HEADLINES

APRIL 24, 2008
LAST-MINUTE LATE-BREAKING PARTY BEN DJ SET ALERT!
Get those phone trees going. If you're heading to the desert this weekend for the big Coachella festival, like I am, and you're around tonight, then you might be interested in coming by the funnest pre-party around, the long-running Filter Magazine Coachella Kickoff. I DJed last year by the lake and had an awesome time, and the fine folks at Filter were apparently pleased enough with my set to bring me back again this year for even more DJ fun times. I'll be doing an early set lakeside once again, as well as a set on the lawn at 1am, so stop by and say hi, if you can figure out the crazy bus system that you have to deal with to get there. That's tonight, Thursday, April 24th.

Then, you know, see you in the front row for Prince on Saturday.

APRIL 2, 2008
VIDEO: THE ZEBRAMIX TOUR 2007
Seulement quatre mois en retard. Many readers of this website may remember that my Gettin' Euros Tour (way back in November and December of '07) culminated in an opening slot on the France-conquering Zebramix cavalcade of bootleg ridiculousness, featuring the eponymous Zebra as well as the fantabulous Moule. Even though I was fighting off an especially virulent Belgian strain of what I can only assume was The Black Plague at the time, we still managed to amuse ourselves. Monsieur Zebz brought along his video camera to document the festivities, and he's finally edited the footage together into a totally watchable 6-minute video, which he's posted to YouTube. Watching it now, I'm reminded of a variety of things: a) my French is terrible, b) I look like a dork when I DJ, and c) I have what they call "a face for radio." But still, we had fun, and this is some of the best footage so far of the events:



In case you're wondering what I'm blathering about in French at the beginning, I'm saying sometihng about how "I am DJ Zebra, and I forget where is the interview because I have many interviews each day," which was apropos of the fact that we had an interview scheduled in Bordeaux and Zebra had no idea where or with whom. I was just making fun but perhaps that doesn't come across in French. Anyway, thanks for posting this Mr. Masterfunk.

By the way, I'm also planning to return to the general vicinity of Europe in June and July, so for booking opportunities don't hesitate to get in touch at partyben@yahoo.com.

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MARCH 23, 2008
PARTY BEN BACK IN AMERICA; PARTYBEN.COM BACK ON INTERNET
Canada: the "Server Not Found" of countries. Just kidding. Those of you trying to access this fine website over the past couple days were denied its subtle pleasures, and I didn't know about it, since I was galavanting around downtown Canada. The paranoid among you may have imagined either an FBI crackdown on illicit use of Fergie or perhaps a dramatic decision on the part of myself to leave the world of mashups once and for all. Sadly, neither is the case, and in fact the shutdown was only a result of an unexpected (and as yet unexplained) surge in web traffic that caused my unwitting hosting company to turn the Partyben.com switch to "off," and not also, say, tell me about it. So, now I have to figure out which file(s) were getting all the internet attention and perhaps move it or them offsite temporarily; in the meantime there's a "throttle" on my site that may make things move more slowly. In both cases let me apologize for the inconvenience.

UPDATE: Turns out the offending file was "Smells Stronger," which was generating nearly 50% of my total web traffic over the last week. So that little number has moved temporarily over to Z-share. Sorry.

Anyway, Canada was Canadawesome: the gig at Hyde on Thursday night was a ton of fun (props to their resident DJ Jedi who had a crapload of the same exact Baltimore and electro stuff I'm enjoying when I'm not being Mashup Man), and then in a last-minute development that interfered with my plans to go see Canada's own Caribou at Lee's Palace, I was asked to jump in on an event at super-fancy club Maro that was loosely related to Toronto Fashion Week. We can just leave the irony of me being involved in something fashionable out of this, thank you. But while my schedule (and the freezing temperatures) prevented me from seeing much in the way of tourist attractions, I had a great time, mostly thanks to Reza and Michael at Something & Monroe productions who brought me out. I also got to hang briefly with Lock3down, saw a poster for a MSTRKRFT gig which had Bootie alums Team Canada on the bill, and perhaps most importantly, I had a donut at a Tim Hortons. Hope to see you soon, Canadians.

MARCH 13, 2008
ANOTHER PB ALIVE TRACK + CANADA FUN TIMES
Pay no attention to all that stuff I said about NAFTA. First up, here's another mp3 for your Zunes, a track from my ridiculous Party Ben Alive mega video set. I put together the original Led Snooppelin track in 2004, and I was never very happy with it, production-wise; the Zeppelin song was hard to work with, and the rhythm, from Block Rockin' Beats, didn't really sit right, in my opinion. But I put it out anyway, and probably because of the source material, some people were into it, and I resolved to someday fix all the problems.

Well that day arrived when I started putting together the video show, and I rebuilt the track from scratch, speeding it up and adding a more solid beat (Lovemakers' "Shake That Ass"). People are happily arguing over the new version's merits on YouTube, so here's the mp3 all by itself.

Led Snooppelin - "Drop It Like It's a Whole Lotta Love" (2008 Remix) 5MB VBR mp3 Mostly this is just a good way for me to try and combat my (well-earned) reputation as "that guy who mashes up songs with '80s songs. See, no '80s here at all!

Also, I'll be doing my very first DJ set in Canada next week. Oh, Canada. Thanks to the good folks at Something and Monroe, I'll be appearing at the snazzy Hyde nightspot, right in Downtown Canada itself (er, Toronto, that is) next Thursday night 3/20, for a set at their "Hollywood Hangover" event. Thankfully I already have some Canadian tracks to play, although maybe this gig will be an impetus for me to finally finish that Arcade Fire/Yes mix. Either way, hope to see a bunch of you Canadians, with your flappy heads and beady little eyes, out at the gig.

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"Could everybody please be quiet for a second I kaaann't heeear dee maaashupppzz!" Photo by Aman About Town.

