On April 24, the "live documentary experience" Beastie Boys Story will premiere on Apple TV+. Spike Jonze directs the doc which is based on Mike D and Ad Rock's 2019 memoir and eponymous stage production, according to Consequence of Sound. The first trailer was just released.
Beastie Boys blog (Jan. 25):
“This is the eighth time I’ve rewritten this thing, the filmmakers kept telling me I was doing it wrong but I’m really feeling this one. Here’s what the film is: Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz of Beastie Boys tell you an intimate, personal story of their band, and their 40 years of friendship together. From the 1980s New York City punk scene, to Fight For Your Right (to Party) and becoming the first hip-hop artists to make a #1 record (Licensed to Ill), through their evolution, which took them to Sabotage, Intergalactic and beyond. Created with their old friend, their former grandfather and collaborator, filmmaker Spike Jonze, the film seamlessly mixes a live stage show and documentary to create a new format, a live documentary. Does that make sense? It’ll make more sense when you see the trailer that the filmmakers haven’t finished editing yet, despite constant badgering. But anyways, I’m not mad. In this film that was shot at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, Mike D and Adrock discuss their evolution as musicians, artists and people, and a whole bunch of other crazy sh!t. Their co-conspirator, musician, activist, inventor, discredited astrophysics professor and my favorite Beastie Boy, Adam Yauch, couldn’t be there that night because he passed away in 2012.
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Rad.
(h/t David Razowsky) Read the rest
To honor MCA, the great Adam Yauch, the remaining Beastie Boys have partnered with Adidas to release a vegan shoe.
VegNews:
This week, shoe brand Adidas released the Adidas Skateboarding x Beastie Boys Americana vegan sneaker to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Beastie Boys’ album Paul’s Boutique. The iconic rap group’s member Adam Horovitz (known professionally as “Ad-Rock”) and Mike Diamond (known as “Mike D”) collaborated on the design of the shoe and made it vegan in honor of longtime veganAdam Yauch—the third Beastie Boys member who died in 2012 from cancer. The shoe features a vegan canvas upper, cotton jersey liner, gum sole, Adidas’ classic three-striped pattern, and a Beastie Boys logo on the tongue. A portion of sales of the new shoes will be donated to PEACE Sisters and Little Kids Rock, organizations that work to empower young women.
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This fantastic documentary must be watched. I love these guys. Read the rest
The Beastie Boys Book, a meaty memoir penned by the band's Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, was released this week.
Via the books' press junket, some of the stories within its pages are coming out.
In particular, Rolling Stone shared an excerpt from the audiobook. Ad-Rock writes how the song "Sabotage" was inspired by the band's sound engineer Mario (who was known to "blow a fuse"), "I decided it would be funny to write a song about how Mario was holding us all down, how he was trying to mess it all up, sabotaging our great works of art..."
...Saturday Night Live alum Tim Meadows tells the story of 1994’s “Sabotage,” reading from both Diamond’s and Horovitz’s perspectives as they recall how engineer Mario Caldato Jr. inspired the classic rage-out. Yes, that’s right: When Ad-Rock screams “IIIIIIIIIIIIII can’t stand it/I know you planned it,” the person he’s so pissed at in that moment is the Beastie Boys’ own good friend and recording partner...
Listen:
The book is available for $49.99 from the band's merch site, or $30 from Amazon.
photo via Beastie Boys blog
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dj BC (previously) writes, "You might be familiar with my Beastles mashup project from some years ago. The album "Ill Submarine" is dropping on TAPE on Cassette Store Day, October 13th 2018! I guess tapes are unpopular enough that no one anticipates copyright lawsuits. Speaking of copyright fear, the vinyl editions of this project, and of Wu Orleans, are not being pressed any more. So if you see one, get it."
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The incredibly well loved, respected and admired Adam Yauch was a buddhist.
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Theresa DeLucci got a letter published in the only publication for girls that really attempted educational journalism—amid Twin Peaks fashion spreads and celeb interviews with grunge luminaries like Kurt Cobain and Kim Gordon.
In the New York Times today, Dave Itzkoff reports on the latest wrinkle in the copyright battle between SF tech-toy company GoldieBlox and beloved hip-hop band The Beastie Boys. As reported here on Boing Boing in previous weeks, GoldieBlox used the Beasties' song "Girls" in a viral video that was an ad for its toys. The Beasties objected, though they claim they didn't threaten per se--and GoldieBlox pre-emptively sued the band. Then GoldieBlox kind of backed down. Now, the Beasties have filed a counterclaim.
In court papers filed on Tuesday, lawyers for the Beastie Boys said that a popular online video that was created by the toy company, GoldieBlox, and contained an alternate version of the band’s song “Girls,” constituted “copyright infringement and is not fair use,” turning the band’s music into “a ‘jingle’ to sell GoldieBlox’s products.”
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Photographer Glen E. Friedman, widely known for his work chronicling the intersection between punk rock and hiphop in the 1980s, has posted some beautiful shots of MCA, Ad-Rock, and Mike D from that era: "why A you see H".
Remembering Adam Yauch: Polly Wog Stew
1993 interview with Adam Yauch from bOING bOING #13
Adam "MCA" Yauch, RIP Read the rest
Earlier this morning, Pesco posted the awful news that Adam "MCA" Yauch died this morning at age 47. Words here can't express how sad I am, reading that news. Hits home in part because I'm fighting the same disease, and in part because the Beasties were such a formative part of my subcultural education as I grew into my teen years.
The first time I heard them, and Adam Yauch, was when a friend from middle school handed me a home-copied dupe of this cassette tape EP [YouTube, and you can still buy copies on Amazon]. I played it over and over until that little black ribbon wore right out. Some of you may not know that the Beasties were a hardcore band before they became a hiphop band. Now you do.
I've embedded some Beastie videos from that era below. Fuck you, cancer. Read the rest
