Bootie Top 10 - December 2007

If you've been paying attention to any of the Bootie party web sites, then you probably already know that we updated the Bootie Top 10 a week ago, right before we did "The A+D Show" in LA and then stayed up all night before getting on an airplane headed for a gig in Hong Kong.

After being in HK for nearly a week, we finally got around to writing this - our customary commentary about the Top 10 - on our flight back home to San Francisco. Enjoy!

A plus D - Celeshake (Ying Yang Twins feat. Pitbull vs. Kool & the Gang) - San Francisco
Utterly and totally shameless -- and yet, guaranteed to kick-start a dance floor just about anywhere. What is it about that damn "Celebrate" song? Sure, it's a perrenial wedding band cliché -- but there's just something about it that people CAN'T RESIST. Forcing Pitbull and the Ying Yang Twins to thuggishly rap over it only barely slices through the cheese. But you know what? Cheese tastes GOOD.

Divide & Kreate - Invisible Belief (Genesis vs. Journey) - Stockholm, Sweden BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
When mashing up a song, often the first question a producer asks themselves is, which part to use? Which is stronger -- the vocal or the instrumental? Stripping away Steve Perry's high-pitched karaoke-classic vocals from "Don't Stop Believin'" and replacing them with Phil Collins is a risky move -- but fortunately, those Journey piano and guitar riffs are so damn hooky, this mashup survives with all its '80s glory intact. Besides, aren't you tired of those damn Steve Perry vocals by now anyway?

Electrosound - Galvanized Out There (Chemical Brothers vs. Kelis) - France
Electrosound is a French mashup producer who recently organized the "Block Rockin' Boots" project, a double album of Chemical Brothers bootlegs. It's a sprawling effort, chock full of intricately-crafted remixes from a vertiable who's who in the mashup scene - yet, this track, a basic A+B, with funky vocals that match the song's pacing, is the one we keep coming back to -- proof-positive that sometimes the simplest mashups are often the best ones.

Fox - Hypnotized Gypsy (Plies feat. Akon vs. Fleetwood Mac) - San Francisco
You know, if you think about it, both of these songs are about "dancers." I just didn't think the woman Stevie Nicks was singing about was THAT kind of dancer. But come to think of it, "Gypsy" kinda IS a stripper name, isn't it? I love when a mashup can make you reinterpret a song like this.

The Homogenic Chaos - Goodbye (Placebo vs. Crystal Method) - Düsseldorf, Germany
This is definitely a reflection of our personal musical taste seeping into the Top 10 ... but what can we say? We're both big fans of Placebo, and this mashup takes two dark songs about saying "goodbye" and makes them, um ... even darker. We don't know whether to dance or slit our wrists -- and that probably sums up much of the music we listened to growing up.

DJ Lobsterdust - SaySayism AllStar Jam (Michael Jackson vs. Paul McCartney vs. Rihanna vs. Nelly Furtado vs. Nine Inch Nails vs. Mary J Blige vs. Diana Ross vs. Rick James vs. The Temptations) - New York City
This mini-mashterpiece is a musical tour de force from our favorite New York CIty bootlegger. Using no less than nine different artists, Lobsterdust manages to blend them all into a seamless and danceable concoction of epic proportions -- and once again, proves why we seemingly reserve a spot for him here on this list every month.

Morgoth - Black Metal Pogo (English Version) (Ascii.Disko vs. Planetakis) - Berlin
Nope, we weren't familiar with the source material either. But who the fuck cares? Sure, some of the fun of mashups is hearing your favorite songs in a brand-new context. But sometimes, it's just nice to be introduced to brand-new music -- especially when it's as fun as this! We now want to hunt down the originals of both.

DJ Moule - Deep Message (Jamiroquai vs. Sly & the Family Stone vs. Grandmaster Flash vs. Svinkels) - Bordeaux, France
I swear, I wasn't sure I'd be able to hear even just ONE MORE mashup using Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" -- but somehow, DJ Moule delivers, crafting a funky jam that mixes and matches several other vocal tracks as well, including the French rap of Svinkels. No, we have no idea what they're saying -- but doesn't rap sound shockingly great in French?

Party Ben - (Do Ya) Think I'm Sexy (In the Morning) (Junior Boys vs. Rod Stewart) - San Francisco
Party Ben updates Rod Stewart's disco classic with some modern electro oomph courtesy of the Junior Boys. This is one of those tracks Ben throws together the afternoon of Bootie, just so he'll have something fresh to spin later that night at the club. Makes us want to start throwing Bootie parties in San Francisco more than once a month, so we can get more tracks like this!

DJ Zebra - Break Through Love (Led Zeppelin vs. The Doors) - Paris
In the mashup world, classic rock is usually paired with a rap vocal -- it's practically a bootleg cliché. So hearing two classic rock songs mashed up in such a seamless manner is a treat. Many classic rock fans tend to be purists, but you'd have to be a pretty close-minded music fan to not appreciate the craft of this.