dee_bee_76
06-21-2004, 01:53 PM
I think the B-Boys' Canadian Crew© (myself included) will appreciate this one:
Jun. 20, 2004. 10:48 AM
Beasties show some Maple Leaf love
Still fond of Canada, still hostile to Bush
MARK LEPAGE
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
NEW YORK—After 21 years in the business, the Beastie Boys are themselves a New York trademark.
Their new album, To The 5 Boroughs, includes the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in its cover art. In its 13th track, "An Open Letter to NYC," they name-check the city's "brownstones, water towers, trees, skyscrapers / Writers, prize fighters and Wall Street traders."
After six years off, the Beasties understandably identify with New York Resilient.
So it made perfect sense to be talking about Canada with Adam Horovitz in the Beastie Boys loft offices on Canal St. in Manhattan.
First, Montreal. "I remember that street with all the thrift shops and record stores," Horovitz says. "St. Denis." He is pleased to have remembered the name. "But I'm not as deep into Canada as Mike ("D" Diamond) is."
Sadly, no Toronto reference points or fond memories, although Horovitz likes the city; it certainly features prominently in the Beastie re-entry program. They are featured performers at tonight's MuchMusic Video Awards, with one nomination in the International Video category for "Ch-Check It Out," which is a promising boost and felicitous timing now that, in the words of their promotional slogan, "The Hiatus Is Back Off, Again."
So they'll enjoy Toronto. The Beastie Boys not only haven't played in the area in six years, they haven't released an album in those six years, which is three times the average rap career.
Reached at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, Adam Yauch is willing to reflect on this.
"When we started (in 1983) it was kind of a goof. We were just part of a scene, kind of a punk scene. I probably thought it would last a few weeks."
Perhaps the Beasties have an unwound sense of time. While on a promo tour of Europe, they were constantly asked about the "hiatus" in a variety of Euro-accents. This became an in-joke for the band, because the accents made the questions unintentionally sinister. "Six years off. Why is this? Tell us why!"
Shades of the old mischief-making Beasties, they invented some answers. One of them involved a Sasquatch kidnapping. Not even the Germans believed that one. Other rumours gathered strength during the time off.
Rumour No. 1: the album took five years of agonized preparation and was then recorded in a single day-long burst.
In fact, they simply "lived our lives for four years and made the record over the past two," says Mike D. Both he and Yauch became parents (with D's second child due imminently). Horovitz moved in with his girlfriend, feminist rocker Kathleen Hanna of Le Tigre.
Rumour No. 2: the Beasties' loft office/recording space is the old studio where Barney Miller was filmed.
"To my knowledge, that is not true," Horovitz admits. "Although I can't prove Barney Miller was never filmed here."
It might as well have been, given the tonnage of '70s references on To The 5 Boroughs. 50 Cent has gangsta and pimpin', Eminem has resentment and the class war, and the Beasties have Sanford And Son and Klingon ears.
"We just kinda go in and crack each other up," Yauch says of the recording process.
But it's hardly that simple. Yauch is pop music's most famous practising Buddhist, and for better than a decade, the Beasties have soft-peddled a peace/justice platform (a Horovitz line from "All Lifestyles" is "I gotta spread love in society" — add your own whiny enunciation for maximum effect).
Horovitz says one of his coevals, "I wonder what Eminem's record is going to be like. I only know the singles, I don't really know all of his lyrics, but he's good at what he does." Between the lines, he is not a fan of the Eminem mindset.
Whether or not you've missed the Beasties, hip hop has. Years after their dominance was expected to wane, the most prominent figures in hip-hop culture remain as obsessed with status and violent dominance as heavy metal bands are with groupies and the Beast. Whereas the Beastie Boys send the solidarity shout out to "all you spazzes and all you freaks/ Go and do your thing 'cause you're unique." They are white rappers on wry.
The new album opens with that cosy embrace of "All Lifestyles," and dismisses the Bacardi-and-bullets philosophy of 50 Cent's "In Da Club." Although three Beasties profess to love the sound of the song, it's a backhanded compliment.
"Personally, I have a minivan." Horovitz says. "Dodge Caravan. Blue. Dual sliding doors." So he and the Beasties are no longer citizens of club culture and, cruising around age 39, are not pimping their rides for street cred.
Certainly, Yauch's boast that "I've got more rhymes than Carl Sagan's got turtlenecks" will not get you out of any knife fights. But they have a different fight in mind.
Although they attempt to downplay it in conversation (I spoke to them separately), they are deeply anti-Bush and against the Iraq War. It bothers Horovitz that a majority of their non-American fans may assume there is an American lockstep of political opinion.
"I think people have to know that it's not all Americans behind this (war). I mean, just read the paper and watch the news — there are a lot of protests about this war going on. A lot.
"There was some real trickery about how he got elected. It's just shaky — the whole thing is a little shaky. You know that not everybody's behind it."
Horovitz pronounces the mood "heightened. Friends of mine who never talk about politics are talking about it." And To The 5 Boroughs is laced with political commentary on gun control, the Kyoto accord and foreign wars.
After all, the Beastie Boys do get around, and not just to Japan and Europe. While talking about Canada and his familiarity with Vancouver's Gastown in particular, Mike D recalls spending some extended time in Regina several years ago when his wife, director Tamra Davis, was filming there.
"For me it's kind of fun to live in a small town for a little bit," he says. He appreciated the relative simplicity, and the strange freedom afforded by limited choices.
"The health food store is over here, the park is over there, that's the college over there. It's very flat and very quiet in Regina."
It is very vertical and very noisy in New York, which is gathering critical mass for a long hot summer punctuated by the Republican National Convention at the end of August. It will be interesting to see how the boys and their beloved five boroughs react.
