Bootie in Brazil: Tour report!

Yes, it's been nearly a month since we were in Brazil, but we're just now getting around to finally blogging about it! It really was a fantastic trip, even though it felt like we barely scratched the surfaces of São Paulo and Brasília (and no, we didn't make it to Rio ... next time!)

For the full photo gallery of our Brazil trip, click here!

This is what São Paulo looks like from the top floor of our hotel. It's the largest city in Brazil (11 million people!) and it truly is a megalopolis. Shockingly though, there's a surprising dearth of distinctive architecture. What it lacks in cool buildings however, it more than makes for in sheer electric urban energy, which we soon discovered ... by hitting the clubs!

We were really fortunate in São Paulo to have a little posse of "instant friends," whom we met through Fernanda, a super-awesome girl (that's her above, with Iwi peeking in on the left, Richard on the right) who had contacted us a couple years ago to try to bring Bootie to Brazil. We met her in New York last year, and she made us feel right at home in São Paulo, introducing us to her friends Iwi, Goos and Richard, and taking us to three different clubs our first night there!

Our new Brazilian friends kept telling us, "We're going to a house party," so of course, we thought that meant a party at someone's house. As it turned out, we went to a place called Funhouse, which is literally a house that's been converted into a club! (Adrian intends to totally steal this idea someday -- after all, everyone loves house parties!)

We were there for a weekly called FunHell, one of the hippest parties in São Paulo, and the DJs were spinning a fantastic mix of electro, indie, rock, and pop, with lots of sampling, hands in the air, and crowd singing (more on THAT later...)

The next night, after visiting MASP, the modern art museum, and doing some fancy dining at Spot, we met up with Fernanda and her girl Iwi. We went to A Loca, the infamous 13-year-running gay club (with a mixed crowd), where we would be playing a few days later. Here's a poster from inside the club.

There was a drag show at 1 AM, and Adrian got dragged up on stage by the hostess to plug the Bootie set, and then was forced to say something obnoxious and embarrassing in Portuguese! Good times!

The next day, we flew to Brasília to meet up with DJ Faroff, who gave us a whirlwind mini-tour of Brazil's capital by night. This is the new Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge, built just seven years ago, and very cool-looking.

Here's Leo, aka DJ Faroff, the one responsible for bringing us to Brazil. He took us to a late lunch buffet at Oca Da Tribo, a restaurant housed in an immense oca (a traditional native Brazilian dwelling).

Outside the oca with DJ Daniel Black.

Brasília did not exist 50 years ago. Before Brasília, there was nothing. Not even a village or a crossroads. It was, quite simply, willed into existence by the campaign promises of Brazil's president Juscelino Kubitschek, who upon winning the election in 1956, hired urban planner Lúcio Costa and modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer to design the space-age capital from scratch – in THREE YEARS (he wanted it completed before his term was up). The architectural crown jewel is definitely the Catedral Metropolitana (above).

One of the statues outside the Catedral Metropolitana.

Brasília is literally in the middle of nowhere, miles away from the beaches and ocean which so typify Brazilian culture. Lúcio Costa once said, "The sky is the sea of Brasília," and this photo proves it. This is the Congresso Nacional, where Brazil's government meets. Mmmm... modernism!

Brasília is definitely the "capital of the future" -- or at least, the future as envisioned in 1960.

And in Brasília, the future does not change! It remains forever space-age retro, as demonstrated by the Museu Nacional. Built in 2006, it's one of the city's newest buildings, but stays true to the modernist aesthetic established by Oscar Niemeyer, who at 102 years old, is not only still alive, but still designing buildings!

As an aficianado of modern architecture, I wish we had been able to spend more time checking out the buildings in Brasília, if for no other reason than they make awesome backdrops for photo shoots! It was a fascinating city, spread out like a giant space-age office park, with hardly any sidewalks or traffic lights. It was a city designed for cars, not pedestrians, at a time when gas was cheap and plentiful. (And today, an average of 6 pedestrians are killed each week trying to cross roads in Brasília.)

For modernist architecture, Brasília is a win, but for civic planning, it's kind of a fail. Everything in the city is divided into sectors -- sectors for hotels, banks, malls, embassies, sport clubs, and residential apartments. On paper, it sounds great, but in practice, everything is separated by wide boulevards and giant superquadras (apartment blocks), with a confusing, byzantine address system to go with it, as demonstrated by the above photo. It took 10 minutes for me to decode this address, which is the fourth giant apartment building in the giant apartment block that is one block east of the center axis and 4 blocks south of the main street. Don't try to come home drunk!

Brazil's best hangover cure! Agua de coca, or coconut water, direct from the source! (This is what a coconut looks like before it gets brown and furry.

Bootie Brasília was held in a building in the middle of a big city park, which was a pretty cool spot to throw a party!

DJ Faroff ramped things up with an all-video mashup set, which you unfortunately can't see very well in this crappy photo.

Imagine our surprise when our friend Antonio -- who we had originally met in Hong Kong -- showed up at Bootie Brasília with his boyfriend Kevin! The two of them are traveling around the world, and they JUST HAPPENED to be in Brasília the EXACT SAME time as us! (And in fact, they were even staying at the same hotel! Seriously!!) We love meeting up with friends in random cities and countries (and that means you, Dean!) halfway around the world!

Bootie Brasília in action. Lots of hot, sweaty bodies dancin' up a storm!

I'd always heard that Iron Maiden was pretty huge in Brazil, so after seeing no less than THREE Maiden t-shirts in one day in Brasília, we decided to have some fun with our set, and take some offbeat mashup chances. So we dropped Wax Audio's "Maiden Goes To Hollywood" (mashed up with Frankie Goes To Hollywood) and we had a group of guys absolutely LOSE THEIR SHIT! I've never seen anyone dance to Iron Maiden the way these guys did!

At the end of the party, we had a group of people who just were NOT ready for the night to end. Even after we played a slow-jam last song (Divide & Kreate's still-classic "Always With You"), and they turned the lights on, they were still screaming for more, chanting, "One more song! One more song!" The girl at the front REALLY wanted Madonna's "Like A Prayer," so we played Maxentropy's "Low A Prayer," and led everyone in a good old-fashioned sing-along. Damn, those Brazilians sure love to sing!

Back to São Paulo! After waking up WAY too early for our flight back, we took a nap, and woke up just in time to meet up with Goos, one of Fernanda's friends, and a DJ and former mashup maker. We absolutely loved Goos ... and he not only helped us get the gig at A Loca, but (along with Fernanda) acted as a wonderful host to us while we were there. We also love his taste in t-shirts! This one is a visual pun taken from a Van Halen song title.

Iwi and Fernanda picked us up and we all went to A Loca, where we were doing two Bootie mashup sets at the long-running Sunday club night called Grind.

We were super-excited to play this night, which seemed tailor-made for our eclectic, mixed-up style. Here we are, posing in the front hallway of A Loca.

We started each set with a live mashup sung by Adrian (aka, Smash-Up Derby karaoke). People weren't drunk enough for the 11 PM show (early by Brazilian standards), but the 1 AM performance really killed it!

It was an up-for-it, fun crowd that LOVED singing along! We had made some Brazilian-flavored mashups with CSS and Bonde Do Role, but what they REALLY loved were the Madonna and Britney mashups!

And speaking of Britney ... we had no idea what the "W" of their hand gestures meant, and then one of the girls told us it meant "Womanizer." Who were we to say no? We gave 'em DJ Fox's mashup with The Police.

Can you tell we were having a good time DJing at A Loca? We ended up giving away a bunch of Bootie CDs.

They may not know very much English, but inexplicably, Brazilians seem to know nearly every word to "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)." Even in the gay clubs! We have The Offspring mashed up with the electro of Alter Ego, but we can barely get away with playing it in the U.S. (so not cool) but in Brazil, it brought down the house! So we put it in this month's Bootie Top 10.

Here we are with "Pomba," the DJ and producer/promoter of Grind at A Loca. Love him!

Hanging out after our set. That's Fernanda in the green shirt, and some guys who wouldn't look out of place at The Eagle in San Francisco. Did we mention that Grind at A Loca has a great mix of people? It's an excellent party, with a very fun vibe ... highly recommended!

D and her last caipirinha, the national cocktail of Brazil! With our wonky sleep schedule and nocturnal activities, we barely saw anything in São Paulo during daylight hours. In fact, come to think of it, we barely saw anything outside of the seven block radius of the Consolaçao neighborhood! Still, we can't complain. The Brazilians sure know how to party, and that's what we like to do best!

For more photos of our Brazil trip, click here!

Obrigado, Leo, Fernanda, Goos, and Iwi! And obrigada, Brasil!

A+D go to Brazil! Bootie Brasília and A Loca in São Paulo

Sorry kids, you're gonna have to wait just a little bit longer for a Bootie Top 10. You know we'll make it up to you! At least we have a good excuse this week -- we're going to Brazil!

We've got Bootie Brasília happening with ourselves and DJ Faroff this coming Saturday, 15 August. As a fan of modern architecture, Adrian has always wanted to go to Brasília, so this trip should be a treat! Then the very next night, it's...

We get to play one of the most infamous clubs in São Paulo ... A Loca! We're special guests at the long-running club night Grind.

Adrian will be singing live "Midnight Mashup Shows" at both events ... although knowing how LATE things start in Brazil, they most definitely won't actually be happening at midnight!

Brazil -- especially São Paulo -- has always been a dream trip for the Mysterious D, so we're definitely looking forward to this! We'll post a tour report next week!

Bootie goes to Australia! Brisbane & Sydney tour report

TO SEE ALL THE PHOTOS FROM OUR BRISBANE/SYDNEY TRIP, CLICK HERE!

It's been nearly a week since we've returned to the States, and everyone wants to know: How was Australia? In a word: Fantastic! Summertime Down Under ... such a great time! We are both so excited to have helped launch another Bootie party on another continent! Especially when our new Aussie partners are as awesome as Adam and Guy...

