Today's O Watch
"From what I can gather, it is part of a concept DVD. Two songs were covered and the boys played out a spy spoof of sorts across the two songs. They were shooting a car (and I think boat) chase scene on the Saturday before their gig at Good Vibrations. The songs weren't at all what I expected from the Beastie Boys -- sort of a 60s psych sound and entirely instrumental."Glen described the video shoot scene as a "1960 L.A. cocktail party" that included "girls with big hair and short frocks" and vintage bikes and automobiles.
To see photos from the Beastie Boys video shoot in Sydney, visit the Dizzybeat.com blog.
February 21, 2007
Sexy Beastie
By Yong Shu Hoong
GOOD VIBRATIONS FESTIVAL 2007
Fort Canning Park
Now, who says white men can't rap? Before the rise of white rapper Eminem, New York-based Jewish rap group Beastie Boys have, since the early 1980s, been churning out their unique wordplay infused with hip-hop, punk and retro funk.
Pushing into their late 30s and early 40s, the vivacious trio were eager to please as the headlining act of Good Vibrations Festival.
Backed by turntablist Mix Master Mike and keyboardist Money Mark, Beastie Boys emerged onstage at 12.30am, dressed in corporate suits which got ruffled up as the night wound down.
They played a mostly greatest-hits repertoire, with familiar numbers like Root Down, Sure Shot and Shake Your Rump. Some momentum was lost, however, when they threw two instrumentals into the mix, with some awkward pauses between songs.
But the crowd was left wanting more when the group polished off the main set with dance tracks like Brass Monkey, So What'cha Want, Ch-Check It Out and No Sleep Till Brooklyn.
For the encore at around 1.20am, they gladly obliged with Intergalactic, before thanking the Singapore audience and organiser for a 'fun time' and promptly launched into the final number, Sabotage, cheekily dedicated to United States President George W. Bush.
Jurassic 5, on the other hand, is a Los Angeles all-black rap group steeped in old-school hip-hop.
They delivered a competent 40-minute set that included Red Hot, a single off their 2006 album Feedback, as well as older tracks like Concrete Schoolyard and I Am Somebody. But one never got past the feeling that they were nothing more than a stage warmer for the main event.
Split between the Good Vibrations main stage and the smaller Chinese Laundry dance area, the festival, which eventually drew 8,000 people, also featured Singapore's Close Apart, Electrico and Wicked Aura Batucada, Australia's Cut Copy and Malaysia's Too Phat, as well as DJs like Mad Mats (Sweden) and DJ Dan (USA).
February 16, 2007
Beastie Boys' animal behaviour
The wacky white boys who still hold the reins in a black-dominated hip-hop scene are heading here
By Sujin Thomas, Music Reporter
THE Beastie Boys are three MCs and one DJ - who are in their late 30s and early 40s.
But speak to Adam Horovitz aka Ad-Rock, one of the MCs, and you'd think they are still a bunch of playful adolescents.
"They're mean people," says the 40-year-old last month, on the line from his home in New York, of his band mates.
Then breaking into a series of guffaws, he continues: "And that's been really trying on me. They push old people around and kick kids. I'm serious."
When you realise just how nonsensical his replies to your questions are, you can't resist egging him on by asking: "And you don't do any of that?"
He promptly replies: "No, of course not. Everybody says I'm the nice one and it's true."
Audiences can check out how true that is when Ad-Rock and the rest of his posse - Michael Diamond aka Mike D, 41, Adam Yauch aka MCA, 42, as well as tour DJ Mix Master Mike, 36 - perform at the Good Vibrations Festival at Fort Canning Park on Monday. The event is organised by home-grown events company Kinemat.
A further sign of the Beastie Boys' cheeky reputation: A spokesman for Kinemat tells Life! that the group had requested something unusual aside from the typical list of band equipment, food and alcohol.
Get this: They asked for a swimming pool, palm trees and sand to be set up for them backstage.