MARCH 4, 2008
PARTY BEN ALIVE AFTERMATH / NEON NOISE MIX / PRESS UPDATE
Plus my recipe for tangy chicken surprise. Holy Crap, LA; San Francisco is my (mostly) happy home, but right now you're secretly my favorite. Don't tell the hippies! Bootie LA was a smashing success on Saturday night--too much of a success, to be honest; the Echo hit capacity before 11:30pm, leaving a long line of people out in the unseasonable cold. I'm still not exactly clear on how many people couldn't get in, but if anyone out there reading this had trouble, please accept all of our sincere apologies. Understandably, the energy inside the venue was a little bonkers, and my set was a ton of fun, although I had a bit of a scare at the end: in SF, I put my silly robot helmet back on to do the "thankyous" over the last song, but in LA, when I went looking under the DJ table for the helmet, it was gone. Ulp! Somebody stole my helmet! But, thankfully somebody handed it to me a few minutes later, and I was told that apperently people had been passing it around and wearing it as they danced about the stage. Oh, you crazy kids. Pictures of that are coming soon, but in the meantime here's some blog coverage from Aman About Town, as well as his Flickr set, plus FWY OK had a good time too. Thanks to everybody who came out, I'll be back in May.

So there are a couple new things in the Party Ben Alive set that I've been promising as mp3s for a while, and I'm a man of my word, so here you go:

	Daft Punk vs. Nirvana - "Smells Stronger" 5MB 192kbps mp3 Z-share link Like I said below, these are perhaps the two most mashed-up songs ever in history (outside of Eminem's "Without Me"), and so this is kind of dopey, but as part of the show it works okay.
	Justice vs. Dead or Alive - "D.A.N.C.E. (Like a Record)" 6MB 192kbps mp3 Honestly this was inspired by DJ Zebra who would end his sets with the MSTRKRFT mix of "D.A.N.C.E." all the time, so I'm like, "what goes with that?" Pete Burns goes with that. Again, silly, and I probably worked harder on the cover than the actual mashup, but hey, at least I'm still trying, right?

Weridly enough, at the exact same time as my set at the Echo, I had a guest mix going on Paul V's Indie 103.1 disco dance party show, "Neon Noise." It's suitably electro-riffic and kind of steals a couple things from recent Jokers of the Scene mixes, but it's got the secret "Galvanize the Empire" rerub in it plus other techno ridiculousness. You can download an mp3 of the whole thing and see a tracklisting on the Long Mixes page.

And finally, there's been a little bit of Party Ben press recently; nothing like a front-page feature on a Green Day mashup or anything (sigh) but we take what we can get these days. First up, the Sacramento Bee mentioned me in a weird little article on, um, "modern media gems," that recommendes mashups, in general, as a diverting entertainment option. Neat. They tell readers to just "Google 'party ben,' 'bootiesf' or 'digitaleargasm' to get started." What's a Digital Eargasm? Also, the University of Maryland's Diamondback student newspaper included a reference to "Tender Umbrella" in a review of a recent English Beat show, and I'm going to bet Dave Wakeling is sick of hearing about it at this point.

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FEBRUARY 28, 2008
PARTY BEN ALIVE COMES TO LOS ANGELES
Still no sign of light-up pyramid. Miss the first, er, "performance" of Party Ben Alive, the Multimedia Spectacularrr, back in January? Well Los Angelenos will have a chance to see me play videos and stuff this Saturday night at Bootie LA, which triumphantly returned to the Echo earlier this year. I've made a couple changes to the show, and still don't really have any idea how I'm going to set up the video screens, but we'll figure it out and hopefully it will be super awesome. To celebrate, let's post one more of the videos I made, this one for a new mashup I put together specifically for the vaguely Daft Punk-inspired performance:

Also, if you can't make it out to the Echo on Saturday night but find yourself in reach of a radio or the intertubes, tune them into Indie 103.1 FM from midnight to 1am (that's technically Sunday morning 3/2) when I'll have a guest mix on Paul V's electro show, Neon Noise, which he keeps reminding me is not called "Neon Nights," even though I keep saying that because I'm dumb. Paul's been doing a good job staying on top of the new electro jams over there, and while I'm all about the beats, I also can't help but put different vocals over everything, so expect a bit of an electro/mashup headspinner with a bunch of new stuff I'm enjoying.

Next week I'll post mp3s of the mixes as well as more of the actual tracks from Party Ben Alive, so, you know, stay tuned, and see you in LA!

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FEBRUARY 27, 2008
!GRACIAS MÉXICO!
Y no sólo para los tacos. I managed to stop sampling the local cuisine long enough to actually do a couple DJ gigs around Mexico last week, in the Puebla area and Monterrey, as part of the run-up to the MX Beat festival, four concerts around the country that feature international artists like M.I.A. and Cut Copy as well as Mexican combos like Plastilina Mosh and Instituto Mexicano del Sonido. Since the promoters of the gigs were interested in having me play some of the music from the bands on the lineups, and I'm also all about making special mashups for the countries I'm lucky enough to visit, I threw together a simple track using good old M.I.A. and the aforementioned Plastilina Mosh, a Monterrey band who were appearing at the Puebla festival date.

Me and the P-Mosh guys at their bar, Rubber Ducky Records, in Monterrey's old town

So, imagine my surprise when I arrive in Monterrey and mention the mashup to my local contacts, they say "hey, P Mosh are are buddies and we're actually planning to stop by the bar they own before your gig, you can totally meet them." Crazy! So, yes, we went there and yes, I met them, and yes I gave them a CD of the mashup which they put on the stereo immediately. Unfortunately I'd just made a new version of it that day on the laptop and hadn't listened to the whole thing so the first verse was a little off the beat (roops!), hopefully nobody noticed. But look: we got a picture!

Anyway, like I said, this is a pretty simple little mashup, but I figure if the stars aligned so weirdly that I actually meet the band then I guess I should probably post the track here.

Plastilina Mosh vs. M.I.A. - "Millionaire Galang" 7MB 192kbps mp3 "Millionaire" was a big hit for the Mosh in 2006 I guess so perhaps this is a little old for everybody in Mexico but it's a jaunty little tune and look, M.I.A.'s ya-ya-hey's are in the same key.

Crazy, huh: lately I'm getting kind of randomly lucky with original artists at least being aware of and giving public props to my work, whether or not I put my foot in my mouth with them. Still waiting for that call from Noel Gallagher, though. Anyway, thanks a bunch to Adan, Jose Antonio, and Marianna for their work in helping to put together the gigs, and thanks Mexico for all the tacos al pastor.