Flying halfway around the world just so you can meet up and launch a Bootie party with people you've never actually met can be a little ... daunting. It's kind of a leap of faith that it's all going to work out -- tempered by a healthy amount of emailed questions, a couple phone conversations, and a bit of sussing each other out. But ultimately in the end, we couldn't have found two better guys to run our first Bootie party in Oz. We got on with them instantly!

This is first photo we took after getting to Australia, with Adam hiding behind several bottles of Pure Blonde ... nothing takes care of jet-lag like some low-carb Aussie beer!

Adam completely picked our brains about Bootie, soaking up everything like a sponge. He first heard about us and our parties through his friend Matt Bland, a mashup producer/DJ from the UK (where Adam is originally from).

So we had to take this picture, with us saying "cheers" to Matt Bland, who unwittingly help put this all together!

That first day we just kind of hung out in Brisbane, drinking beers all day with Adam. He lives in Fortitude Valley, ground zero for Brisbane's nightlife, with tons of bars and clubs all within a three block radius. Brisbane is known in Australia as a big music town, and is proud of all the bands that have come out of there -- like one of Adrian's college favorites, The Go-Betweens, who have a plaque on Brunswick Street (along with The Bee Gees and Powderfinger, the best Australian band you've never heard of).

Later, we met up with Guy for even more drinks, as you can tell by this photo. That's the lovely Story Bridge in the background.

The next day we went to check out the venue and do a sound check. The Beetle Bar is a great space -- it's attached to a backpackers hotel, but their whole ideology is to bring locals and international travelers together in a club, which we thought was perfect for Bootie.

Beetle Bar is relatively new, and they're hungry to build an audience and reputation. They really seemed to "get" the concept of mashed-up Bootie, and they tried to promote it really well. Although, on their posters and ads, they said that we were "direct from Los Angeles!" Hey, whatever gets people to the party!

Later that evening, we all went to VJ Brewski's house in the suburbs for a traditional Aussie barbeque! Here he is, "throwin' another shrimp on the barbie!" We've known Brewski for many years through GYBO, the bootleg/mashup message board, but of course, we'd never actually met before. He's even made a couple mashup videos for A Plus D tracks, so it was so nice to finally be able to thank him in person!

Brewski's barbeque was pretty much a meet-and-greet, and it was really fantastic to finally meet Hickory Dickory Doc, aka DJ HDD, who was one of the first people we "met" (online) in the bootleg scene. He spun an old-school bootleg set at Brewski's that had us going, "OMG, I remember THAT one! I used to play that all the time at The Cinch!" (The little neighborhood bar we used to DJ at back in 2003.)

Here's the whole gang: Vicki, Guy, Adam, Hickey, Adrian, D, and Alex -- aka DJ BootOX, the resident DJ of Bootie Munich, who is backpacking around the world, and who was crashing at Brewski's house.

Found this in Adam's apartment, and just HAD to take a picture. Yes, it's not just a cliché -- they really DO eat Vegemite in Australia!

The police cars look like Hot Wheels race cars! Cool. It was the little differences like this (and the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road) that made Australia seem like an alternate universe version of the United States. For the most part though, the U.S. and Australia are shockingly similar. After all, both countries started out as British colonies, and were ultimately settled by "outsiders" -- tax evaders in the U.S. and convicts in Australia. Plus, both countries have so much SPACE -- room to move and grow -- and everything feels so "new world" compared to Europe.

It's the United Nations of Bootie! Representatives from each continent that Bootie is on: Brewski (Australia), BootOX (Europe), and Adrian (North America) -- all wearing their "Bootie corporate attire!"

There is definitely a budding mashup scene already happening in Brisbane. Here's Viper Pilot, a mashup producer who got in touch with us after reading about the party on Mashuptown.com!

And here's DJ Cutloose, who we emailed back-and-forth with last year when he was visiting LA . He was supposed to come out to Bootie there, but never made it. We're glad we finally got to meet him at Bootie Brisbane, even though he had to leave early to go DJ across town!

They sure love their surfing in Australia ... here's D, hanging 10 at the Beetle Bar, beer in hand.

Hey, it's A Plus G ! :-) Adam (LolaDJs) and Guy Davy on the decks at the top of the night. They kicked off the Bootie party with a Jimi Hendrix mashup!

DJ BootOX followed them with a kick-ass set that got the dance floor going.

We did the live Midnight Mashup Show pretty much right on time. Although, it might have been a little TOO early -- we like to do the shows right at the peak point in the night. But it really helped make a connection with the crowd, and bring everyone in the room together, which was a really great way to kick off our two-hour set.

So many hands in the air on the dance floor!

Yup, they're getting the bootleg pirate thing already!

Um, did we mention ...

... hands in the air?

Mysterious D surveys the action on the dance floor. Hands in the air? Check. Booties shaking? Check. Big smiles? Check. Alright, our work here is done.

After all the things everyone warned us about Brisbane crowds -- "they want electro," "they want traditional dance music," "they're kinda provincial," "the crowds in Brisbane can react like villagers when you bring out a musical Frankenstein they're unfamiliar with," well ... it was all completely WRONG! Give them clever, mashed-up party music, and people can't help but smile and dance and sing at the top of the their lungs and have an unpretentiously good time!

DJ BootOX pretty much sums up how we felt about the party!

It was hot in Brisbane! See how sweaty we all were at the end of the night? That's Mysterious D, DJ HDD, and Cloudface Von Ruckus, a mashup fan from Brisbane we met on Facebook.

Aw, the Mysterious D all tuckered out after a night at Bootie Brisbane!

TO SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM BOOTIE BRISBANE, CLICK HERE!

We were so pumped up from adrenaline from the Bootie party the night before that somehow, despite our hangovers, we got our asses out of bed the next day in order to do the one "touristy" thing we wanted to do in Brisbane -- go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. After all, we're in Australia, dammit! Thank you, Brewski, for taking us to see some koalas and kangaroos!

If we asked this kangaroo what he was doing, he'd probably say he was "chillaxin'" or something. But we know better.

Aw, Adrian feeds da wittle joey!

After getting our fill of native Australian wildlife, Brewski took us to the top of Mount Coot-Tha for a pretty view of Brisbane.

Seems like every town has a Chinatown, and that's where we had dinner with BootOX and Brewski, talking shop and hanging out. We're gonna see BootOX several times this month, as he and DJ Schmolli are doing a Bootie tour in the States. And Brewski is now a resident DJ of Bootie Brisbane!

The next day, after a meeting over brekkies (that's Aussie slang for breakfast) with Adam and Guy, we flew off to Sydney. No Bootie party there, just a little vacay ... and of course, quite a bit of scouting around. Because, you know... it's not like we wouldn't WANT to have a Bootie party in Sydney (especially since it's SO SIMILAR to San Francisco!)

Bootie's very first international guest DJ was Dsico, a former mashup producer from Sydney, Australia. Luke was one of the first people involved in the bootleg scene way back in 2002-2003, but by the time he played at Bootie in February '04, he was already over it, declaring "bootlegs are dead" ... pretty much before the scene even began! We always loved his dry, cynical sense of humor! Unfortunately, he moved to London a couple years ago, but he sent us a list of all the places to hit up while Sydney. Our first evening there, we had a Coopers Pale Ale in honor of him -- it's his favorite beer!

OMG, we're in Sydney!

Adrian is a bit of an academic when it comes to modern architecture, so of course, one of our first stops HAD to be the Sydney Opera House. Pictures barely do this building justice -- it's gorgeous from every angle.

Everyone told us that we had to take a boat out on the harbour ... so D decided to do this one, which is a jet boat that does 270 degree spin-outs on the water...

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

Kinda hard to get a steady shot of Sydney when you're skipping over waves at 50 mph (80 kph), but here's one.

Went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was doing an exhibition by kooky, OCD-suffering, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. This is a mirrored room installation filled with, um ... lots of soft plushy things.

After the social intensity of being in Brisbane, it was kinda nice to be on our own for a few days. But we were definitely looking forward to having dinner and drinks with Wax Audio, one of our favorite mashup producers. We met Tom last year in New York, and it was so nice to catch up with him in his own backyard, chatting all about mashups and GYBO and traveling and the current drought situation in Australia. Just a lovely night out!

Anyone who knows Adrian knows that he has a tower fetish (goes with the modern architecture thing) so of course we had to go up to the top of the Sydney Tower. But it was all getting to be a little too touristy, so after two days, we heeded the advice of Dsico and HDD, and headed to Newtown, blundering around the shops and pubs on King Street (kinda the Sydney version of Haight Street in SF).

As soon as we got off the train at Newtown, we were both like, "Ah, now THIS is where we should be hanging out!" And because it's a little off the map in our tourist books, we never would have made it had Dsico and HDD not told us to go. Not far from King Street is the Imperial Hotel, made famous from one of the opening scenes of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert! Unfortunately, it was closed.

Seeing as that we were in Sydney from Monday through Wednesday, our nightlife options were unfortunately a bit limited. However, we managed to make it to the Sly Fox for "Queer Central" on Wednesday, a long-running drag (king and queen) night. Ah, a little taste of Trannyshack Down Under!

It was so nice to see drag kings in Sydney ... at least we got a little local culture in for our last night. And then, just for contrast, we went to "Paradise City," a poorly-attended-but-fun old-school rock 'n' roll night at Q-Bar on Oxford Street. Not exactly a representative sampling of all the nightlife options in Sydney, but hey, we took what we could get on a Wednesday night!

Heading back home, nine days later ... but we got one of those days back, since we crossed the international date line! We were a little jet-lagged for Bootie SF two days later, but whatever ... Australia was completely worth it!

TO SEE ALL THE PHOTOS FROM OUR BRISBANE/SYDNEY TRIP, CLICK HERE!

Bootie Beijing photos & tour report!

Earlier this month, Bootie went to China ... again! This was the second time we've done a Bootie Beijing, only this time, it was a three-night event, organized by our friend DJ Beau Toxx from Hong Kong. The parties included not just ourselves, A Plus D, but also Adrian's live mashup rock band, Smash-Up Derby, who are the house band at Bootie SF. To say that the trip was amazing would be understatement. Let's do a little photo blog about it, shall we?

