Jam Music is excited to announce the first artists confirmed for the Good Vibrations Festival 2007 summer line up, stamping it as one of the season’s most anticipated festivals in Australia. Heading the party are international heavyweights Beastie Boys playing with Money Mark & Mix Master Mike on Sunday 18 February in Perth at the Belvoir Amphitheatre, details at www.goodvibrationsfestival.com.au

As the first white rap group of any importance, the Beastie Boys received the scorn of critics and strident hip-hop musicians, who accused them of cultural pirating, especially since they began as a hardcore punk group in 1981. But the Beasties weren't pirating — they treated rap as part of a post-punk musical underground, where the do-it-yourself aesthetics of hip-hop and punk weren't that far apart. Of course, the exaggerated b-boy and frat-boy parodies of their unexpected hit debut album, Licensed to Ill, didn't help their cause. For much of the mid-'80s, the Beastie Boys were considered as macho clowns, and while their ambitious, Dust Brothers-produced second album, Paul's Boutique, dismissed that theory, it was ignored by both the public and the press at the time. In retrospect, it was one of the first albums to predict the genre-bending, self-referential pop kaleidoscope of '90s pop. The Beasties refined their eclectic approach with 1992's Check Your Head, where they played their own instruments. Check Your Head brought the Beasties back to the top of the charts, and within a few years, they were considered one of the most influential and ambitious groups of the '90s, cultivating a musical community not only through their music, but with their record label, Grand Royal, and their magazine of the same name.

It was remarkable turn of events for a group that demonstrated no significant musical talent on their first records. All three members of the Beastie Boys — Mike D (born Mike Diamond, November 20, 1966), MCA (born Adam Yauch, August 5, 1965), and Ad-Rock (born Adam Horovitz, October 31, 1967) — came from wealthy middle-class Jewish families in New York and had become involved in the city's punk underground when they were teenagers in the early '80s. Diamond and Yauch formed the Beastie Boys with drummer Kate Schellenbach and guitarist John Berry in 1981, and the group began playing underground clubs around New York. The following year, the Beasties released the 7" EP Pollywog Stew on the indie Rat Cage to little attention. That year, the band met Horovitz, who had formed the hardcore group the Young and the Useless. By early 1983, Schellenbach and Berry had left the group — they would later join Luscious Jackson and Thwig, respectively — and Horovitz had joined the Beasties. The revamped group released the rap record "Cookie Puss" as a 12" single later in 1983. Based on a prank phone call the group made to Carvel Ice Cream, the single became an underground hit in New York. By early 1984, however, they had abandoned punk and turned their attention to rap.

In 1984, the Beasties joined forces with producer Rick Rubin, a heavy metal and hip-hop fan who had recently founded Def Jam Records with fellow New York University student Russell Simmons. Def Jam officially signed the Beastie Boys in 1985, and that year they had a hit single from the soundtrack to Krush Groove with "She's on It," a rap track that sampled AC/DC's "Back in Black" and suggested the approach of the group's forthcoming debut album. The Beasties received their first significant national exposure later in 1985, when they opened for Madonna on her Virgin Tour. The trio taunted the audience with profanity and were generally poorly received. One other major tour, as the openers for Run-D.M.C.'s ill-fated Raisin' Hell trek, followed before Licensed to Ill was released late in 1986. An amalgam of street beats, metal riffs, b-boy jokes, and satire, Licensed to Ill was interpreted as a mindless, obnoxious party record by many critics and conservative action groups, but that didn't stop the album from becoming the fastest-selling debut in Columbia Records' history, moving over 750,000 copies in its first six weeks. Much of that success was due to the single "Fight for Your Right (To Party)," which became a massive crossover success. In fact, Licensed to Ill became the biggest-selling rap album of the '80s, which generated much criticism from certain hip-hop fans who believed that the Beasties were merely cultural pirates. On the other side of the coin, the group was being attacked from the right, who claimed their lyrics were violent and sexist and that their concerts — which featured female audience members dancing in go-go cages and a giant inflatable penis, similar to what the Stones used in their mid-'70s concerts — caused even more outrage. Throughout their 1987 tour, they were plagued with arrests and lawsuits, and were accused of inciting crime.

