We’re back from Burning Man, where we had two of our best Bootie BRC parties evah! Needless to say, it took us while to get back up to speed after partying in the desert for a week – not to mention having to run multiple Bootie parties in their various locales – but now we’re ramping up to head off to Southeast Asia in October, where we’ll be doing an A+D Bootie mini-tour of Singapore, Vietnam (Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City), and Bangkok. Here are our gig dates:

THURSDAY OCTOBER 6 – SINGAPORE
AVALON, Marina Bay Sands Complex

THURSDAY OCTOBER 13 – HANOI, VIETNAM
BAR ROOFTOP, TẠI HÀ NỘI VÀO NGÀY 13 THÁNG 10 NĂM 2011

TUESDAY OCTOBER 18 – HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM
BLUE LOUNGE, TẠI THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH VÀO NGÀY 15 THÁNG 10 NĂM 2011

SATURDAY OCTOBER 22 – BANGKOK, THAILAND
BED SUPPERCLUB, 26 Soi Sukhumvit 11

______________________________________________

And back in the good ol’ US of A, Bootie Boston’s dj BC has relocated to Atlanta, where he will be launching Bootie ATL on Saturday, October 15. He just couldn’t stay away! For many years, we talked about possibly doing a party in Atlanta, and are elated that BC is finally bringing the mashup action to the Dirty South!

And finally, across the pond in Europe, Bootie Vienna returned, and it’s looking like Bootie Amsterdam will hopefully soon become a reality.

Building a mashup club empire, one brick at a time!

Check out this great article on the Amoeblog about Bootie SF’s 8-Year Anniversary, which includes a short interview with Bootie’s founders, Adrian & Mysterious D.

It also includes a plug for this week’s Bootie BRC parties out at Burning Man.

Thanks to Billy Jam for writing us up!

We just saw Kreayshawn last night at her homecoming show at Slim’s in San Francisco, and though it was only a short, 35-minute set (with the White Girl Mob full representing), we felt we had witnessed the start of something big. In honor of Kreayshawn’s looming success, we’re posting the video for our A Plus D mashup, “Gucci Gucci Girl Power,” which mashes her up with three decades’ worth of female artists – Toni Basil, Le Tigre, The Ting Tings, The Go-Go’s, and Kreayshawn’s mom’s surf-punk band from the ’90s, The Trashwomen. Thanks to Dylan Vasey for editing together the video!

This coming Easter weekend, Bootie is going to The Netherlands to take part in its first European festival, Paaspop in Schijndel. An entire area, called “Mashup Ville,” has been dedicated to mashups, and we – A Plus D – will be doing headlining sets each night.

We’ll be joined by some of the best names in the European mashup scene, including many of our personal friends and colleagues, including Bootie Berlin’s DJ Morgoth, Dr. Waumiau, and Mashup-Germany, as well as DJ Schmolli and Simon Idoll. We’re also looking forward to meeting for the first time some of the faces behind the names we’ve known for so long, such as Bootie Top 10ers MadMixMustang, G3rst, Pheugoo, and Mash2Mix, as well as Dylan Vasey, Bo the Man, and Siegmund Fred.

MASHURRECTED 2011 :: m i x t a p e by madmixmustang

To commemorate the event, DJ Morgoth has put together the mixtape, “Mashurrected 2011,” featuring mashups from the entire DJ line-up of Mashup Ville at Paaspop. Click above to give it a listen, or to download the album, click here!

Looking forward to two days of hanging out with our fellow mashup DJs, and partying with the Dutch! Mad props to MadMixMustang for helping to put this whole thing together!

Bootie’s love affair with New York Post’s PopWrap continues with this, a PopWrap exclusive and A Plus D’s first mashup of 2011 – a concept so screamingly obvious that we HAD to “whip it up” (pun intended) before there were a zillion other versions out there.

Download here: A Plus D – “Whip My Hair, Whip It Real Good” (Willow Smith vs. Devo)

For most of the month of November, we’ll be in Southeast Asia and Australia, bringing Bootie to four different cities on two continents!

CLICK EACH FLYER FOR MORE INFO!

FRIDAY 19 NOVEMBER – SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
BOOTIE SYDNEY @ PHOENIX BAR
Exchange Hotel, 34 Oxford St., Darlinghurst, Sydney
Our first Bootie mashup party in Sydney!

