Bootie Top 10 - June 2009

Right-click to get to the downloadin!

A Plus D - Stanky Whip (GS Boyz vs. Devo) - San Francisco
This utterly ridiculous rap is getting a bunch of airplay and tons of kids on YouTube have already made their own "Stanky Legg" dance videos. You can tell the Dallas-based GS Boyz want so badly for this to be the next Soulja Boy-style dance sensation. All we know is, it sure sounds better with Devo!


Daw-Gun - Don't You Forget American Boy (Estelle vs. Kanye West vs. Simple Minds) - New York City
Stretching the shelf life of "American Boy" just a LITTLE bit longer, this mashup brings back a gem of an '80s song that everyone forgot how much they loved. We didn't realize it either until we watched an entire dance floor at Bootie shout out, "Hey, hey, hey, hey!"

Dunproofin - Lily & the Robot (Lily Allen vs. Röyksopp vs. Robyn) - Scotland
Dun might call this one "a quickie," but sometimes when a bootleg comes together quickly, it's simply because it just WORKS. Lily Allen sounds shockingly awesome fronting the electro-dance throb of Rökysopp, and dueting with Robyn takes it up another notch. Well spotted!

DJ Earworm - Heartless (In A Bottle) (The Fray vs. Black Eyed Peas vs. The Police vs. 2Pac vs. Alan Parsons Project) - San Francisco
The bootleg scene's resident mashup genius is back with another multi-layered, multi-faceted production, using The Fray's cover of Kanye West's "Heartless" as a base, then interweaving several other elements. It's slow and melancholy and utterly gorgeous.

Elocnep - I Believe It's Not Fair (The Darkness vs. Lily Allen) - France
We love it when a bootlegger we've never heard of comes out of nowhere with something as cheeky and wonderful as this. Newcomer Elconep pairs the over-the-top falsetto vocals of The Darkness with a galloping spaghetti western instrumental -- which is, interestingly enough, from the same Lily Allen song above that Dunproofin took his vocals from. Totally unexpected and inspired!

g4gorilla - I Wanna Dance With One Of These On My Mind (Pet Shop Boys vs. Whitney Houston vs. Eagles) - Newcastle, Australia
Well, it IS Gay Pride month here in San Francisco (and LA and NYC). So we gotta represent! The Eagles have never sounded so gay! "Comin' up behind you, one of these nights" takes on a whole NEW meaning in THIS context! And the Pet Shop Boys and Whitney Houston together up the gay icon ante!

Immuzikation - Help, I'm Alive (Immuzikation B-ting Like a Hammer Remix) (Metric vs. Immuzikation) - Athens, Georgia
It's our token "Electro-Bootie" track on the Top 10, a bootleg remix of the first single from Canadian indie band Metric's new album, courtesy of Immuzikation, our favorite remixer from Georgia. It's an awesome song to begin with, and we are loving this version because it gets it ready for the dance floor.

Mighty Mike - Fall Out Gloria (Fall Out Boy vs. Gloria Gaynor) - France
Part of the reason we love mashups is that, in the hands of the right producer, a song you just can't stand can magically get turned into something listenable. That's exactly what Mighty Mike has done with Fall Out Boy, giving them a '70s disco makeover that sounds shockingly suitable!

Winkar Lopez - So Fine In The Sun (Mary J. Blige vs. Weezer) - Mexico City
This is such a sunny, seamless combination, that if you weren't familiar with either song, you would probably mistake this for an original song from a band with two vocalists, one an R&B singer, and the other a guitarist who writes all the songs and insists on singing on the choruses.

World Famous Audio Hacker - If U Seek Lucretia (Britney Spears vs. The Sisters of Mercy) - Portland
Our goth roots are showing again. How could anyone possibly make Britney sound kinda dark and cool? Well, pairing her with a classic Sisters of Mercy song is a start. But it's WFAH's additional beats and production that really elevate this, giving Britney an edge that she (or rather, her producers) never even dream of.

Bootie Top 10 - May 2009

Right-click to get to the downloadin!

ABX of The Hood Internet - 1000 Times Right Round (Flo-Rida vs. MSTRKRFT) - Chicago
It's been a while since we've featured anything from The Hood Internet, but ABX knocks it out of the park with this one, blowing up the blogosphere with this dance floor stormer, where MSTRKFRT's buzzsaw electro seems to suit Flo-Rida's remake of "You Spin Me Round" much better than his own hip-hop instrumentation, and brings something new to both tracks, making an unbeatable Electro-Bootie hit.

Aggro1 - You Know You're Blue (Nirvana vs. Blue Stahli) - Dayton, Ohio
Last month marked the 15-year anniversary of Kurt Cobain's tragic suicide, so it seems perfect timing for Ohio's best bootlegger to take one of Nirvana's last recorded songs and to make it even darker and more depressing than it already was. We hate to say it, but this mashup just screams suicide. It's dark, it's haunting, it's depressing as hell, but powerful.

Amoraboy - The Twist of Single Ladies (Beyoncé vs. Chubby Checker) - Toulouse, France
Nearly 50 years separate these two songs, yet they fit together like they were made for each other, turning "Single Ladies" into a doo-wop hit at a 1950s sock-hop. Can't you just imagine the video for this, with Beyoncé in a poodle skirt doing The Twist?

Dan Mei & Marc Johnce - Chasing Cars That Way (Backstreet Boys vs. Snow Patrol) - Denmark / Germany
VIDEO: click here
We didn't realize how many people know EVERY SINGLE WORD to this Backstreet Boys song until we played it as our last "slow dance" song at Bootie LA. We're not sure whether this gives the Backstreet Boys a bit of indie cred, or if it just makes Snow Patrol sound cheesy. Um ... both?

Faroff - House of Klezmer (House of Pain vs. Amsterdam Klezmer Band vs. Pa Brapad) - Brasilia/Cambridge
VIDEO: click here
We love fucking with our audience at Bootie, and this is one of those tracks that does exactly that, with a long intro that has the crowd scratching their heads going "WTF?" -- that is, until a minute later, when "Jump Around" kicks and makes the place explode into some sort of klezmer-hip-hop freakout. And make sure you watch the video, it's fantastic! How does someone from Brazil come up with this stuff? Did we mention that DJ Faroff is our special guest in San Francisco this month?

DJ Lobsterdust - Love City (R.E.M. vs. The Panthers vs. Holy Ghost!) - New York City
We've always loved this R.E.M. song and hearing it updated with some nice electronic throb and beats takes nothing away from its melancholy sentiment. It's not exactly something you'd wanna drop in the middle of a prime-time party set, but we love its dark beauty.

Overdub - Mixed Farm (Beck vs. Rage Against The Machine) - France
This mashup feels SOOOO LA to us! Take two quintessential Angeleno artists, from opposite sides of town, and put 'em together -- somehow, it just magically works, giving Beck a much harder-rockin' backing band, and making Rage sound more melodic than they ever have before.

Party Ben - Shame (At Nite) (Kid Cudi vs. Evelyn "Champagne" King) - San Francisco
Seems like many of the hipsters are jumping on the disco-revival bandwagon these days, so mashing up Kid Cudi with a classic disco hit not only gives everyone a bit of a musical history lesson, but also, interestingly enough, sounds fresh and contemporary -- even despite that saxophone!

Titus Jones - A Circus of Heartbreakin' Divas (Pat Benatar vs. Beyoncé vs. 3OH!3 vs. Britney Spears vs. Christina Aguilera vs. M.I.A.) - Arkansas
Our favorite bootlegger from Arkansas returns with a sonic stew featuring five dueling divas from different decades, along with "peanut gallery" input from hot new band 3OH!3. We've been waiting for years for something good to be mashed up with Pat Benatar's classic "Heartbreaker" (it's Adrian's fave karaoke song!) and here, Titus Jones delivers.

DJ Topcat - Boyz Slumdog (M.I.A. vs. A.R. Rahman) - Seattle
This mashup was just MEANT to be. How perfect is it to pair the Sri Lankan M.I.A.'s vocals with A.R. Rahman's Indian soundtrack music from "Slumdog Millionaire?" We love giving a little Bollywood flavor to the dance floor!

Bootie Top 10 - April 2009

After doing Bootie parties in China and Australia last month, we fell a little behind in updating our Bootie Top 10. But here's a fresh batch of bootlegs for your downloading pleasure...

DJ BC - Shorty Shutup (The Ting Tings vs. Busta Rhymes vs. The Zombies vs. Marvin Gaye) - Boston
Sick of this Ting Tings song yet? Not us! In the mashup world, "Shut Up And Let Me Go" has become somewhat of an overused cliché, yet many bootleggers are still mining gold from this nugget, as Bootie Boston's DJ BC does here -- still guaranteed to kick-start a dance floor!

TWO-FOR-ONE SPECIAL!
Dan Mei & Marc Johnce - My Life On The Crazy Train Sucks (So What?) (Kelly Clarkson vs. Ozzy Osbourne vs. Pink vs. Daft Punk) - Denmark / Germany
g4gorilla - I Will Always Suck To Me (Kelly Clarkson vs. Charlene vs. Whitney Houston) - Newcastle, Australia
Here are two different takes on mashing up the newest Kelly Clarkson single -- the first is a guilty pleasure, the second is an even GUILTIER (and gloriously gayer) pleasure. While it's not much of a stretch to pair two pop princesses together on the choruses, the appearance of Ozzy on the verses really make this first version shine. And the second one is a gay diva trifecta; it's easily the campiest mashup we've heard in a long time. In other words, it's a Bootie Midnight Mashup Show just waiting to happen!

Hi-Brid - Human Dream (Human League vs. Empire of the Sun) - London
Empire of the Sun is an Australian duo obviously heavily influenced by the '80s -- so why not show where their influences come from by mashing them up with one of the most quintessential '80s bands, The Human League. "Human" is somewhat of a forgotten gem, so it's nice to hear it again in this new context.

Loo & Placido - Betty Got Jacked (Ram Jam vs. Herve vs. Kanye West vs. Boys Noize. vs HitHouse. vs. C&C Music Factory) - France
French bootleggers Loo & Placido take the basic concept of Torero's mashup classic "Gonna Make Betty Sweat," and jack it up considerably, adding a bunch of other elements, and giving it a much-welcome electro-house makeover with a little Kanye thrown in for good measure, among other things. Consider this our token "Electro-Bootie" track for this month's Top 10. This track is super-hot, and we've noticed it making its way to dancefloors, iPods and radio stations all over the world.

Mad Mix Mustang - Like A Life On A Prayer (Bon Jovi vs. Nina Simone vs. Madonna) - The Netherlands
Mad Mix Mustang is one of our new favorite bootleggers, and his clever work continues to surprise us. Here's another strikingly genre-clashed track from him that somehow, inexplicably, just WORKS. Soul vs. pop metal? Who would have thought? Brings a smile to our faces every time.

Mighty Mike - Use The Same Old Song (The Four Tops vs. Kings of Leon) - France
Mighty Mike is another relatively new bootlegger whose recent work just keeps delivering the mashup surprises. Kings of Leon's anthemic rock gets a soulful twist courtesy of the Four Tops, proving quite literally that with mashups, nearly everything is "the same old song."

DJ Moule - Hey, C La Vie (The Pixies vs. M. Solveig vs. The Hives vs. Peter, Bjorn & John) - Bordeaux, France
Yay! Any excuse for us to play some Pixies for the dance floor! Besides, the world needs more Pixies mashups! The electro groove throbs nicely, and the little "Young Folks" bit near the end is simply the cherry on top of this fantastic bootleg. And the best part: the ever-flowing "Woo!' courtesy of The Hives.

DJ Schmolli - In-A-Gadda-Blue-Monday (Iron Butterfly vs. New Order) - Vienna, Austria BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
The world wasn't exactly in need of another "Blue Monday" mashup -- but it's practically a rite of passage for every bootlegger to make their own version of this dance floor staple, and here, Bootie Munich's DJ Schmolli goes above and beyond with an unexpected pairing that somehow turns the psychedelic classic "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" into a dance song.

team9 - Good After Time (Lykke Li vs. Cyndi Lauper) - Perth, Australia
Stereogum's go-to bootleg producer, team9, is threatening to quit making mashup -- and that makes Bootie sad, especially after hearing excellent tracks such as this, which helped introduce us to the angelic vocal stylings of Lykke Li. Come on, team9! Never say never! Still, if this is his swan song, it's a lovely way to leave us.

10000 Spoons - Precious Bleeding Love (Leona Lewis vs. Depeche Mode) - Kent, UK
Seeing as that this came out nearly nine months ago, this is what we would call a "sleeper hit," a track that has been slowly growing on us over time, and now we can't believe we never included it in our Top 10. Leona Lewis' pleading vocal is a perfect fit with the melancholy electro-somber of Depeche Mode. Better late than never, right?

Bootie Top 10 - March 2009

9freak9 - Dance Wif Ur Hands In The Ayer (Flo-Rida vs. Chemical Brothers vs. Tag Team vs. LMFAO vs. Fedde Le Grand) - Australia
This track has been Mysterious D's "secret weapon" at Bootie for a few months now. Combining several "put your hands up in the air" refrains from a few different songs, along with an infectious dance groove, this is guaranteed to kick your party up a notch and have those hands in the AYER!

Copycat - Blind Esmeralda (Hercules & Love Affair feat. Antony Hegarty vs. Santa Esmeralda) - Sweden
"Ethereal flamenco disco" is perhaps the best way to describe this, with each element brought to the table by a different artist. Antony Hegarty's dreamy vocal flows wonderfully with Hercules & Love Affair's disco instrumentation, but it's the addition of Santa Esmeralda's horn-packed, over-the-top, '70s cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (from the movie "Kill Bill") that makes this mashup pure heaven.

