Ever wonder what everyone else is listening to? Today’s list of Top Rankin Tunes is compiled from what was most popular among ([HearingTest]) readers in 2007. This is definitely the most pop-oriented of all the lists; starting with the the most-played tune: Alicia Keys and Jr. Reid’s reggae soul remix of “No One” followed by the tune that Jah Cure released at the same time he himself was released from Tower Prison. These two tunes were receiving thousands of plays per day for weeks! Recently, the audio CD that comes with Ghostface Killah’s new book “The World According To Pretty Toney” has been streaming pretty much round the clock on computers around the globe and linked to on numerous hip hop BBs. Other big contenders include Foxy Brown’s don diva anthem with Mavado - “We’re On Fire” - released during her incarceration in Rykers Island and the club anthem of the year in UK - T2 and Jodie Aysha’s incredible infectious “Heartbroken” which puts the bounce in Bassline music! ([More →])

Hahaha, it’s getting too easy to report band’s good deeds these days. Do-gooding is spreading like wildfire since the concept of Live Earth first started to buzz. I do my best to weed out the deeds that are done merely for publicity and hype, so the ones I report I feel are the genuine article. Today’s featured Band-With-A-Social-Conscious is one of our all-time favorite bands - one that can do no wrong in our book! It’s The Beastie Boys! ([More →])

The Beastie Boys have been uber-busy lately. Therefore, we will forgive them for announcing their L.A. Gala Event a couple days after tix went on sale. If you haven’t heard, the Gala Events are the ones that feature the band as a jazz-funk ensemble playing instrumental music off their new album, The Mix Up. ([More →])

Happy Skateboarding Day! To celebrate this fine occasion, and being skate punks themselves, The Beasties Boys have 1 trick and 2 treats up their sleeve!

Beastie Boys - The Gala Event New Video:

Buy The Mix-Up, Go To Beastie Boys Shows

Treat #1 : They still have tickets to some of the sold out shows on their US tour as part of the preferred seating they will be selling after July 3rd. Shows that include instrumental gala events of their psychedelic jazz punk stylings, as well as old skool hip hoppery.
Trick #1 : There’s a catch - in order to receive the promo code for the preferred seating sales, you need to order their new album The Mix Up from iTunes on Tuesday. I’d be buying the album anyway, but not from iTunes, that’s too bad.
According to the news on the BBoys site:

Purchase The Mix-Up from iTunes, and receive a code that gives you access to preferred seating for the upcoming tour dates, INCLUDING THE SHOWS THAT HAVE ALREADY SOLD OUT!!! Special blocks of tickets have been set aside specifically for this promotion.

You must act quickly in order to qualify for this promotion. Offer expires July 3rd.

(LINK WILL BE ON http://www.beastieboys.com/news/ ON TUESDAY)

Please note: Tickets for this promotion are limited. Purchasing the album through iTunes does not guarantee tickets.

Beastie Boys Listening Party In LA

Treat #2 : LA will be treated to two special listening parties of The Mix-Up. Both take place on June 25th and feature FREE ice cream and limited edition Tees!

Union
110 S. La Brea
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Free ice cream provided by Scoops

Undefeated Silverlake
3827 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA, 90189
Free ice cream provided by Pazzo Gelato

The festivities kick off at 6pm and its all first come first serve, so don’t be late! I was just saying how this is the year to live in LA and here is yet another example of why. Lucky kids.

Beastie Boys News

The Beasties have added another London show to their huge tour:

9/6 London, UK Camden Roundhouse

Tickets go on sale to the public Friday, June 15th at 10:00am.

Click over to the Beastie Boys news page for info to get tix.

I hope the Beastie Boys aren’t getting tired of guitars, drums, and bass already. They have expanded their tour schedule to include all out hip hop shenanigans with just the occasional “Exclusive Instrumental Show.” These 3 boys have yet to disappoint me, so I will trust in their tour plans. I’m quite impressed with how much I still love their music, and how they continue to release really exciting albums. They are doing a much better job than Bjork as far as remaining relevant and fresh musically.