It’s almost Halloween, and we’ve been busy! First up, we – A Plus D – will be DJing this Thursday, October 28th, at the annual Refi Rock Halloween Party at Pacha in New York City, which is a benefit for the Boomer Esiason Foundation.

Not only are we DJing for a good cause, we’re also DJing … with Pauly D, of Jersey Shore fame! A Plus D Plus Pauly D — what’s not to like? Halloween party, yeaaaah! We’ll be sure to take pictures.

After the party, we fly back to San Francisco just in time to throw our epic Halloween Booootie party at the DNA Lounge. We just finished compiling the “Halloween Booootie 2″ CD, filled with 13 spooktacular Halloween-themed mashups. We’ll be giving them away FREE to the first 300 people in costume, but for a sneak preview, check out our latest A Plus D mashup: “Psycho Killer On The Dancefloor.”

HALLOWEEN DOWNLOAD: A Plus D – “Psycho Killer On The Dancefloor” (Talking Heads vs. DJ Sign & Purple Project)

In this week’s cover story of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, entitled “Parties Without Borders,” we are prominently featured in an article about how a few San Francisco promoters are exporting their parties to other cities, with a focus on Bootie, and, more specifically, our recent Europe/Asia/Brazil tour.

Check it out, it’s a really good read! Thanks, Marke B.!

A Plus D and Bootie have teamed up with the New York Post to provide exclusive mashups for their popular blog, Pop Wrap!

For our first one, we originally gave them two mashups that were current pop vs. current alt-rock, but what they REALLY wanted was “pop infused with pop layered with pop throwing up pop.”  And who are we to deny them? May we present:

A Plus D – Rude Maneater (Rihanna vs. Hall & Oates)

We’ve gotta admit, we’re starting to feel vindicated!

Seven years ago, everyone thought our little mashup hobby was just a silly underground fad. But in the past week, our little “hobby” has popped up on MTV, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Huffington Post, CNN, and more.

Is the “Best of Bootie 2009″ CD a harbinger of where music is going in the new decade?

As tireless torch-bearers of the mashup scene, 2009 was certainly an interesting year for us to watch, what with mashups popping up as a major plot point on the television show Glee, becoming every playable track on the DJ Hero videogame, CNN’s Campbell Brown talking about “the mash-up” every night, etc.

Have mashups gone from buzzworthy to simply part of the cultural fabric yet? We’d like to think so. And it will become even moreso as time goes on — the mashup will go from “guilty pleasure” to simply “pleasure”. The “trend” element will be long gone, and hopefully what we’ll be left with is just another style of remix for producers and music listeners to choose from.

After seeing the Lady Gaga show in San Francisco last week, we just HAD to do SOMETHING with “Bad Romance.” So here we are, finding common ground between two songs nearly 28 years apart.

Presenting the latest mashup production from A Plus D, where we give early ’80s electro-pop pioneers Human League a hot new singer!

Lady GaGa vs. Human League (AplusD MashupMix)
Uploaded by vjbrewski. – Explore more music videos.

It’s been three years since our first Bootie holiday mix CD — that’s how long it takes to compile 15 more quality Christmas (and Hanukkah!) mashups! But we’ve finally released our second holiday mashup compilation! Happy holidays!

Get it here: BootieUSA.com/xmas

There’s even a “family-friendly” version of the album which omits our “Xmas Dick In A Box.” Here’s what’s on it.

1. Go Home Productions – High Tides and Blocked Peace Pipes
2. DJ Schmolli – Pumping Up Christmas
3. Dan Phillips – Jingles Are Jingles
4. King Of Pants – Alala Falala Hasselhoff
5. Smash-Up Derby – Christmas Bop
6. Secret Santa – Santa’s Silent Bum
7. Voicedude – Dreidel All The Way
8. Voicedude – Black Door Or White Santa
9. Jacqui Naylor – Santa Claus Is Coming To Alabama (A+D Remix)
10. A Plus D – Xmas Dick In A Box
11. DJ BC – Sugar Plum Fairy Coda (Recoda)
12. Little Drummer Bonzo – DJ Topcat
13. Mojochronic – Yuletide Zeppelin
14. Alexkid & DJ Seep – Santa Baby (Remix)
15. Voicedude – It’s The Little Things

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!

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!

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!

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!