BEASTIE BOYS BOOK TOPS NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLERS LIST
“a compendium of anecdotes, recipes, impish riffs and shaggy-dog stories and a heartfelt elegy to a much-missed friend… this scrapbook will help to consolidate a sprawling and complicated legacy.”—THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Wild, moving… resembles a Beastie Boys LP in its wild variety of styles…”—ROLLING STONE
“as Nutty, Irreverent, and Fun as You Think It Would Be…”—VOGUE
“As freewheeling and funny as their albums… a beautifully messy (and large) talisman containing within it many of the great joys and surprises that come with listening to the Beastie Boys”—THE AV CLUB
“sincere moments of reflection about their music, their friendship and the guy who taught them to fix radiators, to care about human rights, to own up to mistakes and to grow up.”—NPR MORNING EDITION
Beastie Boys Adam “Adrock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond can now add “bestselling authors” to their long list of bona fides. In the week following its October 30 release, Beastie Boys Book (Spiegel & Grau) has ascended to #1 on The New York Times Best Sellers List—topping both the Nonfiction Print Hardcover and Nonfiction Combined Print & E-Book Best Sellers charts.
Horovitz and Diamond are currently in the midst of the rapturously received Beastie Boys Book: Live & Direct event tour. The show features Mike D and Adrock reading from the book and in conversation, with a live score by Mix Master Mike and a staggeringly thorough Beastie Boys exhibit, curated by Beastie Boys & Beyond the Streets with Sonos providing sound, playing a mixtape curated by Adrock and Mike D.
The last currently scheduled Beastie Boys Book: Live & Direct dates are November 29th at O2 Forum Kentish Town and November 30th at EartH in London.
Written by Adrock and Mike D, with contributions from Amy Poehler, Colson Whitehead, Spike Jonze, Wes Anderson, Luc Sante, and more, Beastie Boys Book is a panoramic experience that tells the story of Beastie Boys for the first time in the band members’ own words. Horovitz and Diamond offer accounts of their transition from teenage punks to budding rappers; their early collaboration with Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin; the debut album that became the first hip hop record ever to hit #1, Licensed to Ill—and the messy fallout as the band broke with Def Jam; their move to Los Angeles and rebirth with the genre-defying masterpiece Paul’s Boutique; their evolution as musicians and social activists over the course of the classic albums Check Your Head, Ill Communication, and Hello Nasty and the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits conceived by the late Adam “MCA” Yauch and more.
With a style as distinctive and eclectic as a Beastie Boys album, Beastie Boys Book is so much more than a musicians’ memoir. Alongside Horovitz and Diamond’s personal recollections are an overwhelming assortment of rare photos and original illustrations, a cookbook by chef Roy Choi, a graphic novel, a map of Beastie Boys’ New York, mixtape playlists, and many more surprises.
About the Authors:
Beastie Boys is a trio consisting of Michael “Mike D” Diamond, Adam “Adrock” Horovitz, and the late Adam “MCA” Yauch (1964–2012), formed in 1981 as part of New York’s hardcore punk underground. The group’s first full-length album, Licensed to Ill, was the first rap album to reach #1. With seven multi-platinum albums from 1986 to 2011, including Licensed to Ill, Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty, To the 5 Boroughs and Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, Beastie Boys are one of the longest-lived hip hop acts worldwide. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, received the MTV Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in 1998, and have won three Grammy Awards.
For more information, go to www.beastieboysbook.com