DJ AM
Photo: Steve Granitz/ WireImage

As DJ AM continues to recover from second- and third-degree burns he suffered in last month's plane crash in South Carolina, his fellow DJs are making sure he's getting the kind of homecoming party he deserves.

Mark Ronson, Steve Aoki, Danny Masterson and Mix Master Mike are just some of AM's friends confirmed to perform at the Welcome Home DJ AM party, to be held October 14 at Avalon Hollywood. Tickets for the event are $20, and all proceeds will go to the memorial funds established in the names of the four people who were killed in the accident.

In a statement to People.com, event organizers said that AM (born Adam Goldstein) has been "a close friend ... for many years," and that the party is being organized not just as a fundraiser, but because his friends feel they "owe him a debt of gratitude that we can never repay, but we hope this helps just a bit."

The September 19 Learjet crash claimed the lives of four people, including Travis Barker's assistant, Chris Baker, and his security guard, Charles Still, as well as pilot Sarah Lemmon and co-pilot James Bland.

Both Barker and AM escaped the crash with burns and are expected to make a full recovery. Less than a week after the crash, AM was released from Georgia's M. Still Burn Center and returned home to Los Angeles. Barker was released from the same facility last week, and recently spoke to Us Weekly about the crash, telling the magazine that he is "thankful to be alive."

If you'd like more information on the memorial funds set up to benefit Chris Baker's and Charles Still's families, visit the Famous Stars and Straps Web site.

• Travis Barker, DJ AM Escape Plane Crash

• Travis Barker
• Mix Master Mike
• Mark Ronson
• Steve Aoki

Mix Master Mike (file)
Photo: MTV News

For his new album, Mix Master Mike conjured up frightening figures like vampires, villains, monsters — and television sitcom families.

Bangzilla, the October 19 release from the Beastie Boys' resident DJ, is a collection of samples and clips from popular TV shows, movies and songs that are mashed up, sliced up and tossed onto a backdrop of 1950s horror-flick instrumentals, supported by steady beats.

The product of three years spent in and out of the studio, Bangzilla opens with a typical score used in old thrillers to signal the approach of a villain, then shifts seamlessly into the melody used for the entrance of the film's hero. A soft voice says, "Begin," and the 13-track album charges out with scratches, pops, beeps, squeaks and a collage of samples and sounds, including the frequent plea of one famous TV mom: "Mike, do something!"

"You know, I have so many ideas going through my head every day," Mike said. "This was like a stop and start process. I would make a beat and put it away, make another beat and put that away. And so I had this map of different beats. I just had to figure out a way to color them in and strategically place them in their right order."

Still, Mike said, when the samples were in place and the album was finally completed, he knew immediately.

"I guess when all the parts and all the moves and all the segues fit together as a puzzle, you just know," he said. "You know by listening to it what it needs and what's left to do. I just felt like there was nothing left to do, and I felt like this is it. I finally exorcised it out of myself."

That structure, though highly planned, is subtly hidden from the listener, who is pulled through a tunnel of sound with windows opening on either side into clips from old shows, movies and soundtracks. Rather than simply cutting and pasting from archived pop culture, Mike takes the samples apart and slips them into the folds of a spooky backdrop, adding alternating fast and faster beats to move the listener deftly through the album.

"The art of sampling," he said, "is if you're going to use it, you have to flip it your own way where it's your own composition. So a lot of the stuff I use on this album is stuff I made a point to make unrecognizable. I kind of compose to decompose. Gotta be a ninja of the art."

That artistic ability helped Mike win the lifetime achievement award from the International Turntablist Federation and notoriety in the turntablist community. The DJ has spent years honing his skills and cultivating his style, from his time with his turntablist crew, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, to his work with the Beastie Boys, whom he met in the late 1990s and collaborated with on Hello Nasty and To the 5 Boroughs.

"I met Adam [Yauch] at a rock anniversary back in '97," Mike said. "We exchanged numbers and addresses and stuff. I used to send him DJ battles. When he wasn't home, I'd leave him these 'scratch' messages: 'Yo, Adam, check this out — the first banana scratch, twig scratch.' That pretty much set it off. That phone call. It sparked the journey for me and them to be together."

Mike has been in the mixing business for more than a decade, and his fourth album shows that he's confident of his role within the scene. Sound bites like "There can be one man rising above," "He's got the whole world in his hands," and "You are the man who has come back to lead us — you must know what to do" are found throughout the album.

"I would say, yeah, I'm probably the last of the Mohicans, doin' what I'm doin'," he said. "There's a fine line in [transforming] yourself from a DJ to a musician. I've been fortunate to do both."

