As a promotional event for his new film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, actor John C. Reilly performed as Dewey Cox at a one-off show at the Knitting Factory in New York City this week. Among the songs he and his band, The Hard Walkers, performed was a cover of the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage."
The show was billed as the "final show of the Cox Across America tour," a tour name that the Beastie Boys might have considered at one point in their career -- with one word spelled differently.
Sorry about the short notice, but we just learned that Mix Master Mike is performing at Belly Up Aspen in Aspen, Colorado, tomorrow evening (Friday, Dec. 21). Tickets are available to purchase at etix.com.
On a related note, Mix Master Mike is among the artists confirmed to perform at Festival Garorock, which takes place April 4-6, 2008, in Marmande, France.
Tune into Little Radio today from 4 to 6 pm EST (1 to 3 pm PST) to hear the Beastie Boys spin some tunes and chat nonsense on their show, Beastie Boys Radio.
Today's show, with its theme of "childhood jams," will be their last radio show of 2007. Beastie Boys Radio will return after the new year. All of their 2007 radio shows can be downloaded HERE [DEAD LINK], courtesy of DJ Zap.
VH1 is honoring the best music of the 90s with a special countdown series, "100 Greatest Songs of the 90s." The songs were chosen by VH1 viewers in an online poll in which they were asked to rank the songs from the 90s that had the greatest influence and effect on music and pop culture. Viewers placed "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys at number 19.
The show with the videos of the top 20 songs of the 90s will air on VH1 this Friday, December 21. Check your local listings for times.
(Shout-out to Jeremy)
Photographer Ari Marcopoulos has assembled a collection of photographs of Adam Horovitz for a book, aptly titled Ad Rock. The 32-page book of black and white photos is published by Nieves and may be purchased from its online store for US$20 (by credit card or PayPal).
Sadly, the Beastie Boys have been overlooked for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Today the Rock Hall Foundation announced its final selection for 2008 inductees and chose to induct John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen, Madonna, The Dave Clark Five, and The Ventures instead.
Mix Master Mike is among the artists who have donated to the 2007 Virgin Unite Holiday Auction, in which 12 artists celebrate the 12 days of Christmas with signed memorabilia. The auction benefits Virgin Unite, a not-for-profit organization that focuses on social and environmental issues. (View some of the organization's initiatives here.)
Bidding on the signed cymbal began on Monday, December 10, and ends on December 18 at Charityfolks.com.
Just another reminder that Beastie Boys are coming to you live once again on Little Radio with a brand new show on Wednesday, December 12 (that's tomorrow!) from 4pm-6pm EST (1pm-3pm PST), so don't miss it! They will be doing another show next Wednesday, December 19 (same time), so don't miss that one either!
Tomorrow's theme is going to be "freaky"! Oh, yeah!
P.S. Mike D. recommends gettin' the ear muffs ready, because the show may not be "family friendly listening". Hehe.
UPDATE: Props to DJ Zap for recording this week's (and last week's) show! You can download 'em here.
Here's a look at the lunchbox that the Beastie Boys designed for the Food Bank of New York City's annual "Lunchbox Auction." Bidding on the lunchbox begins on Monday, December 10, and ends on December 21.
Inquiringmind Magazine has published an interview with photographer Josh Cheuse about his book Rockers Galore, which contains old school photos of the Beastie Boys and other artists Cheuse has known during his 25-year career as a music photographer.
Speaking about the Beastie Boys, with whom he was good friends, Cheuse tells the magazine:
Fuse.tv's "Videos That Rocked the World," a series that examines some of the most memorable music videos ever made, will look at the "Fight for Your Right" video tomorrow evening (Dec. 7, 10 p.m.). The show features an interview with Adam Dubin, who co-directed the video with Ric Menello.
In the unlikely event that you have never the seen the "Fight for Your Right" video (durrrr!), watch it at Youtube.
Update: Video clips from the show are now available on Fuse.tv's web site.
Beastie Boys have been nominated for 2007 Grammys in two categories: Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "Off the Grid" and Best Pop Instrumental Album for The Mix-Up. View a full list of nominations at Grammy.com.
The Grammy Awards ceremony will be held on February 10, 2008, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and be broadcast live on CBS.