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FEBRUARY 19, 2008
DAVE WAKELING UPDATE: NOT MAKING UP KOOKY STORIES!
Who knew anybody actually read this website? Well, my dumb sense of humor has gone and gotten me in trouble once again, since I actually got an e-mail today from, er, Dave Wakeling (!!!), saying he was retelling the story accurately as he knew it, since it was his manager who told him about it. Aagh! I was just trying to make light of the situation since it seemed kind of like an X-files episode: "They talked to my manager? But I don't have a manager!! Could it have been... an alien?" But of course, after re-reading my post, it came off the wrong way. Sorry Dave. I just wanted to make clear that I'm not getting mean letters from lawyers all the time saying "How dare you," and that if I was, I probably wouldn't be doing this stuff, since I actually do respect the artists whose work I so sloppily violate.

So, yes, a legendary musican is nice to me in an interview and I say something dumb to make him hate me. Typical. Like I always say: I'm the Larry David of DJs. Now I have to go drink some tequila and try and forget what a dork I am.

FEBRUARY 19, 2008
iPARTY BEN EN MEXICO!
Holy frijoles. Well, it's not really a tour, or you know I'd have made a stupid "Gettin' Pesos Tour 2008" logo and everything, but I have a couple gigs in Puebla and Monterrey this week. Things seem to operate on a little bit of a more relaxed timeframe here south of the border, so the venues have just been confirmed (actually Thursday's gig is still up in the air), check the right column or the events page for more details.

I'm here as part of run-up pre-parties for the exciting MX Beat Soundfest concerts, and the one this Saturday in Puebla looks really amazing, with Plastilina Mosh and a bunch of cool DJs I like on the bill, so I'm tring to ignore the prominent Marlboro sponsorship. As usual, I'm putting together some tracks utilizing some of the indigenous pop as well as some of the festival acts, so maybe if any of those turn out okay I'll post them up here later. But right now I'm on a quest for mole poblano.

FEBRUARY 17, 2008
DAVE WAKELING LIKES "TENDER UMBRELLA" BUT ALSO MAKING UP KOOKY STORIES
Unless I have a "manager" I don't know about. I actually heard about this a while back, as a label guy for the legendary English Beat/General Public star dropped me a line to say that Wakeling had heard and enjoyed my mashup, but now it's been confirmed in a public interview setting: Lazy Lima Bean Film Magazine (?) has posted a chat with Wakeling where he gives me some quite lovely compliments but also seems to have, well, fictionalized the situation a bit:

LL: You know what would be great? To see Rihanna perform with you, live. Did you see the mashup of her song, "Umbrella," mixed with General Public’s "Tenderness" by Party Ben?

DW: I loved it. I thought it was fantastic. I couldn’t believe how the songs fit seamlessly as they did – like a hand to a glove. For somebody to mash it up with one of our songs is a great honor, I must say.

LL: Did you know that it’s on the compilation "Best of Bootie 2007" (the best mashups of 2007)?

DW: Yes! We called Party Ben’s manager to congratulate him and he supposedly was blown away. We were told that he was like, "I can’t remember the last time someone left a message that it sounded great, instead of calling to say ‘How dare you! This is the name of my lawyer!’"

I wonder what he could do with new acoustic versions of my songs? What mashups could he come up with?

LL: How does one get the rights to use your song in a mashup?

DW: I have absolutely no idea! [laughs] Nobody’s ever asked me! I supposed somebody’s asked somebody…

Okay, first of all, thanks, glad you liked it, I mean, holy crap, Dave Wakeling, right? Like, he said my name!!! But in the interest of truthiness, I should point out a few inaccuracies in the above statement, no offense. First, I do not now, nor have I ever had, a manager, so I'm not sure who they spoke to. Was Mysterious D pretending to be my agent again? If you meant that e-mail, well, that was just me. 2) I wouldn't really say that thing about not remembering the last time yada yada, since in fact, my experience has been quite the opposite: almost all the time, when I hear about an artist coming across one of my productions, they at least tell me they like it: Ian MacKaye, Lyrics Born, Hot Hot Heat, Tegan and Sara--although Sara famously [?] once expressed some reservations about the whole thing. And let's not forget Nathan Snow Patrol! But even they didn't send lawyers after me, and mostly I've been pretty lucky. Watch me get a C&D tomorrow, now that I've said that.

Again, none of this in any way should detract from my honor at even taking up space in Dave Wakeling's brain for a brief moment, and I totally get it, upping the drama a little bit, just for fun. Like I've said, most of what's good about "Tender Umbrella," I think, is rediscovering the greatness of "Tenderness," so I bow down before his genius.

They did get one thing right: yes it would be totally freakin' awesome if Rihanna and Dave performed "Tender Umbrella" sometime. Hey, she's willing to slow it way the hell down to perform with The Time, so maybe she's up for it?

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FEBRUARY 14, 2008
A SPECIAL LYRICS BORN VALENTINE'S DAY TREAT
I hope he got the box of chocolates I sent him. As LIVE 105 listeners and readers of this fine website know, my history with Bay Area hip hop artist Lyrics Born (aka Tom Shimura) is a long one. His 2003 track "Callin' Out" made its radio debut when I played it on Subsonic, and by the way to get it on the air I had to spend an hour making a "radio edit" since I all had was the original with its repeated chant of "make this shit happen right here right now," which is naughty. Eventually I tracked down the clean a capella, and started mixing it over just about everything in the good old Sixx Mixx; later, a version using U2's "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" emerged as a favorite. Amazingly, neither Tom nor his label Quannum (represented to us by the awesome Lydia) were perturbed about my mucking about with his song--on the contrary, they started tossing a capellas and instrumentals at me like I was a one-man hit machine and not just a dippy DJ who sometimes stumbles onto amusing combos.

In the intervening years, I made a total of four separate mashups and remixes of the track, and one of them has now shown up on a new Lyrics Born mixtape. The Lyrics Born Variety Show features my 2005 remix of "Callin' on Sunday," and while they're having some website issues over at lyricsborn.com right now, once they fix it you can download the whole thing for $1.99 if you act soon.

Plus, their news page is totally making me blush: they give me a major shout-out and call me the "Mash Up King" which I've said before isn't exactly right: I'm more like the Mashup Court Jester. But anyway, jeez, thanks guys.