While much of the Beasties' exaggeratedly obnoxious behavior started out as a joke, it became a self-parody by the end of 1987, so it wasn't a surprise that the group decided to revamp their sound and image during the next two years. During 1988, they became involved in a bitter lawsuit with Def Jam and Rick Rubin, who claimed he was responsible for the group's success and threatened to release outtakes as their second album. The group finally broke away by the end of the year and relocated to California, where they signed with Capitol Records. While in California, they met the production team the Dust Brothers, and they convinced the duo to use their prospective debut album as the basis for the Beasties' second album, Paul's Boutique. Densely layered with interweaving samples and pop culture references, the retro-funk-psychedelia of Paul's Boutique was entirely different than Licensed to Ill, and many observers weren't quite sure what to make of it. Several publications gave it rave reviews, but when it failed to produce a single bigger than the number 36 "Hey Ladies," it was quickly forgotten about.

Despite its poor commercial performance, Paul's Boutique gained a cult following, and its cut-and-paste sample techniques would later be hailed as visionary, especially after the Dust Brothers altered the approach for Beck's acclaimed 1996 album, Odelay. Still, the record was declared a disaster in the early '90s, but that didn't prevent the Beasties from building their own studio and founding their own record label, Grand Royal, for their next record, Check Your Head. Alternating between old-school hip-hop, raw amateurish funk, and hardcore punk, Check Your Head was a less accomplished than Paul's Boutique, yet it was just as diverse. Furthermore, the burgeoning cult around the Beasties made the album a surprise Top 10 hit upon its spring 1992 release. "Jimmy James," "Pass the Mic," and "So Whatcha Want" were bigger hits on college and alternative rock radio than they were on rap radio, and the group suddenly became hip again. Early in 1994, they collected their early punk recordings on the compilation Some Old Bullshit, which was followed in June by their fourth album, Ill Communication. Essentially an extension of Check Your Head, the record debuted at number one upon its release, and the singles "Sabotage" and "Sure Shot" helped send it to double-platinum status. During the summer of 1994, they co-headlined the fourth Lollapalooza festival with the Smashing Pumpkins. That same year, Grand Royal became a full-fledged record label as it released Luscious Jackson's acclaimed debut album, Natural Ingredients. The Beasties' Grand Royal magazine was also launched that year.

Over the next few years, the Beasties remained quiet as they concentrated on political causes and their record label. In 1996, they released the hardcore EP Aglio e Olio and the instrumental soul-jazz and funk collection The in Sound from Way Out! Also that year, Adam Yauch organized a two-day festival to raise awareness and money about Tibet's plight against the Chinese government; the festival went on to become an annual event. The Beastie Boys' long-awaited fifth LP, Hello Nasty, finally appeared during the summer of 1998, and became their third career chart-topper. A longer wait preceded release of their next album, To the 5 Boroughs, which appeared in mid-2004. In 2005, Capitol issued Solid Gold Hits, a 15-track survey of the Beasties' lengthy career. In 2006, the band released theatrically the concert film Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That! The film was pieced together from footage shot by 50 DV and Hi-8 cameras that were distributed to fans with little more instruction than to keep shooting. The DVD version appeared in July of that year.

1981 Beastie Boys-then consisting of Adam Yauch (a/k/a MCA) on bass, drummer Kate Schellenbach (later of Luscious Jackson), guitarist John Berry (of Big Fat Love), and Mike Diamond (a/k/a Mike D) on the mic-debut at Adam Yauch's 17th birthday party. The band plays its first public gigs opening for the likes of Bad Brains and Reagan Youth at venues including CBGB, A7, and—by a hair--Max's Kansas City, where they play on the last night of the club's existence.

1982 Recorded at Jerry Williams' 171A, same place as Bad Brains' legendary ROIR sessions, Beastie Boys' Pollywog Stew 7" is one of the first New York Hardcore records. It is also the first ever release on Dave Parsons' Ratcage Records, a tiny hardcore label operated from an East Village storefront of the same name (and the site of many a hardcore love connection).

