Sean Sturge and sound team (Photo: Mix)

Our favorite person on the Beastie Boys tour crew, Sean Sturge, got a write-up about his work on the Beastie Boys tour in the October 1 issue of Mix magazine. At Mix's web site, you can view a gallery of photos of the tour crew and band in concert.

Sean has worked with an impressive number of hip-hop artists including Diddy, 50 Cent, and a bunch of other people we can't remember he bragged about. Sean likes talking about and looking at photos of his Lexus, shopping at Foot Locker, and eating spaghetti. He has a lovely singing voice.

In December 2006, the Beastie Boys installed cameras in their New York studio and invited fans to watch them as they worked on their album via the O-scope cam on the studio web site. Always interested in the creative process, we at Mic to Mic asked fans to send us screen captures from the O-scope cam feed so we could document the band's work for posterity. We arranged the screen captures in chronological order, posted them to our Flickr account, and called the collection "O Watch."

Sometimes, watching the Beastie Boys in the studio was as exciting as watching paint dry on the wall. Other times, it was like watching monkeys man a spaceship. Exciting or not, the O-scope cam feed allowed fans to learn both professional and personal things about the band.

What We Learned from O Watch


1. Mike Diamond talks a lot. He spends an excessive amount of time on his mobile phone. If he isn't talking, he's texting someone. Obviously, he is a very popular guy.


2. Contrary to his boast, Mike Diamond is not the Beastie Boy who dances the most. Adam Horovitz is the lord of the dance at Oscilloscope Laboratories. He shakes his booty above and beyond any other Beastie Boy.


3. The Beastie Boys' muse has four legs and a tail.


4. The Beastie Boys work in seclusion and without "consultants." They are their own musical geniuses (or fools, if you're inclined to think that way). An engineer is their sole sidekick in the studio.


5. When the Beastie Boys say that they contribute equally to their work, they aren't being completely truthful. Adam Yauch serves as boss Beastie Boy and producer. He is the one who spends the most time in the studio, working in front of and behind the controls. Most days, he is the first to arrive and the last to leave the studio.



6. Adam Horovitz is a jack-of-all-instruments. He plays guitar, keyboards, and percussions. The multi-instrumentalist even toys with Yauch's bass on occasion. He may be the reason no instrumental credits appear on The Mix-Up. His contributions would put the others to shame.



7. They are proud of their families. Each of them paraded their loved ones in front of the camera without concern or hesitation. This indicates a comfort and trust with both their families and fans.



8. The Beastie Boys are goofy -- but we knew this before they put the cameras in the studio.

We're going to take this down time now in the band's schedule to feature some of the best screen captures from O Watch for those fans who didn't have the patience or time to watch the live feed or scroll through the screen caps. Check the Best of O Watch feature at this blog daily for special screen caps from the collection.

Here's a video of Mix Master Mike spinning some Beastie Boys at Club Sala Apolo in Barcelona, Spain, yesterday (Oct. 24) evening. Note the t-shirt he's wearing.

You can watch more videos from the show at Youtube.com.

Mix Master Mike will be DJing at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Halloween party this Saturday (Oct. 27) in Los Angeles. Tickets may be purchased at Groovetickets.com.

The Beastie Boys performance of "Intergalactic" at Live Earth will be included on a double DVD/CD and digital album commemorating the global concert that aimed to bring attention to the climate crisis.

The digital album will be available on iTunes on November 13 (it's currently available as a pre-order), and the DVD/CD will be released on November 20.

NME reports that Mike Diamond was among the V.I.P. guests at M.I.A.'s concert at Terminal 5 in New York last Friday (Oct. 19). M.I.A. performed two shows at the spanking-new venue last week as part of the CMJ Music Marathon 2007. Photos of the show (sorry, none with Mickey D) may be viewed at Pitchfork.

Photos by Glen E. Friedman

We received an email from photographer Glen E. Friedman, who directs us to a 1985 radio interview that the Beastie Boys did with KXLU.

Friedman recalls:

I set this up for them when they came to L.A. for the very first time opening for Madonna. I was showing them around town and brought them to my friend Adam Bomb's radio show...This shit is really funny.

Part 1: http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/810234
Part 2: http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/941337

Friedman points out that the radio show contains some classic tunes, including Russell Rush's (aka Russell Simmons) rap on Jazzy Jay's record produced by Rick Rubin, and a live version of "Beastie Groove," the Beastie Boys' current record at the time.

Friedman also shared the photos of the Beastie Boys that he took outside the KXLU studio just after the show.

Video 2 // Video 3 // Video 4 // Video 5 // Video 6

Mix Master Mike performed at the Nouveau Casino in Paris, France, last night (Oct. 17). You can watch video of some of his set, courtesy of Top 10, using the links posted above.

A DVD torrent of the Beastie Boys show at UC Berkeley on August 25, 2007, is currently being shared on Dimeadozen.org. You must have a DIME account to access this file. You may view a sample from the dvd here.