• Mix Master Mike
• Beastie Boys

Mix Master Mike
Photo: MTV News

Mix Master Mike says things have been going surprisingly well as an opening act on Guns N' Roses' tour. Only once did it look like he'd have to use his deftness to dodge flying objects.

"There were some skeptical earthlings out there, and they had to be converted," the Beastie Boys DJ said of the crowd in Seattle at the start of the tour. "At first it was tough, but it only took five minutes. I just showed them that I'm here to have a good time, but also to make them have a good time and show them something they've never seen before."

Mike's scratching style is fluid but frantic, and his grooves pulse with slammin' beats and humorous samples, which he warps, cuts up and transforms into a vortex of unearthly sounds. To some, he's a bridge between the stuttering beats of DJ hip-hop and the visceral punch of hard rock.

His soundscapes are filled with enough percussive flair to thrill the Beasties and enough bombast to satisfy Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose, who personally invited Mike to open Guns' U.S. tour along with metal band CKY.

"Big respect to Axl for noticing and recognizing DJs are actually musicians in their own right and we can open up arenas," Mike said Thursday before heading to Madison Square Garden to play for a decidedly rock 'n' roll house.

Mike said he's stoked about performing for such large crowds, but he's just as excited about being able to showcase his music for people who know nothing about DJ culture.

"I'm up for challenges," he said. "To this day, not enough people know what scratching is. So I'm on a mission to convert people and let them know what's going on.

"Rock musicians have their guitars. These are our guitars right here," he added, pointing to a pair of turntables.

Mike has been spinning as a solo artist since 1996, but Rose discovered him earlier this year after viewing the movie "Scratch," an independent film about the art and history of DJing and hip-hop.

"He saw my parts in the movie and got inspired," Mike said. "He actually came to one of my shows, and then his manager called my manager and got it all formulated."

To vibe with rock audiences, Mike alters his style by tossing in passages by Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and other artists the fans are familiar with.

"I'll juggle some stuff they know, but I'll make sure I manipulate it in a way they've never heard before so they go, 'Well, this ain't the way we know it, but we enjoy it.' Like, I'll take a Zeppelin record and decompose it and cut it up."

When Mike finishes the Guns tour, he'll likely enter the studio with the Beastie Boys to work on their sixth studio album, but right now he's keeping tight-lipped (see "Beastie Boys Begin Work On New LP ... Finally").

"It's pretty top-secret stuff," he said. "We are getting ready. We're stirring the pot. And hopefully next year something will be cooked up."

In addition to working with the Beasties, Mike will finish up his next solo album, the follow-up to this year's Return of the Cyklops.

"It's gonna be crazy," he said. "It's gonna have heavier-driven beats [than Cyklops]. [It's gonna be] a more out-of-this-world and psychedelic type of what-the-hell-is-this? type music. It's music for the years and centuries to come."

• Mix Master Mike
• Guns N' Roses

Mix Master Mike
Photo: Dustin Jack

Intergalactic rappers the Beastie Boys are making a planetary return.

Mix Master Mike, the trio's DJ since 1998's Hello Nasty, said the group has prepared some sci-fi beats for its venture back to the studio this spring.

"We're in our space suits right now, flying around in our pods, checking all the incubators," Mike said during a break in his DJ set Wednesday at E!'s Sizzlin' 16 Party in Hollywood. "All the beats we've designed are all eggs right now, so we're waiting for the fetuses to hatch. All I can say is we have beats that are premature right now, but growing."

The Beasties plan to hit studios on the West and East Coasts, Mike said.

Meanwhile, the founding member of Bay Area turntablist crew Invisibl Skratch Piklz is nearly finished with his next scratch record.

Bazooka Canyon, due in May on his own Asphodel label, features an array of effects, including surround sound, and "playing records frontwards, backwards and sideways," Mike said. "It's like [2000's] Eye of the Cyclops part two, but in a different constellation. ... A collage of mayhem."

Like Eye of the Cyclops, the new record will be an EP rather than a full LP. "I like EPs, because I figure this kind of music is something that takes people a while to figure out," Mike explained. "I'm going to baby-feed everybody for now."

Mike, whose first mix album, Spin Psycle, was released on September 11, recently recorded music for the snowboarding game "SSX Tricky," which happens to feature him as a hidden character.

The DJ and Beastie Boy Mike D are also putting the finishing touches on their radio show, "Full Court Pressure" (see "Mike D, Mix Master Mike Cooking Up New Projects"), which is expected to debut before summer.

• Beastie Boys
• Mix Master Mike

Incubus' Brandon Boyd
Photo: J. Tayloe Emery

Incubus, Weezer, Offspring and Social Distortion are among the bands hoping to mobilize the youth of America to "do something."