"I was totally shocked and didn't know what to do. I rejected it, of course. It's not conducive to the gig's environment," says Kinemat director Donovan Wong, 30.
Now the group has asked for 'an 8R photograph of a local celebrity' instead - without giving any explanation.
"I don't know which celebrity's photograph to give. If any celebrity is keen to hand them a photograph, let me know," adds Mr Wong.
Such wacky behaviour is par for the course for the group whose career has spanned nearly three decades and is famous for tracks such as Fight For Your Right (1987), Sabotage (1994), Intergalactic (1998) and Triple Trouble (2004).
They have been known to perform alongside women in cages as well as wrestle with a man dressed as a bear in their music videos.
Formed in New York in 1979, they were initially a punk rock band called The Young Aborigines. They adopted the Beastie Boys name after MCA joined two years later.
Following a line-up shuffle, the group changed from a punk band to a three-man rap crew and released their debut album Licensed To Ill in 1986.
"We were always producing all our own records. But the last few records, we had a sound engineer to help us," says Ad-Rock.
In a largely African-American dominated hip-hop scene, the Caucasian group have proven their staying power and released six albums - even bagging two Grammy Awards in 1999 for the album, Hello Nasty.
They won under the categories of Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
They are currently working on their seventh studio album which will be released later this year.
"I can't tell you anything about it. It's top secret. It's actually hard to describe but it's good and you can dance to it," he says, sounding serious for once.
But when asked what first-time audiences here can expect from their concert, he turns goofball again: "We're going to bring animals. Magicians are coming, too."
February 16, 2007
Money Mark loves Good Vibes and mixing with the best
By Erin McWhirter, National Entertainment Writer
American producer/musician Mark Ramos-Nishita aka Money Mark, is happy mixing his time between high-profile musicians including the Beastie Boys, Yoko Ono, Gnarls Barkley, Jack Johnson and Australia's own John Butler.
In Australia playing keyboards for the Beastie Boys, who are touring with the Good Vibrations festival, Ramos-Nishita says experimenting with different bands for sounds, melodies and beats keeps his creativity flowing.
"I am always experimenting, which is always a risk, but in the word experiment there is the word 'risk' as well," he said in Sydney today.
While Ramos-Nishita has been touring the world with the Beastie Boys since the early 1990s, he has also established himself a successful solo career.
On March 3 his latest offering, Brand New By Tomorrow, will be released in Australia and is far removed from the usual hip-hop and rap beats of the Beastie Boys.
It's soulful and reflects a laid-back, mellow, Jack Johnson feel.
Ramos-Nishita said fans will appreciate the new tone, not shun it.
"This isn't your typical jump up and down and have fun record like I usually make," Ramos-Nishita said.
"My fan is really open-minded. I don't want to pigeon-hole my fan. I would like to think that they are open to many things."
Ramos-Nishita was last in Australia for the 2004 Big Day Out festival and said it was good to back for hip-hop fest Good Vibrations, with the Beastie Boys.
The group has already headlined the Gold Coast and Melbourne festivals and will play Sydney tomorrow and Perth on Sunday.
"I always have fun when I am on the road with these guys," Ramos-Nishita said.
"We've got a good thing happening on stage. Good Vibrations is a kind of party vibe, but I think all the festivals are like that.
"The kids go wild there."
While Ramos-Nishita works his music wizardry for concert-goers, he says he doesn't envy the audience.
"I would be exhausted, I would run out of energy, waiting in the sun all day," he said.
"But, I have quite a lot of energy on stage. I savour for that moment on stage and hopefully that works for them."
Most of Ramos-Nishita's work is underground, however his credits include musical scores for award-winning movie The Devil Wears Prada and Jim Carrey's 2005 comedy Fun With Dick and Jane.
A veteran of the music scene, Ramos-Nishita said the passion never dies.
"Keeping your mind open helps, maybe I am kind of wired that way," he said.
