| American Edit | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Remix album by Dean Gray | |
| Released | November 18, 2005 |
| Genre | Plunderphonics |
| Length | 48:35 |
| Label | Self-released |
| Singles from American Edit | |
| |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| PopMatters |   [1] |
| Punknews.org |   [2] |
American Edit is a mashup album released by Party Ben and Team9 under the shared alias Dean Gray. Its primary basis is the Green Day album American Idiot—the name "Dean Gray" is a spoonerism of "Green Day".[3][4][5]
The album was an internet-only release with no intent of commercial gain; Dean Gray asked fans who enjoyed the album to donate to charities Green Day had been known to support. Nevertheless, only 10 days after its November 18, 2005, release, the American Edit website was shut down, reportedly after receiving a cease and desist order from Green Day's label, Warner Records, despite Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong having called the project "really cool".[6] The website returned online soon after but without inclusion of the music.
Despite the cease and desist, the album endured through word of mouth and fan protests staged in support of the album. Following the shutdown, 91X, a radio station in San Diego, aired the entire album. Soon after, on December 13, 2005, a fan-organized event referred to as "Dean Gray Tuesday" (a reference to 2004's Grey Tuesday) was staged as a protest against the shutdown, in which the album was uploaded to a number of participating websites as torrents, direct MP3 downloads or ZIP archives. Video clips of "Dr. Who on Holiday", "American Jesus", and "Boulevard of Broken Songs" were also made available. The shutdown and protest contributed to international press coverage beyond the music industry.
An edited, four-song version of American Edit was performed as a "mashup rock opera" at the Bootie 3-Year Anniversary Party at DNA Lounge in San Francisco on August 11, 2006. Entitled Dean Gray – American Edit: The Theatrical Experience, the show – presented by the band Smash-Up Derby and starring performance artist Foxy Cotton – was a combination of live music, theatre, and visuals.[7]
In 2008 an unofficial extended version of the album was released online at The Pirate Bay. Subtitled "Deluxe Edition 2008", this version of the album featured the same original 11 tracks plus and additional 4 new songs, "Can't Get a Life", "Country Basket", "I Like American Idiots", and "Greenday Triple Tracker", from DJ Pegasus, who had no part in the original album. This version also included a slightly altered version of "Ashanti's Letterbomb" in the place of the version from the original American Edit.
The track, "The Bad Homecoming", would precipitate an actual collaboration between U2 and Green Day in 2006: a cover of "The Saints Are Coming". On August 10, 2009, the song was played by DJ Adam-12 of Boston's WBCN during the station's four-day farewell to analog broadcasting.
