ADRIAN DOES STUFF

I gotta admit – maybe I'm just not cut out for the blogging shit.

I mean, damn, it's been like TWO MONTHS since I last wrote anything for this here blog. But it's not like it's because I have nothing going on. In fact, it's just the opposite. TOO MUCH is going on – at least, too much for me to sit down and waste an hour writing about it all. Not when there are clubs to promote, mashups to make, bands to sing with, and parties to go to!

Okay, so what the fuck has been going on? Well ... mostly club and DJ stuff, which is all good. There's now something Bootie-related three out of four weekends a month: Bootie SF, Bootie LA, and Mini-Bootie at Pop Roxx. So there's always a steady stream of "projects" to do, which is keeps us busy. Stuff like...

The grand re-opening of Bootie at DNA Lounge

Seems like we're ALWAYS working on the club in some form or another. Yes, Bootie is our baby – and the baby has been needing lots of attention lately. We had our grand re-opening at DNA Lounge on March 10th. It was a big move for us, moving to a venue that's three times the size. Mysterious D had a theory that if we moved Bootie to a bigger space, that more people would simply magically come. Party Ben and I were a bit worried when we initially made the decision two months ago to move Bootie to DNA Lounge – the space is huge, and we had gotten used to the crammed, cozy confines of Cherry Bar/Annie's ... but damn, that girl was right!

The night was full, and I feel like we definitely still kept that friendly Bootie "vibe," despite the bigger size. Friendly, mashed-up crowd, lots of smiling faces, and a LOT of dancing. Trying to clear the stage for each drag performance was rough, because everyone wanted to jump up there and dance! The Lusty Lady go-go dancers added a sexy touch, without being all bimbo-hoochie (they're VERY Suicide Girls, which we like). Go-go 'it boy' Steven Satyricon was back, now that we have go-go platforms for him! And people were just nuts!

DJ Dada broke out from his "rock mashup" thing and got a dance floor going 20 minutes after we opened the doors! DAMN! Mad props to him ... I thought he spun a great set of choice mashes that bridged the gap between rock and dance. Smash-Up Derby went on around 11:30, and it took us a couple songs to find our groove, but when we did, it felt so ON. Princess Kennedy hopped on stage to go-go dance with us, but rocking out in 5-inch stiletto heels is rough! She accidentally fell onto my co-singer Trixxie, and they both toppled onto Jason, our guitarist – during his big Nirvana guitar solo on "Smells Like Billie Jean" –- and he didn't miss a note! It was brilliant. I'm going to love being in the house band!

Party Ben and Mysterious D did most of the spinning that night, as I was running around like crazy trying to run things! I really need to hire a floor manager next month, because it was actually NO FUN for me trying to crack the whip to make sure all the shows and sets went off on time (which they didn't). But still, we had two of the best mashup shows ever, with Foxy Cotton doing a very conceptual performance to Dean Gray's "Dr. Who On Holiday" that actually was a bit political, and Glamamore, Suppositori Spelling, and Hoku Mama Swamp performing to our own "Beethoven's Fifth Gold Digger," which involved lots of ghetto fabulous posturing. Suppositori Spelling is moving to London next month, so watch out UK, that's all I can say!

Around 12:30, we opened the upstairs lounge, where DJs Jay-R and Kidd Sysko spun. It was a welcome respite from the craziness downstairs, about 10 degrees cooler, and with room to dance! It ended up being a bit of a VIP "Friends & Family" Room, with DJ John, Matt Hite, Tripp, and Frienemy all hanging out up there. I gotta say, Jay-R really knows how to throw down a set! It sounded great up there!

At 3 AM, we finally shut down, closing the night once again with Arty Fufkin's "We Belong Together Time After Time." Trixxie Carr had made a whole bunch of pirate decorations for us, and thankfully, they were real easy to take down. We taxied over to the after-party which was NOT at Party Ben's! (He had to fly to Nebraska the next morning ... hey, I thought the only reason we moved the club was to be CLOSER to Ben's for the after-party!)

Anyway, D and I were on such a high for the next few days ... it was a great night ... even though it was freezing cold outside, and it even snowed (which it never does in San Francisco). Can't wait for next month!

London or Bust!

But before the next Bootie, we're heading off to London next week, where we're going to be guest DJing at Uber, an electro/bootleg night put on by DJ Payroll at 93 Feet East, a very cool club in the East End.