Faroff - Funky Shack! (Lipps Inc. vs. The B-52's vs. Soulwax vs. Patrick Hernandez vs. Yello) – Boston / Brasilia
Faroff is a Brazilian bootlegger currently living in Boston, and as a regular DJ at Bootie Boston, he's really stepped up his mashup game, as this track amply proves. This is a perfect retro blend of '70s vs. '80s, taking two of the best party jams from each decade and placing it on top of the very '00s Soulwax throbbing groove, and spinning it into dance floor gold.

G3rst - Bloom To Me (Nirvana vs. Koop) - The Netherlands
This one took a while to grow on us ... it's such a radical reworking of Nirvana, that we weren't sure what to think of it at first. But taking Kurt Cobain's vocal and meshing it with the jazzy lounge stylings of Sweden's Koop takes some nerve, and the result is a kooky and inspired take on a '90s classic. This is now Mysterious D's jam, and the Bootie audiences seem to love making up swing-style dances to it.

Lock3down - Gorilla Idol (Gorillaz vs. Billy Idol) - Toronto
We'd almost forgotten about this '80s chestnut, until Lock3down ingeniously updated it with a Gorillaz vocal. The real payoff though comes three-quarters in, when Del tha Funkee Homosapien starts rapping over Steve Stevens's blistering guitar solo. Just a fantastic pairing!

Mighty Mike - The Complicated Scientist (Avril Lavigne vs. Coldplay) - France
A guilty pleasure, to be sure, this has been Adrian's cheesy, over-dramatic "end of the night" song for a few months now. It's utterly shocking to us how many drunk people seem to know the words to this horrendous-yet-strangely-catchy Avril Lavigne song! And somehow, mashing it up with Coldplay almost disguises it's awfulness!

DJ not-I - More Cowbell! (Sisters of Mercy vs. NAPT) - Vienna, Austria
Yeah, yeah, we know our goth roots are showing on this one. This Sisters of Mercy darkwave classic gets a electro dance floor makeover - and with the anachronistic assistance of Christopher "More Cowbell!" Walken, it keeps a firm smile on our faces while spooky dancing. In fact, we've been told this track has been thown into rotation by DJs at some of our local industrial clubs, like Meat.

Party Ben - Live Your Life Punk (T.I. vs. Rihanna vs. Vampire Weekend) - San Francisco
We're not huge fans of the preppy college rock of Vampire Weekend, but somehow - shockingly - Party Ben has made them tolerable with the addition of T.I. and Rihanna. Maybe it's because he's replaced most of their vocals with the "heys" and "hos" of T.I., which work better for us than the yelped "hey hey hey" of New York's most over-hyped band.

KINGS OF LEON 2-FOR-1 SPECIAL!
Tone396 - Fire In A Bottle (The Police vs. Kings of Leon) - UK
DJ Rodeo - Knocked Up (Lykke Li vs. Kings of Leon)
It wasn't until we dropped Tone396's effortless "Fire In A Bottle" at a Bootie LA party that we realized just how HUGE the Kings of Leon have become. Sure, The Police acapellas are starting to sound a little overused in the mashup world, but this just WORKS. For the second track, DJ Rodeo's mysterious mashup takes Lykke Li's cover of "Knocked Up" and makes it sound like KOL singer Caleb Followill is doing backup vocals for HER! It's dark and ghostly, yet beautiful, putting shivers down your spine.

DJ Y Alias JY - Shut Up And Take Me Out (The Ting Tings vs. Franz Ferdinand vs. Aretha Franklin vs. M/A/R/R/S) - Munich, Germany
Take two of the most danceable indie rock songs from the past few years and put them together – how could this NOT work? Sprinkle in some Aretha and "Pump Up The Volume" for some spice, and you've got another mashup stormer, courtesy of one of Bootie Munich's resident DJs! This track is made for FUN on the dance floor.

Bootie Top 10 - February 2009

After December's double dose of Top 10 lists, and January's Best of Bootie 2008 CD, we decided to skip a month. But now it's February, and we're back with a fresh batch of hot mashups, for your downloading pleasure. Here's what's been burning up the Bootie dance floor this past month, listed in alphabetical order by bootlegger:

A Plus D - Stardust Kids (David Bowie vs. MGMT) - San Francisco
From the Ziggy Stardust Remixed bootleg album
Indie-glam? When DJ BC contacted us to contribute a mashup to the upcoming Ziggy Stardust Remixed album, we jumped at the chance. After all, David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust is one of our all-time favorite albums, and no one had claimed "Lady Stardust" for the mashing. So we took the glam rock ballad and turned it into an indie-pop dance track using current fave MGMT, and the two songs fit together like a velvet glove.

Aggro1 - Does Alice in Chains Offend You? (Alice In Chains vs. Does It Offend You, Yeah?) - Dayton, Ohio
This is the sound of a bootlegger coming into their own, finding their unique style, and putting their own indelible stamp on mashup culture. Without even looking at the ID3 tags, you can just TELL it's an Aggro1 tune, matching hard rock vocals with equally hard electronic music, and creating a new sort of hybrid "electro-metal." However the song arrangement still brings in a dance groove during the verses, which offsets the hard choruses gorgeously. Aggro's been honing this particular sound for a while now, but on this track, he just NAILS it. It sounds big and well-produced and, quite simply, awesome.

DJ BC - I'm Too XXXy (Right Said Fred vs. Proof vs. DJ Assault vs. 20 Fingers) - Boston BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Everyone loves naughty lyrics on the dance floor, and this exclusive track from Bootie Boston's DJ BC delivers, taking four songs chock full of cheeky, over-the-top sexual references, and combining them into a sexy stew that is sure to inspire drunken dirty dancing!

Celebrity Murder Party - Blue Rinse (Fab Zero mix) (Rose Royce vs. New Order vs. Lipps Inc.) - London
This mashup came out nearly 10 months ago, but somehow - DOH! - we missed it. Which is why we loved combing through everyone's year-end "Top Mashups of 2008" lists, to see if we missed anything ... like this one! Not that the world really needed another "Blue Monday" mashup, but when it's ingeniously paired with a '70s disco classic, it again breathes new life. And the Bootie dance floor agrees!

DJ Earworm - United State of Pop 2008 (Mashup of Billboard's Top 25 songs of 2008) - San Francisco
After the success of last year's "United State of Pop" (which took the Top 25 songs of the year according to Billboard magazine and mashed them together into one seamless 4-minute pop song) DJ Earworm seems to have found his true calling and has already turned the clever concept into an annual tradition. This year's edition is no less ambitious and dense - with Billboard's Top 25 songs of 2008 paired with Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" as the backing track, the whole thing is given an epic, anthemic quality.

TWO FOR ONE SPECIAL!
DJ Fox - Beggin' Gypsy Woman (Crystal Waters vs. Madcon vs. Aaliyah vs. The Police) - San Francisco
Mighty Mike - Beggin' For Glory (Portishead vs. Madcon) - France
Back in December, we introduced Madcon's "Beggin'" to the Bootie Top 10 with, not one, but two different mashups that used the Norwegian band's breakout song as its backing track. Well, go ahead and add two more Madcon mashups to the pile. Here's another "compare-and-contrast," where both mashups are so well done, we couldn't pick just one! Each has it's own unique flavor: Fox's "Beggin' Gypsy Woman" showcases the Crystal Waters classic and actually tells a story through the mashing of multiple songs. The greatness of Mighty Mike's "Beggin' For Glory" comes from the rarely-mashed melancholy vocals of Portishead.

DJ Gauffie - Living On Mercy (Duffy vs. Trans-X) - Sweden
We've been waiting for a good mashup that uses Duffy's "Mercy" vocals, and now that the acapella has been leaked, the tracks are starting to trickle in. This is far and away our favorite so far, pairing the '60s-sounding Duffy with the '80s one-hit wonder Trans-X, turning her soulful number into an electro-pop dance floor stormer!

DJ Lobsterdust - American Justice (The Guess Who vs. MSTRKRFT vs. Nate Dogg) - New York City
More electro goodness, courtesy of our favorite New York City bootlegger. By layering classic rock vocals over a throbbing hard dance track, we're reminded a little of Aggro1 here. But with the addition of Nate Dogg's rap, and creative arrangement, he definitely adds his own mashup stamp to the proceedings, producing a fantastic track perfect for Electro-Bootie.

Mastgrr - Cooking By The Book (A Lil' Bigger Mix) (Lil' Wayne vs. Lazy Town) – New York City
BONUS VIDEO:

Cooking By The Book video - HatPerson
It's really all about the video, which was an giant internet meme sensation about two months ago. But even without it, this short-but-sweet mashup - which pairs the obnoxiously obscene Lil' Jon with a song from the kids' television show Lazy Town - still makes us feel kinda dirty. Yes, this is ALL kinds of wrong ... but for some reason, we couldn't help but watch it over and over again, or sing it to each other constantly! "It's a piece of cake to make a pretty cake ... WHAT? OKAAAY!"

team9 - B.F. Meets T.I. (T.I. vs. Ben Folds feat. Regina Spektor) - Perth, Australia
This is the first appearance in the Bootie Top 10 of what will undoubtedly be several tracks from MySplice III, team9's third annual mashup compilation which he does at the end of every year for the music blog Stereogum. We love Regina Spektor, so to hear the unlikely (yet surprisingly complimentary) lyrical interplay between her and rapper T.I. was inspired to say the least. This is exactly the kind of genre-clash that we look for in hip-hop mashups!

Bootie Top 20 - December 2008

The past two months have been good for the bootleg scene. In other words, we couldn't pick just ten! And since this is our last Bootie Top 10 of the year, we thought we'd share in the holiday spirit and double it up for you, including a few older tracks from 2008 that just narrowly missed the cut the first time around. So here are 20 of our current favorite mashups, listed in alphabetical order by bootlegger.

DJ Bagel - Ace of Big (Notorious B.I.G. vs. Ace of Base) - Montreal
Mashups fill our email in box nearly every day, as many budding producers and DJs send us their tracks directly. Unfortunately though, most of them suck. Current pop vs. current pop? Rap over a hip-hop beat? Wow. Clever. But every now and then, an attached MP3 (with no ID3 tags, in this case) takes us by surprise. Sure, this may just be a simple A+B ... but Biggie rapping with Ace of Base sure brought smiles to our faces ... and you know, sometimes that's good enough for the Top 10! We also love that he brings in Ace of Base to sing with Biggie at all the perfect intervals. It's all about bringing that original back in as the payoff!

Brat - Easy Heaven (The Cure vs. The Commodores) - Los Angeles
This track has been Brat's little secret for years. When he first played it at Bootie LA years ago, our jaws dropped. We had to have it. But due to some issues with the acapella, Brat felt it wasn't ready to release. But every few months, he'd show up at Bootie LA and come up to the DJ booth with a mischievous grin on his face ... and we would know that he had brought it so we could at least play it that night! It's one of the best "last song" mashups EVER. We are so glad he's finally been able to put this out there for everyone to enjoy.

Clivester - Funky Touch (Bella Love vs. Soulwax vs. Lipps Inc.) - Vienna, Austria
We weren't familiar with MySpace star Bella Love, but we fell in love with her vocal immediately. Here, Clivester cleverly mashes up a mashup, dropping her sexy vocals into a bootleg of Soulwax vs. the classic "Funkytown." The more we've been spinning this, the more we've loved it. Dirty dance floor fun!

Divide & Kreate - Party Kisser (Katy Perry vs. Bloc Party) - Stockholm, Sweden
"I Kissed A Girl" had to be one of the most mashed up songs of the past year. The only problem was that nearly ALL of them kinda sucked. There's just something about the vocal (especially the melody change from the verse to the chorus) that made it difficult to mash up well with other songs. Of all the Katy Perry boots out there, we thought that this one sounded the best. And it just felt wrong to get to the end of the year without at least recognizing the most over-played song of 2008!

Dunproofin' - Bootie Call (Blondie vs. Dragonette) - Scotland
Blondie's classic gets a contemporary electro rock update. And no, we didn't pick this for the Top 10 just because Dunproofin name-dropped our club name in the title! It's a kick-ass track that has turned us on to a new band, Dragonette.

Earworm - If I Were A Free Fallin' Boy (Beyoncé vs. Tom Petty) - San Franicsco
We've always had a soft spot for "Free Fallin," our favorite song Tom Petty song ever. Hearing him brought into this decade by forcing him to do a duet with Beyoncé is just brilliant. It seems like Earworm, master of the multi-layered mashup, is rediscovering the graceful simplicity of a clever, well-crafted A+B.

Electrosound - Salmon Rehab (Chemical Brothers vs. Amy Winehouse) - France
"Salmon Dance" is such a silly novelty tune, but here, it works seamlessly with Amy Winehouse's retro-'60s soul, making for an interesting genre-clash that never sounds forced.

The Illuminoids - Suffragette City (The Illuminoids Remix) (David Bowie vs. The Illuminoids) - Los Angeles
Seems like we always have to have at least one "Electro-Bootie" bootleg remix in the Bootie Top 10, and this month, The Illuminoids deliver an absolutely slammin' electro version of Bowie's glam classic. Oddly enough, Ziggy Stardust sounds particularly well-suited to the "future-is-now" buzzsaw electronics. We love it when classics like this get updated in ways the original artist never intended.

Immuzikation - Columbian Cartel (MGMT vs. The Ting Tings) - Athens, Georgia
Indie hipsters rejoice! Immuzikation has made a name for himself in the blogosphere for his "blends" (what people afraid of the word "mashup" call mashups). His specialty is mashing up indie bands of the moment, and here, he takes three Ting Tings songs and two MGMT songs (and none of them are the hits) and turns them into something that sounds so very "NOW."

Lock3down - Some Like It Hot and Heavy (The Power Station vs. Does It Offend You, Yeah? - Toronto
Speaking of songs (and bands) so very "NOW" ... here we have indie darlings Does It Offend You, Yeah getting schooled on which '80s song they inadvertently (and probably unknowingly) ripped off. The dodgy Power Station acapella extraction only adds to the low-fi "distorted coolness" of the track.

