We remember Adam Yauch today on Create Digital Music, with the help of Network Awesome. It’s doubly appropriate to talk video, as MCA was also the Beastie Boys’ filmmaker.
Our friend Benton-C Bainbridge did live visuals with Beastie Boys. He remembers Adam by sharing, at my request, some of his visual work with the band.
At top:
Beastie Boys tribute on VH1 Hip Hop Honors, using thermal cam, oscilloscope, vdmx, rescan and modded MX30 mixer.
And two more:
Beastie Boys on MTV VMA Latin America, using rescans, TiVo digital delay, modded MX30 mixer. the Matrix-style ‘bullet time’ camera rig is by Stuart White.
Beastie Boys on MTV Networks, excerpts from several shows includes the first gig I did with Beastie Boys with my dad’s Heathkit oscilloscope.
The Beastie Boys wanted a “live oscilloscope jam,” recalls Benton.
It’s beautiful work, and another way to see this incredible trio as we remember all MCA brought to it.
Benton is working on an installation opening this week in Nashville, Tennessee. He memorializes the collaboration with MCA on VHS tape in that low-fidelity set of art pieces, and recalls what it was like to work with MCA and the Beasties – including the reflection that MCA continued to work on his film projects until quite recently.
Benton-C Bainbridge on His Work With the Beastie Boys and Super Long Play!, Opening Tomorrow [Nashville Scene]
He tells Nashville Scene:
Adam was quiet and strong; he pushed hard for what he believed in. We’ve lost an innovator, a great American artist and a righteous human being. I’m sad, but I’m also inspired that Adam stayed with us for so long after he was diagnosed, and he gave us so much in his last few years.
This past weekend I’ve been thinking about how grateful I am to have worked with Adam. To get the job with the Beastie Boys, I showed him what I could do with their new (at the time) single “Ch-Check It Out” — run through an oscilloscope to make squiggly patterns that bounce to the tune.
For the last tape in Super Long Play! I re-create the oscilloscope tricks to “Ch-Check It Out” and then speak on camera about memories of Adam. Albeit with some audio hum — those are the perils of low-fi!
Benton’s Glowing Pictures is based in New York.
http://glowingpictures.com/