Beastie Boys Hip Hop Shows

8/1 Philadelphia - Festival Pier
8/6 Boston - Bank of America Pavilion
8/8 New York - Summerstage
8/9 Brooklyn - McCarren Pool
8/16 Denver - Red Rocks
8/23 Santa Barbara - County Bowl
8/25 Berkeley - Greek Theater

What’s this I see - a McCarren Pool performance? Excellent!
A recent press release mentioned that there would be more events scheduled in the near future that would have The Mix Up configuration, thus more guitars, drums and bass instrumentals. I will be watching the BBoys site more updates, and will let you know when I find them. The Mix Up is released on June 26th.

LINKS

Beastie Boys - home on the web
Beastie Boys on HearingTest - all the latest news

Full Tour Dates

06/14/2007 - Sonar - Barcelona, ES
Sonar Festival
A Gala Event – Exclusive Instrumental Show
06/15/2007 - Sonar - Barcelona, ES
Sonar Festival
06/16/2007 - Olympic Baseball Stadium - Athens, GR
Ejekt Festival
06/17/2007 - Parkorman Maslak - Istanbul, TR
One Love Festival
http://www.pozitif.info/2004/en/
06/20/2007 - Columbiahalle - Berlin, DE
Exclusive Instrumental show
06/22/2007 - Hurricane Festival - Scheesel, DE
06/23/2007 - Live Music Hall - Cologne, DE
Exclusive Instrumental show
06/24/2007 - Southside Festival - Neuhasen, DE
06/26/2007 - Le Zenith - Paris, FR
06/27/2007 - Le Bataclan - Paris, FR
Exclusive Instrumental show
06/28/2007 - Festival Park Werchter - Werchter, BE
Rock Werchter Festival
06/30/2007 - Babie Doly Airfield - Gdynia, PL
Heineken Open’er Festival
07/01/2007 - Babie Doly Airfield - Gdynia, PL
Heineken Open’er Festival
07/03/2007 - Odderøya peninsula - Kristiandsand, NO
Quart Festival
Idrettsplassen (Main Stage)http://quart.no
07/04/2007 - Gröna Lund - Stockholm, SE
07/06/2007 - Festival Grounds - Roskilde, DK
Roskilde Festival
http://www.roskilde-festival.dk
07/07/2007 - Wembley Arena - London, GB
Live Earth
07/09/2007 - Stravinsky Hall - Montreux, CH
Montreux Jazz Festival
07/10/2007 - Miles Davis Hall - Montreux, CH
Montreux Jazz Festival
A Gala Event – Exclusive Instrumental Show
07/11/2007 - Piazza Grande - Locarno, CH
Moon & Stars Festival
http://www.moonandstarslocarno.ch
07/13/2007 - Petrovaradin Fortress - Novi Sad, CS
Exit Festival
07/14/2007 - Nuke Festival - Vienna, AT
07/15/2007 - Lake Balaton - Zamárdi, HU
Balaton Sound Festival
07/28/2007 - Naeba Ski Resort - Niigata, JP
Fuji Rock Festival
08/04/2007 - Pimlico Race Course - Baltimore, MD
Virgin Festival
www.virginfestival.com
08/31/2007 - Inveraray Castle - Argyll, GB
Connect Festival
09/01/2007 - Stradbally Hall - Stradbally, IE
Electric Picnic
09/02/2007 - Stradbally Hall - Stradbally, IE
Electric Picnic
A Gala Event – Exclusive Instrumental Show
09/04/2007 - Brixton Academy - London, GB
09/05/2007 - Brixton Academy - London, GB
09/08/2007 - Robin Hill Countryside Adventure Park - Isle of Wight, GB
Bestival
09/09/2007 - Robin Hill Countryside Adventure Park - Isle of Wight, GB
Bestival

On Tuesday the Beastie Boys were honored with Artist of the Year at the 11th Annual Webby Awards. They received this award for their innovative idea in 2006 of incorporating user-generated content into their live concert film, notoriously known as Awesome, I F***ing Shot That. The Beastie Boys movie was compiled entirely of footage created by the audience with cameras that were distributed at the concert.

