Mike Diamond will be making an appearance at the Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair on May 1 in New York City. He will be participating in a "guitar play-in" (perhaps as Country Mike?) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Church Street School for Music and Art. The event is free and open to the public.

Mike Diamond has collaborated with watchmaker Nixon to design a custom Time Teller P watch featuring his image. The watch is available in blue, green, orange, and white and may be pre-ordered at Watchismo.com [DEFUNCT SITE] for $75. It will also be sold at select retail stores beginning in September.

Speaking about the watch, Mike said, "I am proud to release this little treasure as a token of my achievement in both the yachting and hip-hop communities. This advanced time piece allows me to navigate the open seas and the open mic."

Update: The price of the watch has been changed to $85.

Photo of Country Mike at the Orange Peel by Money Mark

Today's audio share got lost in the hubbub of Adam Yauch's cancer announcement last fall. It is of the Beastie Boys performance at the Orange Peel in Asheville, North Carolina, on June 10, 2009. It's the only full-show audio from the two club concerts that the Beastie Boys performed in 2009 (the other show was in Baltimore, Maryland), where the band premiered performances of songs from Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 1. The recording was taped and shared by Taylor Maurer.

Setlist
The Biz vs. the Nuge (with Biz Markie)
Time for Livin'
Remote Control
Root Down
Sure Shot
Super Disco Breakin'
Posse in Effect
Shake Your Rump
Gratitude
Electric Worm
Sabrosa
Lee Majors Come Again
Transit Cop
Body Movin'
B-Boys in the Cut
Do It (with Biz Markie)
Pass the Mic
So What'cha Want
Ricky's Theme
POW
Lighten Up
Egg Raid on Mojo
Tough Guy (with Country Mike)
Bennie and the Jets (with Biz Markie)
Mix Master Mike Interlude
Intergalactic
3 MCs and 1 DJ
Heart Attack Man
Mark on the Bus
Sabotage

Although the two new songs ("Lee Majors Come Again" and "B-Boys in the Cut") and the collaborations with Biz Markie are interesting to hear, I find the performance of "Body Movin'" to be the most interesting one in the recording. Mix Master Mike whipped up some crazy beats for the song and you can hear the Beastie Boys struggling to keep up with what he threw at them. The song peters out miserably, but what happens before that is good.

You can download a recording of the show as a zip folder of mp3s HERE [DEAD LINK], or if you prefer lossless audio, you can find a FLAC torrent of the show at DIME.

Uffie, an electropop artist on Ed Banger Records, recently posted a remix of a song from her upcoming album to her website. The remix is titled "MCs Can Kiss (Mike D Remix)" (free download HERE [DEAD LINK]). A Mike D remix, you ask? From my work on Beastiemania.com, I know that there is another artist who uses "Mike D" as his handle and that he remixes songs. I contacted both Uffie's and Beastie Boys's official peeps for clarification, and no one could confirm that the Mike D who remixed the song is Mr. Michael Diamond of Beastie Boys. So, maybe the song is a Mike D aka Sweet Lou remix, or maybe it's a Mike D aka the Other Guy remix. You decide.

Update: I finally got confirmation from the Beastie Boys camp. The remix is indeed Mike Diamond's work.

Beastie Boys have contributed a "super surprise" 12-inch record for Record Store Day, which is a day in which special vinyl and CD releases are sold exclusively at independently owned record stores. The purpose of Record Store Day is to encourage music fans to support their local record stores, instead of big box stores or online music stores.

The Beastie Boys's super surprise record for Record Store Day is limited to 1,000 copies and will be distributed among more than 700 record stores. If you are interested in getting a copy of the Beastie Boys's album, go to your local record store and express interest in it. The record store will not be able to guarantee you a copy, but it will be able to make a request for the record.

I checked with Other Music, a popular independent record store in NYC, and was told that the store requested 14 copies of the Beastie Boys's album, but it has no idea how many it will actually get. It's all a crapshoot — for both the record stores and buyers.

A source at Capitol/EMI, the Beastie Boys's record label, confirmed that the label did not commission the album from the Beastie Boys — meaning, the idea to participate in Record Store Day was solely the Beastie Boys's idea. Knowing that the label was not involved in the album means the album could be anything. Because it's the Beastie Boys, you have to assume that it will be interesting.

A list of the special releases for Record Store Day can be viewed HERE. Record Store Day takes place on April 17.

Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz have contributed original music to the soundtrack of the documentary Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child. The film by Tamra Davis, Mike Diamond's wife, offers a portrait of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died at age 27 from a heroin overdose. (Read a bio on Basquiat HERE.) The film had its premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival and will have its theatrical release later this year.

Watch the trailer on Youtube.

A nameless former A&R assistant for Columbia Records has posted an unreleased 1995 planned benefit CD for Leonard Peltier, an American activist and member of the American Indian Movement who was convicted and sentenced in 1977 to life imprisonment for the murder of two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. During Peltier's trial and following his conviction, there was debate over his guilt and the fairness of his trial.

The benefit CD was planned to help raise awareness of Peltier's situation and help pay for his legal fees. Beastie Boys were among the artists who supported Peltier and contributed a song to the album. The Beastie Boys also supported Peltier by performing at the Leonard Peltier benefit concert in April 1994, which was organized by Rage Against the Machine.

The album is available to download in full HERE [DEAD LINK], where you can read more about Peltier's case. Alternatively, you may download or listen to an mp3 of just the Beastie Boys song, titled "(R)Evolution Time," HERE. The song is an early, unmastered version of "Resolution Time."

Please note that the songs on the album have not been mastered.

Exiled in the Land of the Free - A Benefit Album for Leonard Peltier
Tracklist:

"Leonard Peltier In a Cage" - The Goats
"Stick It Out" - New Bomb Turks
"Wake Up (Live)" - Rage Against the Machine
"Land of the Free Disease" - Corrosion of Conformity
"I Saw it Move" - Chavez
"If Only (demo)" - Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age)
"Long Ago" - Beaver Chef
"I Can Still Feed Myself Thanks" - Superchunk
"Just a Patsy" - Helmet
"Atomic Garden" - Bad Religion
"Punishment" - Silica Gel
"Spirits" - Giant Sand
"¿Do The Digs Dug?" - The Goats
"Clean Slate (Live)" - Quicksand
"(R)Evolution Time" - Beastie Boys
"Scumbag" - Biohazard
"Redman" - Brother Sun
"Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing (Live)" - Mike Watt
"The Punchline" - Zack De La Rocha and Corrosion of Conformity
"Greetings from Leonard Peltier" - Leonard Peltier

You can listen to the Beastie Boys's contribution to the album on Youtube:

Adam Yauch has confirmed what a source at EMI/Capitol Records told us last month: Beastie Boys will not be releasing Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 1 until this fall. In an interview conducted at the Spirit Awards last week, Yauch told Entertainment Weekly that the band hope to release the album in September but cannot commit to any date until he fully recovers from cancer treatment.

"It was really disappointing to have to hold the record and postpone the tour, but doctor's orders," Yauch said. He admitted that his recovery to good health has not been easy: "It was touch and go there for a while but I am finally getting my energy back."

Yauch also shared that Beastie Boys will go back in the studio and review their work on Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 1 and possibly make changes before its release.

Lenny Kravitz and Adam Yauch on the Spirit Awards red carpet

Adam Yauch attended the 2010 Spirit Awards honoring independent film in Los Angeles yesterday. Yauch joined the film-making team of The Messenger for the awards ceremony. The film by director Oren Moverman (and distributed by Oscope) was nominated in several categories. Woody Harrelson won the Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his role in the film.