midzi
03-30-2006, 01:26 AM
FEASTIN’ ON THE BEASTIE BOYS
A do-it-yourself doc rock reconfigures concert films.
By Tony Phillips
Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! might just be the Rosetta Stone for our post-Rodney King, Patriot Act wire-tapped, culture of surveillance. The Beastie Boys’ new concert doc is equal parts “Sabotage” and trips to the men’s room. Basically, it’s fans gone wild. (And yes, titties are flashed.) On October 9, 2004, The Beasties distributed Hi-8 cameras to 50 of their luckiest fans with the bukkake caveat: everyone starts shooting at the same time.
We got with The Boys—Mike D, Adrock and the film’s “director” MCA—when they dropped their documentary on Sundance and became the ticket headlining Myspace.com’s party the following Monday night.
But The Boys weren’t holding out, they built a space-age tent into the side of Park City Mountain and entered like heroes, through a hole in the side so small even their security goons couldn’t squeeze through. And those 50 cameras? Don’t forget this outfit started off as a New York City punk band: They went straight back to J&R for a full credit.
NYP: How was it decided MCA would direct?
MCA: I don’t know that these guys wanted to spend that kind of time in the editing room.
What was your reaction the first time you saw it?
MCA: My first reaction was the Hi-8 looked better than the DV stuff. We had five or six DV cams out there that our friends had and then the rest of them were Hi-8 cameras that the audience had, but the Hi-8 stuff looked way cooler because of the edge on the grain.
And your inspiration?
MCA: This kid shot a picture of us on his camera phone, and we liked the way it looked.
What creative challenges did you face?
Mike D: We had to remember our lyrics—which usually for us is a pretty difficult thing—and perform them. And we had to show up, and that was creative; we had to take the train there. And persevere.
Why does the second half of the film look so different than the first?
MCA: You just don’t want to keep looking at the same shit the whole time so we messed around with it.
As the first white rappers, do you think rap is not totally colorblind?
Adrock: I don’t think America—or the world—is colorblind.
Mike D: I think it’s on its way. Hip-hop has made a huge contribution with so many different people growing up with it, but the world still has a long way to go.
Adrock: The thing I really like is that people shot this movie. And the essence of hip-hop and punk rock is that we all make it. The kids made it; we all made it together.
What do you think this movie would have been like if you shot when you were opening for Madonna on The Virgin Tour instead of two years ago?
Adrock: We got a lotta hate on that tour.
Mike D: Actually, it was fun being the object of people’s hate. We wouldn’t want to do it forever, but it was fun.
Is there anything you won’t let your DJ Mix Master Mike play?
Adrock: He played Gary Numan “Cars” one night and we just stopped in the middle of the song. And I’m a Gary Numan fan; I have nothing against him, just not at that time.
Mike D: There are definitely those occasions where you have to look back at him like, “Mike, please!”
How did you manage to stay together so long?
Mike D: Fistfights.
Adrock: Yeah, but it’s not just fights, it’s group therapy. We have encounter bats.
Mike D: And we have a lot of pillow fights. We learned that from Aerosmith. They taught us about therapy and shoulder rubs.
Adrock: And raunch.
MCA: It’s a weird thing to go out and play in a huge arena so this is like everybody doing something together so it’s not like a big…
Mike D: …Aerosmith concert. One of the biggest groups in America right now, Three 6 Mafia, made their own album in Memphis out of nowhere. No money. That’s what’s cool about this movie, too. We’re just doing it on our own and putting it out there.
Would you guys be possible if you were just coming out now?
MCA: Well, our first album came out in ’86.
Adrock: Yeah, like would we be the age we were then?
MCA: And would it be that album, or would it be an album we made now? Because that old album might sound old.
How problematic is your movie title?
MCA: ThinkFilm is definitely contemplating different ways of billing it. They were talking about, depending on the venue, asterisks and people who are more uptight could just write “Awesome…” It all depends on how extreme their policies are.
