Bootie Top 10 - June 2007

Yay! We're so on top of it this month ... here's our monthly list of our favorite mashup downloads, listed alphabetically by bootlegger. Right-click away!

A plus D - Close To Konichiwa Bitches (Robyn vs. The Cure) – San Francisco
We're well aware using The Cure's "Close To Me" for a mashup is practically a bootlegger cliché – and it was only a matter of time before we succumbed to its magical allure. Robyn is a Swedish singer who had a few minor hits in the mid-'90s, but who is still HUGE in, uh ... Sweden! DJ Paul V. first turned us on to her via the Klas Ahlund remix of her single, "Konichiwa Bitches." In this rather sparse remix, they cover the keyboard melody from The Cure's "Close To Me." But why stop there? So we mashed it up with the real thing, throwing it all together in record time. The other thing that makes this special is that this early version of the Robyn song has a chorus that's not in the released single.

Earlybird - The Tide Is Not Unusual (Tom Jones vs. Blondie) – Uganda
This one has been out for a while, but has become a bit of a "sleeper hit" at Bootie. I've been throwing this into my earlier DJ sets, and its slow-groove tempo is perfect for easing people onto the dance floor. And who doesn't love Tom Jones?

The Illuminoids with Donita Sparks - Pretend We're Alala (L7 vs. CSS) – Los Angeles BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Okay, so here's where it gets a little meta. Let's see if we've got this right: The Illuminoids originally mashed up "Pretend We're Dead" with LCD Soundsystem and The Stooges. Donita Sparks from L7 heard it, and around that same time, Brazilian band CSS released a cover of L7's "Pretend We're Dead" in the UK. Hey, now there's an idea! So Donita Sparks collaborated with The Illuminoids to mashup the original L7 song with CSS's cover version, as well as the CSS song "Alala." Got all that? We love it when artists get involved in mashing up their own songs! CSS loved the mashup so much they posted it to their MySpace page, and Donita Sparks herself has it posted to an article she wrote on mashups on the popular FireDogLake.com blog – but the Bootie Top 10 is the ONLY place where you'll find this AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD! Woo-hoo!

DJ Lobsterdust - Walkin' Out Yo Girlfriend (Unk vs. Avril Lavigne vs. Toni Basil) – New York City
Lobsterdust is fast becoming one of our favorite bootleggers, and mashups like this prove why. I hate Avril Lavigne, but I love her new single, and pairing her with Unk was so good that even the haters over at Pitchfork couldn't help but love it, as Marc Hogan writes: "It's probably kinda cheating when your mashup puts together three songs that basically don't have tunes (or, in the case of Avril Lavigne's new "Girlfriend", merely an incidental one pastiched from Now That's What I Call Late-90s Pop-Punk). No pitch-matching required, right? Still, there's a reason the cheerleader-chant genre won't just get the hey-hey F-U-C-K out of our lives. And there's something bracing about the easy beats from Atlanta rapper Unk's "Walk it Out" meeting Avril's expensively chintzy guitar chords."

DJ Magnet - Love Comes Running Up That Hill Quickly (Placebo vs. Pet Shop Boys vs. Kate Bush) – Denver
Oh yeah, mashups – they're all so cheeky and funny and ironic! But did you know they can also be beautiful, moody, and artistic? It's not often a mashup nearly moves me to tears, but this one came close – sure, it might be the nostalgia talking, but all the source material here holds a very special place in my heart. When Kate Bush appears three-quarters of the way in to steal her song back from Placebo and the Pet Shop Boys ("let me steal this moment from you now") it's fucking golden. Definitely our favorite mashup on this month's Top 10.

Manriki - Love Or Hate Me Banquet (Lady Sovereign vs. Bloc Party vs. Abba) – Belgium
Yup, that Lady Sovereign song is totally played out. And come to think of it, we've heard that Bloc Party track used quite a few times in mashups as well. But there's just something about this that works, and breathes an extra 15 minutes of life into both of these songs. The other thing we like is the way Manriki samples and rearranges some of the Lady Sov vocals. Good production work! Jaded indie kids might not appreciate Abba coming in for the bridge, but we think it's just the jolt of pop-cheese this mashup needs.

Party Ben - Tender Umbrella (Rihanna vs. General Public) - San Francisco
Most bootleggers wish their painstakingly-crafted mashup creations could be even half as good as a Party Ben throwaway like this, which he apparently slammed together to play at Bootie this past month. This is the first "Umbrella" mashup we've heard that we like, and pairing it with General Public's new wave staple is incredibly well spotted.

DJ Paul V. - Just Can't Get Club Action (Yo Majesty vs. Depeche Mode vs. Enya) – Los Angeles
Sure, it's two remixes mashed-up together, but who cares? As soon as Paul V. sent this to us, we loved it instantly, and we knew it would be a club-banger. This track has an awesome energy about it, and was just MADE for the dance floor! And the looped tease of that Depeche Mode keyboard line makes this the perfect segueway to mix right into any of the various "Just Can't Get Enough" mashups we have. And there we go, giving away all our DJ secrets.

Rokk Pie - Knock Em Out Girrl (Lily Allen vs. Who Made Who) – London
Interesting story behind this mashup ... Rokk was working for Lily Allen's record company at the time, and somehow got a hold of this acapella. (Why can't we have connections like that?) He paired it with the disco-punk of Who Made Who, and voila! He took the Lily Allen song and made it even better! The drummer for Who Made Who loves it ... however, Lily Allen apparently doesn't. Whatever! She's wrong on this one. The Who Made Who backing really gives Lily a fun indie-punk edge.

DJ Zebra - Icky Thump Whole Lotta Funk (White Stripes vs. Led Zeppelin vs. DJ Zebra) – Paris
Now this really rocks! Since Jack White was already working out a Led Zep jones on this new single anyway, DJ Zebra just takes it even farther. Imitation is, after all, the sincerist form of flattery. Zebra even plays guitar, keyboards, and drums on this, just to add even more funk to the mix. We always said musicians make the best bootleggers, and this mashup certainly proves it.