This just so happens to fall on the same weekend as the London screening of the Trannyshack movie in the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (It's been recently re-edited and re-titled Filthy Gorgeous: The Trannyshack Story). Of course, with London being overrun by a bunch of San Francisco drag queens, that pretty much sealed the deal for us. We just HAD to go! So it should be a pretty exciting, whirlwind weekend.

We've rented a flat in Soho with Jason El Diablo and Miss Lynda, and we're all flying over there next Wednesday. Princess Kennedy and our friend Marty are also on the same flight! This is going to be a blast! I'm going to be singing a number at Uber with Holestar – she's a faux queen – and again at the post-screening Trannyshack show at Horse Meat Disco. Definitely mixing business with pleasure on this trip. And I cannot wait to go shopping at Camden Stables Market. Last time I was in London, I spent about $1000 on clothes from Cyberdog, Spank, Combination, and Vicious ... my favorite streetwear fashion labels from the UK. I've been saving up, so don't be surprised if you see me in some new cybergoth duds in April!

I can't believe we're blowing off Bootie LA for London

Yup, we're playing hooky from Bootie LA so we can go to London. This is why we have co-promoters, right? Paul V. and Party Ben will be babysitting for us on Saturday, April 1st, and I'm sure it's all going to be fine. It does feels weird to throw a club without being there though.

However, I've gotta admit: Bootie LA is a mysteriously easy party to throw. It's usually pretty low-stress and people always seem to show up and be really up for it. We dragged DJ Earworm down with us last month to do a guest DJ set (and it was really great hanging out with him all weekend). Anyway, he was marveling at how enthusiastic the crowd there was. Jumping up and down, big smiles, really eager and open to hear what you're doing. Perhaps our San Francisco audience is so used to what we do at Bootie, that a bit of the "wow factor" is understandably gone.

But not in LA. Apparently, there are still a lot of people who have yet to hear the sort of mashups that we throw down, so it's still exciting and new. They're really actively participatory – when I send out an email to our Bootie LA list, they actually click on the mashup links. People come up and request mashups that they know you've created. Obscure stuff too! I couldn't believe it when someone came up to request the A plus D mashup, "Real Big Time."

And when Smash-Up Derby played there in February, it was insane! We really need to get our asses down there more often. If only gas wasn't so expensive...

Smash-Up Derby in da house!

Speaking of the little mashup band that could ... funny how we're starting to get some really good gigs lately. Yes, the band that I pretty much started for shits and giggles, when my career-oriented band Blue Period died a hard death. Besides the Bootie gigs that I set up for us, we're starting to get some really good shows coming our way. About a month ago we played a private party at Great American Music Hall, and we felt like total rock stars. We played every single song we know (about an hour and ten minutes worth, as it turned out) and they loved it. Even got tipped out at the end. Woo-hoo!

I'm starting to realize that I need to send our promo kit not to venues, but to corporate event planners. That's where the money – not to mention our audience – really is!

Two days later we opened up for My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, and we got a great response. We definitely felt the love! It's always weird being in a cover band (admittedly, a very fucked-up cover band, but still) playing with bands that are doing original music – but we always seem to win people over.

Some gigs in the works for Washington D.C. and Seattle ... hopefully they'll come through.

Other random things going on

• Secret CD Project #2 is finally finished. We sent it off to the manufacturer last week. I can't wait for this thing to get out there. Definitely a step up from the last one ... and the cover is all kinds of parody brilliance. I giggle everytime I look at it!

• We played a DJ gig for Yahoo, and a week later flew to San Diego for another Yahoo party. Now that the term "mashup" has been appropriated by the tech geeks, we're getting hired for all $orts of corporate gig$. Trust me, I'm not complaining.

• Marcy Meow moved away. I miss her. (But I have a sneaky feeling that she'll be back.)

• We finally got digital cable and a DVR! Woo-hoo, so high-tech, so "the future is now." I mean, having your life revolve around when a particular TV show comes on (I'm talking to you, Project Runway. And you too, Lost) is soooo last century. Tivo rocks.

• I wish Santino had won Project Runway. I don't care what anyone says, he was our favorite. We even ordered the Santino t-shirt.

• We're seeing Vitalic on Thursday. And Pop Roxx is this Saturday! DJ Oli from the UK will be joining us on the decks!

