NAKED MUSIC PARTY featuring ANDY CALDwell and Mauricio AViles along with Felix & Gani at Inside (218 Richmond West), Friday (March 7), 10 pm. $15. www.milkevents.com
Rating: NNNNN
Bay Area DJ/producer Andy Caldwell is famous for his floor-filling deep house jams on San Francisco’s popular Naked Music imprint, his jazzy joints for Om and for playing keyboards for live house combo Soulstice, but he’s got more on the go.
Caldwell’s new remix for the latest Jennifer Lopez single, the LL Cool J duet All I Have, should help refurnish his pad. But that’s not what’s causing a stir in the clubs he’s been spinning at lately with Naked cohort Mauricio Aviles. The big-buzz track is his pumping house revision of Nirvana’s Come As You Are.
The unsanctioned remix — commonly referred to as a “bootleg” on the club scene — was cut on a lark by Caldwell two weeks ago to drop exclusively in his sets.
“It’s kinda funny,” chuckles Caldwell from a stop in Manhattan. “When I put it on, people get this puzzled look, like, ‘Whoa, wait a second, I know this. It’s Nirvana! Wow, that’s weird.’ But then they get into it. I’ve kept Kurt Cobain’s vocals on it except that part where he sings, ‘I swear I don’t have a gun.’ I didn’t think that would go over too well.
“I haven’t done many bootlegs, other than an Earth Wind and Fire thing a couple of years ago. They’re fun to do once in a while.”
Judging by the enthusiastic reaction his Nirvana remix white label has been getting, it could be gigantic if it ever hits the streets. If Universal had any sense, it would look into licensing it on the double.
“Anything can happen at this point. Hey, the producers (credited as ‘Your Friends from San Francisco’) who did the Jill Scott bootleg, He Loves Me (Illegal mix), were nominated for a Grammy in the best remixed recording, non-classical category, this year, so I think the industry’s attitude to bootlegs is changing.
“I think more labels are using bootlegs as a marketing tool. They’re making a cappella tracks available so that bootlegs get done. If the track blows up, they’ll license it or sue the producer so they don’t need to pay a huge chunk of money upfront to have a remix done. That’s just the way it works.”