In case you missed today's excellent dance-themed show, you can now listen to and/or download the podcast from Little Radio's web site. There are also downloads available from the Beastie Boys' previous shows.
Oh, and remember what Horovitz said! Beastie Boys Radio is coming on every week!
UPDATE: Beastie Boys Radio will be tomorrow (Tuesday, Dec 4) from 4pm - 6pm EST (1pm - 3pm PST), so don't forget to tune into Little Radio to hear Yauch, Mike and Horovitz live!!
Tuesday, Dec 1, from 4pm-6pm the Beastie Boys return Live on LITTLE RADIO for BBoys Radio on Little Radio. If you've heard their shows before, you know it's much foolery and a schooling in the best music.
Friday, Nov 30 from 8am-12pm we'll be rebroadcasting 2 of their shows. One from 2005 and the other from 2006. So TUNE IN
Following the rebroadcast, check Little Radio, because we'll be posting 5 podcasts of Beastie's Radio Shows from 2005 and 2006. Listen, Download, Enjoy.
We're fairly certain they mean for listeners to tune in on Tuesday, December 4 (not December 1).
For Knees Up!, Hagopian called on a friend to do a remix of the song "Take it to Fantastic." That her friend was Adam Horovitz, aka Adrock of The Beastie Boys, should help bring extra attention to the EP.
"My business sense did kick in," she said with a chuckle when asked about having Horovitz's name attached to her Cannonball Jane project. "But he was more than happy to do it.
"He has helped a lot of other bands by helping produce and doing remixes and so I simply asked him if he'd like to do a remix for me. And he really liked the song 'Take it to Fantastic,' so I thought that would be a good match."
Rock for Kids is a Chicago-based organization that provides free music lessons for underprivileged children in the area. The 19th Annual Rock for Kids Charity Auction will take place tomorrow (Friday, November 30) at Chicago's Park West venue. This is a live and silent auction featuring loads of autographed memorabilia from your favorite bands and artists! Included is a signed microphone from the Beastie Boys, very nicely framed! Check out photos of some of the other items for the auction here.
Go to their website to purchase tickets, or if you are unable to attend tomorrow's event, you can register online now (before 6:00pm CST) in order to bid by proxy. And feel free to make a donation, too!
The release date for the Live Earth CD/DVD set, which includes the Beastie Boys performance of "Intergalactic," has been pushed back to December 4. A digital album is currently available to download at iTunes. The download is by album only, which means you can't download just "Intergalactic." You must buy the entire album.
Grooveshark: I've read that Mike D from Beastie Boys is a big fan of yours. Do you have any idea how that developed?
Reggie: We don't actually know if he's a fan or not. He came to one of our shows, but I don't know. He traveled to come check us out, he was there–that's a mindfuck, that he came to see us play.
Mike is not alone in his fandom of the Black Kids. The band from Jacksonville, Florida, has been receiving immense attention and accolades from the music media and indie music fan scene. You can download the Black Kids' free EP, titled Wizard of Ahhhs, at their official web site.
The images above are scans from the June 2007 issue of Howl, a French music magazine. This magazine was distributed for free outside Le Bataclan in Paris the day of the Beastie Boys Gala Event there.
The magazine contains an interview with Adam Yauch, conducted just before the release of The Mix-Up. In the interview, Yauch describes how the band wanted to make an "organic" album with instruments after making To the Five Boroughs with computers. When asked if he thinks fans expect something other than instrumental songs from the Beastie Boys, Yauch replies that he believes fans expect them to make music that interests the band. (Tis true.) Yauch also jokes that he believes most fans respond to the news of the band working on new music by thinking, "What are those fools screwing with now?"
One of the most interesting questions Yauch is asked is about the band's placing political statements in their songs. Yauch says that he likes seeing fans react to the political and social comments in the songs. He believes it is important to get people thinking and discussing the topics even if their opinions are contrary to the band's opinions. (Very noice!)
Yauch also talks about the meaning of the title of The Mix-Up, what influences their work, and what they learned from running Grand Royal.
(A big shout-out to B-grrrlie, who spied the magazine outside the venue and picked up a copy for me!)
