What a bummer of an announcement today from the Beastie Boys‘ Adam “MCA” Yauch:
It’s nice to see that is he public about it for the fans and in good spirits, but still it’s terrible to hear that he has a form of cancer. Yauch even apologized to his fans for not being able to tour during this rough time.
This was a bummer of a video to watch… He is a true musician.
The cancellation of the Beastie Boys shows and the push back of their release is completely understandable and I hope that MCA wins the fight against this cancer.
While clearing some space off of my desktop today I found a certain WAV file I was sure I lost forever. Perhaps it was a sign of sorts that I found it today so I thought what better thing to do but share the WAV file with the world. The WAV file I speak of is actually a recorded interview with yours truly and NYC’s finest, the Beastie Boys.
The year was 2007 and I was just a freshman at this whole online blogging thing. I was just getting comfortable with reviewing CDs and live shows for the wonderful Blogcritics.Org. I was having a good time doing this and decided to try something a little more challenging, review a 2 day festival.
Somehow, some way I scored a press pass to the 2007 Virgin Mobile Festival and successfully covered the 2 days for Blogcritics.Org. The experience was a positive one and made me want to review more festivals from my perspective because I had so much fun doing so. You can read the review HERE but I never really got into full detail about the behind the scenes portion of my experience.
Just days before we (Matt, Rad-am, and myself) were to leave for Baltimore I received an email asking me if I wanted to interview the Beastie Boys as they were supporting their latest release The Mix Up by doing select tours and one of the stops was at the Virgin Mobile Festival. Having never interviewed anyone in person before I was quick to the accepting reply for the opportunity and was told I would receive further instruction.
Day one of the festival once I got situated I received a text message telling me to meet at the press tent to interview the Beastie Boys. I remember the girl and the guy coordinating it were super cool people and as we made out way through the VIP area I actually passed Virgin owner Richard Branson and gave a “what’s up” nod to the lead singer of the Fountains Of Wayne.
We kept walking till we got to a fenced off area where a couple of the Beastie Boys security members were seated in almost a outdoor living room canopied arrangement and were told that the Beastie Boys were situated inside the trailer next to them. Security told us to stand aside the fence and wait for our turn. I chatted with a couple of the guys standing with me and one of them ran an online Detroit radio program and the other was a reporter for MTV online. Even though I had no idea what I was doing or what to expect I felt good about the situation.
When it was my turn to approach the trailer John Norris of MTV cut me in line and made his way into the trailer. Time was passing now and I was not sure I was going to be able to interview them. I was sweating my ass off too as it was hotter than hell outside and the security guys would not share their canopy with us. No complaints from me though, I was still pumped.
I finally was told I had six minutes to interview the Beastie Boys and made my way into the trailer.
The first thing I noticed when I walked in the trailer were the three Armani suit wearing Beastie Boys all with smiles on their faces. The second thing I noticed was that the trailer was air conditioned… Score.
I was asked to sit down on one of those fold out chairs and I hit record on my digital recording device.
As you can hear I was interviewed more by the Beastie Boys but I did not care. The Beastie Boys are known for not being serious during interviews and I think if anything they really had fun chatting with me. I was not looking to perform the most amazing interview of my career anyways, I was just looking to hang out with a band I have been a life long fan of. Talking about LeBron James, breakfast bar buffets, and my Ween t-shirt just made the conversation all the more enjoyable.
I left that trailer with the biggest smile on my face and soon met up with Matt and Rad-am who were both wondering if I was ever going to come back to the festival grounds. Moments later the Beastie Boys took the stage and blew the three of us away.
When I hear myself speak I think I sound like an idiot but then again I was a little nervous and did not know what the heck I was doing. I never did so anything with the recording as I was unable to decipher some of the member’s voices from one another when I was transcribing it….then I lost the file (or so I thought I did).
Good times. I hope you all enjoyed the little WAV file I found.
I have to say that Bonnaroo 2009 is looking pretty good this year. Tickets go on sale this Friday and I already envision a sellout with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street band performing as well as Phish (2 shows mean major hippie joy). I am more excited to see Coheed & Cambria, the Beastie Boys, NIN, Andrew Bird, Wilco, Elvis Costello, Down (seriously???), and Jenny Lewis.