Everything is bigger in China ... and it starts the minute you get to the airport. Here's Matty C. walking underneath the largest roof in the world!

We did Bootie at Centro, the first Western-style bar/nightclub in Beijing, which is in the Shangri-La's Kerry Centre Hotel. Here's one of the posters they used to advertise the event. They were definitely pushing us as something different than what they usually do.

Here's what Centro looks like during the day. It's pretty swanky. In the evenings, they usually feature a three-piece jazz band with a female chanteuse ... but not THIS weekend! Here's what they wrote in the hotel event brochure: "Ever heard two completely different songs mixed together to emerge a perfectly smooth new song? Bootie@Beijing show you how its done... where else but at Centro, the city's trendsetter in bar and entertainment concepts."

In more ways than one...

Day One: After sound-checking at the very un-rock star time of 9 AM, our "cruise director" Caroline dragged us ... shopping! We went to the Silk Market, six-stories of consumer goods madness. Pictures do NOT do this place justice. Salesgirls in the aisles are constantly yelling at you, trying to get you to buy shit. "Pretty lady! You want handbag?" It's INSANE. Still, if you know how to haggle, there are bargains to be had. Adrian bought a tailor-made pinstripe suit for only $130. He picked out the fabric, got his measurements taken, and 36 hours later, he had a custom suit!

After that, we hopped a taxi (which are ridiculously cheap) and went to the Forbidden City. Immediately, we were all like, "band photos!" This is my favorite Smash-Up Derby shot.

A+D+BT ... us and Beau Toxx (and Chairman Mao in the middle)

Okay, everyone look to the right ... toward the future!

Yay, we're in China!

We did mention that everything is bigger in China, right? Here's Jamie popping out of an enormous urn.

Don't believe it.

Some things don't translate all that well...

Day Two: Despite playing three nights in a row, we were still hell-bent on cramming as much sightseeing in as we could. Next stop: The Great Wall of China!

Despite Rule #2, they let us on the cable car anyway. This is the gondolla that takes you up the mountain to the Great Wall.

Look, if nothing else, all Smash-Up Derby wanted was to get some new band photos on The Great Wall of China. First mashup band to play in Communist China!

Up on the mountain where the Wall is, there was ... SNOW! Which is usually, like, whatever ... except Jason (a born-and-bred San Franciscan) had never seen or touched actual snow before!

Here's the whole Bootie Beijing crew: Beau Toxx, Angela, Matty, Mysterious D, Adrian, Jamie, Trixxie, Jason (and Caroline, who took the photo!)

We took sooooo many band promo shots, hoping to get at least a few good ones. I particularly like this one.

SUD

Jamie and Caroline, coming down from the wall.

The whole reason we went to this section of the Great Wall -- Mutianyu -- was because of the tobaggan slide run down the mountain. Ever since we did this back in November, we've been dying to do it again. And when we told Smash-Up Derby about it, everyone was super-excited ... almost even more than seeing the Great Wall!

Here's Trixxie, ready to race down the tobaggon run. Beau Toxx shot video the whole way down, which hopefully we'll be posting soon!

These are the same guys we saw in November, hustling for photo ops at the bottom of the toboggan slide. Totally worth 10 yuan for each of 'em!

Here's "John," the best taxi driver in Beijing! He picked us up the day before from the Forbidden City, and we liked him so much, we hired him to take us to the Great Wall. I think he liked practicing his English with us.

Such a cute little van! Doesn't Jamie look BIG next to it?

Here's the Kerry Centre, the hotel we stayed and played in. They took great care of us, and the buffet was pretty damn good. We felt a little spoiled ... it was nice!

Smash-Up Derby rockin' out at Centro! We were a little worried about how a live rock band was going to go over in a place that usually has a quiet jazz band, but they publicized the night really well, so we seemed to have an audience that was ready for it.

Beau Toxx and D hanging out with George, the hotel manager. You'd never know it by looking at him, but George loves the Sex Pistols! (Which we found out when Smash-Up Derby played a version of Go Home Productions' "God Save Madonna" mashup)

Everyone loved Jamie's beard -- especially these women, who dubbed themselves "United Nations Gone Wrong." They're all from different countries!

Day Three: Our friends Dean and Jackie from Shanghai came up to Beijing to see us! Dean never misses a Bootie in Asia! We love him -- he was there at the beginning of our DJ career, back when we used to spin at The Cinch, the little gay bar down the street from us! He even booked us for our first corporate gig!

Dean and Jackie insisted that we should go to the Temple of Heaven, so while the rest of the band went back to the Silk Market, we grabbed Trixxie and did more sight-seeing.

Trixxie Carr has the world's smallest bladder, so this sign was sort of a running gag for the whole trip.

We love "Chinglish" words and phrases, especially in fashion. We were looking everywhere for some really great t-shirts with random English words on it, but all we could really find was this awesome handbag. That girl is lucky we didn't tackle her and grab it!

After the Temple of Heaven, we really wanted to go to the 798 Art District, an abandoned electronics factory that has been turned into artists studios and galleries -- it's the center of contemporary modern art in Beijing, a scene that literally did not exist ten years ago. Plus, this is the only place you'll see graffiti in Beijing. D loves this panda art.

While walking around 798, there was a large group of photographers touring the area, who began swarming around Adrian and Trixxie, shooting them as if was Paris Hilton walking down the red carpet. It was crazy.

This sculpture pretty much sums up the current state of China ... a pair of traditional Communist propaganda workers, holding up a big wad of Chinese money!

We LOVED the 798 Art District! Really fun, very cool art.

D tries to drink from the world's biggest coffee cup!

While we were at 798, the rest of the band went to check out the new CCTV building (shown here with Angela) which was a couple blocks away from our hotel. The Chinese call this the "short pants." We totally loved all the new, cutting-edge, world-class architecture.

Our last night doing Bootie Beijing at Centro. Mysterious D looking ... mysterious.

We had a wonderful crowd on Saturday night, who stayed later than the other nights. We met a bunch of college kids from the Bay Area who were doing a semester abroad in Beijing. They were so happy a band like Smash-Up Derby had come to town! And some of them had downloaded all the "Best of Bootie" CDs!

Dean having fun at Bootie while Jamie tries to look cool while playing keyboards.

Trixxie eats the mic! Singing three sets a night, three nights in a row -- in a very smoky bar -- was more gruelling than we were expecting. The jazz singer from California who normally sings at Centro gave us a tip: fill a bottle with warm water and honey and keep it with you on stage at all times. It was a life-saver!

Mysterious D and Not-So-Mysterious Dean

Beau Toxx, Matty, Caroline, and Jamie ... we were all in a celebratory mood on that last night.

DJ Beau Toxx rockin' the decks at Bootie Beijing! He put on an extra-long song so he could run out to the lobby to take part in the following...

This was the ginormous Bootie Beijing sign in the lobby of the Kerry Centre hotel, with giant images of our faces. We just knew we had to do a photo shoot in front of it before the night was over.

Adrian and Jamie attempt to recreate the same poses on the poster.

Champagne toast after the last Smash-Up Derby set of the weekend.

The cocktail waitresses at Centro loved us!

And our sound guys rocked! Despite the size of the stage and the mirrored surfaces behind the drums, everything was dialed in great. These guys really knew what they were doing.

And more photo shoot shenanigans out in the lobby...

A+D+Dada ... aka Matty C. He's been with Bootie since the very beginning (Literally! He's always the opening DJ!) We were so glad we were able to take him to China with us!

After the night was over, we sat around drinking champagne while the staff tore things down -- including the gigantic poster, which they folded up and gave to us to take back home! We hung it up at the DNA Lounge during our "homecoming show" at Bootie SF the following weekend.

Smash-Up Derby, in the lobby the next morning, ready to head back to the airport. What a trip!

As you can tell, it was an absurdly fantastic time. Much love and thanks to Thierry (aka DJ Beau Toxx) for making it all happen and to Caroline for being the hostess with the mostest!

If you're really interesed in seeing a TON more photos, CLICK ON OVER TO THE BOOTIE BEIJING PHOTO GALLERIES!

Bootie goes Down Under! Bootie Brisbane this Saturday, March 21

Another month, another continent! This Saturday, we're helping to launch Bootie Brisbane, our first Australian mashup party at Cloud 9, with Bootie founders Adrian & the Mysterious D (A Plus D), Bootie Munich resident DJ BootOX, and Brisbane DJs Guy Davy and LolaDJs, who are the ones responsible for bringing this mashup madness to Oz!

We've always wanted an excuse to go to Australia, and now we've got one! We're looking forward to meeting up with a few Aussie bootleggers as well, such as Wax Audio and VJ Brewski!

Back from Bootie Beijing!

We're back from our 3-1/2 day trip to China, where we did our first Bootie Beijing party at Punk, at The Opposite House. Here are some of the edited highlights:

This is The Opposite House. It's on Sanlitun Road, a street well-known for its bars, restaurants, and nightlife. Beijing is currently revitalizing the entire area, and swank-tacular boutique hotels like this are part of the developments.

Here's our room. This was SO NICE to come to after 18 hours of travelling. We got in at 6 in the morning, but didn't want to throw off our sleep schedule, so instead of crawling into that cushy bed, we fought jet-lag and hit the ground running.

Our first stops (after eating a fabulous vegetarian meal at Pure Lotus) were The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Those imperial palaces inside go on forever. And then when you're ready to leave, you realize you're stuck in the middle, and you have to go through a bunch more just to get out. But the Imperial Garden was awesome! Except for this part...

Chinese Gardening Fail!

On our way to the Forbidden City, we passed by a building I had been DYING to see: The new CCTV Building. It's an architectural marvel, and it's almost completed. The Chinese love to come up with funny nicknames for their buildings, and this one is called "Short Pants."