So in celebration of mutual Lyrics Born-Party Ben lurrvvvv, I've remastered and compiled all my versions of "Callin' Out" as well as a brand new crazy techno mix into one exciting EP:

Can't Stop Callin' Out: The Complete Party Ben vs. Lyrics Born Experience ZShare RAR file link includes all 5 tracks: 1. U2 vs. Lyrics Born - "Callin' on Sunday" (Original mix) mp3 2. U2 vs. Lyrics Born - "Callin' on Sunday" (2005 Remix) mp3 3. Average White Band vs. Lyrics Born - "Callin' Up the Pieces" mp3 4. Average White Band vs. Lyrics Born - "Callin' Up the Pieces" (Baltimore Remix) mp3 Bonus Track: SebastiAn vs. Lyrics Born - "Callin' Ross" mp3

That's right, you get the original 2004 megamashup, the 2005 remix made specifically for a big show where Lyrics himself was playing, the silly Average White Band mashup I threw together for my Party Ben: A New Beginning set in 2007, and the wacky B-more remix thereof. Plus act now and get a ridiculous bonus track: a crazy stuttery edit using SebastiAn's thumpy hit "Ross Ross Ross" that doesn't really go anywhere but is kind of amusing in a remix-y kind of way.

What a bargain! Anyway, I was just e-mailing LB, and with his new album Everywhere At Once coming out on Anti- in April (plug, plug), we might have more exciting PB/LB stuff later this... er, spring. So, thanks Tom, Justin and Lydia for putting up with me, and everybody please go spend lots of money on Lyrics Born and Quannum stuff right now, and hey, even Anti- stuff too, while you're at it.

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FEBRUARY 2, 2008
PARTY BEN CONTINUES TO INDULGE IN ELECTRO NONSENSE
You thought I was marginal before. While one could point to my post-LIVE 105 status (and subsequent freedom from hearing Foo Fighters every 15 minutes) as the reason behind my apparently rediscovered love for the dancey beats, actually if you go to my music page you'll see that I was putting hip-hop over breakbeats way back at the beginning of my so-called "career;" one could argue my forays into Green Day editing were the uncharacteristic daliances. If one cared, which one doesn't. Anyway, thankfully, lately I have more places to play these sort of remix-y sounding tracks: first up, I'll be doing another appearance tomorrow (2/3) at French Kiss, my favorite upstart Sunday night electro/indie/disco party, with my new buddies MyKill and Forever 21. Look for me to throw a bunch of the bassline-y Sinden and Switch stuff into the mix plus the awesomest B-more jams around.

Also, now that Bootie will be available for your mashup pleasure twice a month over at DNA Lounge, we're happy to be expanding the concept a little bit, and starting February 23rd we'll indulge our love for the unofficial remix, bootleg re-edits and whacked out re-versions in the back room at the appropriately named Electro-Bootie. I can't wait.

In that spirit, here's two new items that fit in this category:

	Plump DJs vs. Flo Rida - "Low Addict" 9MB 192kbps mp3 I've always been a fan of Plump DJs (and in fact, some of my first forays into the nightclub scene in San Francisco were in the Nu Skool Breaks scene; wow, those were the days) and it's nice to see they're still putting out quality tunes. This one fits right in under that Low song that's everywhere.
	Tepr vs. Shannon - "Minuit Music" 8MB 192kbps mp3 This one takes the datA remix of Tepr's "Minuit Jacuzzi," a track that already kind of seems to reference '80s freestyle, and makes it a little more obvious. I actually had to completely reconstruct the Tepr track to make this happen, it sounds pretty easy but it wasn't, I promise.

Fun. Something else people have been asking about might be appearing in a Bootie Top Ten soon as well... stay tuned.

Also, in other-country news, it looks like I'll be headed to Mexico in a few weeks for a couple gigs in Puebla and Monterrey as part of the MX Beat Soundfest warm-up schedule. I'm just happy to get away from rainy San Francisco for a few days. Anyway I'll be watching Dora the Explora to brush up on my Spanish and also putting together some new tracks featuring Mexican artists for the occasion. See the Events page for more details as they become available. iAzucar!

JANUARY 26, 2008
MUSIC PAGE UPDATED
With old stuff. After many requests I've added links to some more of the "oldies" over on the Music page. Some of the really crap things I made way back in like 2001 are left off the list (blech!) but others are there despite my shame. As always if there's something you've heard me play or heard on a radio show way back when and you're desperate to know what it's all about, feel free to e-mail me at partyben@yahoo.com.

MP3s of some of the new Party Ben Alive stuff coming soon...

JANUARY 17, 2008
PARTY BEN MAKES (MOSTLY) SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION TO VISUAL MEDIA
Also, robot. I know, it's only like 7 years after everybody else started DJing with videos (er, "VJ-ing") but I've always been a bit of a curmudgeon, preferring to focus on audio, and also I didn't know how to do it. Well, after some wrestling around with Adobe Premier (and the help of a couple more-experienced video types) I managed to put together an hour-long set featuring videos for 19 new and not-so-new Party Ben mashups at Bootie on Saturday night. Despite our best efforts we had a bit of a technical issue from about the 4-minute to the 6-minute mark (loose cords!) but everything else went off without a hitch.

Many thanks to everybody who helped out with the production: VJs Jaren, Brewski and Flipboitamidles for videos, DJ Tripp for the DVJs, The Indra for supplying umbrellas and the Boylesque boys (or is that "bois"?) for dancing around with them, Kristi for sewing the extra screens and for taking pictures, Barry, Jeremy and especially Devon at DNA for the extra help setting up all the crazy crap, Avista rentals for the equipment, and A plus D for letting me do it. Plus, of course, thanks to the 1000+ peeps who came out and danced around, although the troop of ladies on stage who were pulling down my pants while I was trying to DJ were really taking flirtation a bit too far.

If you couldn't make it, your next chance to see the exciting multimedia show will be at the newly re-Echoed Bootie LA on Saturday March 1st; and perhaps I'll do something similar again sometime soon at Bootie SF as well, we'll see...

Anyway, there were a couple new things I played during the set, as well as some new mixes of old things, and not only did I use other VJs' videos, I actually made some of my own. Here's a couple samples.