Here’s the current line up taken from Bonnaroo.com:
More Artists to Be Announced! (Line Up Subject To Change)
Tickets go on sale this Friday. They will run you about $224.50 at first and then will escalate to $249.50 after the early tickets sellout. Pricey, indeed, but this year Bonnaroo is making it easier for you to go as they have introduced a payment plan. Call it a rock layaway of sorts… Here is some info on that:
GA PAYMENT PLAN
General admission tickets will also be available for (5) payments of $50.00 plus applicable fees through our payment plan.
Payment plan ticket fees are $28.90 per ticket, which includes a $6.00 facility fee, $3.00 contribution to Coffee County, $1.00 charity donation, and $5.00 payment plan fee ($1.00 per payment), and service fees.
There is a limit of (10) general admission payment plan tickets per order.
GA Payment Plan Schedule*
Payment 1 $90.90 including all fees DATE OF PURCHASE
Payment 2 $50.00 Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Payment 3 $50.00 Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Payment 4 $50.00 Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Payment 5 $50.00 Tuesday, May 19, 2009
*For each GA ticket purchased starting on Saturday, February 7, 2009.
That is a great idea if you ask me. Everyone these days are hard on cash so this payment plan will pull in those folk who may now have been able to dish out all the loot at once. Keep in mind though that if you do the payment plan and miss just one payment, Bonnaroo will keep the ticket, keep your money, and still bill you for the balance. I knew there was a catch to this. Always make sure you read the fine print or in this case the part that says “IMPORTANT“:
IMPORTANT: If, for any reason, any of your payments are declined, in whole or in part, then all of the following will apply: (i) your order and your tickets will be canceled (ii) any payment received as of that date will be kept by Bonnaroo as partial offset for your default, (iii) you will still owe the balance of the full amount due for each ticket and you authorize Musictoday and Bonnaroo to charge your credit card for any balance due, (iv) Musictoday and Bonnaroo will be entitled to pursue all of their legal and equitable remedies to recover the full payment from you, and (v) you agree to pay all costs of collection incurred by Musictoday or Bonnaroo, including legal fees, that they may incur in collecting the balance of each ticket price. Payment plan tickets are subject to all of the other terms of the ticketing agreement.
I can only afford one festival this year. That is my limit. So far Bonnaroo is winning me over. One thing about Bonnroo that deters me though is the camping. I don’t camp anymore. I especially do not camp with 80,000 other people with camps set up as far as 3 miles from the venue.
I went to Bonnaroo in 2006. We stated in a dump hotel but it the the best thing we could do. We could come and go when we wanted to as we were not jammed into to the camping area like sardines. Trust me, once you park your car and set up camp you are done. There was hardly any traffic movement during the whole weekend as if you camped you were stuck.
No showers, no air conditioning, no running water… yeah I am too old for that these days… I can rock it at an all day long summer festival no problem, but at the end of the day I need a bed with some A/C cranking after a shower.
Just look at the picture below. The lower half of the picture is the festival grounds. The top half is the camping community. There is also an equal portion of the camping community behind the festival grounds too. Honesty it is an incredible site…
Aerial shot by Taylor Crothers
With tickets on sale at the end of the week I am really wishing the Virgin Festival line up would release so I can figure out which way I am headed this summer… I lean towards the Virgin Festival mostly because I have been to all of them so far so why ruin a tradition? This Bonnaroo line up though has me very interested…
The Beastie Boys are counting on you to rock the vote this year.
This is the first time the Beasties have even come close touring in Cleveland since 1998. I saw them last year and even got to interview them at the Virgin Mobile Tour. I have to saw they are still awesome. My interview was not much of an interview as much as us just shooting the you know what… I really need to post that on here one day. Their live show was incredible. It was my third time seeing them live.
So now I am trying to figure out if I should go… I have so much going on late October. Decisions decisions… Pre-sale starts tomorrow at 10am. Password is VOTE. Go to their website for more info.