• We leave for London in a week! Aaaaiggh! I'm glad we just got new cell phones that work over there ... oh yeah, and MP3 ringtones that you can create yourself pretty much rock! Of course, my ringtone is our own "Call Me Hung Up" mashup. Why yes, I AM a dork.

This is the first year in a long time I haven’t made a solid list of New Years Resolutions. Maybe it’s because I’m already doing pretty much everything I want to do. Oh sure, I’ve got some plans and goals for the coming year … but most of them I’m already getting done, or am in the process of getting in place.

Yeah, yeah, I should probably really resolve to get a flatter stomach and eat healthier and all that. And I intend to. I just don’t need to make a New Years Resolution about it.

One of my goals was to make more mash-ups this coming year, and I’m already doing that. I’m working on a “Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll” trilogy of mash-ups for local band Protection. We just released the first one, Protect Yourself While Having Sex, mashing them up with the early-90s dance track “People Are Still Having Sex” by the long-forgotten La Tour. It works seamlessly – perhaps a little too seamlessly, because if you’re not familiar with either track, it probably doesn’t even sound like a mash-up!

Just finished up Beethoven’s Fifth Gold Digger, based on a little something from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack – a disco version of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony – mashed up with Kanye West's ubiquitous "Gold Digger." We added some extra beats for a little modern-day dance floor oomph – not much kick-drum bass in those old '70s records. And finally, there's a little cameo from Usher. I think it's going to be our new big mashup hit.

Bootie is moving in March!

Other plans for 2006 are starting to take shape. We’re definitely ready to take Bootie to the next level, something we’ve been working on for a few months now. We were ready to move even before Annie’s Social Club took over the old Cherry Bar. And as much as it pains us to move the club – we absolutely LOVE the new Annie’s bar staff, and they’re really going to great lengths to turn that venue around – the fact of the matter is, we’ve outgrown the space. It’s simply too small and too hot for our crowd. Especially after our January party, which had something like 450 people crammed in there.

So starting in March, Bootie will be at the DNA Lounge. We’ve been a part of their Pop Roxx club night since its inception, and now we’re getting our very own night there. Great sound and lights, projections, a big stage, and webcasting and digital downloading of DJ sets – we really think this is the natural progression for where Bootie is going. Smash-Up Derby will now be able to become the house band, hosting the midnight mash-up show with a plethora of live performers and singers. We have lots of big ideas and plans – including ways to “warm up” the space a little bit. We don’t want to lose that “cozy” feeling of Annie’s – but at the same time, there’s a fine line between “cozy” and “uncomfortably crowded.”

I must admit, we feel bad that we’re leaving Annie’s so soon after they’ve started. As I said, they’re great people, and they seem committed to building up a “scene,” much in the same way the old Covered Wagon had a scene. Live bands, back-room karaoke, very rock n’ roll, punk, rockabilly, that sort of thing. I think they’re going to do really well.

Never trust a DJ in sunglasses

So we took January off from Bootie LA, meaning we were – for once – in town for the first Saturday of the month. Which meant that we could finally do a guest DJ slot at Revolutionary at The End Up. The promoter, Astroboy Jim, had asked about having me DJ there a few months ago, so as soon as I was available, I let him know. Hey, I don’t get many opportunities to spin electro anymore, so any chance I get, I jump on it!

We had the opening set, DJing until 12:30 a.m., which normally, would have been fine. I figured people would start trickling in around 11 p.m., and that I’d have a dancefloor by midnight. But I forgot one thing – this is The End Up. I hadn’t been there in ten years and I forgot – people don’t even GET there until 1 a.m. In fact, it didn’t really get jumping until around 2 a.m. – after all the other bars had closed.

How does this place make money? It’s certainly not from selling booze, because there was hardly anyone there before the bar was shut off! They probably make all their money at 6 a.m., when the bar opens back up!

So Keoki went on after me, unceremoniously mixing out of my set closer, our new Madonna vs. Blondie mash-up, Call Me Hung Up – which is turning out to be a big hit. He tried to clumsily and quickly beat-mix out of it in the middle of the bridge – you know, right before the big climactic choruses at the end – effectively ruining the “big finish” of the song. WTF??!! Is he clueless and doesn’t know how the Blondie song goes – or was he just rude and obnoxious, pulling a DJ diva trip? I think I know the answer. The song only had one more minute to go … but I guess if you’re a “superstar DJ,” it’s okay to just cut the previous DJ’s last song.

