{"id":2441784,"date":"2019-03-15T17:30:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T23:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=809098"},"modified":"2019-03-15T17:30:08","modified_gmt":"2019-03-15T23:30:08","slug":"beastie-boys-10-biggest-takeaways-from-their-sxsw-keynote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/beastie-boys-10-biggest-takeaways-from-their-sxsw-keynote\/","title":{"rendered":"Beastie Boys: 10 Biggest Takeaways From Their SXSW Keynote"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The last time the Beastie Boys<\/a> attended South By Southwest, it was in 2006, when the group was promoting their fan-sourced concert film Awesome; I Fuckin\u2019 Shot That!<\/em> A lot has changed in the last 13 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Beastie Boys stopped by to deliver a keynote address at the Austin Convention Center Friday morning \u2014 a full week into the 2019 edition of SXSW<\/a> \u2014 the group consisted of two surviving members: Michael Diamond<\/a> and Adam Horovitz<\/a>. Adam Yauch<\/a>, their third partner in crime, died of cancer in 2012, and Horowitz and Diamond wrote 2018\u2019s Beastie Boys Book<\/a><\/em> in celebration of both his memory and what the group achieved during their years together.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beastie Boys Book<\/em> is why Horovitz and Diamond were invited to give a SXSW keynote moderated by Nathan Brackett, the head of Amazon Music. Brackett has a long history with the group, living in the same neighborhood as Yauch did when they were children. This close connection allowed Brackett and the Beasties to engage in a lively, free-flowing talk, filled with dumb jokes and profound insights \u2014 a blend that was not only the Beasties\u2019 signature on record, but helps distinguish their memoir, which is revealing in ways rock autobiographies often aren\u2019t. Even if Beastie Boys Book<\/em> offered revelations of the group\u2019s inner workings, there was plenty of material left to explore, which is precisely what Diamond and Horovitz did with Brackett this Friday morning. Here are the biggest takeaways from their often uproarious discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. There Will Be Live Shows (They\u2019re Just Not Concerts)
<\/strong>Diamond and Horovitz dropped the big news at the end of the keynote: The pair are giving a handful of speaking events in Philadelphia and New York City in April. These dates are inspired by their book tour, at the conclusion of which the duo wondered why they didn\u2019t just film their appearances. That\u2019s exactly what will happen next month: Spike Jonze will film the shows that will be released at a later date.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. \u201cA Different Relationship With Reality\u201d
<\/strong>Brackett opened up the keynote by admitting that, in a conventional sense, the Beasties are difficult interviews. What that means is that they aren\u2019t couched the way so many artists are, intent on delivering talking points with aplomb. Horovitz questions that whole approach, asking \u201cwhat do you really want to know? Why not just be funny?\u201d Diamond concurs, stressing that \u201cjournalists did not realize the quality stuff they had on the tape\u201d and the keynote proves their point. The Beasties don\u2019t avoid deeper topics but they\u2019re quick to digress and crack jokes about Mike D\u2019s socks (for the record, they sported the rapper Cam\u2019ron)\u2014the kind of thing that kills in front of a live audience. But the skewed relationship with reality extends to the Beastie Boys Book<\/em> itself, where the band passes off what\u2019s almost certainly a faked negative review of Ill Communication. Brackett cornered the band and Horovitz countered \u201cSyncopation magazine? You\u2019re not buying that?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Writing the Book Was a Real Struggle
<\/strong>\u201cLook at me, I\u2019m a man who\u2019s seen real struggle.\u201d That\u2019s how Diamond addresses a question about writing Beastie Boys Book<\/em>, a process that was not easy. Collaborating long distance\u2014Horovitz lives in New York, Diamond resides in Los Angeles\u2014carries its pitfalls, including Mike D waking up early to discover Ad-Rock was on a \u201ccaffeine-fueled rampage,\u201d firing off email after email. Despite these hiccups, the two found the process gratifying. As Horovitz put it, \u201cWe\u2019re not playing shows\u201d so the book \u201ckept me in the band that I love to be in, in a different way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Funny to Us
<\/strong>Appropriately enough for a book that was written in part as a tribute to how the Beasties made each other laugh, the group had wound up with enough material for a second book, all consisting of in-jokes. Horovitz claims this is called \u201cFunny to Us\u201d and it recounts nothing but the weird moments on the road that would never make sense to anybody who wasn\u2019t part of the group. Diamond asserts \u201cthere\u2019s literally 150 pages\u201d for this potential sequel.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Chris Rock and Queen Latifah Said No to the Beasties
<\/strong>The audiobook for Beastie Boys Book<\/em> boasts an impressive cast of friends, collaborators and fellow stars. Horovitz admits the pair \u201cmade a list of who\u2019s the funniest people\u201d for the project and were surprised so many people agreed to participate but they received two hard passes. Diamond says \u201cChris Rock was the first direct<\/a> no,\u201d claiming \u201cI did my own audiobook and it sucked.\u201d Horovitz chimed in that \u201cmost people don\u2019t get back to you but Queen Latifah was \u2018no.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Adam Yauch Still Awes His Friends
<\/strong>A key theme to Beastie Boys Book<\/em> is how Horovitz and Diamond remain mystified by the depths of Adam Yauch\u2019s knowledge and resourcefulness. Ad-Rock maintains \u201che just instinctively knew all of these details of life. We were together everyday, I didn\u2019t know it, how did he?\u201d Much of Yauch\u2019s vision is familiar to Beasties fans\u2014he\u2019s the one who knew how to shoot the cover to Paul\u2019s Boutique or how to flip an 808 beat backwards, so the group could rhyme to that\u2014but even if their friend came up with the loop for \u201cRhymin\u2019 and Stealin\u2019\u201d by running a Led Zeppelin reel to reel tape through his kitchen, the duois quick to credit the influence of Rick Rubin on Licensed to Ill. As Diamond says, \u201che was suburban, he was into metal\u2026if we had mixed the record, it would\u2019ve sounded like a rap group on Rough Trade records.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

