USA: New York rappers the Beastie Boys premiere their latest project a documentary shot exclusively by their fans

Record ID: 722678

  • Title: USA: New York rappers the Beastie Boys premiere their latest project a documentary shot exclusively by their fans
  • Date: 30th March 2006
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 28, 2006) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOTS) WIDE OF LOEWS THEATRE ON 34TH STREET CLOSE UP OF POSTER FOR FILM "AWESOME: I FUCKIN' SHOT THAT!" THE BEASTIE BOYS POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS ON THE RED CARPET PHOTOGRAPHERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ADAM YAUCH (MCA) OF THE BEASTIE BOYS SAYING: " Sometimes we get together and combine our brains into one
  • Embargoed: 14th April 2006 13:00
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  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA4TRZVXLE84LUMQDD1H2ZHY8FE
  • Story Text: Straight out of Brooklyn, the Beastie Boys were the first white rappers to make an impact on the North American urban music charts in the scene so leave it to the to take the concert film in a radical direction by letting fans call the shots.
    On Tuesday night (March 28) the notorious trio premiered their latest project "Awesome, I Fuckin' Shot That!" in New York City.
    For the film, the New York band gave 50 video cameras to fans at a 2004 Madison Square Garden concert who shot the show from their points of view.
    Band member Adam Yauch, who directs Beastie videos under the pseudonym Nathanial Hornblower, spent a year editing the tapes together. He said the aim was to capture the energy of die-hard fans and avoid run-of-the-mill concert footage that he believes seems manufactured. When describing how the idea came to him, he credited the connection he has with his fellow band members,
    "Sometimes we get together and combine our brains into one and then there was, you know, lightning struck, the moment we were doing that, and then it was ability."
    For more than two decades, the Beasties - MCA (Yauch), Adrock (Adam Horovitz) and Mike D (Michael Diamond) - blazed trails in music. They became a sensation with the 1986's hit album "License to Ill," and built a huge following with a single such as "Fight for your Right (To Party)" and "Sabotage."
    The Beasties formed a record label, published a magazine, and, while others fretted about music theft on the Web, offered songs that fans could download and remix themselves.
    Under his Hornblower name, Yauch created 2000's "Beastie Boys Video Anthology" DVD that gave the viewers the ability to change camera angles on videos as they watched and/or mix the music in a way that created multiple new songs and new videos.
    Yauch got the idea for "Awesome" after watching a short film clip from a Beastie concert that was recorded by a fan using a cell phone.
    "Awesome" begins with the cameras being given out before the Garden concert and the Beasties heading onto the stage. For the next 90 minutes, movie audiences, see the band perform songs like "Hello Brooklyn" and "Shake Your Rump." According to Mike D, while viewers can expect a little bit of the racy, he would have liked to include more,
    "There is a little bit of raunch, a little bit of raunch, which we like, we're fans of. So we tried to have that mostly in the film, but some isn't in the film."
    Die hard Beastie Boy fans are likely to want to see the film but MCA hopes the film attracts a wider audience, he said,
    "You know, we would like to see more, older people, criminals, the children, really, we're doing it for the children."
    People can expect to see concert-goers dancing in the aisles - one fan directs his entire section. Another fan runs to the toilet and a pair sneak of backstage. When the band enters the audience for the finale, the cameras capture the pandemonium up close.
    "Saturday Night Live" actor Jimmy Fallon joined guests at the New York premiere, to see just what the Beastie Boys have come up with now,
    "They are always doing something different and they are always like innovative and, they are fun and, they are always changing their stuff up, you know, it is always something different, so, you never know what to expect and, I'm just going to be, I'm really excited. It's going to be a really fun night."
    The movie premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival to good reviews and enthusiastic crowds. The film begins playing through North American theaters on Friday, March 31.
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