The Webby Award also chose them in part for their work and loud advocation of more flexible copyright laws and a share-alike attitude with their own music. David-Michel Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards, described the Beastie Boys’ audience interaction enthusiastically when he stated:

“From the Internet to video to music, Beastie Boys have created a totally unique, two-way relationship with their fans… They embody the kind of collaboration and exchange of ideas that the Web is all about.”

It’s true. Just check out their official website with its own page dedicated to making Beastie Boys vocal A Cappellas available for fans to create remixes. Their website also has a tour diary, a studio cam, and a blog where they post the kinds of things that they are getting kicks from, like the fantastic G.I. Joe PSA by Eric Fensler or clips from Sesame Street.

The Webby Awards have a strict 5-word acceptance speech rule, and this is how the Boys worked it:

Can anyone fix my computer?

Hint: go to the blog and watch the G.I. Joe PSA, for reals….

For more fab 1 liners, go to the Webby Awards speeches page. For more BBoys photos from the event, go to this Picture Page. Other Award winners included LonelyGirl15, Halcyon, Ask A Ninja, and many more!

LINKS

Webby Awards Main Page
More photos from 11th Annual Webby Awards Ceremony
Beastie Boys Main Page
Awesome, I F***ing Shot That

New photos on the Beastie Boys website from their performance at Sasquatch festival in Seattle. Check it out:

Tour Diary

Everything I have heard off the upcoming The Mix-Up is so ill, so tight - I can’t wait to get my ears around it on June 26th!

A new Beastie Boys album hits the streets in June! When i say roots, i’m talking pre-License To Ill punk rock days. They have revisited this sound for a few songs on a few albums, but this sounds like a full album of raw slam dancing! Mike D reports to NME that the music on The Mix Up is more rockin like what you hear on Check Your Head and Paul’s Boutique. All of the sounds and instruments on The Mix Up are played by the 3 of them. They put the sampler away for this album!

Tracklist

B for My Name
14th St Break
Suco de Tangerina
The Gala Event
Electric Worm
Freaky Hijiki
Off the Grid
The Rat Cage
The Melee
Dramastically Different
The Cousin of Death
The Kangaroo Rat

.

This might go quite nicely with the A Cappellas that they have available on their remix page…

The BBoys will be performing at the Virgin Festival, Live Earth Concert in London, Electric Picnic, and SONAR Festival in Barcelona.

When asked about what they would be playing at the London Live Earth Concert, Mike D replied -

“By that point we’ll already be playing new songs. But I dunno - you don’t wanna do ‘Jazz Odyssey’ in front of a crowd of 60,000.”

SONAR, the avant-garde electronic music conference/concert/museum exhibition that takes place every year in Barcelona, has announced its lineup of djs and live bands. The 3 day event takes place June 14th-17th and includes individual showcases by representatives from many different aspects of the music industry.

Think daytime schmoozing with everyone from radio, labels, and bands, to designers, artists, and press. And it’s in Spain, where daytime means after the peak of the day. Imagine warm nights of sizzling concerts by Legends of pop/electronic/rock/funk. For an entire weekend!

This lineup is tugging at my passport. It’s tugging hard! Here is a tiny taste, but you’ll have to go to the Sonar website for the full list.

Beastie Boys - Still rockin the mic!
Devo! Mogwai! Mala Rodriguez! Clark! Dizzee Rascal! Wolf Eyes! Jeff Mills! NYPC! Simian Mobile Disco! oh I have to stop, you *must* go look!

This bare bones list with its tiny font would take up half the blogOsphere : Sonar 2007 Line-Up
once you have seen the entire lineup, you can scope the concert and showcase info here : Concerts & Dj’s

Also, many other artists and musicians will be playing via the individual showcases. Some of the highlights include :

BBC radio - Kode 9, Skream
Ed Banger Recs - Uffie feat. Feadz

oh, how i wish i could teleport. i need a TARDIS. maybe i’ll check ebay this week…..