My writing career (yes I had one, until I made a terrible mistake) started with a Beastie Boy interview. It was 1994 and I had the idea to make music stories for snowboard-magazines. Music and snowboarding were always connected. At first it was punk, later hip hop and today it’s a mixture of both, what snowboarders are listening to.
I had the idea to interview the Beastie Boys. Their bass player Adam has been a dedicated snowboarder for a long time. My editors called me nuts, because the Beastie Boys were a top band by then already and it would be hard to get some of their time. Nevertheless I called the record label to make out an interview date during their upcoming Germany tour and I got a 15 min slot.
The Rat Cage - from the new album The Mix Up
I spear you the details of the interview. Maybe I’ll write about it another time. Only so much. I actually really got to talk to Adam Yauch, aka MCA and I found out that the Beastie Boys were basically rich kids (before their career) and that they were full of shit. That happened with so many of my favorite bands later on. One idol after another burned when I interviewed them and ever since I have my very special opinion about the music business.
One more note on the site. After the interview we were watching the show in Berlin (it was 1994). The place was packed with fans. Before starting the Beastie Boys asked their fans NOT to stage dive. They even had some strange icon on display, showing an illustration of a guy stage diving in strikethrough. It may have been that German fans don’t understand English or maybe they just really wanted to stage-dive, but the fans tried to get on stage and jump back into the crowd. That is just normal for any kind of punk concert worldwide. Then Mike-D, the lead singer of the Beastie Boys got a hold of one of the stage divers. He grabbed him around the neck with his arm, gave him a hard punch with his fist into the fans stomach and pushed him with an asskick to the security people waiting backstage. The fan got another few punches from them and got kicked out of the concert hall. Is that how you treat your fans?
Yes, you probably guess right, I don’t really like the Beastie Boys from that day on. Nevertheless I have a hard time not liking their music, apart from Intergalactic, which was probably the worst album they’ve ever produced. I expected them to retire after this one. Well, they tried it again and as of Monday you can get their new (instrumental) album “The Mix Up”. Here (above) is “Off the Grid”, a track from the new album, which sounds much like the old (and famous) 1996 instrumental album: The In Sound From Way Out. This ain’t bad and it is the sound I always liked most from the Beastie Boys. Their new album is in stores now and available for free (but illegal!) on Soulseek, Emule, Limewire and many other PtoP platforms. Yes right? Are you thinking what I think?
Links
If you want to stay legal check Brooklynvegan for a stream of the new album.
This photo was taken at the Nash supermarket at Rio Mall in the South West of Moscow. Nash belongs to the Perekrostok group, but other large markets like the french Achuan also used to have shelfs full of DVD’s, CD’s and MP3 CD’s. What looked as licensed content on first sight, always made me suspicious, because $2 per disc and lower prices, even for recent blockbusters, such as Borat were just way to low. Yesterday I witnessed employees of Nash market clearing out these shelfs. If look closely, you can see the MP3 lable on the right. This is probably another result of the governments recent hard policy against piracy.
Nevertheless this won’t really make a difference and going after the shops won’t hurt the producers much. As long as the average Russian makes between $300-1000 salery/month, he won’t spend $10-30 for a DVD. Apparently there are three large producers of the pirated materials in Russia. These producers also control all production facilities for CD’s and DVD’s. In other words, if Sony wants to bring out a DVD movie on the Russian market, they have to work with one of these, who is also producing the pirated materials. I also heard, that there are agreements between the media companies and the producers, which movies will be released (and when) on the black market. As long as the government can’t control the production facilities or reach an agreement with the pirates, the stuff will still be sold on the streets, the internet and in other underground channels.
I frequently get asked about Moscows nightlife and the cities best clubs. So, why not create a few top 10 lists, which will updated now and then? Here we go. Here are my favorite top 10 clubs in Moscow. Please note that this is not the result of some poll, but my very own subjective opinion :-) A top 10 bar/lounge list and restaurants will follow soon.
The kids are in the summer school break already and soon Moscow will fall into its quiet summer sleep again. I actually like this time with less traffic and a quiet mood. Weekends are the best, because everybody is in vacation or on their datchas. Now we only have to make it through some wild Moscow Film Festival parties. The Festival starts today and after its time to think about a nice some summer beach hangout.
DJ Anushka, Zak, two-zero (himself), Alex K.
The two (famous) New Yorkers Ja’bagh and Zak must have thought the same. They will soon leave town for a long break and there will be only two more Propaganda Fridays. So go and enjoy the Moscow Nu-Raves for a last time before the summer break. Who knows what these guys are planning and what kind of inspiration they’ll find on their travels home to NYC and other metropolitan cities like Paris and London. Zak warned me already. Something fresh is cooking, but we’ll see when they’ll be back in Moscow end of August.
Again, this is the last time you can see some of Moscows hippest crowd and one of the cities best events. I am not doing any advertising here. Its really one of the best nights these days. Go check yourself.
June 27th, 2007 by 
Two-Zero 
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