The Hartford Courant has published an interview with Sharon Hagopian, aka Cannonball Jane, in which she comments on how she enlisted Adam Horovitz to remix a song on her new EP.
"I was at his place, and he's always producing and remixing. So he was playing a remix he did for another one of our friends who was in a band called Measles Mumps Rubella and I was like, 'Hey, why don't you do a mix for me?' He's always been really supportive."
"Take It To Fantastic (Smallstars Remix by Adrock)" appears on Cannonball Jane's seven-track EP titled Knees Up! (Gaddycat Records), which is available to purchase at her Myspace page.
A side story...Measles Mumps Rubella, the band Hagopian mentions in the Courant interview, broke up before the EP on which Horovitz' remix was to appear was released; however, members of the band are still marketing their material. Earlier this week, one of the band announced on the band's Myspace page that the Dynamic Disasters EP with Horovitz' remix on it will be available on iTunes in the future.
Adam Horovitz has contributed to the December issue of Visionaire, a conceptual art publication. Visionaire Issue 53, titled "SOUND," is comprised of five 12-inch vinyl picture discs containing unreleased songs, audio experiments, samples, spoken word, and other material by a number of contributing artists.
The records come packaged in a curved case with a "Vinyl Killer," a miniature battery-operated toy car equipped with a needle and loudspeakers. The case and car act as a portable record player. Also included with the collection are two CDs that contain all the content found on the five records and a booklet with credits and instructions on how to use the portable record player.
The collection is limited to 4,000 numbered copies and costs $250.
Other contributors to "SOUND" include David Byrne, U2, Fergie, Michael Stipe, Courtney Love, Laurie Anderson, Cat Power, Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, Antony & the Johnsons, Malcolm McLaren, Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Sylvian, Andrew WK, Danger Mouse, Nigo and Teriyaki Boyz, Lou Doillon, Liza Minelli, Mario Testino, Yoko Ono, Cerith Wyn Evans, Christian Marclay, Doug Aitken, Robert Wilson, Gary Hill, Sylvie Fleury, Vito Acconci, Mariko Mori, Carl Michael Von Hausswolff, Milla Jovovich, Linda Evangelista, The Knife, Littl'ans, Unkle, Animal Collective, Gang Gang Dance, DJ Spooky, Miss Kittin, Trevor Jackson, Towa Tei, Hiroshi Fujiwara, Karl Lagerfeld, Alexander McQueen, and Helmut Lang, among others.
Visionaire is currently not revealing the record tracklists; however, it's safe to assume that Horovitz has contributed a song.
This unusual video was filmed backstage at the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan, on January 14, 2005, during the Pageant tour. I have no information on the original source of the video. It came to me in the form of an extra on a bootleg dvd of the Budokan show.
The video offers a peek at the Beastie Boys before the show. The 10-minute video shows tour manager Jerome Crooks fighting with Alfredo Ortiz (and going a little too far), cameraman Jamie Billet filming the video introduction of the show in which Mix Master Mike "scratches" dishes in the kitchen with Money Mark and Ortiz, and the band in the moments before going on stage.
A live performance of "Color of Your Blue" by Money Mark is among the songs on a new compilation CD titled Thank You, Goodnight: Live Tracks from Bonnaroo and Vegoose. The CD is comprised of memorable live performances from the two music festivals from 2005-2006 by artists signed to Brushfire Records, the label created by Jack Johnson.
The CD, which was released last week, is available to purchase at independent music stores in the United States, at both the Bonnaroo and Vegoose music festivals web sites, and the participating artists' web sites.
Tracklist
1. Take You There - G. Love and Special Sauce (Live from Bonnaroo 2006) 2. Wasting Time - ALO (Live from Bonnaroo 2005) 3. Staple It Together - Jack Johnson (Live from Bonnaroo 2005) 4. Songs We Sing - Matt Costa (Live from Vegoose 2006) 5. Color of Your Blue - Money Mark (Live from Vegoose 2006) 6. Constellations - Jack Johnson featuring Dan Lebowitz (Live from Vegoose 2006) 7. Hot Cookin' - G. Love and Special Sauce (Live from Bonnaroo 2006) 8. Barbeque - ALO (Live from Vegoose 2006) 9. These Arms - Matt Costa (Live from Vegoose 2006) 10. Island Style - John Cruz featuring Jack Johnson (Live from Bonnaroo 2005)
We have an update to a previous post. Cey Adam's book, titled Definition: The Art and Design of Hip Hop, will be published by Collins Design (an imprint of HarperCollins) in Fall 2008.