The Levi's/KROQ Inland Invasion raids the stage of the G.H. Blockbuster Pavilion in Devore, California, on August 25 for the first "Do Something Day," according to the event's publicist. The purpose of the all-day concert, sponsored by the jeans company and the Los Angeles radio station, is to encourage young people to commit to a social cause they believe in.

Beastie Boy Mike D., Mix Master Mike, Pennywise, Long Beach Dub All Stars, Cold, Adema and Puddle of Mudd round out the concert lineup.

In addition to the music, booths will inform attendees where they can learn about various nonprofit organizations and issues pertaining to young people.

A portion of the ticket sales will benefit the Do Something organization, a nonprofit nationwide network founded by former "Melrose Place" actor Andrew Shue.

To pledge to "do something" or enter a contest to win a VIP trip to attend the concert, visit www.dosomething.org.

(For a feature interview with Weezer, check out "Weezer: Gang Green".)

• Incubus
• Weezer
• The Offspring
• Social Distortion
• Beastie Boys

D12
Photo: Interscope

D12, the Crystal Method, DJ Skribble, Mix Master Mike and Überzone have been tapped to headline the eighth annual Cyberfest.

Scheduled for August 11 at an outdoor location in downtown San Francisco, the electronic music gathering will also feature DJ Dan, Keoki, John Kelly, Dieselboy, Donald Glaude, Scott Hardkiss, Madison Ave., WishFM and AK1200.

This year's event will see more than 40 acts perform on seven different stages. A laser light show, skate park and circus are among the festival's other attractions.

Last year's Cyberfest, held in Fresno, California, featured performances by Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox and BT. The Chemical Brothers and Run-DMC have headlined in previous years.

Tickets for the all-ages Cyberfest are available at www.coolworld.com.

• D12
• The Crystal Method
• DJ Skribble
• Mix Master Mike
• Uberzone

Roni Size
Photo: Island

The world's top tier of electronic music artists — including the Crystal Method, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Tenaglia, Armand Van Helden, BT and Roni Size — will gather in August for a 10-city North American tour called Mekka. The outing, which kicks off August 4 in Montreal and wraps up September 2 in Los Angeles, will celebrate the launch of Mekka, a global entertainment company focused on the promotion and development of electronic music culture, according to the tour's publicist.

Acts from various genres of electronic music will be represented, from hip-hop to techno to drum'n'bass to trance. Deep Dish, LTJ Bukem, Mix Master Mike, Sandra Collins and Junior Sanchez are among Mekka's other top names. Several hip-hop acts will be announced later this month.

Mekka will include a rare live set by Detroit techno legend Carl Craig. BT, the Crystal Method, the New Deal and Überzone will also be performing live. Working the many turntables on the tour will be DJs Jimmy Van M, Derrick Carter, DJ Rap, Doc Martin, Dave Ralph, Stacey Pullen, Christopher Lawrence, Dieselboy, Mark Farina, DJ Craze, DJ Dan, Terry Mullan, Bad Boy Bill, Misstress Barbara, Andy C, DJ Hype, Grooverider and Mr. C.

Halo and Hipp-E of the Chicago DJ collective H-Foundation, who will also be spinning at Mekka, and Sanchez will mix separate CD compilations in conjunction with the tour. Release dates have not been announced. The tour will be the summer's third major tour featuring electronic music. Moby, Oakenfold, Carl Cox, the Orb, Timo Maas and others will be part of the Area: One tour on July 11 in Atlanta (see "Area: One Festival's Details Come Into Focus"), while Perry Farrell's Jubilee festival, headlined by Jane's Addiction, is also expected to feature top DJs and producers (see "Jane's Addiction Touring In August"). Details for that tour have not been released, though publicists for several electronic music stars, including Size, have said they have been invited to join the outing. Mekka will be held in outdoor venues, such as large fields and fairgrounds. Venues will be announced at a later date. The artists will perform on multiple stages and in tents. Mekka, the company, will specialize in artist management, wireless applications, magazine publishing and music distribution and publishing.

Mekka Tour dates, according to the tour's publicist:

• 8/4 - Montreal, QC
• 8/5 - Toronto, ON
• 8/8 - Dallas, TX
• 8/10 - Jacksonville, FL
• 8/11 - Miami, FL
• 8/18 - New York, NY
• 8/25 - Chicago, IL
• 8/30 - Seattle, WA
• 9/1 - San Francisco, CA
• 9/2 - Los Angeles, CA

• The Crystal Method
• Roni Size
• BT
• Paul Oakenfold
• Mix Master Mike

Mix Master Mike
Photo: Dustin Jack

DETROIT — The proverbial three MCs and one DJ are temporarily one MC and one DJ.

Beastie Boy Mike D and DJ Mix Master Mike are "cooking up some stuff in the lab," the latter said backstage at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival on Saturday.

