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by Wayne Bremser

(Page 3)

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The Fierlinger brothers are members of a group of music fans who incessantly collect anything they can find of certain artists and genres. Hundreds and thousands of dollars are spent on limited edition 7" singles, Japanese CD imports and live bootlegs recorded by fans with portable DATs. This hyper-fan mentality is exactly what Philip is working off when deciding which content to choose for the CD.

What will finally make it to the CD is undecided, but Philip initially filled it up with MTV Easter eggs like "Jimmy James," Ricky Powell's on-stage videos clips from Lollapalooza, and clips of Hurricane's "Stick 'Em Up" shot by a fan with a video camera during the Check Your Head tour. Philip still buys bootlegs, "I paid 30 bucks in LA for that video; the sound isn't all that, but its such a great performance. "

Ricky Powell, the man with the fish-eye lens, goes on tour with the band carrying all sorts of film/video pleasure devices. New Yorkers should check out his cable public access show. The show features Ricky touring the Village, meeting up with old friends, making new ones, pulling bong hits and having all sorts of fun.

Powell sent a box of videos to Turntable. There were many hours of footage, some going back to the License to Ill tour. Included was a ton of footage from Lollapalooza, with backstage basketball fun such as Tibetan Monks sinking three pointers and Hurra facing off with Anthony Mason.

Outside of a Beastie show in Oakland, Philip and I are standing at the 'will call' booth waiting for an envelope with passes. He walks away from the booth and pulls several backstage passes and eight tickets from the envelope. A swarm of teenage girls surrounds him begging with puppy dog eyes for an extra ticket.

Inside the show thousands of teenagers wait for the Beasties to play. Besides the Beastie Boys, we seem to be the oldest people at the show. Many of them are dressed very similarly; X-Large clothing has become the new Gap. Some of the kids are huddled around old Space Invaders games that run demos of the CD+. Philip knows these are the kids who will buy the title and starts talking to a few of them about what kind of computers they have and think are cool.

Addiction to the new and exciting is part of the multimedia and music mindset. Philip wants to avoid the dull and the mundane that comes with old age, yet business has forced a level of maturity. He struggles for the patience to spend thousands of hours working to keep his goods fresh..

On a ride from Glendale to a Santa Monica computer mega store to buy Grand Royal a CD-ROM drive, the Fierlinger brothers share reasons why Los Angeles will fall into the ocean before their beloved San Francisco. I ask them what kind of project they would like to work on next. Philip says that there are not many bands anymore that he is addicted to.

The brothers listen primarily to jazz and much of their favorite stuff is on Blue Note. Ideas about a Blue Note project get thrown around on long drives. Philip figures that there are plenty of artists that he is not a fan of that he still has respect for and would like to work with.

Philip is surfing the radio in the rental car while Peter looks for a fresh mix tape; when "Sabotage" comes on Philip mouths a few lines and then moves to the next station. He smiles, "I don't listen to that stuff much these days."