Marc Johnce - Hot N Cold Maniac (Bootie edit) (Katy Perry vs. Michael Sembello) - Germany
More '80s retro fun, paired up with the latest Katy Perry song that we're not sick of ... yet. In our heads, we picture Katy Perry in a ripped sweatshirt, doing "Flashdance" dances every time we hear this song. We even tossed in a little of the original Michael Sembello vocal for a nice little call-and-response for this "Bootie edit."

TWO FOR ONE "RICKROLLING" SPECIAL!
Mad Mix Mustang - Don't You Ever Give Up Wanting Me Baby (Rick Astley vs. Human League) - The Netherlands
Mighty Mike - Neverending (Rick Astley vs. Mika) - Paris
The Bootie Top 10 has finally been RICKROLLED! Ever since we first heard the Rick Astley acapella had been leaked, we've been waiting for him to show up here. Sure, now that Rick Astley himself has Rickrolled the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, we're sure the Rickroll phenomenon has officially jumped the shark. But still, we couldn't get through 2008 without not one, but two options: The first track is perfect for Rickrolling a packed dance floor. The second is for the end of the night when everyone's good and drunk!

DJ Moule - Fa Fa Fa Good (James Brown vs. Beatles vs. Datarock) - Bordeaux, France
James Brown as a indie rocker? It's hard not to like James Brown's funky vocal ... hell, and it even holds its own paired up with Norwegian dance rockers Datarock. Throw in some Beatles and you've got another wonderful decades-spanning mashup courtesy of classic rock and soul-loving Moule.

Party Ben - Single Ladies (In Mayberry) (Beyoncé vs. "The Andy Griffith Show" Theme) - San Francisco
After nearly a year-long detour into B-more house and remixes, Party Ben makes a much welcome return to the world of mashup making with a silly - yet insanely infectious - bootleg that reaffirms his standing as a master of the craft. Cheeky and totally fun. Welcome back, Ben!

DJ Schmolli - Wicked Wedding (Billy Idol vs. Chris Isaak) - Vienna, Austria
Bootie Munich's resident DJ places Billy Idol's classic anti-wedding ode in a much more melancholic musical setting. In the process, Schmolli recontextualizes the song to more accurately reflect the cynical lyrical content (believe it or not, Billy was NOT in favor of marriage in this song, a fact lost on any couple who requests this at their own wedding!)

HOLIDAY MASHUP!
Smash-Up Derby - Christmas Bop (The Ramones vs. three Christmas songs) - San Francisco
As the house band at Bootie in San Francisco, Smash-Up Derby has been playing live rock mashups since 2004. This song has been a part of the band's Christmas repertoire since 2006, when they first played it at the Bootie Holiday Party. They finally got around to recording it this year, and it's the first track on Santastic 4, the annual holiday mashup compilation.

Totom - Every Kind Of Creep (Zebra remix) (Radiohead vs. Robert Palmer) - France
You'd never think Radiohead could sound this SMOOVE. It makes Thom Yorke sound kinda smarmy, especially with that '70s bass, the chicka-chicka guitar, and the steel drums ... like somehow he's found himself in a fancy tropical resort hotel bar, sipping a fruity drink, and hitting on every lady that walks by and, well ... being a creep! Gives this song a COMPLETELY different feel, which is what a good mashup SHOULD do!

TWO FOR ONE SPECIAL!
DJ Y Alias JY - Can't Stand Beggin' (The Police vs. Madcon) - Munich
DJ Zebra - Back to Beg (Amy Winehouse vs. Madcon) - Paris
After hearing this "Beggin" song in a recent Adidas commercial, we were like, "Where have we heard this song before?" Oh yeah, from mashups made by two of our DJ friends in Europe, where this Frankie Valli cover by Norwegian hip-hop band Madcon was a HUGE hit. It's about to be released here in the U.S., but why not hear it mashed up two different ways, like we did? The first one with The Police is a nice genre clash that works beautifully, and the second one with Amy Winehouse sounds so seamless that we weren't even convinced it was even a mashup when we first heard it!

Bootie Top 10 - November 2008

ABX of The Hood Internet - Glass Eye Of The Candy Tiger (Survivor vs. Glass Candy) - Chicago BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
When ABX from The Hood Internet dropped this at our first Bootie Chicago party a couple weeks ago, we both made a mad dash for the DJ booth to find out what it was. While the iconic music from "Eye Of The Tiger" has been used in several mashups, this is the first time we've heard the vocal used ... and it sounds slightly less cheesy when used over the icy cool electro of Glass Candy.

Clive$ter - Downtown Murder (Petula Clark vs. Sophie Ellis Bextor) - Vienna, Austria
It's not often a song as old as "Downtown" gets mashed up, but here it gets a much-needed dance floor remake, courtesy of Mashup Industries' Clive$ter, who skillfully gets these two British songstresses from different generations to sound like they're collaborating on a duet together. This track has a really warm vibe and just screams 'happy.'

Earworm - Reckoner Lowdown (Kanye West vs. Radiohead) - San Francisco
It's rare for Earworm - the king of complex, multi-layered productions - to produce a simple "A+B"-style mashup. But here, the pairing simply works, and with DJ Earworm's touch it works beautifully, creating a moody take on Kanye's new single.

DJ Gauffie - Kung Fu Dancing (Carl Douglas vs. Scissor Sisters vs. Wham!) - Sweden
A song from the '70s, mixed with a modern song that simply SOUNDS like it's from the '70s. Is it any wonder this works so well together? Carl Douglas' one-hit wonder fits like a glove while the Scissor Sisters' work out their '70s jones. And of course, a little Wham! thrown in for good measure is always good in our book!

Mad Mix Mustang - Take It Easy On Me (a-ha vs. The Commodores) - The Netherlands
We're always looking for new "slow jam mashups" to close out the night at Bootie parties, and this one couldn't be more perfect! It turns an '80s one-hit wonder into a beautiful ballad, perfect for drunken slow dancing! "Take On Me" actually sounds less like 80's cheese, and is really quite touching with the help of Mad Mix Mustang.

DJ Magnet - Brick Dick (Mickey Avalon vs. The Commodores vs. Beastie Boys vs. Jimi Hendrix) - Denver
Our friend (and Bootie go-go dancer) John-John has been quoting the ridiculously boastful lyrics of Mickey Avalon's cult hit "My Dick" for months! Needless to say, he was elated when this mashup came out, meaning he can now lip-sync every word while shaking it on a go-go platform. The Commodores make a second appearance on this month's Top 10, giving it a nice funk vibe, and DJ Magnet spices it up with just the right amount of Beasties and Hendrix for some flavor. This one is in heavy rotation for us right now.

Mash2Mix - Shut Up Your Delight (The Ting Tings vs. Sugarhill Gang vs. N.E.R.D. vs. Chic) - The Netherlands
Seemingly tailor-made for a Bootie dance floor, this track expertly mashes up the Sugarhill Gang classic (already practically a proto-mashup) with indie dance darlings The Ting Tings ... and then throws in a little N.E.R.D. for good measure. Gets the kids dancin' every time!

DJ Morsy - Lolli Lolli (DJ Morsy Remix) (Three 6 Mafia vs. DJ Morsy) - New York City
While we tend to focus on straight-up mashups in the Top 10, we also love unauthorized bootleg remixes ... especially when they're as bangin' as this. When we play a hip-hop track at Electro-Bootie, our monthly "club-within-a-club" in San Francisco, THIS is what it sounds like. We especially love the throbbing basslines and "Halloween" piano sample used throughout, making the song sound mysteriously evil.

DJ Y Alias JY - Don't Let It Be In Anger (Oasis vs. The Beatles) - Munich
Another fantastic "last song of the night" mashup. I mean, you know Oasis want to be the Beatles anyway ... and this bootleg proves it! Bootie Munich's resident DJ Y Alias JY totally nails it on this one. Is this the closing number at Bootie Munich? We hope so!

DJ Zebra - Roxanne Should Be Dancing (The Police vs. The Bee Gees) - Paris
DJ Zebra's "retirement" from the bootleg scene was obviously short-lived ... and bootlegs like this make us glad he's returned to mashup-making! "Roxanne" never sounded funkier ... this is a floor-filler for sure!

Bootie Top 10 - October 2008

We're back to our regularly-scheduled Bootie Top 10 of mashup downloads. No waiting around on us for two months, just because we're "too busy." And as an added bonus, we've got three -- count 'em -- THREE exclusive mashups, unavailable anywhere else. Woo-hoo!

ComaR - I Want You D.A.N.C.E. (Justice vs. Jackson 5) - Paris
An alphabet soup of a mashup! A.B.C., 1.2.3., P.Y.T., D.A.N.C.E., B.E.A.T. ... we love lyrics that spell things! Both songs, separated by 38 years, share the same jubilant, fun vibe ... and the joy of spelling! A wonderful pairing from Bootie Paris's resident DJ ComaR.

Divide & Kreate - Dance Dreams (Lady Gaga vs. Eurythmics) - Stockholm, Sweden
"Sweet Dreams" just never seems to go away, and people never seem to tire of it either (perhaps because its electronic keyboard throb still sounds shockingly contemporary amongst today's current electro-house sound). Pair it with a hot vocal from a just-breaking artist -- not to mention some excellent production sheen courtesy of Divide & Kreate -- and the song gets another fresh coat of paint, and brings Lady Gaga's dance jam to life.

TWO FOR ONE SPECIAL!
Earworm - Gimme Freaks (Rolling Stones vs. Moguai & Toscadisco) - San Francisco
The Illuminoids - Gimme Shelter (Illuminoids Remix) - Los Angeles
Here, two of our favorite bootleggers mashup and remix the SAME Rolling Stones track - and "Gimme Shelter" just so happens to be our most favorite Stones song EVER. Both versions are given the electro treatment and, well ... we couldn't pick just one! So we want you to have them both. Compare and contrast!

Grandtheft - Mikey Rocks (GT's Juke and The City Mix) (Cool Kids vs. the "Sex and the City" theme) - Montreal
Yeah, we're suckers for that "Sex and the City" theme ... especially when it's given this kind of make-over with fresh talent The Cool Kids. No one we know of has had the idea of using the "Sex and the City" theme in a mashup, and we love a fresh idea. This track is courtesy of one of Canada's mashup golden boys, Team Canada's Grandtheft.

Hi-Brid - Golden Boy (Jimmy Mix) (The Klaxons vs. Bronski Beat) - London
It's crazy how well these fit together. The Klaxons chorus just blends perfectly with the keyboards and Jimmy Somerville's original vocal melody. It really is like they were always meant to be one. An inspired pairing and a textbook bootleg example of "well-spotted."

Immuzikation - Whoa, Yerrr a Joke! (Santogold vs. Spank Rock vs. A-Trak) - Athens, Georgia
We're really digging Santogold, but her original version of "Shove It" was lacking a certain "oomph." This mashup -- which admittedly, sounds more like a remix -- remedies that, throwing in all sorts of interesting electro elements courtesy of hipster rappers Spank Rock and A-Trak's remixing skills. Sure, it's got "indie hipster" written all over it, but it works for us!

Lobsterdust - Pussycats Gone To Heaven (The Pixies vs. The Pussycat Dolls) - New York City
How many years have we been waiting for a decent Pixies mashup? Pretty much ever since we started Bootie! Finally, Lobsterdust delivers, with a masterful pairing that tricks princesses on the dance floor to shake their asses to the absurdity of the Pixies going pop ... we mean, REALLY pop!

Malderor - We Rock Hard In The Ayer (Flo Rida vs. Freestyle) - San Francisco BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Old school meets new school! This is what it would sound like if you put Flo Rida in a time machine and sent him back to 1985. He'd still be rapping, but hip-hop back then sounded more like THIS. We miss those vocoders and electro beats!

DJ Tripp - Paper Rump (Wreckx-N-Effect vs. M.I.A.) - Santa Cruz, CA BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" seems to be everywhere these days, but now we've got a version that takes away the seriousness of the track, and adds a dose of silly! These tracks work surprisingly well together ... we particularly like the way the "zoom zoom zoom" goes perfectly with the gun shots. So wrong, and so right at the same time!

DJ Zebra - Body Crazy (Beastie Boys vs. Prince) - Paris BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
France's DJ Zebra returns to mashup making with an exclusive party jam tailor-made just for Bootie. Two iconic artists, mashed up in a classic A+B style, and guaranteed to kick-start a dance floor and have bodies jumping.

Bootie Top 10 - August/September 2008

August is always our busiest month ... and this year was no exception. Between producing our own epic "Revenge Of The A+D Show" for the Bootie 5-Year Anniversary Party (the biggest event of our career, with nearly 1,500 people) and then preparing for Burning Man, where we did two Bootie BRC parties out in the Black Rock Desert, we simply had NO TIME to sit down to compile a Bootie Top 10. But now that the dust has settled (both figuratively and literally, as we're back from the playa) we're hoping to make it up to you with another double Top 10. Enjoy the downloads!

AUGUST 2008

A plus D - Dancing Lollipop Queen (Lil Wayne vs. ABBA) - San Francisco
Lil Wayne's new album dropped, and we'd been patiently waiting to hear that perfect "Lollipop" mashup ... but it just never happened. At the same time, we were all excited about the movie version of Mamma Mia! (Even though we've been so busy this summer, we haven't actually even seen it yet.) And then it hit us! Here is the glorious result. Besides, let's face it –- the world needs more ABBA mashups. And we know how the Bootie audiences love something they can sing along to!

Aggro1 - You've Got Another Thing Comin' To Slipaway (Judas Priest vs. 2 Bit Pie) - Dayton, Ohio
What if instead of being the "Metal God," Rob Halford was actually the singer for an electronica band? What would it sound like? Dayton, Ohio's favorite bootlegger son provides the answer: it would actually sound just as badass - but in a whole new ass-kickin' way.

DJ BC - Superfreaky Bellydancer (Rick James vs. Akon vs. James Brown) - Boston
Bootie Boston's resident DJ knocks it out of the park with this one, virtually guaranteeing everyone on the dance floor to irresistably shake their asses! We dare you to try not to move when you hear this jam.