1983 The Cooky Puss 12" (also on Ratcage). The band's first tentative foray into hip hop (if you will). Adam Horovitz (a/k/a Adrock) replaces John Berry. Horovitz had previously played guitar for The Young & The Useless, who had opened for Beastie Boys and also released a 7" on Ratcage. “Cooky Puss” becomes the first B Boys record to receive play at NYC clubs like Danceteria as the band plays its first shows outside the city.

1984 The Mike D/MCA/Adrock Beastie Boys lineup debuts with the "Rock Hard"/"Beastie Groove" 12." Produced by Rick Rubin a/k/a DJ Double R, hired by the group as their DJ because he owned a bubble machine, it is the second record to come out on Def Jam. The three hone their skills opening for the likes of Kurtis Blow, spitting rhymes from the DJ booth at the legendary Disco Fever, and even sharing a bill with the Disco Three the night they announce their name change to the Fat Boys.

1985 "She's On It"/ "Slow And Low" 12" is the first Def Jam/Columbia joint release. Beastie Boys support Madonna on the entire North American "Virgin Tour." "Hold It Now, Hit It" makes waves at urban radio as they support Run-DMC, Whodini, LL Cool J and the Timex Social Club on the groundbreaking Raising Hell tour, where many of those listeners learn that Beastie Boys are white (giving rise to the quote “I never knew you guys were a bunch of Joeys.”). The "Paul Revere" / "The New Style" 12" follows.

Fall 1986 Licensed To Ill, the first full length Beastie Boys album and the first Rap album to go #1. Fueled by "Fight For Your Right," "No Sleep Til Brooklyn," "Brass Monkey" and "Posse In Effect,” it remains at #1 for seven weeks and simultaneously reaches #2 on the urban chart. It soon becomes the fastest selling debut to date for Columbia and the first hip hop record to break 5 million in the '80s.

1987 The Licensed To Ill tour takes the band around the world. They are awarded the key to Kansas City for their donations to Sickle Cell Anemia research.

1989 Paul's Boutique. Beastie Boys resurface with a new deal (Capitol), a new home (Los Angeles) and a new array of styles. Produced by Beastie Boys and the Dust Brothers, Paul's Boutique lays down the blueprint for a generation of emergent genres and goes over the collective head of a nation. The likes of "Shake Your Rump," "Lookin' Down The Barrel Of A Gun," "Car Thief," Shadrach," and the hip hop "suite" "B-Boy Bouillabaisse" contain lyrical and musical references too plentiful and diverse for the average mind to compute in one sitting. Nevertheless, Paul's Boutique elevates Beastie Boys to a new level of critical respect (thumbs up from Christgau, four stars from Rolling Stone, the ever-echoed "Pet Sounds/Dark Side Of The Moon of Hip Hop" quote) and eventually breaks seven figures.

1992 Check Your Head (Grand Royal / Capitol). With Mike D on drums, Yauch on bass and Adrock on guitar, Check…features the return of live instrumentation into the mix. Recording commences in Adam Horovitz's Hollywood apartment, but is temporarily aborted following repeated threats from a downstairs neighbor. The band relocates to its own G-Son studios with the parquet floor in Atwater Village, CA. Produced by the band and Mario Caldato Jr. (who first worked with B Boys as engineer on Paul's Boutique), Check Your Head yields a watershed of new B Boys staples, including "So Whatcha' Want," "Pass The Mic," "Gratitude" and "Jimmy James." With the assistance of Keyboard Money Mark and assorted Latin percussionists, Beastie Boys return to the touring circuit and Check Your Head goes double platinum.

1993 The G-Son complex constructed for the recording of Check Your Head expands to house the band's record company, Grand Royal. While Check… sports a dual Grand Royal/Capitol banner, the label's first independent release is Luscious Jackson's In Search Of Manny. Grand Royal magazine debuts the same year. Originally conceived as a newsletter to answer fan correspondence, the magazine takes on a life of its own. Co-edited by Beastie Boys and friends, the Fall/Winter 1993 debut issue features a Bruce Lee cover story, original artwork by George Clinton, interviews with Q-Tip, Coxsone Dodd, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and more. Subsequent cover subjects include Lee "Scratch" Perry, the history of the Moog synthesizer and a Miami Bass expose'.

