that many people, getting down and having a blast!
Dada started the night with a really good rock mashup set, for the crowd that showed up early for the free Bootie CD. I then took over and got the crowd revved up, spinning a bunch of stuff I knew none of the other DJs would be able to get away with later in the night. At around 10:30 PM, I knew that was my last chance to play stuff like Poj's glitch mix of Daft Punk's "Robot Rock", so I did. I hate glitch but I LOVE this track! Fuck you, people on the dancefloor! I don't care if you can't dance to glitch, I'm playing it anyway!
Brat's "Big Shot Pimpin" was another one that's not exactly dance floor-friendly, but it got people in the club talking, which is always good. Then I stepped it up with a real solid 128 bpm dance set (thanks, IDC!), got the floor filled and set it up for Axel, who KILLED with his set! Heavy hitters all the way, and he even kept them dancing during his Guns N' Roses and Motley Crue mashups! Woo-hoo!
We had two performances in the midnight mashup show last night, the first being a very conceptual piece with Suppositori Spelling and Foxy dressed up like Kurt and Courtney, and doing agentlovelette's "Waiting For You To Send Me Angel," with Courtney shooting Kurt at the end. Very dark and twisted -- brought new meaning to the song!
Bootie faux queen favorite Patty O'Furniture dressed up like Marilyn Monroe-Manson, and performed to a new mashup by Tristan Shout that mixed "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" with "Rock Is Dead."
I gave away a shitload of DJ BC's "Beastles" CDs, which people were clamoring for all night. Hopefully everyone got one who wanted one (not like you can't download it for free!) It was a much better giveaway than me trying to raffle off a Virgin mobile phone, picking winners out of a beer pitcher, with no one claiming the prize. Mental note: no more raffles at Bootie. After the show, Party Ben and Mysterious D did a "Bootie greatest hits" set till the end of the night, and much partying ensued.
Anyway, it was quite a night. And we're already psyched for next month – DJ Zebra from Paris, France on Saturday, April 9th. Woohoo!
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Monday, 17 January 2005
GYBO Awards
So the GYBO Awards came out today. And I know that most awards are really just glorified popularity contests, but for some reason, I still love them. Like, for example, I love going to Oscar Awards parties, even though I've hardly seen any of the movies. Anyway...
So yeah, it's just an insular awards thing for a clique-ish message board forum, but these people are our colleagues and our peers. Our club Bootie -- the first mash-up club in the United States -- was nominated for Best Regular Bootleg Night, and the our big, huge One-Year Anniversary Mash Bash was up for Best Bootleg Event. And we got shut out of both. Which I guess isn't surprising, given the Euro-centrism of the Get Your Bootleg On forum. But still...
We are arguably the largest all-mash-up party in the world. We've had several international bootleggers fly in to spin sets at Bootie, not to mention we have other things that make it special, like performances, go-go dancers, giveaways, etc. Yet, the long-running Bastard, which is held in a space in London no bigger than my living room, won. And the International Bastard Weekender in Germany, which seems more like a mini GYBO convention than it is an actual event for the nightclubbing public, won best one-off. Meanwhile, we flew McSleazy in for our Anniversary Mash Bash, and had nearly 500 people dancing their asses off at our party. WTF?
Oh well, we're just going to keep doing what we do -- bringing mash-ups out of the bedroom and into the nightclubs, bringing them to the people!
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