MCA: But what does the Moviephone guy say?
A do-it-yourself doc rock reconfigures concert films.
By Tony Phillips
Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! might just be the Rosetta Stone for our post-Rodney King, Patriot Act wire-tapped, culture of surveillance. The Beastie Boys’ new concert doc is equal parts “Sabotage” and trips to the men’s room. Basically, it’s fans gone wild. (And yes, titties are flashed.) On October 9, 2004, The Beasties distributed Hi-8 cameras to 50 of their luckiest fans with the bukkake caveat: everyone starts shooting at the same time.
We got with The Boys—Mike D, Adrock and the film’s “director” MCA—when they dropped their documentary on Sundance and became the ticket headlining Myspace.com’s party the following Monday night.
But The Boys weren’t holding out, they built a space-age tent into the side of Park City Mountain and entered like heroes, through a hole in the side so small even their security goons couldn’t squeeze through. And those 50 cameras? Don’t forget this outfit started off as a New York City punk band: They went straight back to J&R for a full credit.
NYP: How was it decided MCA would direct?
MCA: I don’t know that these guys wanted to spend that kind of time in the editing room.
What was your reaction the first time you saw it?
MCA: My first reaction was the Hi-8 looked better than the DV stuff. We had five or six DV cams out there that our friends had and then the rest of them were Hi-8 cameras that the audience had, but the Hi-8 stuff looked way cooler because of the edge on the grain.
And your inspiration?
MCA: This kid shot a picture of us on his camera phone, and we liked the way it looked.
What creative challenges did you face?
Mike D: We had to remember our lyrics—which usually for us is a pretty difficult thing—and perform them. And we had to show up, and that was creative; we had to take the train there. And persevere.
Why does the second half of the film look so different than the first?
MCA: You just don’t want to keep looking at the same shit the whole time so we messed around with it.
As the first white rappers, do you think rap is not totally colorblind?
Adrock: I don’t think America—or the world—is colorblind.
Mike D: I think it’s on its way. Hip-hop has made a huge contribution with so many different people growing up with it, but the world still has a long way to go.
Adrock: The thing I really like is that people shot this movie. And the essence of hip-hop and punk rock is that we all make it. The kids made it; we all made it together.
What do you think this movie would have been like if you shot when you were opening for Madonna on The Virgin Tour instead of two years ago?
Adrock: We got a lotta hate on that tour.
Mike D: Actually, it was fun being the object of people’s hate. We wouldn’t want to do it forever, but it was fun.
Is there anything you won’t let your DJ Mix Master Mike play?
Adrock: He played Gary Numan “Cars” one night and we just stopped in the middle of the song. And I’m a Gary Numan fan; I have nothing against him, just not at that time.
Mike D: There are definitely those occasions where you have to look back at him like, “Mike, please!”
How did you manage to stay together so long?
Mike D: Fistfights.
Adrock: Yeah, but it’s not just fights, it’s group therapy. We have encounter bats.
Mike D: And we have a lot of pillow fights. We learned that from Aerosmith. They taught us about therapy and shoulder rubs.
Adrock: And raunch.
MCA: It’s a weird thing to go out and play in a huge arena so this is like everybody doing something together so it’s not like a big…
Mike D: …Aerosmith concert. One of the biggest groups in America right now, Three 6 Mafia, made their own album in Memphis out of nowhere. No money. That’s what’s cool about this movie, too. We’re just doing it on our own and putting it out there.
Would you guys be possible if you were just coming out now?
MCA: Well, our first album came out in ’86.
Adrock: Yeah, like would we be the age we were then?
MCA: And would it be that album, or would it be an album we made now? Because that old album might sound old.
How problematic is your movie title?
MCA: ThinkFilm is definitely contemplating different ways of billing it. They were talking about, depending on the venue, asterisks and people who are more uptight could just write “Awesome…” It all depends on how extreme their policies are.
MCA: But what does the Moviephone guy say?