Divide & Kreate - Every Bleeding Breath (Leona Lewis vs. The Police) - Stockholm, Sweden
Of all the mashups of Leona Lewis' ubiquitous summertime lament, this is our favorite. Both songs - separated by over two decades -- have a sad, bittersweet quality to them. It may just seem like a simple A+B, but the pop hooks (and thicker drum beats) are gloriously undeniable.

DJ Gizmo - It's Comma Undone ('N Sync vs. Duran Duran) - Columbia, Missouri
So nice to hear a vocal that hasn't already been done to death in a mashup - and this is the first good 'N Sync mashup we've heard. We've always had a soft spot for that Duran Duran song, and this works seamlessly, bringing beauty to the pop stylings of 'N Sync.

The Illuminoids - Get It On At Le Disko (T. Rex vs. Shiny Toy Guns) - Los Angeles
Finally! We'd always loved that Shiny Toy Guns song and have been waiting over a year for someone to mash it up with something good. Here, Jells and Howie Illuminoid deliver the goods, merging classic '70s glam with current electro glam punk.

Mad Mix Mustang - Super Blitzious (Stevie Wonder vs. Sweet) - The Netherlands
Can you tell we like early '70s British glam rock? This now makes two in a row for tracks utilizing this very under-mashed-up genre. Nice stompy feel to this ... who knew how well that Stevie Wonder soul classic would work with the bouncy and fun "Ballroom Blitz"?

DJ Mei-Lwun - How Low (Flo-Rida vs. Public Enemy vs. Benny Benassi) - San Francisco
When Mei-Lwun releases a new bootleg, you can usually count on a really solid effort. This one goes beyond solid. Pure thumpy electro hip-hop gold, tailor-made for Electro-Bootie. This one's a dance floor banger, pure and simple.

STV SLV - Shut Up, American Boy (Estelle vs. The Ting Tings) - Chicago
Two songs of the moment -- it's all so very NOW -- mashed together. Two British artists from different scenes, who are both storming the American charts. Indie hipsters and mainstream pop lovers unite!

DJ Topcat - Hot2Destroy (Lyrics Born vs. Ladytron) - Seattle
Can someone please tell us why Lyrics Born isn't super-famous yet? One of the Bay Area's best rappers get the electro treatment by being paired up with Ladytron, and it fits like a glove. The way Topcat's produced this track, you'll find yourself almost powerless to stop humming the chorus even after the song is over.

SEPTEMBER 2008

A plus D - Fascination Umbrella (Rihanna vs. The Cure) - San Francisco
This track had been languishing on our hard drive for months, until GYBO launched its Cure Bootleg Challenge in August, and we finally decided to finish it, and release it. It started off as a Smash-Up Derby song -- but in order for the band to learn the arrangement, we needed to created a rough version of this mashup first. And the whole concept began life nearly a year ago when we originally mashed up "Fascination Street" with Hard-Fi and Kanye West -- Bonus version of the Hard-Fi version HERE!

ddpesh - Nasty Feel (Notorious B.I.G. vs. MGMT vs. Justice) - Brooklyn
Gives the über-cool MGMT some nice thuggish street-cred. Not sure if Biggie would be rolling over in his grave if he heard this, but we know that WE like it! It's also a really nice genre-clash, with a strangely appealing groove.

Dunproofin - Police Klaxons (The Police vs. The Klaxons) - Scotland
Yay! Another acapella that we haven't heard a zillion times before in a mashup! An inspired pairing, which fits pretty damn near perfectly. This one's a real beauty and extremely fresh in originality. Good job, Dun!

Earworm - No More Gas (Rihanna vs. Kardinal Offishall vs. Akon vs. Ne-Yo vs. Estelle vs. Pussycat Dolls vs. Leona Lewis vs. Danity Kane vs. Madonna vs. Timbaland vs. Justin Timberlake vs. Lupe Fiasco vs. Matthew Santos vs. Britney Spears vs. Flo-Rida vs. T-Pain) - San Francisco
Earworm has seemingly found his mashup calling, which is taking a zillion current pop tracks, and proving how they're all practically the same damn song by mashing them up in high-concept bootleg productions such as this. Might make your head explode ... but will more likely keep you moving on the dance floor.

DJ Gauffie - Don't Stop Spin The Music Round (Rihanna vs. Dead Or Alive) - Sweden
An A+B mashup so simple -- and so perfect for Bootie -- we're kicking ourselves for not having thought of it first! Sometimes the easy-cheesy ones really are the floor-fillers. Dead Or Alive gives the Rihanna dance floor burner an extra kick!

Lobsterdust - EasyWall (The Commodores vs. Oasis) - New York
Adrian's been milking the same end-of-the-night "mashup slowjam set" for months now, so he's happy to have something new like this to close the club with. Expect to hear this as the "last song" at Bootie for the next few months. Grab someone and slow dance when you hear it!

DJ Schmolli - Oye Mi Sweet Dutchie (N.O.R.E. vs. Black Sabbath vs. Musical Youth vs. Afroman) - Vienna, Austria
We're such suckers for conceptual thematic mashups. Gee, what do all these songs have in common? Is it 4:20 yet?

Torero - Let Me Think About American Boys (Estelle vs. Fedde Le Grand) - Karlsruhe, Germany
Germany's Torero used to be one of our favorite bootleggers. Then he mysteriously disappeared for about three years. But now he's back and this electro-house version of Estelle's summertime hit is a wonderful way to return to the bootleg scene. If you're more electro-house than indie, this is your "American Boy" mashup.

DJ Tripp - Just Needed Time (The Cars vs. DJ Antoine) - Santa Cruz, California
This is what Electro-Bootie sounds like. Thick heavy electro beats with a familiar vocal thrown on top. If you ever wondered what our little monthly "club-within-a-club" Electro-Bootie at Bootie SF sounds like, this couldn't be a more perfect example! This is the kind of track that Electro-Bootie lives for.

Wax Audio - Enter You (Metallica vs. Bryan Adams) - Sydney, Australia
Wax Audio explains this one better than we ever could: "Imagine if James Hetfield (Metallica's once screaming, now yodelling front man) grew up in Canada instead of California. Imagine he was brought up by a working class lumberjack family and instead of donning ripped denim and leather he instead got about in un-torn denim and checkered flannel. Let's pretend that this Canadian Hetfield's first guitar wasn't a Gibson Flying V but rather a Strat. Finally, imagine that instead of meeting Lars Ulrich and Bob Rock on his way to super stardom he actually met Jim Vallance and Bob Clearmountain. Got all that? Right, here's what it would have sounded like..."

Bootie Top 10 - July 2008

Clive$ter – Will I Touch Your Back (Amy Winehouse vs. Bros. vs. Freemasons feat. Katherine Ellis) – Austria
This great, bluesy vocal fits so well with the Amy Winehouse instrumental, that you'd never guess it's actually from a house music song! Personally, we think it fits WAY better here than with the original Freemasons track. And the Bros vocal exchanges with the Freemasons diva vocals adds another layer to this track, as well as the well-placed samples.

DJ Fox – Low Dog (Flo Rida vs. The Stooges vs. Dakar & Grinser) BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE! – San Francisco
You can always tell when an acapella of a popular song gets released, because the mashup community immediately pounces on it and within weeks, there are about a zillion different bootlegs floating around. That's exactly what happened with Flo Rida's "Low," the Bootie Top 10's flavor of the month, of which this is the first of two appearances on this list. We especially love this one. If Iggy Pop were dead, he'd be rolling over in his grave. But since he isn't, he might actually find this amusing. Excellent song arrangement and the extreme genre-clash makes this "Low" rise well above the rest.

DJ Gizmo – Pictograph (Sneaky Sound System vs. Def Leppard)
This month's "guilty pleasure" is this little gem. Sure, we admit we've got a soft spot for Def Leppard. But damn, that Sneaky Sound System vocal just fits so damn well – both melodically and lyrically – with the '80s guitar sound, that you'd never know it was originally an electro song!

The Illuminoids – That's Not My Wild Name Game Thing (Ting Tings vs. Shirley Ellis vs. Peaches vs. Tone Loc vs. Divine) – Los Angeles
Jells and Howie from the Illuminoids have definitely bridged a few generation gaps here, seamlessly blending several songs that stretch over the course of four decades, expertly proving that everything new is old again! And the best part of the Ting Tings track, of course, is the "That's not my name" chorus, and the Illuminoids know just how to make that part pop, and to put it over "The Name Game," well, it's just awesome. Bonus points for even throwing in some Divine!

Instamatic – Neon Sex People (Neon Neon vs. Depeche Mode vs. Latour) – London
In the mashup scene, there's the term "well spotted," which refers to when someone notices that one song seems to "borrow" one or more melodic elements from another. Here, Neon Neon definitely owes a debt to a certain '80s synth band, and Instamatic gets his groove back by proving it with a "well spotted" mashup.

DJ Maxentropy – Low A Prayer (Madonna vs. Flo Rida) – Philadelphia
Sick of "Low" yet? Fortunately, Maxentropy reverses the trend of using the well-worn acapella and goes for the instrumental instead, pairing it with Madonna's classic dance floor anthem and giving it some hip-hop street cred -- as well as some bassy bottom end -- in the process. This is the "Like A Prayer" mashup we've been waiting for.

Titus Jones – Break Teen Spirit (Bootie edit) (Britney Spears vs. Nirvana vs. Madonna vs. Justin Timberlake vs. Usher) BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE! – Arkansas, USA
This mashup proves once again that, despite its grunge trappings, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is really just a pop song -- which is why it mashes up so well with so many other stupid pop songs. Britney and Madonna sound shockingly well-suited fronting Nirvana. Who knew? The great thing about this track though, is its song arrangement and production -- it's not just a straight vocal over the Nirvana track, like many "Smells Like" mashups of the past. Instead, it shows itself to be something different, and in this case, different is kick-ass.

DJ Topcat – Only Like You (Mims vs. Yazoo) – Seattle
Topcat does something actually listenable with Mims' failed second single. "Like This," especially the female vocals, blends beautifully with Yazoo's '80s synth-pop gem, "Only You." We especially like the way Topcat brings in the best parts of "Only You," a sometimes forgotten classic, coupling it with Mims to give it a fresh sound. And it's nice to hear a mashup by Yaz that ISN'T another "Don't Go" or "Situation"!

Wax Audio – Sad But Superstitious (Stevie Wonder vs. Metallica) – Sydney, Australia
Yay! Our favorite Australian bootlegger is back, and he returns with a fist-pumping stormer of a track. This reminds us of just the sort of mind-fuck rock mashups that first got us sucked into the bootleg scene to begin with, way back in 2001. Notice the similarity between Stevie's growl with James Hetfield's growl. And there's nothing more fun than hearing that full Metallica break near the end ... and then Stevie comes roaring back in!

DJ Y Alias JY – Duffy Train Running (Duffy vs. Doobie Brothers) – Munich, Germany
DJ Y Alias JY is one of the new resident DJs at Bootie Munich, and tracks like this make us glad he's on board. Sounds retro and contemporary at the same time, and is definitely the best Duffy mashup we've heard yet. Hell, it's even the best Doobie Brothers mashup we've heard too!

Bootie Top 10 x 2 - May/June 2008

As many people know, we were on a three-week European tour at the end of April and early May. Soon after, we got bogged down catching up on Bootie business, and then we left the country again to do our first Bootie Hong Kong party. Needless to say, our schedule got very busy, and we regret that the Bootie Top 10 was woefully neglected.

However, we are hoping to make it up to you with a double Top 10 this month, one for May (the month we missed) and another for June. Enjoy the downloads!

MAY 2008

Aggro1 – Rock of Ages Girl (Def Leppard vs. Goose) – Dayton, Ohio
Our electro is showing. This is the first of two appearance's on this month's Top 10 of Goose, an electro rock band from Belgium. Here, Aggro1 gives Def Leppard's butt-rock classic a dance-floor remake. I guess our love of '80s hair metal is showing too!

Divide & Kreate – Punked Up (Madonna vs. Teddybears) – Stockholm, Sweden
Instead of sampling ABBA for her song "Hung Up," imagine if Madge had picked a more current Swedish band to rip off? You know, someone cool like the Teddybears? As the people who do the Madonna Mashup Room every June at Bootie SF, how could we NOT love this?

Electrosound - Relax, I Wanna Be Trash (Mika vs. The Whip) – France
Nope, we had never heard of The Whip either, but they're obviously a perfect pairing with "Relax," adding some electro rock bite to Mika's otherwise fey tune. We found out that DJ Sandra of London's Misshapes club regularly mixes these two songs together, and wasn't even aware that this mashup exists. See, it's meant to be!

G3rst – Black Woman (Wolfmother vs. Goose) – The Netherlands
Adrian can nail almost every single note of Wolfmother's "Woman" in Guitar Hero, but that's not the only reason this song makes the Top 10. It's just nice to hear a cool electro-dance throb behind one of our favorite recent rock songs.

Hi-brid – Confide In The Nation (Kylie Minogue vs. Radiohead) – London
Radiohead's first of two appearances on this list ... see, this is what happens when you release your album for (pretty much) free on the internet. Our ears perk up and we remember that you're around, and then mashups like this just sort of sneak up on us, and we think, "Damn, how awesome would it be if Kylie Minogue joined Thom Yorke & company on stage for just one stark and moody song?"

Lobsterdust - Urgent Situation (Foreigner vs. Yaz) – New York City
It's like Lobsterdust built a time machine and went back to 1982 with a laptop and some audio editing software, and mashed-up two of the most popular songs of the day (from polar opposites of the pop spectrum). But then, realizing that doing so would create a rip in the space-time mashup continuum, and would inadvertently kick-start the mashup craze two decades earlier than it should (which would mean that Bootie, GYBO, and A+D would all *POOF!* cease to exist) he wisely chose to just keep it on his hard drive ... that is, until NOW!