He put on some anonymous sounding, fast-paced “thumpa-thumpa” techno-house record, and cleared the dance floor of the measly half-dozen people who I had gotten to dance for the last 15 minutes of my set. No one stepped foot on the dance floor until around 45 minutes later. And he never took off his sunglasses. You gotta wonder about that. It’s a fucking dark nightclub. Never trust a DJ who wears sunglasses in a dimly-lit nightclub.

Plans for the upcoming week

The Trannyshack "Klubstitute tribute" show is tonight ... I just performed there last week for "Spoken Word Night," doing a live spoken word piece called "Vanilla Sex" that I wrote over 10 years ago. Yes, little-known secret: I used to be a "spoken word artist." Hey, don't hold it against me – it was the early '90. It was the thing to do.

My new favorite band, Morningwood, is opening for Head Automatica at Slim's on Thursday. I really really want to go, but I just found out today that it's SOLD OUT. FUCK!! So I'm going to try to get scalped tickets ... I really want to see this band! "Nth Degree" is quite possibly the most perfect debut single for rock band ... EVER. It's just a super-catchy declaration of purpose, a total "we're all in a band!" pop/rock gem – and they even spell out their name in the chorus. Fucking LOVE IT. Like I said, perfect.

And finally, Pop Roxx is this coming Saturday. I promise to get as drunk as last time. Maybe I'll even find my wallet (no one's charged any of my credit cards, so I suspect it's hidden somewhere in the dark recesses of the venue!) I hope so anyway!

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!

Went down to LA this past weekend to do our second Bootie party down there. And all I can say is: WOW.

In club culture, there's an adage about how it's not important how well your first party goes ... it's really all about your SECOND party. Usually, the first one gets a big push, and everyone goes to check it out, and then ... the attendance tapers off. Well ... not this time!

Although, the evening got off to an ominous start, when we arrived at The Echo around 7 pm and couldn't get in due to the entire block being closed off, with cops running around and everything. We found out that there was a bomb scare, and no one was allowed on the street. Fuck! When we said Bootie was da bomb, we didn't mean it literally!

I did a short set at 10 PM, opening up with a Bootie LA exclusive, which I just finished recording and mixing a few days ago: a cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" by Dsico, featuring me on guest vocals, and remixed by Earworm. It's going to be on "Violated," a bootleg/remix album of Depeche Mode's "Violator." Who knows when it's actually getting released, but I'm going to be sneaky here and post it to my blog, just to see if anyone actually reads this shit. Here it is.

Anyway, tonight was the night that Ben and D dubbed me "The Executioner," because I was determined to play a couple of slow-tempo bootlegs that might clear the floor -- but noooooo! They danced to everything, and by the time I did my second set at 11 PM, they floor was packed! So I took a few chances, like playing stuff like our new Breeders vs. Kelly Clarkson mash-up, but shockingly, it went off! Hands in the air and lots of woos!

Anyway, from about 11 PM on, the place was truly packed, and people were going nuts for it all! Me and Princess Kennedy did a live vocal mash-up of "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails vs. "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" at midnight (which is actually a mash-up that Smash-Up Derby performs), we tossed out a bunch more Bootie CDs, and then the place just rocked for the next two hours, with people jumping up on stage to dance, big woos, all that.

I must say, everyone spun really amazing sets last night. Inspired choices, fun tracks, both old and new. Two particular highlights were Paul spinning Philly Da Kid's "This Charming Booty" (Eminem vs. The Smiths) and D and Ben dropping Cheekyboy's "Smells Like NWA." Really great stuff. This was also the night that D got her new DJ nickname: "Blackout Selector" – because she always picks great tracks to play, but a minute later, can't remember what she just selected! Genius!

Anyway, we did it. We're going monthly. Starting on November 5th, we will be doing Bootie LA the first Saturday of every month! D and I still can't believe we've been able to build this thing to the point where we're now going down to LA to throw a club. We feel really lucky ... it's not every day one discovers a brand-new genre of music to base an entire club night around, and then build it up over the course of two years.

Then again, we've also busted our asses, pushing and promoting and really trying to build a mash-up scene. We hope to be able to galvanize an LA bootlegger scene, in much the same way we helped create one in San Francisco. But mostly, we're just super excited to be able to do this all the time now. Big ups to the LA scene! We'll see you next month!

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.