Published by: World Tibet Network News Sunday, October 26, 1997

Los Angeles Times

Sunday, October 26, 1997

By MARC WEINGARTEN

(Excerpt)

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MORE LIVE: As soon as the Beastie Boys announced their ambitious plans for two 1996 Tibetan Freedom Concerts in San Francisco, you knew that an album of the all-star event would eventually be on the way.

Well, the Beasties' Adam Yauch and the other project organizers didn't rush, waiting until they'd staged two more concerts last summer in New York. But the hefty three-disc package, which focuses primarily on the New York concerts, will arrive in stores Nov. 4.

Among the artists who'll be featured on the Grand Royal/Capitol release: Beck, Rage Against the Machine, the Foo Fighters, Alanis Morissette, Oasis' Noel Gallagher, Rancid, R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and Mike Mills, A Tribe Called Quest and the Beasties themselves. Proceeds will go to the Milarepa Fund, the organization that Yauch founded in 1994 to foster universal compassion and nonviolence, with a particular emphasis on Tibet. "Tibetan Freedom Concert" also includes an enhanced CD that features an audiovisual history of Tibet, an interview with the Dalai Lama and concert video footage.

"It was great to see the artists at the shows observing all these monks walking

around, and becoming educated about the situation," Yauch says. "They got a real taste of the culture."

But don't think the album represents the end of the line for Yauch and the Milarepa Fund. They've also produced a documentary of the San Francisco concerts that was directed by Sarah Pirozek. Titled "Free Tibet," it'll have its premiere in New York on Nov. 6.

"We don't have a distribution deal yet, so we're gonna show it in various cities like a band going on tour, and see what happens," Yauch says.

There's also a third Freedom Concert to be held in Washington, possibly next spring. Although Yauch is currently in the studio working on a new Beastie Boys album, he's going to find time to head to Washington on Wednesday to join the Students for a Free Tibet demonstration against Chinese President Jiang Zemin's White House visit. He also continues to lobby Congress on behalf of the Tibetan people, and oversees the Milarepa Fund's various works along with co-founder Erin Potts.

"I'm just trying to get the word out any way I can," Yauch says. "I figure if I can use my celebrity to talk about this issue, maybe it will start to have an effect on people."