7. The Beasties Wrote Lyrics Together
<\/strong>Expanding on a point made in Beastie Boys Book<\/em>, Horovitz and Diamond emphasized that the Beasties always wrote lyrics together, scribbling away as the music played on a loop. Usually, this resulted in a barrage of jokes\u2014as Diamond cracked, \u201cwe are not that elevated in our thinking\u201d\u2014but Yauch pushed the group forward in terms of spirituality and consciousness. Horovitz said, \u201cthis dude is into heavy shit,\u201d but \u201cwe are into moving forward as people,\u201d a point underscored by Diamond\u2019s contention that the group was \u201cA place where you put what you learn to use.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

8. Albums Are Moments in Time
<\/strong>Brackett pressed Horovitz to admit in public that Hello Nasty is Adam\u2019s favorite Beastie record, a claim supported by Ad-Rock\u2019s contention that \u201cby the time we were working on hello nasty we were in the zone.\u201d There, the band had figured out how to execute their ideas individually and collectively, capturing a point when they reached maturity. Diamond doesn\u2019t have a favorite: \u201cIt\u2019s not like we listen to our own records, they\u2019re moments in time.\u201d One of those moments in time was \u201cMake Some Noise,\u201d a song Horovitz calls one of his favorites since it has \u201call the things I love\u201d about his band, yet they never played it live because it arrived at the end of the group\u2019s tenure, when Yauch was too sick to tour.<\/span><\/p>\n

9. Fake Samples on Hot Sauce Committee<\/em>
<\/strong>\u201cNot everyone is going to read all of it.\u201d Diamond directed this observation toward Brackett, who pointed out one of the big revelations of Beastie Boys Book<\/em>: that the group created fake samples for the source material on their last album Hot Sauce Committee, Vol 2<\/em>. The group were taken with this idea but nobody noticed or cared upon the album\u2019s release. The pair argued that even Yauch was a bit nonplussed by the idea, stopping by the studio on a break from his Oscilloscope film studio to discover Horovitz and Diamond gleefully headed down this rabbit hole, then letting them run wild while he turned his attention back to movies.<\/span><\/p>\n

10. Fried Chicken Trumps Texas BBQ
<\/strong>In perhaps their most controversial statement, Diamond reveals that the last time the Beasties were in town, the two Adams headed outside of Austin to sample some local BBQ and that they decided it wasn\u2019t worth the drive. While the exact location wasn\u2019t specified\u2014if it was a drive, it could\u2019ve been Salt Lick or the clutch of BBQ places in Lockhart \u2014 it was clear that the Beasties were disappointed in Hill Country cuisine. The same can\u2019t be said of their dinner at local staple Lucy\u2019s Fried Chicken, which the pair enthused about at the start of their keynote.<\/span><\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last time the Beastie Boys attended South By Southwest, it was in 2006, when the group was promoting their fan-sourced concert film Awesome; I Fuckin\u2019 Shot That! A lot has changed in the last 13 years. When the Beastie Boys stopped by to deliver a keynote address at the Austin Convention Center Friday morning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2441784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 14:17:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2441784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2441784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2441784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2441784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}