Jun. 20, 2004. 10:48 AM
Beasties show some Maple Leaf love
Still fond of Canada, still hostile to Bush
MARK LEPAGE
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
NEW YORK—After 21 years in the business, the Beastie Boys are themselves a New York trademark.
Their new album, To The 5 Boroughs, includes the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in its cover art. In its 13th track, "An Open Letter to NYC," they name-check the city's "brownstones, water towers, trees, skyscrapers / Writers, prize fighters and Wall Street traders."
After six years off, the Beasties understandably identify with New York Resilient.
So it made perfect sense to be talking about Canada with Adam Horovitz in the Beastie Boys loft offices on Canal St. in Manhattan.
First, Montreal. "I remember that street with all the thrift shops and record stores," Horovitz says. "St. Denis." He is pleased to have remembered the name. "But I'm not as deep into Canada as Mike ("D" Diamond) is."
Sadly, no Toronto reference points or fond memories, although Horovitz likes the city; it certainly features prominently in the Beastie re-entry program. They are featured performers at tonight's MuchMusic Video Awards, with one nomination in the International Video category for "Ch-Check It Out," which is a promising boost and felicitous timing now that, in the words of their promotional slogan, "The Hiatus Is Back Off, Again."
So they'll enjoy Toronto. The Beastie Boys not only haven't played in the area in six years, they haven't released an album in those six years, which is three times the average rap career.
Reached at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, Adam Yauch is willing to reflect on this.
"When we started (in 1983) it was kind of a goof. We were just part of a scene, kind of a punk scene. I probably thought it would last a few weeks."
Perhaps the Beasties have an unwound sense of time. While on a promo tour of Europe, they were constantly asked about the "hiatus" in a variety of Euro-accents. This became an in-joke for the band, because the accents made the questions unintentionally sinister. "Six years off. Why is this? Tell us why!"
Shades of the old mischief-making Beasties, they invented some answers. One of them involved a Sasquatch kidnapping. Not even the Germans believed that one. Other rumours gathered strength during the time off.
Rumour No. 1: the album took five years of agonized preparation and was then recorded in a single day-long burst.
In fact, they simply "lived our lives for four years and made the record over the past two," says Mike D. Both he and Yauch became parents (with D's second child due imminently). Horovitz moved in with his girlfriend, feminist rocker Kathleen Hanna of Le Tigre.
Rumour No. 2: the Beasties' loft office/recording space is the old studio where Barney Miller was filmed.
"To my knowledge, that is not true," Horovitz admits. "Although I can't prove Barney Miller was never filmed here."
It might as well have been, given the tonnage of '70s references on To The 5 Boroughs. 50 Cent has gangsta and pimpin', Eminem has resentment and the class war, and the Beasties have Sanford And Son and Klingon ears.
"We just kinda go in and crack each other up," Yauch says of the recording process.
But it's hardly that simple. Yauch is pop music's most famous practising Buddhist, and for better than a decade, the Beasties have soft-peddled a peace/justice platform (a Horovitz line from "All Lifestyles" is "I gotta spread love in society" — add your own whiny enunciation for maximum effect).
Horovitz says one of his coevals, "I wonder what Eminem's record is going to be like. I only know the singles, I don't really know all of his lyrics, but he's good at what he does." Between the lines, he is not a fan of the Eminem mindset.
Whether or not you've missed the Beasties, hip hop has. Years after their dominance was expected to wane, the most prominent figures in hip-hop culture remain as obsessed with status and violent dominance as heavy metal bands are with groupies and the Beast. Whereas the Beastie Boys send the solidarity shout out to "all you spazzes and all you freaks/ Go and do your thing 'cause you're unique." They are white rappers on wry.
The new album opens with that cosy embrace of "All Lifestyles," and dismisses the Bacardi-and-bullets philosophy of 50 Cent's "In Da Club." Although three Beasties profess to love the sound of the song, it's a backhanded compliment.
"Personally, I have a minivan." Horovitz says. "Dodge Caravan. Blue. Dual sliding doors." So he and the Beasties are no longer citizens of club culture and, cruising around age 39, are not pimping their rides for street cred.
Certainly, Yauch's boast that "I've got more rhymes than Carl Sagan's got turtlenecks" will not get you out of any knife fights. But they have a different fight in mind.
Although they attempt to downplay it in conversation (I spoke to them separately), they are deeply anti-Bush and against the Iraq War. It bothers Horovitz that a majority of their non-American fans may assume there is an American lockstep of political opinion.
"I think people have to know that it's not all Americans behind this (war). I mean, just read the paper and watch the news — there are a lot of protests about this war going on. A lot.
"There was some real trickery about how he got elected. It's just shaky — the whole thing is a little shaky. You know that not everybody's behind it."
Horovitz pronounces the mood "heightened. Friends of mine who never talk about politics are talking about it." And To The 5 Boroughs is laced with political commentary on gun control, the Kyoto accord and foreign wars.
After all, the Beastie Boys do get around, and not just to Japan and Europe. While talking about Canada and his familiarity with Vancouver's Gastown in particular, Mike D recalls spending some extended time in Regina several years ago when his wife, director Tamra Davis, was filming there.
"For me it's kind of fun to live in a small town for a little bit," he says. He appreciated the relative simplicity, and the strange freedom afforded by limited choices.
"The health food store is over here, the park is over there, that's the college over there. It's very flat and very quiet in Regina."
It is very vertical and very noisy in New York, which is gathering critical mass for a long hot summer punctuated by the Republican National Convention at the end of August. It will be interesting to see how the boys and their beloved five boroughs react.