The next day, we hired a car for the day (taxis and car services are shockingly cheap in Beijing, especially compared to what we're used to in San Francisco and New York) and made the obligatory trip to The Great Wall of China, which is about an hour away. OMFG! It was pretty damn awesome. Who knew that starting a club that plays mashups would lead us to being at The Great Wall of China? Pretty crazy.

All and all, it's just another ... brick in the wall.

Did you know that there's a section of the Wall where they've built a tobaggan run? Why doesn't anyone talk about these things? You take ski left up the mountain to the Wall, and then you can slide down on these tobaggans. And they can go FAST! To get a pretty good idea of what it's like, check out this video.

This photo shoot cost us $3. These guys were hustlin' in style!

Mysterious D's latest hat. She does NOT know how to haggle properly and paid WAY too much for this. She thought she was being generous, until we read somewhere that when Westerners don't haggle, they don't think you're being generous ... they just think you're stupid! But who cares? She loves her new hat!

After a harrowing ride through the countryside back into Beijing (drivers are crazy in China) we went to the Olympic Village ... kind of a "compare and contrast" between (very) old China and (very) new China. This is the "Bird's Nest."

We were psyched that you could go inside the National Stadium. There were a zillion Chinese tourists there, but shockingly, not many Westerners. You can tell the Chinese are obviously proud of what they've got here.

Doesn't Adrian look like the Beijing Olympic mascot?

If D were wearing green, this might work better.

The Water Cube wasn't so impressive during daylight hours, but when it's lit up at night, it's pretty great!

The next day our friend Dean flew in from Shanghai. We first met him five or six years ago when we used to DJ on Thursday nights at The Cinch, the little gay bar down the street from us. He loved our stuff and booked us for his company Halloween parties. He has watched us grow our Bootie empire over the years and has been super supportive. Part of the reason we got to do Bootie Beijing was because when we visited him in Shanghai last year, he introduced us to DJ Teng Boon, who liked our mashup style, and then booked us at Punk! Speaking of...

Here we are at Punk, doing our first Bootie Beijing. This is before Adrian climbed up on the DJ booth to sing the live midnight mashup show, causing a beer to spill on the brand-new Rane digital mixer, which then fritzed out, grinding the show to a halt, creating havoc, but also gave us an opportunity to talk to the crowd and give out free Bootie CDs while resident DJ Ekki switched out mixers for us. Oh, Ekki, we LOVE YOU! Here she is, after the crisis has been averted:

DJ Ekki is adorable. She kicked off the evening, but then pretty much had the night off after we went on ... we DJed for six hours! Apparently, Punk usually closed down around 3 AM, but we had them dancing until 4:30! It was definitely a later crowd, and they were up for it!

Getting down at Bootie Beijing. Hey, there's Dean in the front!

There was a club photographer there who took better photos than we managed. You can check them out HERE.

Apparently in China, girls show their love and appreciation for the DJs by biting the sides of their faces off.

It was a little rough the next morning, but we made it on the plane! We loved Beijing, and hope to be back soon!

TONS AND TONS MORE PHOTOS HERE!

Bootie Beijing this Saturday!

OMG, we're going to China! It's our very first Bootie Beijing!

Seems like we only ever post to the Bootie Blog when we've got a new Bootie Top 10 (coming soon!) ... or when we're traveling out of the country!

So we'll be posting our travel reports here ... assuming we can access Blogger through the Great Firewall of China! Stay tuned. We'll let you know how our diplomatic mashup mission goes!

First Bootie Chicago this Thursday, October 23

For more info: www.BootieChicago.com

Bootie Hong Kong! And our first trip to Shanghai

Just got back from five days in China ... our first two nights we were in Shanghai, and then we hopped over to Hong Kong to DJ at our very first Bootie Hong Kong!

Can I just say how much we LOOOOOOVE Hong Kong? Seriously. This was our second gig there, and we while we knew we really liked HK back when we were there in December, we are now in serious LOVE.

We could totally live there.

But in the meantime, we'll just see if we can keep doing Bootie parties there. We're shooting for a few times a year, but we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, it was great seeing some friends while we were over there, including our friend Dean, who lives in Shanghai and convinced us to stop by there on our way to Hong Kong. Dean was one of our earliest supporters, who used to come hear us spin at The Cinch, the trashy little fun neighborhood gay bar down the street from us, where we first got our start DJing back in 2002-2004.

We crammed as much as we could into two nights and one day in Shanghai, including (in order) a gay bar, a foot massage, a few art museums, shopping for cheap knock-offs of bags and watches, the Bund Tourist Tunnel (above), the Chinese Sex Museum (below) ...

... and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower (which we loved in all its tacky sci-fi glory). So many skyscrapers here, it's insane. As Mixmag just wrote, Shanghai is like the "communist version of Blade Runner."


The next day we took the new high-tech Maglev train (270 mph!) to the new high-tech Pudong airport and jetted off to Hong Kong, where we were put up at the Grand Hyatt, since Bootie HK was being held at JJ's, the hotel's nightclub. (Most of the happening nightspots in Hong Kong are in hotels, actually.) We were picked up at the airport by the hotel limo (so rock star!) and once we got settled, we hopped the ferry to Kowloon to dine at Philip Starck's fancy Felix restaurant.

The next day, we hung out with Thierry, aka DJ Beau Toxx, who was instrumental in helping us get our asses to Hong Kong. We went out to dim sum with him and Caroline, then traded MP3s and prepared sets for the night.
The Bootie party itself went over great! Mostly an ex-pat crowd (which is what we were expecting) but it was a very eclectic mix of people – a little bit of everybody. Straight, gay, mainstream, indie, young, old ... it was soooo Bootie! We were quite pleased! Here are our friends Mark, Noel (who booked us at JJ's), and Tonio, doing these insane green shots...
Really fun DJ sets, an excited dance floor, people clammoring for free mashup CDs, me singing a midnight mashup show, and people even sang along to Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer."
Like we said, it was very much a Bootie party! We hope we can come back and do it again!

The next day, we got to go see a matinee of "We Will Rock You," the stage musical based on the music of Queen, which happened to be playing at the theatre right across the street from our hotel! Readers of this blog will know how disappointed we were that we missed this show when we were in London a few weeks ago ... and now here we were, with fate offering us a second chance! It was super cheesy fun, and really reminded us how much we love Queen.

After that, D hung out in our swanky hotel room while I braved the heat and humidity to go up the Peak Tram. Snapped the above photo. Then we hopped the ferry again to Kowloon to watch the "Symphony of Lights" – the nightly 15-minute show that synchronizes a bunch of skyscraper lights and lasers with super-cheesy music. Brilliant!
Then we went to the Temple Street Night Market to buy some cheap t-shirts and cheap Chinese food. Notice the sign of the tacky restaurant below? We ate at the "Tak Kee Seafood Restaurant"!
China is super excited about the upcoming Olympics. Everywhere you go, there's Olympic stuff everywhere, including this odd "Adrian-looking" mascot!

We flew home to San Francisco the next day, flying out at 8 in the morning on Monday, and getting to San Francisco at ... 9:30 Monday morning. I love the mind-fuck of the International Date Line! (But don't love jet-lag ... ugh.)

Next stop: the Bootie LA 3-Year Anniversary Pirate Ball, this Saturday!

Two weeks later: the A+D European Tour wrap-up!

You know how it is ... you're on tour, traveling through Europe, and you're starting to get really good at keeping up with this blogging thing. Then, all of a sudden ... it's over.

You're on a plane flying back home to the States, where you deliriously throw a Bootie party within hours of landing back in San Francisco, and you wake up the next day and Real Life – not to mention Jet-Lag – just sort of slams you in the face.

Did that European tour even happen?

Of course it did. After all, we've got the pictures and video to prove it!

So here we are, two weeks and three Bootie parties later, and we're finally getting around to posting a little wrap-up.


BOOTIE MUNICH

How great was it to finally get to meet the Bootie Munich crew? Here are these people we had previously never met – we had only communicated with via phone and email – and not only are they doing a Bootie party, but they are doing it extremely well! And this from a bunch of people who have never even BEEN to one of our Bootie parties in the U.S!

Yes, it was fucking weird. But I must say, it was extremely gratifying to be halfway across the world and DJing at a party that we helped create. We felt like proud parents!

Frank and Bootox (above) are the main masterminds behind Bootie Munich, and they were consumate hosts, taking us to the Hofbräuhaus for Bavarian beer, and basically just showing us a great time in Munich. At the Hofbräuhaus, we met a girl from Oakland. We put her on the guest list, and she came to Bootie Munich and had a great time! Random!


DJ Schmolli (below) has long been one of our favorite bootleggers, and we were the ones who first suggested that he should be a resident DJ at Bootie Munich. Every month he drives out from Vienna, Austria to rock the decks, and we were so psyched to finally get to meet him!
Speaking of meeting people, this entire trip was so socially intense! We met so many wonderful people. FM24 is one of them - he's the one on the right:
FM24 is a Bavarian mashup fan who took a bunch of great photos and videos in Munich, and also hooked us up with a little touring care package that included tea, mints, and homeopathic medicines, all of which were much appreciated. I'm happy to say that throughout the entire hectic 17-day tour, despite the erratic sleep schedule, jet-lag, and traveling, we never once got sick!

FM24 posted some videos from Bootie Munich – parts of the sound check, the midnight mashup show, and parts of the DJ sets from ourselves, as well as DJs Schmolli, Bootox, and DJ Y alias JY.







Check out more photos from Munich HERE!

And check out FM24's blog with even more photos HERE!

MASH-UP YOUR BOOTZ - BERLIN

We have to say, we LOVED Berlin. We just felt so at home there, and the neighborhood we were staying in – Friedrichshain – was filled with tons of people with colored hair, dreadlocks, and ... high-tech pimped out baby strollers! Pimp my stroller! It was weird. It was like a mashup of Noe Valley and Haight Street.

Plus, it was the only remotely affordable city on our tour ... the only place where I didn't feel like I was hemorraging money!