JANUARY 7, 2008
PARTY BEN SET TO ACT LIKE A DORK ON STAGE IN NEW, EXCITING WAYS THIS SATURDAY
Wonder what he'll dress up like this time. As I wistuflly noted a few days ago, it was one year ago this week that Party Ben Kenobi light-sabered his way onto the stage at Bootie for the very first time. That was fun, and lord knows I've exploited that about as much as humanly possible over the last 12 months. But all good things must come to an end, and after being defeated by Emperor Zebra in Paris, Party Ben Kenobi has decided to retire to some sort of tropical Jedi assisted-living planet. So what's next?

Well, huh, what else can I rip off. Oh, I know: one of the biggest, most celebrated tours of the year. While I won't have a 2-million-dollar light-up pyramid (well, I do, but I'm not taking it to DNA Lounge!), I will be utilizing video in the set for the first time, featuring both some clips put together by kids like VJ Brewskiand VJ Jaren, as well as some of my own ham-fisted creations. Musically, last year's set's shtick was "all new mashups," but this year will be more like "PB Greatest Hits," if there is such a thing, so be warned.

Anyway, it all happens this Saturday night at Bootie at DNA Lounge. Listen and watch on the webcast here.

DECEMBER 30, 2007
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ALL OF US AT PARTY BEN INFORMATION SYSTEMS HEADQUARTERS
Now in 27 locations to serve you better.
Well, it's that time again, time for us to remember what 2007 has given us (euros!) and what 2007 has taken away (I'd say self-respect, but 2003 got my last kernel).

But not only is this a time to gaze back fondly at the last 12 months, it's also a time to look forward to 2008. ...Huh. What a year that's gonna be. Well, rather than dwell on the ever-nearing destruction of humanity, let's enjoy ourselves, and there are ample opportunities to do so Party Ben-style in the next few weeks.

First up, don't miss the first-ever Bootie Pirate New Year's Eve Party (or as I'm calling it, "A Very Bootie New Year," or maybe that's the name of our made-for-TV movie). Pirate-themed wear is not required, and you can totally get one of the free CDs even if you're wearing the tiniest skull-and-crossbones pin or something. I mean, if you wanna do it up Jack Sparrow-style be my guest, but hell if I'm doing that, I got mashups to make. Anyway, advance tickets are here.

Then, in only two short weeks, on January 12th, 2008, regular old Bootie is back, and I'm on stage for my now-apparently-annual January headlining set. Can it really be one year ago that the world was introduced to my alter ego, Party Ben Kenobi, and his theme song, Galvanize the Empire? Well, this year I'm doing my best to come up with something that will be even more entertaining, and perhaps just as ridiculous, and I'm working on some surprises that would be really super if they came through. Stay tuned. Plus, another thing to stay tuned for is Bootie in general: what's happening in February? Something exciting? Who knows...

And if you're more into the Baltimore-style beats and electro mayhem that I'm sneaking into my Bootie sets, come check me out at French Kiss on 1/27. It's a Sunday night party at Pink down in the Mission, and they totally let me play all the Sinden and Herve stuff I like.

Also on tap for 2008 is trying to make another mashup people like in Ireland cause that was a lot of fun.

And finally, if you're interested in what I liked this year, music-wise, I've posted my Top 20 Albums & Top 20 Singles of the year over on the Mother Jones' Riff blog where I write stuff for some reason; I'll be posting my full lists and more elaborate explanations over on my own Top Tens page here in the next day or two.

Anyway, Happy New Year everybody, and while I usually say "here's hoping (upcoming year) is better than (current year)," it seems like it never is, so now I'll just say "here's hoping 2008 isn't any worse than 2007." Lowered expectations: the secret to happiness!

DECEMBER 9, 2007
PARTY BEN SURVIVES EUROPEAN TOUR
Despite best efforts of Germany where I believe they were trying to poison me with spicy mustard that came in a toothpaste tube. Zut alors, as they say in another country whose name I can't remember right now: I just got back from the European tour and boy is my DJ finger tired. Think how many times I must have pressed "play"! Seriously, it was an amazing time, from Warsaw to Tourcoing, and it was great meeting all the co-conspirators as well as attendees at the events, thanks to all of you. If anyone's interested in reading about, like, what I ate in Prague or what I think about Calatrava, you can delve into the mundane details of everything from the trip over at The Party Blog, but let's keep this fine website a little more focused, shall we?

In that spirit, there were a bunch of things I was playing around Europe that I hadn't yet posted here, some of which generated a modicum of interest. First of all, my admittedly-late-to-the-scene fascination with Baltimore beats (I'm like Diplo minus the whole "being cool" part!) found its expression in a couple new mixes; then, there was something I made specifically for Germany that actually just seemed to confuse the Germans but I still found highly amusing.

	Lyrica Born vs. Average White Band - "Callin' Up the Pieces" (Party Ben's Baltimore Remix) Yes, this is item number four (4) that I've produced with the good old Lyrics Born a capella, although really there's just the AWB and the U2 versions which each have a "remix." But still, yes, I'm a hack, and I hope Tom isn't getting sick of me doing this. Anyway: Call, call, callin' out! 7MB 192kbps mp3
	The Chemical Brothers - "Star Guitar" (Party Ben's a Big Bright Shining Star Remix) A while back Electrosound asked me to take part in a bootleg tribute to the Chemical Brothers, and while I don't usually have time to contribute to these projects, I'd had an idea rolling around my head for elucidating the Baltimore sound that kind of bubbles under in "Star Guitar" for a while, so I was happy to have a deadline to whip me into shape. So, first I made the (mostly) instrumental version which I handed off to the project, and then I thought "hey this could use some Ludacris," so I threw "Stand Up" over it and played it a bunch all over Europe. Whee! Go here to grab tracks from Block Rockin' Boots with contributions from GHP, Moule, BC, Dunproofin' and more. "Star Guitar" (Party Ben's a Big Bright Shining Star Remix) 9MB 192kbps mp3 "Star Guitar Stand Up" 9MB 192kbps mp3
	Modern Talking vs. Gnarls Barkley "Crazy (If You Want)" So in an attempt to ingratiate myself with the many nations of the EU, I tried to put together something appropriate for each location on the tour: "Polska Boys" for Poland, a "Boulevard" mix with MC Solaar for France, and this ridiculous thing for Germany. Not familiar with Modern Talking? They're only the most successful pop group in German history, and it turns out "You Can Win If You Want" is basically the same exact chord pattern as "Crazy." I played it at Bootie Munich expecting a rousing ovation and, sadly, it almost killed my floor; are Germans now embarrassed by Thomas and Dieter? 6MB 192kbps mp3

So, will Party Ben return to the EU for more gigs, possibly sometime when it's a little warmer? Stay tuned...