Mad Mix Mustang – The Love Cats Shack (B-52's vs. Stray Cats) – The Netherlands
Maybe it's because Fred Schneider from the B-52's made a surprise appearance at Bootie LA in April, but we've recently rediscovered our love for the best party band on the planet. There are quite a few "Love Shack" mashups out there, but this is one of the best we've heard. Here, M3 finds an inspired genre-clash. Who knew swaggering rockabilly would work so well with this?

DJ Mei-Lwun - The Donquehote (will.i.am & Snoop Dogg vs. Magazine 60) – San Francisco
Is this Magazine 60 song having some sort of weird revival or what? We've been hearing it a lot lately, including when we were in Shanghai ... twice! Here, San Francisco's Mei-Lwun gives it a hip-hop makeover tailor-made to kick-start a dance floor!

DJ Morgoth - BlurDemmi (Blur vs. Deichkind) – Berlin
When Jack Daniels sponsored a mashup contest in Germany, this is the track that won DJ Morgoth a trip to the company's famed whiskey distillery in Tennessee - his first trip to America! We had never heard of Deichkind, but the chorus of their silly German rap is so easy to get stuck in your head, that we were singing it to each other all over Europe. Guaranteed to make the crowd go nuts ... especially if your crowd happens to be at Bootie Munich or at Berlin's Mash-Up Your Bootz party! ;-)

DJ Shyboy – You Spin Me Upside Down (Diana Ross vs. Dead Or Alive) – Los Angeles
'More '80s goodness! And it's another '80s vs. '80s, which doesn't happen too often in the mashup world (a dearth of acapellas from that decade doesn't help). LA's Shyboy slipped us this killer track months ago, and it very quickly became our "secret weapon" for the dance floor. Now he's finally made it available on his website for everyone to reap the benefits of its cheesy '80s goodness! The lyrical interplay here is especially an excellent fit.

JUNE 2008

dj BC - Stop The Violence In Africa (Boogie Down Productions vs. Toto) – Boston
Boston's BC made two versions of this Boogie Down Productions track, and while he prefers his other one, WE happen to have a soft spot for the Toto version. Besides, we love it when two songs of a mashup play off each other's themes, and the whole "Africa" breakdown is great!

BootOX - Rockin Maedchen Drive Me Crazy (Michael Jackson vs. Lucilectric vs. Fine Young Cannibals) – Munich
It's so nice when we hear an acapella that hasn't been done to death in the bootleg world, and MJ's version of "Rockin' Robin" has rarely been used. Here, Bootie Munich's resident DJ BootOX pairs it with tunes from two different decades, the forgotten '80s favorite by the Fine Young Cannibals and the simply forgotten '90s German band Lucilectric.

ComaR - Knocklife (Lily Allen vs. Blur) – Paris BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Leave it to a Frenchman to create the ultimate Britpop mashup! ComaR was putting the finishing touches on this when we stayed with him in Paris, and we immediately begged him to have it for a Top 10 exclusive. It even inspired a Bootie Paris flyer, coming soon!

Copycat - Creep '08 (Radiohead bootleg remix) – Sweden
We recently had the pleasure of meeting Sweden's Copycat when we were in Copenhagen last month, and we found we shared a mutual love of '80s music. Here, he manages to make this '90s classic sound like a forgotten hit from 1982 ... like Ultravox or Alphaville! Some fans may think of this as sacrilege, but hell, even Radiohead hates "Creep," so fucking with it is fair game as far as we're concerned!

Divide & Kreate - Phantom Part III (The Clash vs. Justice) – Stockholm, Sweden
If The Clash were around today, they just might sound something like this. Yes? No? Maybe? Who knows? Listen and discuss while dancing and singing along. Adds some much-needed personality to the otherwise way-too-cool electro throb of Justice. Old punk meets new punk!

Electrosound - Harder, Harder, HARDER, HARDER! (Daft Punk vs. Passions) – France
More electro goodness! If our mini offshoot club Electro-Bootie had its own Top 10, this would be #1. This is not your standard "Harder Better Faster Stronger" mashup – this one takes the track to a whole new level, cutting up the Daft Punk classic to good effect, and making a great dance song even better. Very appropriately titled!

Go Home Productions - Finally, Did You No Wrong (CeCe Peniston vs. Sex Pistols) – Watford, UK
Late last year, Go Home Productions, widely acknowledged as one of the best mashup producers in the world, made a big, um, "production" about retiring from the bootleg scene. He was burnt out and ready to move on. Well ... turns out he "pulled a Jay-Z" on this one, and his retirement lasted only about six months. He recently took a break from recording an album of original music by returning to – yup, you guessed it – mashups! This is our favorite track off of his recently-released "Spliced Krispies" album.

Lobsterdust - Epic Black Rock (Faith No More vs. Queen vs. AC/DC) – New York City
Three decades' worth of big stupid rock songs, all rolled into one tight package. When Lobsta dropped this at April's Bootie NYC party, we just about lost our shit. We HAD to have it. Besides, it wouldn't be a Bootie Top 10 without Lobsterdust, now would it? Don't be surprised if Smash-Up Derby ends up covering this one.

Norwegian Recycling - 9 Songs To Save The World (Madonna vs. Justin Timberlake vs. Timbaland vs. Flo Rida vs. Usher vs. Britney Spears vs. Nelly Furtado vs. Eiffel 65) – Norway
There are quite a few "4 Minutes" mashups floating around out there right now, but this one is currently our fave. Norwegian Recycling's calling card is intricately weaving together several songs to create one brilliant seamless creation. This one is no exception – well, actually, no, there is ONE exception. With this, he leaves behind his penchant for mellow coffeehouse music and instead makes this one ready for the dance floor!

Victor Menegaux - Blitzkreig Crunk (Lil' Jon vs. The Ramones) – San Francisco BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Seattle's loss is San Francisco's gain! Victor Menegaux recently moved to SF, and he brought with him a fresh batch of mashups, which he slipped under our door. This is our favorite of the bunch – we just love how he chops up the guitars of The Ramones, giving it some tight production, a perfect fit for Lil' Jon's crunk rap. "Hey ho! Heeeeeeyyy!"

Bootie Top 10 - April 2008

A plus D - Believe In Sexual Eruption (Snoop Dogg vs. Cher) - San Francisco
One wouldn't think there would be much in common between Snoop Dogg and Cher. But there was just something about Snoop's new single that seemed familiar ... what was it? Hey, that's a vocoder on his voice! Hmmm ... what other famous pop song used a vocoder to great effect? It's all about finding the common thread, and putting together a duet with two unlikely partners!

BootOx – Brick and Stop (Q-Tip vs. The Commodores) - Munich, Germany
So simple, yet so smoove, so good, with a bunch of random samples throw in for good measure. This is the first Bootie Top 10 appearance by the crazy BootOx, one of the resident DJs and promoters of Bootie Munich. This was one of the "battle" tracks for the fierce boxing-ringed DJ battle between the BootOx and Schmolli. We decided it's a tie, since they both have tracks in the Top 10 this month.

DJ Le Clown - Eko Bitch (Martha & the Muffins vs. Busta Rhymes) - France
The first of three French bootleggers in this month's Top 10 - yes, France is the new hotbed of mashup talent! DJ Le Clown's productions are always intricately crafted and well-produced, as he tends to use unconventional source material, with added beats and samples, giving his mashups a unique sound.

DJ Lobsterdust - It's Fun To Smoke Dust (Queen vs. Pastor Gary Greenwald vs. Midfield General) - New York City
"Oh no, not Queen! Not 'Another One Bites The Dust'" Yup, here it is again, with an extremely fresh take, courtesy of DJ Lobsterdust, who unearthed a 1982 sermon by Pastor Gary Greenwald. Did you know that playing this song backwards reveals Satanic messages designed to corrupt and enslave the young minds who listen to it? Yup, "it's fun to smoke marijuana!" This track is pure excellence.

DJ Magnet - Chicago Bump (Bootie Edit) (Chicago vs. Amanda Blank vs. Spank Rock vs. Bloodhound Gang vs. Greg Kihn Band vs. Detroit Grand Pubas) - Denver, USA
In the wrong hands, "everything but the kitchen sink"-style mashups tend to collapse under the cluttered weight of their multiple source material. But not when it's being done by someone like Bootie Denver's resident DJ Magnet. Here, he skillfully crams it all in, and - in this special "Bootie edit" - even brings in the original Chicago tune for a chorus. This one is Mysterious D's new favorite.

Mighty Mike - Standing On My Shoulders (The Do vs. The Gossip) - France
Nope, we didn't know the vocal either. But this one grew on us. First off, with all the mashups that use the "Standing In The Way of Control" vocal, we had completely forgotten how good the original Gossip song is - even without Beth Ditto's voice. Replacing her here is the singer for the French band The Do ... and it's mashups like these that had us Googling them in order to check out their originals. And that's what good mashups should make you do, furthering our belief that a mashup can sometimes be an unknown band's best promotion.

Overdub - Come As The Starlight (Nirvana vs. The Supermen Lovers) - France
If you ever wondered what Nirvana would sound like if they were a disco band, look no further than this, which sounds like the gayest Nirvana song EVER. There is no doubt in our minds that Kurt would have LOVED this.
BONUS TRACK:
RIAA - Come As The Eighties (Nirvana vs. Killing Joke) - Los Angeles
As an added bonus, here's a musical history lesson - "Come As You Are," mashed up with "The Eighties" by Killing Joke. This is the band that sued Nirvana for plagarism, as it very nearly copies the exact same bass line as "The Eighties." Allegedly, when Nirvana's management claimed the band had never heard the song, Killing Joke's lawyers provided a fan letter that Kurt Cobain had written to the band as evidence to the contrary. DOH!

DJ Schmolli - Justice For Billie Jean (Justice vs. Michael Jackson vs. C&C Music Factory) - Vienna, Austria
At the most recent Bootie Munich, resident DJ Schmolli "battled" DJ BootOx in a boxing ring rigged with DJ gear. Some feel that Schmolli won the battle, and its mashups like these in his arsenal that surely helped. Pretty much better than any of the remixes and remakes on the new 25th anniversary edition of "Thriller" that was just released.

team9 - Sugar & Cheese (Mary J. Blige vs. Snow Patrol) - Perth, Australia
Pure pop candy. Your teeth might rot out of your head simply by listening to this. Mary J. Blige would probably never join indie darlings Snow Patrol on stage for a number - but with mashups like these, at least it's easier to imagine.

Titus Jones - Kiss Britney's Boyfriend (Ashlee Simpson vs. Chris Brown vs. Britney Spears) - Clarksville, Arkansas, USA
It seems we're rediscovering our love of shameless pop music this month, as this mashup by Titus Jones amply demostrates. A guilty pleasure to be sure, but hells yes, it's a toe-tapper ... and it even features guest appearances by Missy Elliott and Ciara. What's not to love?

Bootie Top 10 - March 2008

Yup, we skipped February. Too swamped, too busy, and too much crap to sift through.

But now we're back with a fresh (and not so fresh) batch of mashups ... a few gems in the rough here, and some that have been around for a while, but are just now starting to heat up the Bootie dance floor. Enjoy!

ABX - Bonde Do Roll Out (Ludacris vs. Bonde Do Role) - Chicago
The Hood Internet are two DJs from Chicago -- ABX and STV SLV -- who specialize in pretty much one thing: rap acapellas mashed-up with indie-hipster music. Song titles that are clever puns are a hallmark of mashup culture, but this is one of those rare instances where the bootleg actually lives up to its cheeky name. If you want a little Baile funk with your Ludacris, this is your tune.

ComaR - Shut Up On A Blue Monday (New Order vs. Rihanna) - Paris
Using the instrumental track from "Blue Monday" is such a bootleg cliché, we were shocked when we finally found one using the New Order VOCAL. Rihanna's "Shut Up And Drive," was the perfect instrumental accompaniment, since it rips nearly the exact same chord progression. Ah yes, music continues to repeat itself.

Divide & Kreate - Until It Talks (Metallica vs. Coldplay) - Stockholm, Sweden
If you ever wondered what James Hetfield would sound like doing guest vocals on an indie-rock-remix, here's your answer: pretty damn good! Here, he sings over the Thin White Duke remix of Coldplay's "Talk", to create an absolutely fresh and inspired pairing. This is seriously a very unique and breathtaking track - which says a lot considering there are so many mashups that repeat the same artists or ideas. A welcome return to form from our favorite Swedish bootlegger.

Electrosound – 19-2000 Funk (Re-Edit) (Gorillaz vs. Daft Punk) - France
Sure, it seems like Daft Punk's ubiquitous "Da Funk" can work over just about anything. And sure enough, here's Electrosound, using it to great effect by using it to pump up the original Gorillaz song into dance floor gold. Nothing groundbreaking here, just a really fun party jam. And no, this is not the "Feel Good Inc." vocals being used, for once!

Flying White Dots – Tonight We Play (The Cure vs. Björk vs. David Arnold) - Brighton, UK
This is a special "single edit" of our favorite song from the Flying White Dots' excellent, chilled-out psychedelic mashup album, Into The Great Unknown. It takes a particularly haunting Cure song and somehow manages to make it even more haunting. Spooky and beautiful at the same time.

DJ Fox - No One To Squeeze (Alicia Keys vs. Red Hot Chili Peppers) - San Francisco
Fox only posts his stuff to his MySpace page, which we hate (because MP3s encoded at 96 kbps sound like shit) but whenever he produces something truly special, he seems to know it, because he always sends us a higher bit rate version ... which we then pass on to you! This one's pretty, enjoy.

G3rst - Hotel California In Fire And Flames (The Eagles vs. Dragonforce) - The Netherlands
Maybe we've been playing too much Guitar Hero. Yes, we know this is ridiculous. I mean, Dragonforce's "million-notes-a-minute" prog-rock revivial is pretty ridiculous to begin with ... but throwing the Eagles classic "Hotel California" into the mix just pushes the upsurdity over the edge. Not for everyone's taste, to be sure ... but for some bizarro reason, we love it! Yes, we know it's wrong, wrong, wrong ... but it's also a ton of fun! We've been selecting so many really beautiful mashups tracks in the Top 10s lately, it's good to be reminded of the cheeky mashups out there, the ones that can't help make you smile (or cringe)!