We instantly bonded with DJ Morgoth (aka André) and Alex, our host. The first night we were there, we spun at Mash-Up Your Bootz, a party at a small club that is a converted subway station entrance. Here's us with Morgoth and Dr. Waumiau:

The crowd was one of the most diverse we'd ever seen, and we spun one of our favorite sets EVER. What did we spin? Well ... to our surprise, DJ Morgoth is as much of a mashup obsessive as we are, and apparently has an insanely encyclopedic knowledge of bootlegs and mashups. And here we thought we were the only ones! We couldn't even begin to remember what all we played, and then he shocks us by not only posting our entire set list to GYBO, but also listing all the mashup titles and bootlegger credits!

So here's what we played in Berlin:

A plus D at Mash-Up Your Bootz:
1. Bootie Intro [A plus D]
2. Rammstein vs. Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock - It Takes Du [SMC]
3. Missy Elliot vs. Metallica - Enter The Bitch [Kurtis Rush]
4. AC/DC vs. Justin Timberlake - Sexy Hell [Divide & Kreate]
5. Rob Base vs. Prince - It Takes Two To Kiss [DJ John]
6. Eurythmics vs. White Stripes - Sweet Dreams Are Made of Seven Nation Army [DJ Poly]
7. Led Zeppelin vs. Snoop Dogg - Drop It Lie It's A Whole Lotta Love [Party Ben]
8. Kanye West vs. Beethoven vs. Walter Murphy - Beethoven's Fifth Gold Digger [A plus D]
9. Nine Inch Nails vs. Ace Of Base - She Wants Animals [Tripp]
10. Shaggy vs. Rage Against The Machine - Killing Boombastic [DJ Zebra]
11. Dr.Dre vs. Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Next Episode.mp3 [Cheekyboy]
12. C&C Music Factory vs. Ram Jam - Gonna make Betty sweat [Torero]
13. Gwen Stefani vs. Front 242 - Hollaback Headhunter [A plus D]
14. Benny Benassi vs. Depeche Mode - Satisfaction vs. Master & Servant
15. Rammstein vs. Kelly Clarkson - Since You've Been Rosenrot [DJ Schmolli]
16. Iggy Pop vs. Yaz – Don't Wanna Go [Braces Tower]
17. Jay-Z vs. Nena - 99 Luft Problems [Jay-Zeezer]
18. Nelly Furtado vs. Aerosmith vs. Run-DMC - Promiscuous Walk [A plus D]
19. Daft Punk vs. Queen - Another One Bites Da Funk [Party Ben]

20. Midnight Mashup Show: Smash-Up Derby Live Medley by Adrian
consisting of following trackz:
Dandy Warhols vs. Soft Cell - Tainted Like You
Franz Ferdinand vs. Talking Heads - Talking Franz
The White Stripes vs. Eurythmics - Seven Nation Army Dreams
Nirvana vs. Michael Jackson - Smells Like Billie Jean
Singing on a bar top!
21. L'Trimm vs. Gary Numan vs. The Beatles - My Other Car Is A Beatle [Jay-R]
22. Daft Punk vs. Dead Or Alive vs. Britney Spears vs. Justice - Britney: Dead or Alive [team9]
23. Dead Or Alive vs. Diana Ross - Spin Me Around vs. Upside Down [Shyboy]
24. Lipps Inc. vs. Scissor Sisters - Funky/Gorgous [DJ Spark]
25. Kool & the Gang vs. Ying Yang Twins feat. Pitbull - Celeshake [A plus D]
26. Michael Jackson vs. Justice vs. C&C Music Factory - Justice For Billie Jean [DJ Schmolli]
27. Cher vs. AC/DC - You Believe Me All Night Long [A plus D]
28. Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK (DJ Zebra Remix)
29. New Order vs. M.I.A. - $20 Monday [A Plus D]
30. Robyn vs. The Cure - Close To Konichiwa Bitches [A plus D]
31. Amy Winehouse vs. Britney Spears - Detox [King Of Pants]
32. Depeche Mode vs. Madonna - (Just Can't Get) Enough Music [Tristan Shout]
33. Cheryl Lynn vs. Fat Joe & Nelly - Real Back Poppin' [DJ Axel]
34. The Gossip vs. Elastica - Standing In The Way of Connection [A plus D]
35. L7 vs. CSS - Pretend We're Alala [The Illuminoids]
36. Metallica vs. Run-DMC - Tricky Sandman [DJ M.i.F]
37. Eurythmics vs. Lady Sovereign vs. Shiny Grey - Sweet Sovereign [Jay-R]
38. The Supermen Lovers vs. Nirvana - Come As The Starlight [Overdub]
39. Ministry vs. Kelis - Thieveshake [ToToM]
40. Blondie vs. The Doors - Rapture Riders [Go Home Productions]
41. Bee Gees vs. Usher - Stayin' Yeah [Batchelor Royale]
42. Pink Floyd vs. The BeeGees - Stayin' Alive In The Wall [Wax Audio]
43. Rolling Stones vs. Queen vs. Nirvana - Sympathy For Teen Spirit [DJ Moule]
44. Blondie vs. Madonna - Call Me Hung Up [A plus D]
45. Missy Elliott vs. The Cure - I'm Really Hot Hot Hot [A plus D]
46. Nirvana vs. Michael Jackson - Smells Like Billie Jean [McSleazy]

See? Incredibly diverse.

DJ Morgoth is coming to the U.S. to spin at Bootie SF and NYC at the end of September. We can't wait. Mash-Up Your Bootz at Bootie!

You know, we absolutely love it when other mashup parties pop up around the world. Believe it or not, we don't think that every mashup-themed party should be a Bootie party. We're not the Borg of mashup clubs.

With that said however, I must say I kinda wish that Morgoth's party was a Bootie Berlin! He just shares such a similar mind-set and aesthetic when it comes to mashups, and we really dug his eclectic taste and his fun-loving attitude. He's got the open-minded, up-for-fun Bootie vibe down!

I already blogged extensively about Berlin, so I'm just going to post a few more pix...

The gentrification of East Berlin is underway:
Metal is alive and well in Berlin:
Obligatory A+D "band photo in front of a chunk of the Berlin Wall:
My favorite day of the week: Vodka Day! (pronounced "wodka" in German!)
Can you believe these metalheads drink these foofy drinks?

BOOTIE COPENHAGEN

The Bootie party in Copenhagen was their first one, and while it was quite small, we still had an absolutely AMAZING time there. Mikkel, aka DJ M.i.F. (pronounced "mif," apparently, not "em-eye-eff"), and his brother Rasmus (below in pirate gear) were wonderful hosts ... and made us feel quite comfortable and at home. In fact, we had our first decent sleep on the tour in Copenhagen!
M.i.F.'s promoter partner, Fuller, was a big ball of energy. Is there anything this man has NOT done? He seemingly knew everyone in Denmark, or has at least worked with all of them once. He has his fingers in so many pies, and is definitely the kind of guy you want showing you around Copenhagen! Here's Fuller and M.i.F. at Bootie CPH:

I really wanted to drive across the Oresund Bridge - the long-ass bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden - just to be able to say that I've been to Sweden. But instead, a piece of Sweden came to us, in the form of Copycat, one of our favorite bootleggers, and wonderful chap as well! He shares our love and fascination of '80s music, and he speaks better English than most Americans we know!
My only regret about Copenhagen was this:
While in Denmark, we were introduced to Fisk, a Danish liquor made with those Fishermen's Friend mints. We had it in the car right after we were picked up at the airport, we had several shots at Bootie Copenhagen, and we even had some for breakfast the day we left. Mikkel had given us a bottle as a parting gift. But in the airport, we had to open up our luggage to grab some stuff. As we did, the bottle rolled out and shattered on the floor. :-(

However, in hindsite, this might have prevented the bottle breaking INSIDE of D's suitcase. Despite our best efforts to keep our suitcases within airline carry-on regulation size, they far exceeded carry-on regulation WEIGHT. Therefore, we had to baggage check our luggage every time we flew in Europe. A little scary, but it all worked out.


BOOTIE PARIS

Speaking of luggage, don't we look cute with our luggage? Notice our suitcases match our hair. Here we are at a fountain in Paris, where Marco, aka DJ ComaR, met us when we first arrived in Paris.

The first time we were in Paris, back in 2006, it was in the middle of November. It was chilly, rainy, and it would start getting dark by 4:30 PM. Our running joke was that all we saw of Paris was the inside of a nightclub. We even did all our sightseeing at night!

So this time, we were determined to actually try to SEE Paris. And the weather could not have been better. Ahh, so THIS is what they mean by "springtime in Paris!" It was BEAUTIFUL. Very romantical. All I wanted to do is walk around holding hands ... through the streets, along the Seine, in the park. D was wondering if I had been abducted and replaced by an alternate universe Robo-Adrian. I'm not exactly the most romantical person in the world.

One for me, one for D:
Bootie Paris was seriously off the hook. We probably each lost five pounds just sweating during our DJ set in the hotbox that was the basement of La Mechanique. But it was gratifying, with a crowd so vibrant and obviously excited about mashups, singing along and going absolutely CRAZY.

TONS OF AWESOME BOOTIE PARIS PHOTOS HERE!

Midnight mashup show in Bootie Paris!




It seemed emblematic of Paris in general - shit is just HAPPENING here! Obviously, with things like Justice, Ed Banger, and Daft Punk going on, Paris is a hotbed of talent. But everywhere you go, you can just sort of feel that there's an excitement in the air. A lot of creativity and talent in Paris right now, and that feeling rubs off. We were insanely inspired.


Despite our internet addiction, we actually tore ourselves away from the laptop long enough to get some sight-seeing in, which was nice, making up for the last time we were in Paris. We never made it to the Louvre, but as Marco said, "It's just boring old stuff there."

We saw Moule at the Centre Pompidou!

We got really lucky while in Paris, because Marco's brother (who lives in the same apartment building) went away on holiday, and he let us have his apartment for two nights! Woo-hoo! We were even able to do laundry, which after nearly two weeks, was desperately needed!