1994 Ill Communication (Grand Royal/Capitol), also produced by the band and Mario Caldato Jr., closes the smallest ever interval between B Boys LPs, a mere two years, and enters the charts at #1. The album's first video, "Sabotage," directed by Spike Jonze, inadvertently gives rise to international scandal when top honors at the year's MTV Video Music Awards go to R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" and Yauch's intoxicated uncle, Nathaniel Hornblower, storms the Radio City Music Hall stage in protest. A drained wineskin is discovered on the premises.
Royalties from two songs on Ill Communication --"Shambala" and "Bodhisattva Vow" - are donated to found the Milarepa Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness and activism regarding the injustices perpetrated on native Tibetans by Chinese occupational government and military forces. In May 1994, Beastie Boys play three shows--one each in New York, Los Angeles and Washington DC--donating proceeds to Milarepa.

1995 Beastie Boys stage the Quadraphonic Joystick Action arena tour, selling out NYC's Madison Square Garden and Chicago's Rosemont Horizon in half an hour each, Massachusetts' Worcester Centrum in approximately 20 minutes, and Detroit's Cobo Arena in nine. One dollar from each ticket sold on the tour is donated through Milarepa to local charities in each city on the tour. The band continues to expand its touring universe with treks through South America and Southeast Asia. Following the tour's conclusion, Beastie Boys record and release Aglio e Olio through the independent Grand Royal pipeline. Consisting of eight songs clocking in 11 minute, the EP recalls the vintage hardcore punk of the band's infancy. Aglio's release is commemorated by a handful of unannounced club gigs over the following months.

1996 the first Tibetan Freedom Concert takes place June 15 and 16 at the Polo Fields in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. 100,000 people attend the concert, making it the single biggest benefit concert on U.S. soil since 1985's Live Aid. Joining Beastie Boys for the historic weekend: A Tribe Called Quest, Beck, Bjork, Cibo Matto, De La Soul, Foo Fighters, Fugees, John Lee Hooker, Pavement, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Yoko Ono and Ima, Buddy Guy, Biz Markie, Skatalites, Richie Havens, Chaksam-Pa, and guest speakers Tibet House founder Robert Thurman and Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan monk who endured 33 years of torture and imprisonment for nonviolent protest.

The same year, The In Sound From Way Out!, a promotional compilation of Beastie Boys instrumental cuts, is made commercially available through Grand Royal/Capitol.

1997 A second two-day Tibetan Freedom Concert takes place June 7 and 8 at New York's Randall's Island and features Beastie Boys, U2, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Rancid, KRS-One, the Patti Smith Group, Alanis Morissette and a host of others. The show is documented on a three-CD Tibetan Freedom Concert collection release that fall.

Having moved back to NYC, Beastie Boys spend the remainder of the year working on their studio tan.

1998 Tickets to the third Tibetan Freedom Concert sell out within one afternoon. Over 130,000 attend the event, which takes place June 13 & 14 at Washington DC's RFK Stadium. On the bill are Beastie Boys, Radiohead, Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, R.E.M, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, Sonic Youth, Luscious Jackson and a surprise finale' by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others.

Released July 14, Hello Nasty clocks first week sales of nearly 700,000 in the U.S. and goes straight in at #1 in England, Germany, Australia, Holland, New Zealand and Sweden, #2 in Canada and Japan, and Top 10 in Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Finland, France and Israel. Sick!

Beastie Boys unveil the 360-degree In The Round tour July 31st at Seattle's Key Arena. The turntable stage puts every attendee in the official "Beastie Boys Winners Circle," offering unobstructed sightlines from every seat in the house, while a specially designed circular P.A. gives new dimension to the term "Surround Sound."
Early in the tour, Beastie Boys make live tracks available for free download to fans unable to attend the shows-and are blindsided by their label pulling the tracks down. The struggle to keep the live recordings up on BeastieBoys.com is documented in a Wall Street Journal cover story—which features one of those cool little stipple drawings of Mike D. The rest of the group is jealous and vows one day to have their own little drawings as well.

In September Beastie Boys are awarded the Video Vanguard lifetime achievement honor at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.