Lobsterdust - Jenny's Superstitious (Stevie Wonder vs. The Killers) - New York City
When the acapella of Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious" started making the rounds in bootlegger circles a few months ago, seemingly everyone took a crack at it. And while there were a few decent mashups made, none of them even came close to Lobsterdust's modern-rock mashterpiece.

The Reborn Identity - G.I. Jolene (Dolly Parton vs. Stan Ridgway) - Manchester, UK
We've always had a soft spot for Dolly Parton, especially "Jolene," and it's nearly a perfect match with this Stan Ridgway song (Remember him? Lead singer of Wall of Voodoo? "Mexican Radio"? Anyone?) This track is a bit dark, yet beautiful, and also uses rarely mashed up artists together, which we like. Besides, any excuse we have to play "Jolene" at Bootie, we're taking it!

DJ Schmolli - Mash Me Amadeus (Falco vs. Nelly vs. Luniz vs. more!) - Vienna, Austria �
Nearly ten years to the day after the death of Falco from a car accident, Vienna's DJ Schmolli paid tribute to his country's biggest pop star with the release of Falco Re:Loaded, his full-length mashup tribute album. This track, our favorite from the record, is based on Falco's only U.S. hit, and is chock full of surprise samples and guest vocalists.

Bootie Top 10 - January 2008

With all the hubbub surrounding our January 1st release of the Best of Bootie 2007 CD -- 4000 gigs worth of downloads so far, crashed our ISP's server, had to move everything over to a dedicated server, a day of total web hosting chaos -- we totally slacked on posting a Bootie Top 10 for January.

But it wasn't for lack of material! Here we are now, only a couple weeks late, with our first Bootie Top 10 of the New Year. Wasn't one of our New Years resolutions to always post these things on the 1st of each month? And aren't those resolutions always broken almost immediately? Yes, and ... well, yes. Anyway, without further ado, let's get to the downloading...

A plus D - $20 Monday (M.I.A. vs. New Order) - San Francisco
M.I.A.'s "$20" is such an homage to "Blue Monday" (at least instrumentally) that no less than three bootleggers have mashed up the two songs. Despite it's obviousness, New Order's perennial '80s classic remains a dance floor favorite, and this track means we can now spin "Blue Monday" at Bootie with something that's fresh, with one of our faves, M.I.A. -- and without that overplayed Kylie Minogue vocal! - San Francisco

Aggro1 - Strange Cocaine (Eric Clapton vs. Depeche Mode) - Dayton, Ohio
How did we miss this? Appearing on Simon Iddol's recent Mashups of the Year 2007 compilation, we erroneously assumed it was a new track. In actuality, Aggro1 -- Dayton, Ohio's best bootlegger -- originally released this a year ago! We never thought of "Strangelove" as an ode to cocaine addiction, but here, the juxtapositioning definitely makes sense -- "strange highs and strange lows," indeed!

Apollo Zero - Imagine A Dream Stronger Than Pride (John Lennon & Yoko Ono vs. Dolly Parton vs. Sade vs. Milli Vanilli vs. Culture Club vs. Propaganda) - New Orleans
With the subtle John Lennon "Christmas" samples, this really should have been on LAST month's Top 10 -- but Apollo Zero didn't release this until December 25th, so here it is now. Just think of it like Christmas came REALLY early this year! Seriously though, this is beautiful -- a perfect "end of the night" mashup, and there are only a few small blips of the Xmas theme ... most of it is gorgeous vocals fused together beautifully!

Audio Shrapnel - Come Back And Say It Right (Nelly Furtado vs. Paul Young) - United Kingdom
We love it when a well-done mashup reminds us of a great song we had completely forgotten about ... like this lost '80s gem from Paul Young. Remember him? We think it's a much better fit for the Nelly Furtado song than the original.

Earworm - United State of Pop (25 Most Popular Songs of 2007 in the U.S. According to Billboard) - San Francisco
Either Earworm is a musical genius, or this just proves how all the biggest hits from last year were pretty much the same song anyway. Come to think of it, it's probably both. This is a mashup tour de force that says more in five minutes about the current state of contemporary pop music than any music blog ever could.

Electrosound - Supermassive Rainbow (Muse vs. Klaxons) - France
You don't get much cooler than this. A "new rave" electro-punk banger given even more "cool points" by use of the very well-suited Muse vocals. We've been loving many of Electrosound's mashups -- but this is the one that we can't seem to stop playing. It's all about that insane electronic breakdown in the middle, especially when Muse pops in again!

Hot Couture - My Heart Belongs to Daddy Cool (Boney M vs. Marilyn Monroe cover) - Paris
Here's a sterling example of how mashup culture continues to mutate and evolve. Hot Couture is a band from Paris, France who perform their own mashup covers, and then add a bunch of samples into the mix as well. Here, singer Liza imbues the '50s classic with tons of attitude, while the band covers German group Boney M, and drops as many "daddy" samples as they can think of.

The Illuminoids - Heart-Shaped Titties (The Trucks vs. Nirvana vs. White Trash Kids On Crank) - Los Angeles
Our love of new electro is really starting to show, isn't it? It's a good thing we're launching "Electro-Bootie," our new "club-within-a-club" at Bootie SF, just so we can play awesome tracks like this. Adding Kurt's earnest vocals to the cheeky lyrics of The Trucks feels like all kinds of wrong ... but we still can't stop dancing.

Party Ben - Deceptataffy (D4L vs. Le Tigre) - San Francisco
This track is one big inside joke between ourselves and Party Ben. Here, he takes the ridonkulous "Laffy Taffy" rap -- which he previously used to make a mashup that we infamously "hated" - and pairs it with Le Tigre, which we had originally mashed up with Missy Elliott to create our best-loved A+D mashup. He even uses the exact same arrangement and filter effects from our original bootleg to create this new version ... and yes, it still rocks. You can never go wrong with "Deceptacon" to kick a party into high gear.

team9 - Loose Dancing (Bangers & Cash vs. The Bee Gees) - Perth, Australia
For the second year in a row, team9 has teamed up with Stereogum to produce MySplice 2.0: 2007 Mashed Up, an online mashup album that even the indie hipsters can love. While most of the album is pretty damn good, this one is our favorite, and it's far and away the most dancefloor-friendly track on the album.

Best of Bootie 2007 finally released!

It's January 1st, 2008, and last night was our big Bootie Pirate New Years Eve party in San Francisco, where we released to the public for the first time the new Best of Bootie 2007 CD – our annual compilation of our favorite mashups from the last year.

We've compiled and mixed our top 20 mashups into one 75-minute continuous mix CD. Compile in order with no gaps between the songs – perfect for parties! Most of these were the "big hits" at our club Bootie this past year, but there are a few personal favorites thrown in there too ... as well as THREE BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE tracks, unavailable anywhere else.

It's all available as a free download at: www.BootieUSA.com/bestofbootie2007

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.

Bootie Top 10 - November 2007

Yay! We actually posted these to all the Bootie sites on November 1st ... but have only just now got around to "blah-blah-blogging" about them. Here's what we've got for you this month: Three exclusive mashups you won't find anywhere else, a couple brand-spankin' new tracks, and a few that have been out for a while, but are only just now blowin' up our iPods. Enjoy!

A plus D - We Got The Soulja Boy (Soulja Boy vs. The Go-Go's) - San Francisco
What the kids are dancing to today, mashed up with what the kids were dancing to 26 years ago. We thought the shelf-life of Soulja Boy's "Crank Dat" would surely be expired by now, but inexplicably, it's still the #1 song in America! Will it achieve the iconic status of "We Got The Beat?" Probably not ... but we do hope it inspires someone to post a YouTube video of themselves doing the "Soulja Boy" dance mashed up with some wild '80s dancing ala The Go-Go's!

Divide & Kreate - Illiterate City (Jackson 5 vs. Guns N' Roses) - Stockholm, Sweden BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Why does Sweden's Divide & Kreate save all his best stuff for megamixes? This little hidden gem was tucked away in his recent "Zebra Mix," and when we first heard it, we just about lost our shit! Michael Jackson as an innocent child, singing with the debaucherous and dangerous G N'R ... why does it feel so wrong when it sounds so RIGHT? We are very proud to present this as a "Bootie Exclusive!"

Dunproofin' - Bootystyle (Robyn vs. Teddybears) - Scotland, UK
We're loving a lot of acts coming out of Sweden right now, especially pop vixen Robyn and the indie band Teddybears, both of whom are mashed up here. Simple and meta, it's Robyn's cover of the Teddybears' "Cobrastyle" melded with the original. And with this, our current love of electro remixes is really starting to show.

Earworm - Say It Right Away (Nelly Furtado vs. The Egg vs. Madonna) - San Francisco BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Did we mention we've been digging electro remixes lately? This exclusive track from SF's very own Earworm takes Nelly Furtado's pop hit and gives it a nice dark electro edge, perfect for late-night dancing. But our favorite part is when Madonna makes an unexpected cameo during the breakdown. Bliss!

Hawkins - Jesus Christ Walks (Kanye West vs. Brand New) - St. Paul, Minnesota
We love it when a bootlegger comes out of nowhere and simply nails it on their first mashup attempt. This one is really grew on us – it's haunting and beautiful – and the lyrical content of the two songs connect very well together. If you ever wanted to hear what Kanye would sound like if he went "emo," this is it.

Lobsterdust - Disco Rump Chant (Beastie Boys vs. Michael Zager Band) - New York City
At the rate he's going, Lobsterdust pretty much has got a spot reserved for him on the Bootie Top 10 nearly every month! This one is a total booty-shaker, raising from the dead an obscure disco song and bringing it back to life with one of the few Beastie Boys acapellas that hasn't been bootlegged to death.

Loo & Placido - Timba Funk Land (Timbaland vs. Daft Punk) - Paris BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Paris DJs Loo & Placido are our guests this month at our SF and LA parties ... and one of the great things about booking international DJs at Bootie is that they sometimes toss you an exclusive track that, up until then, they've been keeping to themselves. L&P have a reputation as two of France's best DJs and remixers -- and this well-produced party jam proves why. Guaranteed to blow up a dance floor!

DJ Moule - Can't Stand Dance (Velvet Underground vs. Chemical Brothers vs. CSS vs. LCD Soundsystem) - Bordeaux, France
Speaking of French DJs ... we've been a big fan of Moule for a while now, and his set at October's Bootie SF party ranks up there as one of our favorite guest DJ sets ever! This track is an indie hipster's mashup wet dream, seamlessly melding cool on top of cool on top of cool. If this mashup were a person, it would be wearing a black leather jacket, vintage sneakers, and an ironic t-shirt. ... but don't let that stop you from enjoying it!

DJ STV SLV - Fa-Fa-Fayo Technology (50 Cent vs. Datarock) - Chicago
Speaking of indie hipsters ... STV SLV is one-half of Chicago's Hood Internet, a mashup team that specializes in dropping rap vocals over only the most Pitchfork-approved indie bands. Some of their attempts seem like they may be more interested in using indier-than-thou material than making a great mashup - but this one hits the mark, giving Fiddy a nice vibe and flow, and making Norway's Datarock sound like they've got some hip-hop street cred.

World Famous Audio Hacker - Do It Well (D.A.N.C.E. Version) (Jennifer Lopez vs. Justice) - Portland, Oregon
From Portland's most well-known mashup producer himself: "The first U.S. single from the new Jennifer Lopez album "Brave" was one of the best songs I heard as the summer came to a close. I spent three sleepless nights remixing it, pitching numerous samples, and combining "Do It Well" with samples from Justice and New Order. It's a bit of a remix parading as a mashup, really, thanks to some strategically-placed samples within the remix parts." Works for us!

Bootie Top 10 - October 2007

And with this, we finally post a Bootie Top 10 so late, that we've effectively changed our posting schedule. Instead of posting this monthly list "around the 15th of the month," we'll now be posting it as close to the 1st of the month as possible ... kinda like paying the rent, only, uh ... better!

We actually updated all the Bootie sites with this new list over a week ago, but only just now got around to actually writing about the tracks. Anyway, without further ado, here goes:

Aggro1 - Big Shot Boom Bip (Billy Joel vs. Boom Bip) - Dayton, Ohio
Unbelieveably, this somehow makes Billy Joel sound cool. If you didn't know this was Billy Joel – and if you're under the age of 25, you probably don't – you might think this was actually some new electro song about an uptown hipster club chick on coke. In actuality, the vocal is nearly 30 years old! Ah, decadence that spans the decades!

The Illuminoids - Phantom Ain't Easy (David Bowie vs. Justice) - Los Angeles
This is now the second month in a row this Justice song appears in our Top 10. What can we say, we really like it! And by pairing it with David Bowie's classic alien glam-rock opus, the Illuminoids have both updated and fulfilled the futuristic sci-fi '70s promise of "Ziggy Stardust."

King Of Pants - Detox (Amy Winehouse vs. Britney Spears) - Seattle BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
When the K.O.P. dropped this in the middle of his set at Bootie in San Francisco last month, both Adrian and Party Ben practically knocked each other down scrambling to get to the DJ booth in to find out who did it and where to get it. And this song is a reminder that you can lead horse to water, but you can't get 'er to drink ... or in this case, just the opposite! Thanks, Freddy!

DJ Le Clown - In Da Black (AC/DC vs. Scissor Sisters vs. 50 Cent) - France
Now this is the sort of juxtapositioning we like! How do you put a fresh spin on a tired AC/DC song that's been bootlegged a thousand times? Instead of plopping yet another rap over it, get the Scissor Sisters in there instead! Then, if you must use a rap vocal, say, like 50 Cent, at least make Fiddy sound like a robot. Excellent production on this!