Although what's the deal with the lack of dryers in Europe? Seems like everyone air dries their clothes. It ranks right up there with the lack of elevators in buildings too. We never walked up so many stairs as we did in Europe!

BLACK BALLOON, MISS-SHAPES, COVER UP – LONDON

Our last four nights on tour were in London, and it was INTENSELY social. We got absolutely no sight-seeing in, because all we did was DJ (three gigs!), shop at Camden Stables Market (only a 7-minute walk away!), and meet people for drinks (we didn't realize how many people we know in London!)

A store at Camden Stables Market:

Each gig in London was dramatically different from the other, and none of them were at mashup parties, which was an interesting change of pace from the rest of Europe.

Although, how ironic is it that the city that's the birthplace of the modern mashup movement has no real bootleg mashup party? People kept telling us that we should start up a Bootie London - and they're right, we should - but we would need to partner with the right people, just like we have in Paris, Munich, Copenhagen, and Boston. We couldn't do it on our own, that's for sure.

Black Balloon was super stylish and very cool ... I very much enjoyed playing a set of mostly electro covers of '80s songs, with a few mashups thrown in too. Mika, the promoter, is doing a great job, and is definitely coming up fast in the London club scene. It's no surprise that our old friend Christian from San Francisco is Mika's flatmate! Birds of a feather!

Miss-Shapes was fun ... I already blogged quite a bit about that, how fun it was to spin indie pop mashups for queer indie kids ... watching to see if they would "get it" or not.

And Cover Up was a blast too! We were pretty drunk by the time we went on, but it all went really well. Why were we drunk? (Well, why not?) Actually, we were drunk because we had organized a little meet-and-greet with a bunch of friends from the GYBO message board -- fellow DJs and bootleggers, all part of our mashup community.

Many we've met before (or even had guest DJ at Bootie) but we met some new people too, like Bryan from Flying White Dots and Jez from Celebrity Murder Party and Robb.

Hanging out with Jof and Phil:
It was great to catch up with old friends Eric Kleptone, Payroll, Timbearcub, Phil n' Dog, Ian Fondue, Steve Supercollider, Jof ... and Dsico and Ben Jamin earlier in the week. Am I forgetting anyone? And meeting cool new people like Cover Up's Sam and Charlie. Like I said: INTENSELY SOCIAL!

Last stop on the A+D Drinking Through Europe Tour - 4 AM, London, after-party at Charlie's apartment

WE WENT TO EUROPE AND ALL WE GOT WERE A BUNCH OF T-SHIRTS

Actually, that's not true at all. Although we did get Bootie Munich and Bootie Paris shirts, as well as Mash-Up Your Bootz shirts. It's so nice to meet other DJs and club promoters who understand the importance of branding! :-)

No actually, we went to Europe and all we got was a bunch of bonding time with some great people in our mashup/bootleg/DJ/club community. More than anything, it was just so amazing hanging out with and meeting all these people whose work we've long admired from afar.

It truly does feel that what we're doing with mashup culture works on a global level ... that music is a universal language, and that it has the power to bond and unite people across culture lines and national borders. We all share a common love of music -- and not just music, but the idea of fucking with that music, mashing it up, making it our own, making musical statements and jokes, and then sharing it with the world. We feel so connected with our European mashup community right now!

We just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who hosted us, put us up, fed us lunch, fed us dinner, let us crash in their bed, crash on their floor, gave us a solid internet connection, gave us CDs, gave us t-shirts, picked us up at the airport with beers in hand, made us laugh, let us do laundry, bought us drinks, put up with our horrible attempts at mangling your native language, listened to us bitch about GYBO, let us DJ at their club, and basically showed us a good time.

It was a trip we won't soon forget!

Me blogging while drunk in the middle of the night in London!

COMPLETE TOUR PHOTOS HERE!

Nice one! Brilliant! Jolly good show!

Last night in London ... blogging while an after-party rages around me, as our host Charlie forces everyone to play "Cosmic Choice," the game where you unwittingly pick out songs from his record collection, which he then plays for you on his DJ set-up in his lovely apartment, filled with really cool framed graphic prints, like this one:
Anyway, TOP NIGHT! But before it was night, we ended up meeting with Brighton's bootleg talent, Eric Kleptone of The Kleptones, and Bryan from Flying White Dots, in the park across from the venue, on one of the sunniest, warmest days ever in London:
We arranged a little GYBO meet-and-greet at a local pub with several of our UK bootlegger community... here's Jof and Ian Fondue:
Robb, Ian Fondue, Eric Kleptone, & Adrian:
Adrian, Ian Dog, Steve Supercollider, and Jof:
A + Payroll + D
A + Jez of Celebrity Murder Party + D
Our host for the night, Charlie!
This girl loved us...
Damn, dance floor till the end of the night!

More ... much much more ... coming later ... but right now, we've got to get our asses on a plane to go back to San Francisco!

No sightseeing for us in London

Our DJ gigs and social itinerary (and, let's face it, the shopping in Camden) are keeping us so busy here in London, that we're not getting any sightseeing done. All I wanted to do was ride the London Eye (giant ferris wheel on the Thames) and go to the Tate Modern art museum. But noooooo! We've got to WORK!

So it's our second full day in London ... and if we weren't so busy, this is what we'd be doing:
I've heard it's completely cheesy, but we've always wanted to see the sci-fi rock musical "We Will Rock You" ... featuring the music of Queen!

Although, maybe it's for the best... seeing it here in London would be twice as expensive as seeing it in the States! So instead of catching a show in Soho, we caught up with Tim Baker, aka TBC, producer of the long-running Radio Clash podcast, which features tons of mashups. We had a lovely dinner, then popped on over to The Duck & Dog Pub to meet up with a legend of the early mashup scene ... former bootlegger from Sydney, Australia ... DSICO! Here he is with TBC:
Yes, Dsico is alive and well and living in London! Dsico was the mashup producer who first coined the phrase "mashups are dead" way back in 2003. He was also our first international guest DJ to play at Bootie way back in February 2004 -- after which, he promptly dropped out of the mashup scene entirely.

It was great seeing them, and it was fun bringing two icons of mashup culture (at least in our minds) together for a few informal beers out in the streets of Soho.

We were careful not to get as drunk as the previous night, and headed over to The Ghetto for our guest DJ set at Miss-Shapes. We met Sandra, the DJ/promoter of the night, and we have to say, she is easily one of the nicest club people we've ever met. They don't book guest DJs at Miss-Shapes hardly ever, so she was taking a chance in doing a last-minute booking of a couple of freaky mashup DJs from America.
But she liked what she heard on our A plus D website, and the other resident DJ took the night off, so there we were, spinning a mostly indie mashup set for a REALLY fun, up-for-it crowd of cool dykes and fags. It's always hard playing a mostly mashup set for a crowd not used to it, but for the most part, it really worked out.

We really want to thank Sandra for booking us ... it was such a blast to come back to a party we loved two years ago ... and then return there to DJ it. Here we are at the end of the night ... we're the guest DJs!
Next stop ... our last gig of the tour at Cover Up!

London: Hyper-social, hyper-shopping

The running joke has been that we saved the best for last. Ah, London! We felt at home the minute we got here. And not just because everyone speaks English!

Although I must admit, after two weeks of traveling in Germany, Denmark, and France, it's quite a relief to be in a place where we can speak the language. Although some of the British accents are so thick, they might as well be speaking French! Still, D no longer has to try to speak slowly (a near impossibility for her), and I don't have to try to formulate everything into simple sentences.

The main reason we felt so much "at home" is because we're staying with our old San Francisco friend (and fantastic stylist) Christian, who moved to London about a year-and-a-half ago. His flatmate, Mika, was in San Francisco a few weeks ago, and really enjoyed my electro covers set in the upstairs lounge at Bootie. So he booked us for a gig at Black Balloon, completely unaware that we were even friends with Christian. It was quite funny when Mika found out we were staying at their flat! Birds of a feather .... we are amongst "our people."

Here we are with Christian (left) and Mika (right):
After an insanely-expensive meal at a lovely Indian restauraunt (damn that horrible dollar-to-pound conversion rate -- everything is twice as expensive!) we somehow ended up at a tragic karaoke night. But hey, the drinks were cheap, and that nearly made it worth it. Of course, I had to belt out a couple tunes -- after a good rendition of "Tainted Love," a massacred Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker" in Christian's honor.
Our first night in London was a mellow affair ... the calm before the storm, so to speak. Christian and Mika live in Camden, which worked out GREAT for us, because our favorite shopping pilgramage -- the Camden Stables Market -- is only a 10 minute walk away. The last time I was here, I spent something like $900 USD on clothes.

This time, I didn't do TOO MUCH damage to my credit card. I've discovered that I've outgrown Cyberdog. I used to love the clothes, but I've always hated the music -- and shopping in their store is a headache-inducing experience, as they blast the most annoying rave at top volume. I probably would have spent more money in their shop had I not wanted to get the fuck out of there as fast as I could. Definitely not somewhere one should shop with a hangover.

However, I absolutely adore Spank -- and I so wish they sold their clothes at shops in the U.S. Definitely my favorite designer in Camden ... their clothes are SO me. Oh, Spank, I missed you!
We met up with Sam, the promoter of Cover Up, the party we're spinning at on Friday. He's primarily the one who got our asses to London. We traded club stories and he gave us flyers ... nice guy. Shares many of the same party philosophies we have (which is, basically, in a nut-shell -- make sure your party is fun!)
We're staying a couple blocks away from Amy Winehouse's house! There's always a few paparazzi hanging out there:
Before our gig in Soho at Black Balloon, we met up with DJ Ben Jamin, who was a guest DJ at Bootie last year. We adore him. He invited us to a party at Barcode, where there were free drinks -- and cocktails are so damn expensive in London, that when there's a party with free booze from 6-9 pm, you GO! In fact, you go and drink as many of them as you can before 9 o'clock.
I wish I had photos from our gig at Black Balloon, because it was a very cool, very dressed-up crowd. But it was so cool, I didn't want to look like a bloody tourist taking pictures of all the freaks. And then when we were DJing, I was so busy trying to find just the right cool electro cover/remix/bootleg that I just completely forgot to snap any pix. There was a photographer there however, so hopefully, there will be some pix soon!