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NOVEMBER 20, 2007
DZIĘKUJĘ POLSKA!
And sorry about Borat using your language and stuff. Greetings from Prague where I'm taking a needed break from the insanity of Poland, where three gigs and a live radio set went pretty well overall, the final gig in Warsaw on Saturday night especially so, but that was probably because of Poland's 2-0 win over Belgium in the Euro 2008 qualifying match only minutes beforehand. Thanks to everybody, especailly Duze Pe, DJ Spox, El Barto & Liam B, Marcin from Lolypop, DJ Lexus from Radio Bis, the crew at Forma, Prozak and Balsam, and all the awesome Poles who came out to the gigs (see some at left).

If you've been reading all about the mayhem over on the Party Blog, you'll know that I made a mashup thing with a Polish band in a blatant attempt to ingratiate myself with the local populace, and again, partially thanks to national soccer victory euphoria, it did the job, despite the fact that I threw it together pretty quickly. In fact, apparently Radio Bis is playing it in some sort of rotation, possibly heavy (reports?), but now that I have a second I've cleaned it up a little and extended the middle section a bit, and while it's still kind of sloppy I suppose it's good enough for now.

Kult vs. M.I.A. vs. Gary Glitter "Polska Boyz" Kult being one of the first "alternative" Polish rock combos, and their 1992 number's refrain of "We live in Poland" is therefore understandably not without a bitter edge, actually it may be nothing but bitter edge, with a kind of stoic pride deep inside the bitterness in that way Eastern Europeans do so well. I find the contrast with M.I.A.'s insistence on finding out how many boys are there rather amusing. 6MB 192kbps mp3

So, the Gettin' Euros Tour continues, although I have yet to actually get any Euros, come to think of it. Anyway, whatever, I have to go back to drinking cheap beer. Soon I'm heading over to Belgium, Germany & France, and I have some more country-specific stuff that will hopefully work just as well there... we'll see.

NOVEMBER 10, 2007
WHICH WAY IS EUROPE?
Next time I'm gonna take a right turn at Albequerque. Well, I'm off tomorrow for the Gettin' Euros Tour 2007, and thankfully, I believe United's pilots know the way, thus freeing me to concern myself with making amusingly Euro-themed new mashups to play for everybody. Modern Talking, anyone? Anyway, I'm making a quick stop in Frankfurt before heading over to Warsaw, where your first opportunity to hear Party Ben do stuff will be a live set on Poland's Radio Bis at 10pm local time Wed 11.14. Unfortunately a Prague event fell through, so, sorry Czech fans (if there are any out there) but everything else appears to be a "go," so please peruse the Events page for all the details, and if you have any recommendations on, you know, local snacks, drop a line.

If you're interested in keeping general tabs on how the trip is going, or hearing amusing anecdotes about the international incidents I've caused, The Party Blog has been resurrected! This is the Blogspot page I started up before our last trip to France, anticipating I would post updates all the time, only to discover that the French have a crazy mixed-up keyboard layout that makes typing a miserable experience. But this time: laptop! Plus little digital camera that takes videos! So I'll try and post stuff over there that doesn't quite qualify for partyben.com enshrinement.

Now let's see, how many t-shirts can I fit in my carry-on bag...

In other news, I got a kind of annoying mention in Adam Graham's "My Tunes" column in the Detroit News: he includes "Tender Umbrella" in his Top 5, but then has to get sassy, saying it's "not a great mash-up" and that he just likes both songs. Well! It wouldn't be quite so bothersome if Mr. Graham hadn't also included a huge write-up on Girl Talk in the same issue, in which there's an attempt to write a history of the mash-up concept with the same old "Freelance Hellraiser/Danger Mouse/Linkin Park" timeline, with nary a mention of Go Home Productions, and apparently the only mash-up development in 2007 has been The Hood Internet's website. Nothing against the latter, but this is like the Pitchfork Alternate History of the mash-up universe, and it leaves a lot of important stuff out, I think. Sigh. One often wonders why one keeps on. I suppose I should be thankful the article didn't say "Z-Trip invented mashups" or something.

Thankfully not all the news is annoying: BBC Radio 1's night slammer Collin Murray played a Party Ben production, "Pump Up the Doorbell," on his show back in October, and I just found out about it. Thanks Mr. Murray! Also, apparently Alice 105.9 in Denver is jumping on the Snow Police bandwagon, although I kind of thought that bandwagon had, you know, run out of gas or whatever wagons run on. But if they can get 'er started up again more power to 'em.

OCTOBER 29, 2007
PARTY BEN SUCCUMBS TO THE MYSPACE JUGGERNAUT
Auto-play feature turned off. Well, I resisted for years and years, suffering through multiple fake pages (my favorite being the one that put my location, inexplicably, as Brooklyn; if only!) but I've finally given in and set up an actual MySpace page of my very own. Unfortunately, somebody's still squatting on myspace.com/partyben so I was forced to resort to the slightly awkward myspace.com/therealpartyben. Because, of course, how could I write that I'm the real Party Ben if I wasn't the real Party Ben?

Anyway, I'm still getting the hang of the completely nonsensical interface and slapdash formatting tricks (argh!) so bear with me. For the time being, there is one special reason to go there: my new Baltimore House-style remix of the Lyrics Born vs. Average White Band combo from earlier this year, "Callin' Up the Pieces." Enjoy, and if you like it, hey, be my friend or add me to your group or post an ad for your fucking strip club in my comments, whatever you kids do over there all day.