Lobsterdust - Everybody Do It Again (Jay-Z vs. Amil vs. Missy Elliott vs. Chemical Brothers) - New York City
Another excellent bootleg from one of our favorite producers. Mysterious D was joking how at the rate Lobsterdust is putting out quality mashups, we're going to need to reserve a spot for him on every month's Top 10. We fell in love with this track at this year's Bootie BRC at Burning Man, and we must admit, it sounds particular good on a big booming sound system on the playa at 3 in the morning. And the lyrics sound like our life sometimes!

Payroll - Daft Prayer (Bon Jovi vs. Daft Prayer) - London
You never realize just how many people know every single word to this Bon Jovi song until you sneak this into the middle of a set for a drunken dance floor. Emphasis on the word "drunken." Play this too early, and everyone's embarrassed – someone might suspect that they actually like this song, and that would be too uncool! But after the right amount of cocktails, who doesn't want to scream along? "Take my hand, we'll make it, I swear..."

Pheugoo - Sympathy For The Warhols (Rolling Stones vs. Dandy Warhols) - The Netherlands
The Dandy Warhols have spent the better part of their career inadvertently apeing the Rolling Stones anyway ... so why not just take it all the way, and mash the two together? Especially when it sounds as good as this.

team9 - Britney – Dead Or Alive? (Britney Spears vs. Dead Or Alive vs. Daft Punk) - Perth, Australia
Our favorite Australian bootlegger returns to form with a mashup that miraculously makes Britney's new single listenable. "Poor old Britney," writes team9, "We could have been so good together. If she'd only asked, I could have sampled Daft Punk at least two days before Kanye. I could have done a Rihanna 'Tainted Love' stunt and used Dead Or Alive's 'You Spin Me Round' classic." Here's what Britney's new single should sound like.

Totom - Thieveshake (Kelis vs. Ministry) - France
Much of the staff at the DNA Lounge – where we do Bootie SF – love old-school industrial music such as Ministry. So when we found a simple bootleg that mashed them up with 'Milkshake,' we couldn't help but spin it out, just for the giggles. House band Smash-Up Derby found it amusing enough to cover it live. Then French bootlegger Totom heard the band play it on the Bootie webcast on the DNA Lounge web site, and thought, "I can make this better." And he did. So wrong it's right.

DJ Zebra - Got To Stand It Up (Marvin Gaye vs. The Dead 60's) - Paris BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!�
How do you make Marvin Gaye sound modern and hip? And how do you introduce kids today to his sublime smoove-ness? You do this. DJ Zebra comes through with a beautiful mashup that's exclusive for Bootie – just in time for his appearance at the club this month!

Bootie Top 10 - August 2007

I think this whole "we're gonna post the Top 10 around the 15th of the month" thing is fast becoming a thing of the past. Now that we're doing Bootie in New York City every third weekend, we just don't get around to picking out our favorite mashups until we get back to San Francisco. Oh well...

Right now, we're knee-deep in pre-playa preparations, as we get ready to head out to Black Rock City to do Bootie at Burning Man a.k.a. "Burning Bootie" for the second year in a row. Woo-hoo! But we wanted to get the Top 10 posted before we left, so here you go, for your downloading pleasure.

Our ten favorite current mashups – and yes, we're really digging Amy Winehouse right now. She makes three appearances in this list (although one of them is a bonus track ... does that count?)

A plus D - Pour Some Hot Sugar (Mims vs. Def Leppard) - San Francisco
I will forever associate this mashup with the videogame Guitar Hero, since I "played" a version of this in front of 1300 people at the Bootie 4-Year Anniversary Party this past month! Thanks to Kingpin for liking it enough to hack Guitar Hero so he could play some Mims Leppard, too! (And for sending us a copy as well!)

Carty - Boogie Woogie Candyman (Christina Aguilera vs. The Andrews Sisters) - The Netherlands
An obvious match, seeing as that Ms. Aguilera was going for that whole boogie-woogie '40s vibe on "Candyman" anyway. Still, it's nice to hear music in a mashup that's NOT something from the past three decades! Add some beats from '80s cult fave Fun Boy Three, and some soldier marching chants, and you've got a track chock-full of vintage goodness.

Ian Fondue - Edit! (Bodyrox vs. everybody!) - London
I'm gonna let Ian explain this one himself: "Anyone who's spent any time talking to me at Bastard (London bootleg party) knows I have a bit of a habit of trying to stick different vocals over whatever is playing, even if it's already a mashup. The idea here was to make a fun dance floor track that captures the disposable idea ethos of Bastard and tie it in with said habit of trying to fit one or two lines of various songs over the same tune in quick succession." Needless to say, he succeeded. A bootleg tour de force!

The Illuminoids - Solta O Space Frango Woman (Bonde Do Role vs. Wolfmother vs. MSTRKRFT vs. Deep Purple) - Los Angeles
We love that MSTRKRFT remix of Wolfmother's "Woman," and The Illuminoids just stepped it up by adding in our latest Brazilian obsession, Bonde Do Role. Toss in a dash of Deep Purple, and you've got something made for both an iPod and a dance floor! Indie-tastic!

King Of Pants - Ring The Go Alarm (Beyoncé vs. Tones On Tail) - Seattle
DJ Freddy, King of Pants, made this as an exclusive for Bootie LA the last time he DJed down there. We love the lyrical connection of each song's respective "Go!" -- plus, we think the world needs more Tones On Tail mashups. Did you say "Who?" Kids, today, I tell ya...

Kro - The World Changes On Its Own (Amy Winehouse vs. Eric Clapton)
This one is so seamless, it barely sounds like a bootleg! In fact, we had to go and download the respective originals just to double-check it was indeed mashed-up! Really well done, and a great song as well. This one's a beauty.

Party Ben - Rehab (Can't Help Myself) (Amy Winehouse vs. The Four Tops) - San Francisco BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Well, it's about time! We've been waiting for some mashups of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab," but without an available acapella, we've had to wait a couple months. Party Ben's is a more traditional take, finding a parallel between Winehouse's current hit with the '60s sound of The Four Tops that she so genuinely apes. Get it? Rehab? She can't help herself?
Alternate "Rehab" bonus track:
DJ Topcat - Young Folks Rehab (Peter, Björn & John vs. Amy Winehouse) - Seattle
Topcat's version relies more heavily on the "Young Folks" remix, but splashes just enough "Rehab" in there for us to get away with dropping it at Bootie. Either one you choose, it's a win-win!

DJ Paul V. - Phantom On The Bottom (The Lady Tigra vs. Justice) - Los Angeles BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Although we weren't familiar with this hot new Lady Tigra track, after hearing it – with the perk of it being mashed up with Justice – we're now instant fans. But this is no new hip-hop diva. Remember Tigra and Bunny, the girls who liked "the cars that go boom?" Well, Tigra's all growed up now, and damn if she doesn't sound good rapping over the latest French electro sensation! Old school goes new school times two!

DJ Schmolli - Don't Cha Take A Robot Around South Of Heaven (Daft Punk vs. Slayer vs. Pussycat Dolls vs. Limp Bizkit) - Vienna, Austria
The bar staff at the DNA Lounge (where we do Bootie SF) are always telling us that we need some Slayer mashups. Now, thanks to DJ Schmolli, we can offer them this. This even manages to make the insufferable Limp Bizkit sound tolerable. RAWK.

DJ Zax - Hollywood Wondergroove (Madonna vs. Missy Elliott vs. Maroon 5) - San Francisco
I hate you Zax, for tricking me into listening to Maroon 5. I hate them! But by taking the "mashup commercial" that Madonna did for The Gap – the one that sampled both "Into the Groove" and "Hollywood," with Missy throwin' in some verses – and mashing it up with Maroon 5, he created a great, groovy track.

Bootie Top 10 - July 2007

We were so on top of it last month, posting the Bootie Top 10 right on the 15th, just like we were supposed to. So of course, this month, we had to be ten days behind schedule! Some months are just like that ...

Especially months when you're throwing a 2-Year Anniversary Party in LA, re-launching your club at a new venue in New York, and preparing for an epic multimedia extravaganza called The A+D Show for the 4-Year Anniversary in San Francisco. So please cut us some slack!

Anyway, without further ado, here are our monthly mashup picks for your downloading pleasure! (Listed in alphabetical order by bootlegger, right-click to download)

A plus D - Unpretty Today (TLC vs. Smashing Pumpkins) - San Francisco
Aren't we right on schedule for the '90s retro revival yet? I wish we could take the credit for this idea, but it was actually Trixxie Carr, the other lead singer in my mashup rock band, Smash-Up Derby, who came up with this well-spotted combination. We had been trying to come up with a new Smashing Pumpkins mashup, and this worked almost too perfectly. However, as Trixxie stated, "Just because it works, that doesn't mean we have to do it." And she was right. The song wasn't right for our voices ... but it was perfect for us to have our way with it in Ableton Live!

ComaR - Psyché Encore (Jay-Z vs. Pierre Henry and Michel Colombier) - Paris
Recognize the music? Doesn't it sound familiar? That's because it's the song that "inspired" the theme from the cult animated series Futurama, which we've recently become fans of. ComaR uses it to turn Jay-Z's boastful rap into something that sounds way "kookier" than it ought to - which is, of course, the sort of juxtapostioning we love.

The Illuminoids - Stiff Martyr (Blaqk Audio vs. Depeche Mode) - Los Angeles
This is where our goth-damaged roots show. Sure, to the uninitiated, this probably just sounds like the best remix yet of Depeche Mode's "Martyr." But the instrumentation is actually the new electronic project from AFI's singer and guitarist, Davey Havoc and Jade Puget. Obviously, Blaqk Audio wears its influences on its sleeve, but it sounds more like reverent inspiration rather than imitation. Besides, Dave and Davey sound good dueting with each other.

Leebuzz - Mika Goes To Hollywood (Mika vs. Frankie Goes To Hollywood) - Germany
An idea so obvious, Lee was actually shocked no one else had come up with it first - Mika's "Relax" mashed up with Frankie Goes To Hollywood's seminal song of the same name. Duh! Fortunately, the easy conceptual fit translates quite well musically. And how totally gay is this song? Totally ... and we're NOT saying that's a bad thing! This will be the first of two, count 'em, two Frankie appearances in this Top 10.

Lobsterdust - My Irreplaceable (Beyoncé vs. Tommy Heavenly6) - New York City
So this is what Beyoncé would sound like if she fronted a J-pop guitar band! This is so seamless and perfect yet ... somehow you know it's mashed up, because Beyoncé's music just doesn't ever sound like this. And she doesn't usually duet with female Japanese singers either! Props to Lobsterdust for turning us on to Tommy Heavenly6! We love this one about a million times better than the Beyoncé original.

Loo & Placido - Shake (Monosurround vs. Ying Yang Twins vs. Pitbull vs. C&C Music Factory) - Paris
After not posting anything new to their website in what seemed like forever, Loo & Placido - two of our favorite French DJs - just did a massive update of downloads, of which this is the one we keep coming back to. Their production is always impeccable, and there are lots of nice little editing touches all over this. But most of all, it just has "club-banger" written all over it! Perfect for a late-night dance set at Bootie.

DJ Poly - Sweet Dreams Are Made of Seven Nation Army (Eurythmics vs. White Stripes) - Tel Aviv, Israel
The combination of these two iconic songs - separated 20 years apart from each other - has been a staple in Smash-Up Derby's set for years now. A few mashup producers have attempted to put these two together in the past, but without clean acapellas available for either song, the results have usually been spotty at best. But finally, someone gets it right. This one's from a newcomer to the mashup scene, DJ Poly from Israel. Considering this is his first effort, we definitely hope to hear more from him in the future!

Totom - The Way Simple Men Are (Timbaland feat. Keri Hilson & D.O.E. vs. Lynyrd Skynyrd) - France
We love it when mashup producers can showcase a common thread between two songs of completely disparate genres - especially when it comes out sounding as beautiful as this. Despite being from opposite ends of the musical spectrum, both artists here are basically dealing with the same subject matter. Timbaland and Skynyrd both sing about how they don't have any money, and that they aren't rich (yeah, right). But in the end, as Skynyrd extols the virtues of being "a simple kind of man," and sings, "All that you need is in your soul," guest singer Keri Hilson responds with, "I like you just the way you are." Perfect.

Victor Menegaux - Feel Good Roboto 2 (Gorillaz vs. Styx) - Seattle BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
When I first heard Victor drop this in the middle of his guest DJ set at the last Bootie party in San Francisco, I have to admit I was a little worried. I'm probably one of the few people who will freely admit with a straight face that they love the theatre-rock of Styx. (They were the first band I was a fan of as a kid). But even I know that "Mr. Roboto" can be a little too cheese-tastic for its own good. But somehow, mashing it up with the perennially-cool Gorillaz makes it all seem somehow ... okay. I'm not saying this mashup isn't still cheesy ... but damn, doesn't cheese taste good sometimes!

Wax Audio - Maiden Goes To Hollywood (Iron Maiden vs. Frankie Goes To Hollywood) - Sydney, Australia
This is from the Iron Maiden bootleg compilation, Number of Da Bootz, which just came out earlier this month. There are several excellent tracks on the album, but this 8-minute epic is our favorite. We couldn't blurb about it better than Wax Audio could himself: "Iron Maiden's album Powerslave was released in September 1984, just one month prior to the release of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's equally seminal Welcome to the Pleasuredome. Whilst the two albums represented opposite ends of the pop music milieu, both shared equal measures of camp, chest-beating bravado, epic songwriting and interestingly, themes based on the work of the 18th century English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Maiden's longest ever song - "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," was of course a re-telling of the famous Coleridge poem in which a wedding guest is regaled by a world-weary mariner about his supernatural encounters on an ill-fated sea voyage. The epic title track of Frankie's Welcome to the Pleasuredome is based on Coleridge's other best know poem Kubla Khan - from which the opulent ancient Mogul capital of Xanadu was made (in)famous."

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.

BOOTIE Top 10 - May 2007

We are over a week late in posting this month's Bootie Top 10 list of our favorite mashups! We are soooooooo sorry! Throwing our Bootie NYC party nearly killed us, and we've just been too swamped to compile this thing. Thankfully, it all came together on our flight back to San Francisco ... so here ya go, for your downloading pleasure...

