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Beastie Boys

BEASTIE BOYS
 
 
The Beastie Boys  were an American rap rock group from New York City, formed in 1980.  For the majority of its career, the group consisted of Michael “Mike D” Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam “MCA” Yauch (vocals, bass) and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz (vocals, guitar).  The Beastie Boys toured with Madonna in 1985 and a year later released their debut album Licensed to Ill.  The group sold 26 million albums in the United States and 50 million albums worldwide, making them, according to Billboard, “the biggest-selling rap group” since the magazine began recording sales data in 1991.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

Opposition to the unfair imprisonment of two women in Pussy Riot became a cause célèbre of many Western celebrities plus musicians from every genre imaginable:  Bryan Adams, Beastie Boys, the Black Keys, John Cale, Peter Gabriel, Green Day, Nina Hagen, Kathleen Hanna, Paul McCartney, Moby, Yoko Ono, Pet Shop Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Patti Smith, Sting, Pete Townshend, etc.  Pussy Riot was featured on 60 Minutes as well. 

 

For their part, the bandmembers in Pussy Riot that were not in prison distanced themselves from all of this attention and were quoted as saying:  “We’re flattered, of course, that Madonna and Björk have offered to perform with us.  But the only performances we’ll participate in are illegal ones.  We refuse to perform as part of the capitalist system, at concerts where they sell tickets.” 

 

(December 2013)

 

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In one of the sources for this post, the online magazine Louder than War, Paul Fischer describes the music by Lightning Strike as “an incendiary mix of Clash/B.A.D. and the Beastie Boys”.  Big Audio Dynamite is the original punk/rap band, formed by Mick Jones in 1984 after he was thrown out of the Clash the year before.  Most, though not all info on Lightning Strike lists them as a punk band or even a hardcore punk band.
 
(September 2016)