More pix from Paris

The Arc de Triomph! Had no idea you can up inside of it and stand on top for an excellent view of Paris!
More stairs! We've been walking up so many damn stairs in Europe. No elevators! This would never fly in America....
A+D and the Eiffel Tower in the distance, from the top of Arc de Triomph.
Space Invader tile on a wall in Paris
We LOVE the Paris Metro ... so easy to get around ... way better than New York's subway, that's for sure
Instead of the Louvre, we went to the Centre Pompidou ... we love modern art ... all the inards of the building are on the outside ... this was "shocking" and "avant-garde" back in the '70s when it was built. Now it just looks sort of janky (but I still like it)Insanely minimalist art ... this like an art joke, right? Three canvasses, all painted white.
Took this photo for DJ Dada ... get it? Marcel Duchampe's famous "ready-made" art -- the urinal.
Our hard drives are in a modern art museum! We own half the hard drives in this photo!
Right before we left Paris, we squeezed in a trip to Les Catacombes with Jam... Back in the 1700s, the cemetaries in Paris were taking up too much valuable real estate, so the moved all the bodies and bones underground...
Creeptastic!
It's still the A+D Drinking Their Way Through Europe tour! Haven't gone one day in Europe without some booze ... but the drinks are kinda small here in France ... check out the size of our hands in relation to the glasses!
We took the Eurostar to London yesterday afternoon ... just as expensive as a plane ticket but WAY more convenient (and takes even less time, when you factor all the travel time getting to and from the airport). Highly-recommended!

Bootie Paris ... most favorite A+D set ever?

OH MY FUCKING GOD. Bootie Paris was off the hook!

D and I were having major flashbacks to Bootie SF when we used to be at the Cherry Bar. It was a super-fun, tight-knit scene, obviously a bunch of regular mashup fans, but also many curious first-timers as well.

The downstairs dance room was a hot, sweltering sauna, with the walls dripping -- just like Cherry Bar used to be. And upstairs, it was a French bootlegger convention! If a meteor were to strike La Mechanique Ondulatoire that night, it would have wiped out nearly the entire French mashup scene: DJs Comar, Zebra, Totom, Reno, LeClown, Sebwax, Phatbastard, Grandpamini, Mighty Mike ... am I forgetting anyone?

We are sooooo proud of Comar and his co-promoter Jam, who have worked so hard to make the Bootie Paris party a reality. The crowd was super into it, jumping up and down, singing along. WOW.

It was just one of those magical sets where even technical problems became assets -- for example, we weren't sure how we were going to transition out of Lobsterdust's "Disco Rump Chant" ... and then the sound cut out due to a faulty cable. Perfect! The crowd was there, screaming their support ... and when we kicked the set back in with "Celeshake" the place erupted. We love it when a sound fuck-up makes our set better!

Here are some pix:

In the afternoon, we met DJ LeClown, and The A+D "Gettin' Drunk in Europe" Tour continued! BTW, each of these biers is $12. Ouch! We hate the euro to dollar exchange rate!
Comar and Mysterious D at sound check, playing with his new Pioneer CDJ-400s which are soooooo sweeeeet! D couldn't stop playing with the beat stutter effect (or whatever it is) and you know how I LOVE my flanger "wah" effect! We really want to trade in our old pair of Pioneer 800s for these!
Loved meeting bootlegger Totom and midnight mashup show star Grandpamini!
The midnight mashup show particularly rocked ... hot, sweaty rock 'n' roll madness!
Comar and D, wearing the famous "Grandpamini glasses"Frank from Bootie Munich came to Bootie Paris! Here he is with his Parisian counterpart, Jam! Comar & Jam are the Bootox & Frank, and vice versa. Even before we met them, we knew we had to get the Bootie Paris and Munich boys together, and ever since they met a few months ago, they've been exchanging trade secrets ever since.
We heart DJ Reno -- one of the most energetic DJs we've ever met ... and he knows just what to do to get the crowd fired up!
Drunk shot at the end of the party: Zebra, Reno, Adrian, Frank, and Grandpamini on the bottom. Woo-hoo!

First night in Paris

Bootie Paris on the streets of Bastille everywhere! Our Bootie Paris partners are doing their work!
Comar and Jam, the masterminds of Bootie Paris -- so happy to have finally met Jam! We love him ... so charming...The beers are smaller in France ... as Comar said: "You're not in Germany anymore!"

Bootie Copenhagen pix!

This is what we woke up to on Thursday morning ... Danish! Mikkel and his brother Rasmus are fucking with us, aren't they?
We LOVED meeting Copycat from Sweden, one of our favorite mashup artists
In the park for the May Day festivities, promoting for Bootie Copenhagen
DJ M.i.F. helping D out with the "Drinking Through Europe" tour
Here we are, posing in the tiny DJ booth at Bootie Copenhagen
Mikkel (DJ M.i.F.) and Fuller were AMAZING hosts ... made us feel SOOOO WELCOME in Denmark!

More pix and more detailed reports coming later ... but we're in France right now -- Bootie Paris is tonight! And we want to get our asses out the door to enjoy "Paris in the spring!" The weather here is awesome!

Just added! Guest set at Miss-Shapes in London!

Well aren't we excited? We just found out we'll be doing a guest DJ set at the original Miss-Shapes party at The Ghetto in London -- the club that eventually inspired New York's own Misshapes party!

We actually were at Miss-Shapes two years ago, when we were in London last. Here's what I wrote about it in my blog back then:

"It was a fun party ... lots of girls with fauxhawks, very indie-queer, yet still mixed with some gay boys and straights. The DJs played a fun mix of indie/pop party tunes, and I must say, it's really weird to see an entire club of hipsters singing along to Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani. (American kitzch? Sometimes, it's hard the tell the difference between irony and genuine adoration.)

I went up to the DJ booth to introduce myself and give them an A+D CD. To my shock, the DJ says, "I know who you are!" Then she opens the CD, looks at the track listing, and tell me that she plays "Decepta-Freak-On" and "An Honest M.I.A." along with a few others. WOW. Two songs later, she drops our Le Tigre vs. Missy mashup, and I gotta say, it's awfully gratifying to be halfway around the world at a hip London nightclub, and to hear your mashup spun for a packed dance floor."

And now we get to DJ there ... woo-hoo!

THURSDAY, 8 MAY – LONDON, UK
MISS-SHAPES UK, The Ghetto. Guest DJ set at the original and best Misshapes party in Soho! 5-6 Falconberg Court, behind the Astoria, Soho, London

We heart Copenhagen!

We got some CULCHA the minute we hit Denmark ... Mikkel and Fuller picked us up from the airport and took us immediately to the Arken ... the Modern Art Museum in Copenhagen ... very cool!

DJ M.i.F. in an A+D sandwich
I can't fucking believe we got dragged to Ikea within hours of being in Scandinavia! We thought it was a joke, but Fuller really needed to buy a minimalist shelf RIGHT THEN AND THERE!
Copenhagen ... such a beautiful city...
Hijinx in Copenhagen! Insert your own sexual innuendo-filled caption in the comments field below... too delirious to be funny...
Can you believe there's an amusement park SMACK DAB in the middle of Copenhagen? Right across from the City Hall, actually. It's BRILLIANT. It's called Tivoli, and of course, we HAD to go. Here's Fuller and Mikkel in the bumper cars:

D is a total wuss, and as we found out ... she HATES roller coasters... but she's okay on bumper cars...

Best quote of the night: "I just wanted a relaxing chill night, and now I'm on a roller coaster." -- Mysterious D at Tivoli

We heart Berlin!

The A+D Drinking Our Way Through Europe Tour continues! This is a bar with sand on the floor ... our last drinking stop in Berlin...

These are the stairs we walked up every day ... no elevators in East Berlin!
Alex, Nico, and Morgoth! New Berlin friends! (And they all love rock and metal!)
The "Berlin Bootie Office" ... there's free WiFi everywhere in Berlin ... we love Friedrichshain, the neighborhood we stayed in Berlin ... felt very much like home!
The newly renovated Reichstag, with the clear dome in the middle (to signify Germany's more open government) ... the line was too long to go up and see it, but we snapped this shot as we took a taxi to the airport (because the bus drivers were on strike the day we wanted to leave! DOH!)
International jet-set DJs! (The poverty jet-set, actually)

Drunken bloggen

I'm sitting here at an outdoor cafe with wireless in Berlin ... it's after midnight, and D is still suffering from jet-lag so she's already in bed ... but for some reason, she and I have traded places -- ever since I've gotten to Europe, I've been able to drink MORE than her! WTF?

So I'm still awake, ready to rock, drinking a hefeweisen, checking email, and listening to the Bootie SF webcast from the DNA Lounge website. It's our version of a baby monitor ... listening in to make sure everything went okay. We've been so worried about our baby -- especially since we haven't had internet for the past day or so. We keep making references to the recent "South Park" episode -- "No internet? Noooooooooo!" Even our new Berlin friends get the reference!

I'm happy to report that Bootie SF sounds like it rocked ... from Ya-Ya's reassuring text message, to the recent Yelp.com review, and now, the webcast ... it all sounds like it was a great party. Even without us!

Gotta admit though, it's fucking weird.

Anyway, back to Europe. After all, we're nine hours ahead!

Ich bin ein Munich-er

Been hearing about this Time magazine cover on GYBO and via email, and now we found it while sightseeing in Berlin! Yay! Recognize the Bootie reference in the below photo?

Been loving the cool Ikea-like, perfectly designed toilet fixtures in Germany. They don't look like this in the USA:

Bootie Munich was great! Good party ... and SOOOOO weird to, uh ... see your own party -- your own creation -- take on a life of its own, halfway around the world! D and I sat there and watched and listened to BootOX and Schmolli spin very Bootie-style sets -- but with a German flair. They kicked ass! So proud...