"That kindred side of me comes out and balances and combines my experiences. I don't feel like I am, I don't want to say the word - ageing - but I don't think I am going away anytime soon."
Hip-hoppers take on radio's weird boys
February 17, 2007
THEY'VE already conquered the airwaves, now brekkie radio kings Merrick and Rosso are launching an assault on the small screen.
And despite only setting up shop with their own production company, Smoke and Mirrors, two weeks ago, the comedy duo have already signed on Intergalactic hip-hop outfit The Beastie Boys.
Confidential can reveal the energetic trio - Mikey D, MCA and Adrock - commissioned the local lads to shoot their new video clip in Sydney on Thursday.
Obviously The Beasties weren't too concerned about checking the lads' references before signing up _ which is probably a good thing for the funnymen.
Until they signed on, Merrick and Rosso had been their own major clients, producing their own advertisements for Nova - which had it's advantages.
Rosso said The Beasties project was an exciting step for the fledging company, which specialises in video clips and advertising, and they relished the opportunity to work alongside the aging music legends.
"The best thing about it was not being the oldest guy on set," Rosso told Confidential yesterday.
The Beasties said they also enjoyed the experience, which gave them a better appreciation of the Harbour City landscape.
Rarely straying too far from Bondi during previous visits, the video clip, filmed in Hunters Hill, gave them the chance to see another side of the city.
Though the boys, who must have missed peakhour, were even more impressed with the traffic than the waterfront mansions.
"We're noticing no one honks their horns here," MCA said yesterday.
"It's almost as if honking your horn is road rage - it's very chilled out here."
February 8, 2007
Money Mark looks toward 'Tomorrow'
By Katie Hasty
It's been six years since Money Mark's last album, but that doesn't mean the man hasn't been busy. "I have my whole studio set up right next to my bed. I roll out, and it's always right there," the keyboardist/producer tells Billboard.com. "I'm making little demos, or working on scores, or dabbling in photography. I'm always working on something."
"Brand New by Tomorrow," the follow-up to 2001's "Change is Coming" (Emperor Norton), has been consuming Mark of late. The set is due Feb. 20 via Brushfire records, his first for the Jack Johnson imprint.
The new pop-inflected release comes on the heels of a tumultuous time in the artist's life, both for his personal relationships and in coping with a national disaster.
"After 9-11, things started crumbling for me. But I knew I had to come out of this with something, a hopeful attitude, maybe," he says, explaining the origins of the album title. "That's why there's some seriously bummed-out material on there. My output resembles my input. Putting out a record is like making a soundtrack of my life." The artist is planning a tour in support of the new album, which will include a stop at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas.
Money Mark, whose real name is Mark Ramos-Nishita, has been spending time in the Beastie Boys' Oscilloscope Laboratories studios in New York over the last few months, though he's scant on the details about any impending album from the trio, with whom he has collaborated for years. "I'm not sure when to expect anything from them. You'll probably know before I do," he admits.
The group is playing a handful of shows in Australia and Singapore this month, as well as a pair of performances in Germany in June. "We'll have a big rehearsal in Melbourne and I imagine we'll be working on writing and playing some new material there," Money Mark says.
Aging Gracefully a Foreign Concept for Hipsters, Beastie BoysOnly a very young person would consider being in your forties old age. News alert: 40 isn't old.
A tipster sent in the following sighting: "MCA of the Beastie Boys was skateboarding along Carmine Street last night (seen at intersection of Bedford)." We realize that MCA has long been a skateboarder and snowboarder, but we also know that MCA is 42 years old, and somehow this sighting made us think of all those grups we know who are, like, 45 and wear hoodies and Pumas and talk about how amazing that Cold War Kids show at Union Hall was.
Oh, whatever, it's fine. Really. It's probably better than a sighting of MCA wearing Dockers and rocking out at the James Taylor concert. Right?
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