Watch the Beastie Boys perform "Sabotage" and "Sure Shot" at Bestival 2007 as broadcast on British television. You may download high-quality divx of the above videos at ylow.blogspot.com. (Note that there is a password associated with the download.)
Welcome to the Terrordome, a documentary about hip-hop legends Public Enemy, premiered last week at the 2007 AFI Fest in Los Angeles. The film, by Robert Patton-Spruill, features interviews with the Beastie Boys, Henry Rollins, Talib Kweli and Tom Morello, among others. Plans for a general release of the film are unknown at this time.
Money Mark has been getting rave reviews for his work on the soundtrack for Beautiful Losers, a documentary about underground artists. The film has been shown at several film festivals and in theaters in the United States in limited release this year.
Not a lot of information is available on the film; however, from what we understand, Mark actually scored the film. Unfortunately, there seems to be no plans to release the soundtrack on CD.
New tour date!! Beastie Boys are scheduled to perform on Friday night (March 7) at the Langerado Music Festival in South Florida. View the full line-up here.
The Beastie Boys have contributed to the Food Bank of New York City's annual "Lunchbox Auction," in which celebrities design lunchboxes to auction for hunger relief. The auction begins on December 7 at www.thelunchboxauction.org and ends December 21. Read the organization's press release about the auction here.
In 2005, Mike Diamond designed a lunchbox with his son Davis for the auction. Diamond and his wife, Tamra Davis, are big supporters of the Food Bank of NYC, often attending the organization's fundraising events.
Jay-Z samples the Beastie Boys' "Hello Brooklyn" on a song on his new album, American Gangster, which was released this week. The song, appropriately titled "Hello Brooklyn 2.0," features guest vocals by Lil' Wayne. We're not an mp3 blog, so we don't have the song to offer -- but this guy does.
The Gimme Shelter benefit concert at which Money Mark was to perform and Adam Horovitz was to serve as host on November 13 has been rescheduled for Spring 2008. Specific details will be announced at a later date. You can sign up to receive an alert about the postponed event at the concert web site.
It seems as soon as the O-scope Cam turned on, it turned off again. Beastie Boys fans will have to find visual entertainment from another source. I think we might be able to help.
Recently a M2M reader inquired about Krush Groove, a 1985 film featuring the Beastie Boys. I was surprised to find no video clips of the Beastie Boys in the film posted at Youtube or other video sites. I had the idea of posting some clips from the film, but was unable to locate the film in my messy collection. I did, however, find Tougher Than Leather, the 1988 film written and directed by Rick Rubin and starring Run-DMC. Beastie Boys appear as themselves in several scenes in the film. I have posted all the scenes from Tougher Than Leather featuring the Beastie Boys to our DailyMotion account for fans to enjoy.
The scene most worth watching is one in which the Beastie Boys perform "Desperado," a song that they never officially released. Note that Hurricane does not appear as their DJ in the scene; the DJ role is played by producer Sam Sever.
Beastie Boys perform "Desperado" in Tougher Than Leather
Other scenes (in film order) featuring the Beastie Boys:
The photos show him dressed as a gangsta "straight outta Compton."
A few days later, he donned the same outfit for another Halloween party at which he DJ'ed (and we didn't learn about until after-the-fact). On October 30, Mix Master Mike provided the entertainment at the Moon Nightclub's Sabotage Costume Party at the Palms in Las Vegas. Below are several photos of him at the party by NapkinNights.com:
Mike D from the Beastie Boys...[was] wide-eyed and wizened and looking like a wrinkly hobbit, lost and frightened in Mordor, trying to escape before any of the hipster orcs noticed who he was.