We opened our set with the midnight mashup show -- me singing a Smash-Up Derby medley live, karaoke-style, with BootOX and Frank dressed like bunny rabbits in suits, playing "guitar." It actually was awesome ... I had a wireless microphone, so I was able to run around the club a little bit.
Some really great photos HERE!

We started our set with the Bootie intro, then we had a little CD deck hiccup, so I got on the mic and said, "Ich bin ein Munich-er," which everyone laughed at. At the time, I thought I made a funny JFK reference, but the next day, I found out that Alex and Frank were cracking up over the way I mangled the Deutche language ... it's "Münchener" NOT "Munich-er" -- which is apparently like saying "Germany-er." DOH! Okay, now it's a funny inside joke for all the Bootie Munich people. I'm sure they'll be quoting me for months...

We had a very good set, but ... BootOX and Schmolli and DJ Y alias JY played so well before us, stealing at least half of either the instrumentals or acapellas that we wanted to play, that it felt a little rough going into it. We now know what if feels like for other guest DJs to play at Bootie SF. They obviously were trying to show us how great they can rock the crowd -- and they obviously know their crowd better than we do. Just like we do in SF, LA, and NYC. We almost always play better for the Bootie crowd than our guest DJs, and now we know what it feels like to be on the other side. Karma's a bitch!

But it was a blast playing Munich... FM24 took tons of photos HERE!

Here's one of us with the Bootie Munich crew: Frank, BootOX, and Schmolli:

With 14 people sleeping at the Bootie Munich headquarters, it's not surprising that we woke up early... no infamous sausages breakfast, but it was great to talk to everyone a little bit more sober than the night before! We heart DJ Schmolli so much, and am so glad he's a resident DJ at Bootie Munich. We made him play Rammstein vs. Kelly Clarkson for us at the party the night before!

Despite rumors to the contrary, Frank and Alex were excellent at getting us to the airport on time. Which brings us to...

Ich bin ein Berliner

DJ Morgoth and his friend Alex picked us up at the Berlin airport, and despite our delirium, we were ready to drink beer in the car on the way into Berlin. You can drink beer in the car? Fuck yeah, we LOVE this country!

Alex gave us the driving tour through the middle of Berlin, we got settled, changed into our new Mash-Up Your Bootz tshirts, and went to the U5 club...

It was a smaller party than Munich but ... DAMN. We had a FUCKING GREAT TIME. We loved meeting Dr. Waumiau -- his name means "bark" and "meow" (I guess dogs go "vow!" in German!)

Our set was just ON POINT for some reason. We had probably one of our most favorite sets EVER ... maybe even better than Burning Man. I'm not sure why, but D and I were just like sharing the same mind, and got to play such a WIDE range ... we started off with "It Takes Du" -- Eric B. & Rakim vs. Rammstein -- and went very industrial, then metal, then 80s, then ... I don't even know where ... it just flowed from genre to genre, pleasing all the different people there -- a mix of Australian metalheads, indie chicks, gay skinheads, hip-hop kids, and ... I don't know, just cool Berliners... only 25-30 people on the dance floor, but they all loved it and DID NOT LEAVE during our entire set.

We even pulled a midnight mashup show (at 1:15 AM) out of our ass... I stood on the bar and sang, scaring the gay skinhead in the corner, and probably never having so many people take my picture at once. (pictures coming soon... can't take pictures of myself while I'm singing!)

Mysterious D was seriously in the zone... and then when DJ Morgoth went on after us, he spun a super Bootie-style set, and we played "Name That Bootlegger." Totally fun! And we are super in love with Morgoth's "BlurDemmi" mashup, which mashes up "Song 2" (whoo-hoo!) with the German rap of Deichkind (yippee yippee yeah!). So good he and Alex got a free trip to the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennessee out of it! Here's Morgoth and Alex:

It's the A+D Drinking Our Way Through Europe Tour!

The next day, we were obviously exhausted. We slept until 4 PM, not even realizing it. FUCK! Jet-lag is a bitch.

We didn't even take showers, we were so eager to hit Berlin. We went out drinking with Alex and Morgoth, doing a bar-crawl through the very cool neighborhood of Friedrichshain (easier to spell than to say) and ate even more food that is... BREAD & CHEESE!

(Seems like all we've eaten since coming to Germany is bread and cheese ... and, oh yeah, some vegetables.)

Here are some pics:

Morgoth:

Me and Rob Halford (or at least a giant fiberglass statue of him)

The end of the night (note: this is only ONE of the bars we went to)

Today, we actually got our asses up... D was awake at 8:30 AM ... hurray for jet-lag! She woke me up an hour later, we grabbed some breakfast at Intimes (where I am right now), a great bar/cafe on the corner with free WiFi, hooked up with Alex, and then he took us on a 5-hour tour of Berlin.

We really wanted to see some pieces of the Berlin Wall, so our first stop was the East Side Gallery, a section of the wall that was painted by artists. I'm surprised they don't have artists paint fresh murals every year, but Alex told us that they might tear it all down... which to us would be a shame ... it's such an important (and strangely unique) historical reminder.


Fancy tower!

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a fascination with tall towers (sure, go ahead and read what you want into that, Freud) so our next stop was the Fernsehturm -- otherwise known as the "TV Tower" since I couldn't ever get the pronunciation correct until I realized it kinda sounded like "fancy term" ... otherwise known as ... FANCY TOWER!


It was 8 euro to go to the top ... that's $12 for those keeping track of how crappy the American dollar is right now ... but hey, when would we ever get the chance again to go to the top of a landmark built primarily to show Western society (i.e. West Berlin) the strength and enduring legacy of socialist government?


We walked down the Unter den Linden, looking at several big buildings and statues, making our way to the Brandenburg Tor (Gate). Then we went all "stupid American tourist", and made a very patient Alex take us to Checkpoint Charlie, where we shamelessly made him take our photos in front of the (fake) military sign and a chunk of the (real) Berlin Wall. Then our feet were tired.


Bitch, bitte!

Later, we met up with Morgoth and some of their friends, and had several rounds of drinks in Prenzlauer Berg ... big foofy vodka drinks because ... it was VODKA DAY! Pronounced "wodka" or "vodka" depending... Great conversations with new German friends and then somehow... I said, "Bitch, bitte!" to D and she freaked out because she had thought the same thing earlier, but didn't say it because... let's face it, "bitch, please!" does NOT translate very well into German. Okay, some more pics... I'm taking some Tylenol PM and going to bed...


More pics here: http://www.bootieusa.com/europe/europe.html

Jet lag, I hate you

You can run, but you can't hide from it. I fought it, and was up by noon. D woke up at ... 3 pm. Of course, Alex and Frank's flatmate who was hammering his wall at 10 AM did not help. Ugh. "Bitte, nein hammer!"

Saw barely any sunlight today, but enough to get this very Munich photos. Everything looks like this in Munich:

To quote Alex: "SERIOUSLY!!!" Okay, not really. But it's soooooo the way Germany looks by way of Disneyland. That Oktoberfest beer garden at Great America theme park? Looks just like the Hofbrauhaus. Seriously.

Checked out the NY.Club tonight, where we are DJing tomorrow... I think it's gonna be good! They were playing a lot of the same kind of music we play (but not mashed up) and the crowd is a mix of gay and straight. Perfect!

I wanna mashup the Disco Boys... it's an English-language big hit here, but I'd never heard it before... but I just know Kelly Clarkson's Since U Been Gone would work over it!

First night in Munich

Why am I still up?

Oh yeah, jet lag.

Frank and Alex picked us up at the airport. This is how they drive on the autobahn:

Back at Bootie Munich headquarters:

Throwing gang signs while promoting Bootie at a Munich club

The car I want:

The car I can afford:

Packing up for European tour!

In five hours, we will be on a plane, headed for Munich, Germany – the first stop on our 17-day (although it will probably mostly feel like 17-nights) EUROPEAN TOUR!

• Six gigs
• Five cities
• Four carry-on bags
• Three Bootie parties
• Two stressed-out DJs
• One $113 A+D flag


Yup, got our own flag made for the tour. Now it's official.

We flew home from Bootie New York on Saturday, so we would have an extra 2-1/2 days to pack and prepare for this tour. We've been a little stressed out, but overall, we're holding up okay! Here's some shots of our preparations:

To-Do Lists coming out our ass!

135 A+D CDs!

Travelling and touring is always a whirlwind, but we're going to do our best to keep this blog updated over the course of our travels. Some keep checking in with us!

First stop: Munich! There's some Bavarian beer with our names on it, just waiting for us!

A+D go on European Bootie tour!

FRIDAY, 25 APRIL 25 – MUNICH, GERMANY
BOOTIE MUNICH, NY.Club. We finally play our own party in Germany! Sonnenstrasse 25
80331, Munich, Germany

SATURDAY, 26 APRIL – BERLIN, GERMANY
MASH-UP YOUR BOOTZ , U5 Club. Guest set at Berlin's mashup party. U5 Club, Frankfurter Tor 9, Berlin, Germany

THURSDAY, 1 MAY – COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
BOOTIE COPENHAGEN, Spirit. A one-off with DJ M.i.F., it's our first Bootie party in Scandanavia! Skindergade 20 KLD, Copenhagen. 22.00-04.00.

SATURDAY, 3 MAY – PARIS, FRANCE
BOOTIE PARIS, La Mecanique Ondulatorie. We finally play our own party in Paris! La Mecanique Ondulatoire, 8 Passage Thiere, Paris

WEDNESDAY, 7 MAY – LONDON, UK
BLACK BALLOON, Punk. A guest set of a morbid mashup of electro and indie. 14 Soho Street, Soho, London
THURSDAY, 8 MAY – LONDON, UK
MISS-SHAPES UK, The Ghetto. Guest DJ set at the original and best Misshapes party in Soho! 5-6 Falconberg Court, behind the Astoria, Soho, London

FRIDAY, 9 MAY – LONDON, UK
COVER UP, Ginglik. New party celebrating cover versions and mashups of songs! 1 Shepherds Bush Green, London