OCTOBER 22, 2007
(NOT SO) NEW ITEM: AMY WINEHOUSE VS. FOUR TOPS
Only a year or so late on this one.My first version of the Amy Winehouse vs. Four Tops track was a Bootie Exclusive a few months back, but since those kids finally got around to posting a new Top Ten I figured I could finally make it available over here, plus my Google Analytics is telling me people are searching "amy winehouse four tops mashup" and ending up over at this website, and I gotta give the people what they want... even if it's only, like, four people.

1. Amy Winehouse vs. Four Tops "Rehab (Can't Help Myself) (Version 1) This is the one I made before I had the a capella, so it just uses the Hot Chip remix of Ms. Winehouse's little tune. 6MB 192kbps mp3 2. Amy Winehouse vs. Four Tops "Rehab (Can't Help Myself) (Remix) After I got the a capella, I thought I'd make a new version with a bigger, um, beat, but now I think I like the original better anyway? 7MB 192kbps mp3 3. Amy Winehouse vs. Jmekka - "Rehab" (Breaks mix) Put this together for the Mighty Love Parade after party. 10MB 192kbps mp3

So there's that. It is what it is.

Also, thanks for the recent Party Ben shout-outs, John Sakamoto at the Toronto Star in Downtown Canada, and you feisty kids over at Mashuptown.com. Also if you really want to know a bunch of boring trivia about how and why I've made all these silly things, Butch over at The Island of Misfit Songs did a like 7-billion-word interview with me here.

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OCTOBER 17, 2007
PARTY BEN'S EUROPEAN VACATION TOUR!!!
Zut alors! / Wypas! / Scheibenkleister! / Haluzit! / Frickin' awesome! Settle down polyglots. Yes, the rumors are true, I'm heading to Europe for a while to take advantage of the favorable exchange rate. Coming up in November and December, I'll be DJing for the first time in Poland, Germany, Belgium and possibly the Czech Republic, and returning (triumphantly? confusedly?) to France. It's all a bit seat-of the-pants, so to speak, so a couple gigs are still up in the air, but I've been waiting for like two weeks to put up this silly graphic, for Kaczyńskis' sake.

I'll be kicking off the tour in Poland on Nov. 16 and 17 in Krakow and Warsaw with El Barto & Liam B (with more dates probably to come), then heading over to the Czech Republic and Germany (where things are still a bit hazy). After that I meet up with DJ Zebra for a night in Liege, Belgium on Nov. 23, then I'm heading back to Germany for a still-in-the-planning-stages Bootie Munich on Nov. 24. After that I hook up with the Zebramix tour featuring the aforementioned Zebz along with rock-'n'-roller DJ Moule for four exciting dates across France. That's about three weeks of bouncing around Europe, and I'm going to attempt to do this out of one little carry-on bag, with room for like two shirts, so if you notice a kind of rancid stench in the Bordeaux area in late November, that might not be the pot au feu.

For all the info, dates, and locations (plus even some links to buy advance tickets!) head over to the events page, and keep checking back for updates. Of course any of you who are actually in Europe, it would be great to say hi, so come on by. Or if you know any good (cheap!) restaurants in the area, drop a line.

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OCTOBER 10, 2007
MORE BOOTIE TRAXX
Just like other traxx, except they get played at Bootie. Any of you who frequent America's Premier Mashup Nightclub (TM) at any of its multiple locations (or listen on the interwebs) know that I'm always making new stuff to keep the dancefloor's attention; alternately, you could look at it as me using unwitting Bootie attendees as my mashup guinea pigs. Often these are silly throwaways or random experiments, but sometimes a few people will take a liking to them and want mp3s for their very own. So here's a couple of things I've been playing around this year. Grab individual mp3s here or get them all jiggered together into an RAR file via rapidshare here, and read more about them over on the Downloads page.

1. Faithless vs. Yaz vs. Steve Miller Band - "Don't Go (Insomnia Airlines)" 8MB 192kbps mp3 2. INXS vs. E-40 "Need U to Go" 4MB 192kbps mp3 3. Junior Boys vs. Rod Stewart - "(Do Ya) Think I'm Sexy (In the Morning)" 7MB 192kbps mp3 4. Timbaland vs. The Supremes - "The Way I Keep Me Hangin' On" 4MB 192kbps mp3 5. Le Tigre vs. D4L - "Deceptataffy" 5MB 192kbps mp3

Hmm, what else. Oh yeah, final European tour dates coming soon, I promise.

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SEPTEMBER 22, 2007
MORE NEATO VIDDYS!!
Thanks, anonymous internet people with free time and video editors. My Dutch friend Whitehouse (who also seems to have some time on his hands) e-mails me a veritable slew of new clips people have edited together utilizing Party Ben productions. I suppose you just have to search "Party Ben" on YouTube to find these, but it's so much easier when somebody else does it, you don't have to look at all the "Here we are at Ben's birthday party" ones. Yes I know my DJ name is stupid.

Okay enough of that. I promised Bootie Traxxx and Europe Dates this week, but due to, um, work, those things have been delayed, hopefully only til next week. But hey, I'm already ahead of the one-post-a-month average here, which I think is pretty good.

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SEPTEMBER 13, 2007
PARTY BEN IS WEIRD
Like that's news. I know that this entertaining website has the distinct odor of "late-career self-referentiality," with endless blathering about press mockery or radio attention to a cheesy mashup I made like 3 years ago, but I promise, I'm always working on new stuff. I'm just rarely satisfied enough with what I make to post mp3s. Or I'm just lazy. But lately I've got a newfound, er, shamelessness, so I thought maybe I'd post a couple things I've been revising for a while, just to get them off my hard drive. They're a bit odd and probably not exactly Prime Time Bootie Floorfillers, but hey, maybe you can enjoy them on your Zunes.

First up: it's M.I.A. vs. Kate Bush. I was thinking, hey, Boyz is in 6/8 time, and so is that good old Kate Bush song "The Dreaming," so why not play them at the same time. Plus there's that whole, you know, "third-world" theme, with Kate singing about aboriginal Australians and stuff, perhaps someone smart could write an essay about all of this. M.I.A. vs. Kate Bush - "Dreaming of Boyz" Download: 6MB 192kbps mp3

Next, it's my attempt at a remix of the new Jose Gonzalez track, "Killing For Love." Since I'm too dumb to make my own beats, I go steal them from other songs, in this case an atmospheric Cirez D electro track called "Horizons." There's actually some originally Party Ben bleeps and bloops in it as well. Neat. Jose Gonzalez vs. Cirez D - "Killing For Love (Remix)" Download: 8MB 192kbps mp3

If you're like, "where the hell is the stoopid Party Ben megajamz at dammit" well, yes I still make those too. I'll be releasing a slew of Bootie Traxx ( i.e., stuff I've been playing on the dancefloor at America's Premiere Mashup Nightclub) as well as announcing some exciting European tour dates next week. Hey, anybody in Prague, or Dublin, want me to come DJ? And anybody in Poland, Germany, Belgium or France know any good cheap restaurants? And anybody anywhere want to give me a job?