"[The book is] called Definition: the Art and Design of Hip Hop. The idea is that over the last 20-25 years, basically since the birth of hip-hop, there's amazing talent emerging and a lot of these are people of color. A lot of them are Asian, or middle eastern -- basically, not white. There's all these amazing talent that are coming up, and nobody is really giving their work a voice. Everybody talks about graffiti and everything that happened in the 80's, but in my opinion that story has already been told over and over again. Nobody is telling the story of the young kid that was inspired by Fear of a Black Planet (Public Enemy) or Licensed to Ill (Beastie Boys) and decided that they wanted to become a graphic designer. So my concept was to try to incorporate graffiti and the evolution of graffiti and street art and show that people like Shephard Fairey or the disciples of Keith Haring, just basically to show the thread." --Cey Adams
Graphic designer, Beastie Boys buddy, and all-around good guy Cey Adams is interviewed on his current book project, titled Definition: The Art and Design of Hip Hop (Collins Design), in Issue #28 (Nov. 4, 2007) of Format magazine. Read the interview at Format's web site.
Note that Adams' book will include "interviews by the Beastie Boys."
In the process of recycling the many, many magazines in my home, I've come across some press on the Beastie Boys, which I'm scanning and posting to my Flickr account. Yesterday, while paging through the April/May 2006 issue of Giant magazine -- which I purchased to read its article on Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! -- I discovered that I had overlooked a very interesting article about the pioneers of rap and Chung King Studios.
The article is a nostalgic look at the work of Run-DMC, LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys from 1985 to 1987, with commentary from and information on the people who contributed to making these artists the rap pioneers they are considered to be today. Among the people featured in the article are Rick Rubin and John King (producers of Licensed to Ill), Steve Ettinger (engineer on Licensed to Ill), and Russell Simmons (Beastie Boys' former manager).
For me, the most interesting information in the article is photographer Sunny Bak's comments. It's unusual to find press in which she is interviewed about the Beastie Boys. (Bak is still hanging out with and photographing them today. I saw her last at the Beastie Boys concert in Santa Barbara in August.)
Today you won't read anything more interesting than this article.
(Note: At Flickr, please choose the "All Sizes" link to read the article at a legible size. Giant magazine uses a ridiculously small point size. I enlarged the print with my scans.)
We have our first word of confirmation from one of the artists asked to contribute to a vocal version of The Mix-Up that the Beastie Boys are proceeding to work on the project.
Beastie Boys fan Allan Baldwin spoke to Maya Arulpragasam (aka M.I.A.) before her concert in Atlanta, Georgia, this week. He asked her about the reports the she will be collaborating with the Beastie Boys. Maya revealed that the Beastie Boys have asked her to adds vocals to "Freaky Hijiki," but that she likes "The Rat Cage" instead. She also shared that she does not know yet what she will be doing with the song--just laying down vocals and/or remixing the song too.
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.
Mic to Mic is a Beastie Boys fan site, dedicated to the sharing of Beastie Boys news, music, photos, and video. It is the sister site to Beastiemania.com, the most comprehensive source for information about the Beastie Boys.
All mp3s posted at this site are available for a limited time and are for promotional purposes only. If you like it, buy it. Please do not ask us to repost audio files.
Mic to Mic is the work of Hot Sauce (Cindy), Klepto (Dana), and The Update (Margrethe). Contact us at mic2mic.editor [at] gmail.com.
We wish to thank the following people for their friendship and contributions to Mic to Mic:
Brian, Mark, Mike, Paul, Jenny, Magda, Xavier, Jonathan, and Allan
Earlier this month, Mike Diamond participated in a MySpace Artist on Artist video interview with Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg. The interview will be posted at the Artist on Artist MySpace page in the near future. 
You can catch a glimpse of Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz in M.I.A.'s music video for "Paper Planes" here. Look for 'em at around 2:51.
Beastie Boys have been nominated for 2007 Grammys in two categories: Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "Off the Grid" and Best Pop Instrumental Album for The Mix-Up. View a full list of nominations at Grammy.com.
A live performance of "Color of Your Blue" by Money Mark is among the songs on a new compilation CD titled Thank You, Goodnight: Live Tracks from Bonnaroo and Vegoose. The CD is comprised of memorable live performances from the two music festivals from 2005-2006 by artists signed to Brushfire Records, the label created by Jack Johnson.