Aggro1 - Stripped Chain (Katie Enlow vs. Rammstein) – Dayton, Ohio
This track effectively proves how mashup culture continues to grow and change, evolving in different directions, as bootleggers come up with new and inventive ways to recycle and re-use pop music. This one at first appears to be a simple A+B - except that A and B are both covers: Boston mashup diva Katie Enlow breathes new life into her interpretation of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain," which sounds especially dark when paired with Rammstein's cover of Depeche Mode's "Stripped."

Clive$ter - Am I Undone (Erasure vs. Korn vs. Fatboy Slim) – Austria
We've heard Korn acapellas used in quite a few mashups, but none of them really seem to work all that well - except for this one, which somehow makes Jonathan Davis sound completely natural fronting a gay electro-pop group like Erasure. Who would have thought?

ComaR - Mr. Jones In A Forest (Mike Jones vs. The Cure) – Paris
What is it about this mashup? D loved it immediately and became somewhat obsessed with it. And we weren't the only ones. We were surprised when DJ Freddy, King of Pants, told us how he kept playing it over and over ... he was obsessed with it too! Then DJ Reset shocked us by dropping it into his guest set at Bootie NYC. D says it's all about the hooky rap - "Who? Who?..." and how the darkness of the Cure brings out a creepy feel to the lyrics - "He's got a shotgun, so go back home" for example, while the chorus of voices sound almost happy. Whatever it is, we love it.

DJ F.O.X. - Don't Stop The Glamour (Fergie vs. Roxy Music) – San Franicsco BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Sick of Fergie's "Glamorous" yet? Every time we think we're finally done with it, another mashup comes out that breathes new life into this shallow ode to excess. This one comes courtesy of fellow San Francisco DJ F.O.X. Roxy Music's suave and sophisticated grooves couldn't be better-suited. This mashup sounds like the audio equivalent of wearing an Armani suit while sipping an expensive martini in a swanky bar on the top floor of a Miami hotel.

Go Home Productions - Supreme Evil (Diana Ross vs. ELO vs. Michael Jackson) – Watford, UK
As arguably one of the best mashup producers in the world, it's always a treat when Mark Vidler releases a few new mashups. Although his batting average ain't quite what it used to be, he definitely knocks one out of the park with this one. It's classic GHP - by digging a little deeper into pop music history than most bootleggers, he manages to cram a piece of the '60s, '70s, and '80s all into one soon-to-be-classic mashup.

DJ Mix - Sexy Bak (Justin Timberlake vs. C&C Music Factory) – Hawaii / Utah BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Random DJs and budding bedroom producers email us unsolicited mashups all the time ... and unfortunately, most of them suck. At best, they tend to be mediocre and uninspired. At worst, they're key-clashed train wrecks. So it was with great surprise when we heard this one, sent to us by a new bootlegger out of Utah. Sure, Justin's "Sexyback" is a little played out ... but the way he mixes and matches and intercuts these two songs - especially their respective intro parts - is unique and refreshing! It's definitely not put together a like a typical A+B.

DJ Morsy - Roll Out The Rapture (Ludacris vs. The Rapture) – New York City
This is far and away the best track from the Emo-Thug mashup album. (A bit of a misnomer, really - The Rapture isn't an emo band. In fact, none of the artists on the album are "emo." But I guess it sounds better than calling it "Indie-Dance-Punk-Thug." Anyway...) This may just be a stupid simple A+B rap mashup ... but for some reason, we love it. Makes us want to dance around like an idiot, banging on a cowbell.

DJ Paul V. - Tequila Lip Gloss (Lil Mama vs. The Champs) – Los Angeles
Our Bootie LA co-conspirator Paul V. threw this little number together just in time for our Bootie Cinco de Mayo party, and it's absolutely infectious! Lil Mama's "Lip Gloss" is already shaping up to be this summer's big party song, and pairing it with "Tequila" just makes it even more of a summertime jam.

Voicedude - War Bombs (Gap Band vs. Edwin Starr vs. Black Sabbath vs. Outkast) – Orange County, California
Another epic, high-concept mashup from Orange County-based Voicedude. Released on the 4-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, this anti-war mashup anthem is pointed and political. Who said mashups were just stupid fun? Done well, they can make a cultural statement as well, as this track amply proves.

Wax Audio - Dissolved by the Water All These Years (PJ Harvey vs. Tori Amos vs. Bjork vs. Massive Attack) – Sydney, Australia
A lot of our favorite mashups take shamelessly commercial pop and rap music and make it sound magically "cool," simply by pairing it with Pitchfork-approved indie and alternative artists. This one, however, forgoes any ironic juxtapositions. It's just a hauntingly beautiful track, sounding like a dream collaboration among three of our favorite female singers, all of whom have well-earned reputations as unique women with left-of-center artistic visions.

BOOTIE Top 10 - April 2007

Most of this month's Top 10 are fairly recent releases, but there are a few here that have been out for a while. We download so many mashups each week, that it sometimes takes us a month or two to catch up on everything. Anyway, here goes, presented in alphabetical order by bootlegger.

To download, right click on the song title...

A plus D – (I Can't Wait For) Kelly's Nu Shooz (Kelly vs. Nu Shooz vs. KC & the Sunshine Band) – San Francisco
Definitely one with underground cult appeal. Kelly is a teenage girl character created by Los Angeles-based comedian Liam Sullivan, and her video "Shoes" has become a bona fide YouTube sensation. The song is so simple and the instrumentation so sparse that it was just begging to be mashed up ... and why not with '80s one hit wonder Nu Shooz? Throwing in KC's "Boogie Shoes" at the end for some disco shits and giggles just stretches the "shoes" concept even further.

dj BC – 2 Live Supertramp Disco (2 Live Crew vs. Supertramp vs. Marvin Gaye) – Boston
Is Supertramp having a resurgence as of late? Is it suddenly ironically cool to profess your secret love for this awesome band? We don't care if it's cool or not -- we just love the song, and this mashup from Boston's dj BC is a perfect example of the sort of extreme genre clash that made us fall in love with the mashup scene to begin with. 2 Live Crew never sounded better! And it still sounds like a party!

Lasso The Moon – Saturday Night Fool At The Soul Kitchen (Bay City Rollers vs. The Doors vs. The Who) – St. Louis
We love bootleggers who come out of nowhere to blow us away with something as creative and well-produced as this. It breathes new life into three bands that peaked over 25 years ago.

DJ Lobsterdust – She Is Glamorous (Fergie vs. The Fray) – New York City
How the hell do you make Fergie sound like she's got indie street-cred? You force her to sing with The Fray, who somehow elevate the vapid, plastic pop of "Glamorous" and manage to make it sound like something that might actually be laced with lyrical metaphor. Of course, it's just an audio illusion – but for four glorious minutes, at least we can pretend.

Lock3down – Lord Move Me On Up (DMX vs. Primal Scream) – Toronto, Canada
Neither one of us is especially religious, but there's just something about hearing a tough thug like DMX rap about Jesus while Primal Scream works out their old-time gospel jones that had us hailing "hallelujah!" Of course, we love mashups that can reveal a conceptual parallel between two seemingly disparate artists, and on this one, Lock3down delivers. See, everyone loves God!

Norwegian Recycling – How Six Songs Collide (Jason Mraz vs. Howie Day vs. Five For Fighting vs. Angela Ammons vs. Boyzone vs. 3 Doors Down) – Norway
We're not exactly big fans of this sort of "white-bread-Starbucks-sipping-SUV-driving-yuppie" music. To us, it all kinda sounds the same -- and this mashup proves it! However, it's so amazingly seamless and well-produced and just so ... NICE! We couldn't help but like it and include it here.

Sweetcheesus - Jumpictures (Madonna vs. Sneaky Sound System vs. Human League) – Australia
While technically a mashup, this will sound more like a remix to most people -- however, this runs circles around any of the officially-released remixes from Madonna's latest album. If only she had hired Sneaky Sound System to do her remixes -- they could have sounded as fresh as this.

DJ Topcat - More Than On Point (House of Pain vs. Boston) – Seattle
Sure, it's a simple rap vs. classic rock A+B, with the requisite hip-hop beats added for dance-floor oomph. But damn, we just love this track! First off, who doesn't love that Boston song? And it uses a rap vocal we haven't ever heard used in a mashup yet. Just a fun jam that feels like a call to arms ... to party!

Wax Audio – Maiden Goes To Bollywood (Iron Maiden vs. Sunidhi Chauhan) – Sydney, Australia
Talk about a genre clash! There's no good reason why this should work -- heavy metal meets Bollywood? In less talented hands, this would have turned into a train wreck. But Aussie bootlegger Wax Audio knows what he's doing, and makes this rock in the most unexpected way. This just might be our favorite mashup on this month's list. Our favorite part comes one minute in: "Maaaaaaiiiiden!!!!"

DJ Zax - My Humps (A+D edit) (Alanis Morissette vs. Black-Eyed Peas) – San Francisco BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
We're big fans of the mashup subgenre we call "celebrity karaoke," where one takes a cover song done by a popular artist and mashes it up over the original. It's a bit of a "cheat," but we're hardly purists -- it's mashed up enough in our book. So when Alanis Morissette's somber, piano-and-voice version of "My Humps" became a big, tongue-in-cheek hit on YouTube, we wanted to hear what it would sound like mashed up with the original Black-Eyed Peas. We began working on it ... but DJ Zax beat us to it! We added a few backing vocals from the original, and are happy to present it as a "Bootie exclusive."

BOOTIE Top 10 - March 2007: Three exclusive mashups!

For once, we're really on top of it, posting this month's BOOTIE TOP 10 – our highly-opinionated list of our favorite mashups – on the actual 15th of the month, just like we say we're supposed to do. Yay, us!

Plus, this month, we have not one, not two, but THREE EXCLUSIVE MASHUPS that you won't find anywhere else, from Party Ben, DJ Schmolli, and DJ Earworm.

Also, starting this month, we're doing something a little different. First off, we're listing the place where each bootlegger is based -- because not only do we think it's interesting to know where our favorite mashup artists are from, but also it shows how global our bootleg community really is.

Secondly, we're including little blurbs about each mashup, and why it made the list. So without further ado, may we present this month's BOOTIE TOP 10 ... right click to download

A plus D - Standing In The Way of Connection (The Gossip vs. Elastica) – San Francisco
Yeah, yeah, we're the real reason this list is sorted alphabetically by bootlegger. We love this song by The Gossip, and of all the mashups that use it, we still like ours the best. Besides, if it's good enough for Idolator, it's good enough for us!

Copycat – I Feel Love Is A Stranger (Eurythmics vs. Donna Summer) – Sweden
Like Copycat's previous endeavor, "Fade To Pretty Vacant," this one was a slow grower for us. It doesn't knock you over the head, but it's got a nice steady pulse of a groove, and the vocals interweave nicely – you'd never know that nearly a decade separates them.

Dustria - The Kick Push Eple (Lupe Fiasco vs Royksopp) – Belgium
Another slow grower for us, this one has such a cool, chilled-out vibe to it, with Royksopp's music providing a nice backdrop to Lupe's "it's all good" skate rap. Kick, push, coaaaast...

DJ Earworm – Funky Goes To Hollywood (Wild Cherry vs. Frankie Goes To Hollywood) – San Francisco BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Earworm sent us an early version of this last month, and we knew immediately it was destined for the Bootie Top 10. After a few critical tweaks -- including the salacious lyrical twist of "play that funky music till you CUM!" -- we are proud to feature this as a Bootie Exclusive. Guaranteed to kick-start a dance floor!

DJ Moule - Sympathy For Teen Spirit (Rolling Stones vs. Queen vs. Nirvana) – Bordeaux, France
A loved this immediately, but D wasn't so sure about it, concerned about the slight major vs. minor key issue. However, how can you go wrong with any of these three songs? Especially since it contains two great acapellas that we haven't heard used before. The stripped-down sound of Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" only serves to highlight the lyrics even more of "Sympathy For The Devil" - one of our favorite Stones songs ever. Throwing in a refrain from Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is just icing on the cake.

Party Ben – Every Car You Chase (Snow Patrol vs. The Police) – San Francisco BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
When Party Ben showed up late for Bootie this past Saturday, he explained it was because he was working on this mashup. When he described it to us, we thought it might be too mellow for the dance floor ... until he dropped it in the middle of his prime-time set and it totally worked. The two songs fit so together so seamlessly, it's uncanny. Each song enhances the beauty of the other. We knew we had to have it!

DJ Schmolli - Upgrade The Casbah (The Clash vs. Beyoncé vs. Nelly Furtado vs. Ofra Haza) – Vienna, Austria BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
Schmolli slyly slipped this one to us on the DL, and D fell in love with it immediately. Of course, "Rock The Casbah" is always dance floor gold, and pairing it up with three different female singers gives The Clash a very interesting jolt of estrogen.

team9 – When You Were Starlight (The Killers vs. Muse) – Perth, Australia
Not much of a genre-clash, and seemingly tailor-made for modern rock radio – two current bands mixing it up with each other. However, as to be expected from team9, it's just so well executed! Can't tell where one song ends and the other begins ... and by the end, you no longer care ... it just becomes one great song.

Voicedude - Four Twenty (Luniz vs. Tom Petty vs. Cam Farrar vs. Afroman) – Orange County, USA
We love a high-concept mashup theme, especially one as well done as this. This mashed-up ode to marijuana is a little on the long side, but that's probably just perfect for anyone familiar with the, um, subject material.

Wax Audio – Stayin' Alive In The Wall (Pink Floyd vs. The Bee Gees) – Sydney, Australia
Definitely our new favorite bootlegger. It was hard picking out just one from Wax Audio's recent batch of mashups. But in the end we went with this one, which just sounds like "instant Bootie classic." Two iconic, genre-defining songs rolled into one. And you can dance to it!