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AUGUST 27, 2007
Q MAGAZINE SAYS PARTY BEN SMELLS LIKE CHEDDAR
I've always thought of myself more as an Emmentaler. Friend of Party Ben James Rocchi strays from his usual cinematic focus to point out that the September, 2007 issue of Q Magazine features "Every Car You Chase" in its "Digital" section. Check page 120: they're actually talking about the video (jeez, 317,000 views?!) expertly put together by VJ Brewski, although they don't mention either of us. What they do mention is that the bootleg is "cheeky," which is true enough, but then they say that it emits the strong whiff of cheddar, which I suppose is also kind of true, and they give it three out of five stars, which is pretty much right on the money as far as my mashup is concerned but Brewski's video deserves a "five." However, they make it seem like they thought of my cheeky, cheesy title! Damn you, Q Magazine, and your tired articles about, like, Jimmy Page, aimed at 60-year-olds!

Eh, actually, I'll take what I can get these days. See below for the video and the clipping.

So this seems like a perfect time to update the Snow Police Radio Tally! Two stations on American soil this time, let's wheel out the big board Jim:

STAR 101.9 FM - Honolulu, Hawaii This is nuts. So I'm texting my friend Mary who's on vacation in Honolulu with her family, and I'm like "whr u at," and she's all, "just lving genki sushi," and I'm all, "that rulz," and then she's all like, "U R ON TH RADIO RT NOW!!!" and I'm like "WTF?" So then she calls me and holds the phone up to the radio in the car, and yes, "Every Car You Chase" has come on the radio at the exact time we were texting each other. How weird is that? Jeez I need a vacation.

94.7 KRNK FM - Portland, Oregon Jeff writes from Portland to say he's an "unattached journalist," and I think by that he's trying to tell me he's single. I don't date journalists, you're all scum! Okay, actually he means "freelance," and he's investigated a situation at 94.7 where they're apparently playing "Every Car You Chase" two or three times a day. Awesome!

Trixxxie Carr and Party Ben sing the hits

AUGUST 26, 2007
BOOTIE BLOWS UP
Kablooey! No no, I mean it in the "awesome!" sense, not like an actual explosion. Breaking the attendance record set back in January when, well, the headliner was lil' ole me, Bootie brought 1300 people to the DNA Lounge on Saturday night (8/11) for our 4th anniversary and the premiere of the A+D show. There were some technical difficulties during the night (note: never put Party Ben in charge of an iPod slide show) but Adrian and Mysterious D (and their cast of thousands) put on an amazing performances, complete with a sing-along and 99 red balloons. We were pretty busy all night, but from what we hear, people had fun. If you want to relive the experience, you can as always go to dnalounge.com and click on "webcasts" then "archive" (or just click here) to listen to the audio feed from the night for the next, er, certain amount of time. Also for some pictures check out Kristi and Netik's Flickr pages, or the Napkin Nights page. Thanks of course to DNA Lounge and everybody who's a part of Bootie for all their work, and of course, to everybody who came out.

I know the night was all about A+D, but I tried to make some new tracks as well, just so people didn't forget about me. Of course not all of them turned out satisfactorily (Bootie attendees, you're my guinea pigs for new stuff), but one seemed to get attention if only for the notoriety of one of the mashed-up artists: Amy Winehouse vs. The Four Tops. It is of course called "Rehab (Can't Help Myself)," and it's pretty silly but it's, as I like to say, functional. It's an "exclusive track" at the Bootie Blog in this week's Top Ten, so go over there and marvel at how much better the other 9 mash-ups are.

More of my "Bootie Exclusives" coming soon to celebrate our club's longevity... stay tuned...

Who knew this thing could last four years

JULY 31, 2007
BOOTIE WINS BEST CLUB AGAIN AND AGAIN
It's an honor just being nominated. Hey, remember Bootie? It's that club that plays mashups, you know, those dumb indie-vs.-hip-hop combos that aren't cool at all, that whole trend that died in like 2003? And again in 2005? Well, anyway, readers of the San Francisco Bay Guardian still like it apparently. They're kooks! Congrats to Adrian & Mysterious D, Dada, Smash-Up Derby, everybody at DNA Lounge, and all the DJs and performers who have graced our stage. And thanks for having me at 95.83% of all Booties since it began in '03.

Hey speaking of which, it's Bootie's 4-year anniversary in just under two weeks, which is kind of hard to believe, not because A & D don't put their hearts and souls into the party every month, which they do, but because the exciting world of nightlife can be a little, erm, fickle. On August 11th, A & D will finally take the stage (accompanied by a whole variety of cameo performers) for some sort of bonkers circus-like performance, and I'll be DJing as well along with some of the fine Bay Area bootleggers you know and love. Clear your schedule Sunday August 12th for recovery ay?

In other news, The Toronto Star's John Sakomoto has ranked a Party Ben mashup in his "Anti-Hit List" again. Above Thurston Moore! This time it's "Tender Umbrella" which now has sloppy artwork to match its slapdash production, over on the Downloads page. Thanks Mr. Sakomoto, and if you made mashups I would totally put them in my Top Ten, but since I stole the idea from you anyway I guess we're cool, right?

Now it's time for my favorite part of the show: the Snow Police Radio Tally! Who's up on the big board this week Jim? Thanks Party Ben! Well tonight on the Snow Police Radio Tally, we say hello to the beautiful and talented Canada! Plus, the very serious Germany! And finally, a crazy country that's mostly below sea level, you may know her as Holland, it's The Netherlands! Now let's say bring out our lovely assistant Deborah, please pull aside the Snow Police Radio Tally Spangled Curtain Deborah!