1999 Beastie Boys ring in the New Year with Artist, Band and/or Record of the Year accolades from the likes of Rolling Stone, SPIN, The New Yorker and Playboy, among others. A month later, they go two-for-two at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, the now quadruple-platinum Hello Nasty taking Best Alternative Music Performance, while "Intergalactic," nails Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group. It is also the first time an artist has ever won in both Rap and Alternative categories.
The fourth Tibetan Freedom Concert is the series' most ambitious undertaking to date. Over the course of June 13th weekend, a lineup of multinational talent will play continuously on stage in East Troy WI, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Sydney, including Beastie Boys, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Joe Strummer, Blondie, Run DMC, Luscious Jackson, and the Cult among others.

Soon thereafter, "Intergalactic" takes Best Hip Hop Video honors at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. In the wake of Woodstock 1999, Adam Horovitz gives a heartfelt and moving speech imploring concert promoters to take adequate precautions and responsibility for concertgoers' safety. Diana Ross does a number of strange things.

On September 28th, Beastie Boys and Elvis Costello "re-enact" Elvis' classic U.S TV debut for Saturday Night Live's 25th Anniversary extravaganza, backing him on "Radio Radio."

November 23rd The Sounds Of Science 2-CD anthology is released.

2000 Nathanial Hornblower compiles 18 of the band's videos for the Criterion Collection to add to its portfolio of acclaimed and influential cinema. The 2-disc Beastie Boys DVD Anthology features alternate audio remixes and alternate camera angles that can be switched as you watch, making for n infinite number of audio/video permutations. STEREO MAN magazine calls the Anthology "the benchmark by which all other music DVDs will now be judged." The set includes Hornblower's own "Alive," "Body Movin'," "Intergalactic,” "So Whatcha Want," "Pass The Mic," "Shadrach" and "Shake Your Rump," as well as candid insights into the bizarre and lonely world of estranged Criterion producer Ralph Spaulding. A tour supporting the DVD and CD anthologies is canceled when Mike D suffers a 5th Degree acromioclavicular joint dislocation (translation: his shoulder, collarbone and ligaments get ALL fucked up), requiring surgery and a lengthy intensive physical rehabilitation.
2001 In the wake of September 11th, the Milarepa-organized, Beastie Boys-headlined NEW YORKERS AGAINST VIOLENCE benefit takes place October 28 & 29 at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, generating net proceeds in excess of $125,000. The funds are disbursed to the New York Women's Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA) September 11th Fund for New Americans--organizations chosen for their efforts on behalf of those affected by the September 11th attacks least likely to receive help from other sources.

The NYAV line-up includes the Strokes, the B-52's, Cibo Matto, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Mos Def, N*E*R*D, Rival Schools, the Roots, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Saul Williams, Stretch Armstrong, Afrika Bambaata, and a surprise two-song set by Moby and Michael Stipe (featuring an impromptu cameo by Bono). Speakers at the event included Yoko Ono, Ibrahim Ramey of the Muslim Peace Fellowship, Benjamin Barber of Democracy Collaborative, Yanki Tshering of NYANA, Miriam Buhl of the NYWF, while surprise intros came from Jimmy Fallon, Sean Lennon, and all three Beastie Boys.

2002 Beastie Boys build a recording studio in downtown Manhattan—Oscilloscope with the plywood floor—and begin recording new music for the first time in four years.

2003 In March, Beastie Boys add their voice to the growing protest against the U.S. war on Iraq. Not willing to wait until their album is finished to comment on the America’s imminent course toward war, they offer the new track "In A World Gone Mad…" as a free download on Beastieboys.com, moveon.org, winwithoutwarUS.org, MTV.com, and milarepa.org.

Milarepa organizes the 9th and 10th Tibetan Freedom Concerts, which Beastie Boys play April 19th at Tokyo's NK Hall and April 20th at Taipei's Stadium of Song-Hsan District in Taiwan-the band's first-ever Taipei appearance. En route home, B Boys headline the Coachella festival in Indio CA, moving a crowd tens of thousands strong with an all hip hop set of classics, peppered by the debut of a few new numbers.

2004 Beastie Boys get down to brass tacks, mixing and mastering the new album for a summer release. It will be the first Beastie Boys record produced by the boys themselves.

Catch the Beastie Boys at Good Vibrations Festival - Sunday 18 February 2007 @ Belvoir Amphitheatre