As Artists of the Week, Beastie Boys are currently dominating MTV, with clips being shown from A Day in the Life of Nathanial Hörnblowér, Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! and MTV segments featuring songs from The Mix-Up. Also being shown are graphic shorts consisting of "freshly conceived mythological creatures designed specifically for the Beastie Boys," featuring songs from The Mix-Up with readings from Harper Collins books (watch clips here). So if you've found yourself watching MTV lately and doing double-takes like, "Was that 'The Rat Cage' I just heard during a preview for Run's House?” Don't worry, you're not going crazy!

Last year, Beastie Boys performed at the Hiro Ballroom for Gimme Shelter: Rock & Rescue NYC. This year, Adam Horovitz has been announced as a guest host, and Money Mark has been listed as a performer!

Gimme Shelter 2007 will take place on November 13th. Go to their site to purchase tickets. There's an early bird special going on right now, where tickets are only half-price, so get 'em while you can!

Photo by Héctor Sánchez

Héctor Sánchez has posted photos of Mix Master Mike performing at Industrial Copera in Granada, Spain, last Saturday (Oct. 13) at Flickr and at Hiphophispano.com. Check 'em out!

Video of Mix Master Mike's performance in Granada has been posted to Youtube:

Video 1 // Video 2 // Video 3 // Video 4

British music magazine NME is spearheading a campaign to get the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen," which was recently re-released on vinyl in the UK, to number one on the charts. The magazine claims that the song was cheated out of earning the top position by the government when it was originally released 30 years ago. In its efforts to get the song to number one, the magazine has enlisted the support of many artists in the campaign, including Adam Horovitz.

"I'm a massive Sex Pistols fan. Never Mind the Bollocks is one of the most important albums ever," Horovitz told NME. "I love 'God Save the Queen,' man. It does deserve to go to Number One."

After a very short break following the conclusion of the Beastie Boys tour, Mix Master Mike is back on the road again, performing solo shows in Europe. Yesterday (Oct. 12), Mix Master Mike headlined the Sonic Visions Festival, a new music festival, in Esch, Luxembourg.

A fan who attended the festival describes Mix Master Mike's performance:

"...it was midnight, and Mix Master Mike started his set. Resident DJ of the Beastie Boys and three times consecutive turntablism world champion, we were in for something special. This was more than just run of the mill hiphop. Mix Master Mike added his crazy scratches with two turntables on a set that contained surprisingly many rock moments, from Nirvana to Franz Ferdinand, from Queen to Led Zeppelin, thus violating rock classics into a deconstructed yet organised chaos that was fascinating, vibrating and downright exceptional."

Mix Master Mike Tour Dates

October 13 - Industrial Copera, Granada, Spain
October 17 - Nouveau Casino - Paris, France
October 18 - Cargo - Caen, France
October 19 - Festival Days Off - Bordeaux, France
October 20 - La Suite - Brest, France
October 24 - Sala Apolo, Barcelona, Spain
October 25 - Joy Eslava, Madrid, Spain
October 26 - LC Club - Nantes, France

On my return home from the Beastie Boys European tour in July, I flew from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Before getting on the plane, I popped my head into a newstand at the airport to find something to read on the flight. I recognized three familiar faces on the cover of French music magazine Vibrations.

Although I am capable of translating the article to English, I'm not going to spend the time doing so. The article is basically a history of the Beastie Boys, supplemented with a phone interview with Adam Horovitz. The magazine published a better interview with Horovitz on its web site (part 1 // part 2), which I recommend reading if you understand French. If you don't understand French, you can enjoy the photos on Vibrations' web site and in the following scans of the magazine article:

Now that the Beastie Boys tour has ended, many fans have found time to post video and photos from the shows. At Mic to Mic, we've been continually updating our tour reports. If you attended or are interested in particular shows, check the show reports again to see if new content has been added. Recently we've been able to confirm the setlist for several shows that we had little information on when we originally wrote about them.

New content worth pointing out is video of the Toronto Gala Event. A fan who filmed the show has posted video of the entire show on Youtube. If you have an hour and a half of free time, you might enjoy watching the show from start to finish. If you have only a few minutes to spare, watch the video of Beastie Boys performing "Riot Fight" for the first time in many years. (The same fan tells us that he plans to post video of the entire Montreal Gala Event soon, so watch for that to be added.) Another newly posted video worth pointing out is of the short, instrumental version of "High Plains Drifter" performed at the Chicago Gala Event. You don't see something like that at every show!

We would like to make an appeal to those fans who got setlists at shows to send photos or scans of them into us, so we can document the shows correctly here and at Beastiemania.com, our sister site. We also would like to ask fans to submit photos, flyers, posters, etc., from the tour for documentation in the Beastiemania.com archive. (In addition to managing this blog, I am the gigography editor at Beastiemania.com.)

Speaking of Beastiemania.com...we are in the process of redesigning the site and are looking for someone to join the editorial team to help with the redesign. If you are enthusiastic about the Beastie Boys and have the skills and knowledge to help with a site redesign, please send the Beastiemania.com staff an email to express your interest in contributing to the site. We really need someone who has a vision about organizing and presenting data because our database of material has become monstrous. This position is not a casual assignment. We are looking for someone who has the time and talent to help.

Beastie Boys are among the artists profiled in the photo issue of Wax Poetics (October/November 2007). This magazine is really worth picking up if you can find it. For those of you who cannot find the magazine at your local bookstore, we offer the following scans: