Going straight for the knees

Adam Horovitz is interviewed in today's Sunday Mail. Among the things revealed in the interview is the Beastie Boys will be performing a concert in Singapore.

December 10, 2006
Perfectly Beastie

The Beastie Boys, pioneers of white rap, are spreading the Good Vibrations. RITCHIE YORKE reports

IN the other hemisphere, the rain is turning to sleet and then snow and chill winds rip leaves from the trees as winter descends. The average North American's thoughts turn to heading south to warmer climes.

Beastie Boy Ad-Rock (Adam Horowitz) joins the yearning throng as he contemplates the prospects of an Australian outdoor summer show early next year.

The Beasties are headlining the Good Vibrations line-up along with Jurassic 5, Timo Maas, Cassius, Nightmares on Wax and a host of others at Doug Jennings Park on the Gold Coast on February 11. There's a total of four Australian shows and a Singapore date.

"I'm more excited than you know about playing this show. We're pumped. These shows are just perfect for us," said the almost 40-year-old Ad-Rock from New York, whose last local appearance was the Big Day Out two years ago.

"The idea of the Good Vibrations series of shows is to basically hit the audiences hard. We're going to go straight for the knees. That may sound like a negative thing -- but we're actually going to turn that into a positive thing.

"We're just going to play the classics. Go with what you know. It's pretty much a case of, 'We've come to rock your socks off'.

"That's what we're getting paid for, and that's what we're going to do."

Since hitting the top of the charts in 1981 as early white exponents of the emerging rap culture, the Beasties have established themselves as one of the leading touring acts in the game.

Ad-Rock, who wasn't a founding member, says the band are amazed at the extraordinary inroads rap has made internationally.

"We're all pretty amazed about what's happened to that form of music. Finally, in the past couple of years, people have stopped asking when the rap fad will die out. This stuff obviously ain't dying out."

He agrees that it might be an appropriate time for rap and hip-hop to be considered a separate form of music from conventional rock 'n' roll.

"You wouldn't say that reggae and rock 'n' roll are the same. You wouldn't say that jazz and rock 'n' roll are the same. There's a lot more than just one style out there.

"It makes me feel good to see where rap is going man. It's very interesting. A lot of people are making a lot of money that wouldn't necessarily be making a lot of money. It's definitely a way for some people to make some money.

"But the influence of rap producers is making it the biggest form of music around right now. And so the biggest artists in the pop world -- artists like Gwen Stefani -- are now getting the leading rap producers to make their records.''

He doesn't really have an answer to questions about what music has impressed him lately.

"But I'm also like a real weirdo in that I listen to a lot of older music. Not old, but older."