Mix Master Mike refused to give further details in an effort not to — in keeping with the cooking analogies — "stir anything up." He did say that aside from working on studio material, the two have put together a radio show called "Full Court Pressure" that they are pitching to stations across the country. (A spokesperson for the Beastie Boys had no comment on the projects.) "It's 30 minutes of the music we like," Mix Master Mike said. "It's going to put aside all the wack stations that play the same stuff all the time and are drowning everyone's brains. We want to play stuff other people don't." The DJ, who recorded with the Beastie Boys on 1998's Hello Nasty and took a lead role on the hip-hop trio's "Three MC's and One DJ," said he also plans to perform with them at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in London later this year.

The Boys haven't began work on their next album (Mike D now lives in Los Angeles, while bandmates Ad-Rock and MCA live in New York), but when they do, Mix Master Mike will be ready.

"I just look into the sky, and when the bat signal appears, I know it's ready to happen," he joked.

Meanwhile, the founding member of the San Francisco Bay Area turntablist crew Invisibl Skratch Piklz has several solo projects in the works.

He is currently compiling his first mix album, Spincycle, due in September on Moonshine Music.

"It's an hour mix of independent hip-hop, with a lot of scratching," he said. "I can't name any names yet, but it's stuff kids can pop into their car and bump to." The DJ said he's also in the beginning stages of his next production album, the follow-up to last year's Eye uv the Cyclops EP and 1998's Anti-Theft Device. He described the music as similar to Eye, but more radical.

He's also recording original music for the second edition of EA Sports' popular snowboarding video game "SSX." He contributed one track to the original, which featured Rahzel, Hybrid and Aphrodite.

Mix Master Mike also recently finished scoring an hour of music for "Jails, Hospitals and Hip-Hop" (see "Mix Master Mike Scoring Hip-Hop Film"), the film adaptation of writer/actor Danny Hoch's solo performance piece.

"It's a lot of work watching the film, studying the characters, trying to fit the mood and creating little song pieces," he said. "But it was gratifying after I finished it." Just in case he does find some spare time, the DJ hinted at reuniting the Skratch Piklz, which also included Shortkut, DJ Q-Bert and others. They broke up nearly a year ago.

"Hopefully we'll link back up soon and put the minds together," Mix Master Mike said.

• Beastie Boys
• Mix Master Mike

Carl Craig
Photo: Backspin Promotions

You have to hand it to techno junkies — not much can come between them and their beats.

Hostile weather, behind-the-scenes controversy and canceled sets from two of the biggest attractions (LTJ Bukem and Carl Cox) all threatened to put a damper on the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, but the attendees — estimated between 850,000 and 1.5 million over a three-day period — kept dancing.

Not until hail and lightning shut down the second annual event with an hour left to go Monday night did the pulsating rhythms from turntables, synthesizers, voices and a few guitars begin to dissolve from historic Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit. It didn't look good early Saturday morning, hours before America's most vital electronic music gathering was to get underway, when local police arrested 125 people at two nearby raves, confiscating guns, drugs and tanks of nitrous oxide. Although they weren't festival related, the busts were a sign that authorities weren't going to turn a blind eye to some of the scene's unlawful components.

And when the festival did kick off, immediately people were talking about the absence of Bukem, the popular U.K. drum'n'bass producer scheduled to perform Monday night. Although there were rumors he pulled out after festival cofounder and creative director Carl Craig was fired earlier this month (see "Clouds Settle Over Detroit Electronic Music Festival"), promoters said Bukem had problems with his passport.

Speaking of Craig, it seemed as though nobody was going to be able to forget about his story — the classic artist vs. corporation struggle that had been so well-documented by local press. The longest line at noon Saturday was the one at the booth for his label, Planet E, where they were handing out little pink "I support Carl Craig" stickers. Asked one clueless onlooker: "What is Carl Craig running for?" Not public office, the DJ said later. "I deal with too much politics already," he said. Changing to a more serious tone, he added, "It was good to see a mass of pink stickers from the stage. I'm glad to have the support." DEMF 2001 seemed doomed, but leave it to the music — entrancing styles of techno, jazz, rock and hip-hop umbrellaed (no pun intended) under the "electronic" label — to revive the inspirational spirit so heralded at the festival the year before.

By P'taah's ambient Saturday afternoon set on the Ford Focus Main Stage, everything but the music was an afterthought. Police on duty were calling the event "peaceful" and bobbing their heads to the tunes (the exact number of arrests at the DEMF was not available Tuesday morning, though early reports in The Detroit News indicated it was only a handful). Craig was racing to and from the four stages to see the acts he booked. Even Carol Marvin, the president of Pop Culture Media, who sponsored the event and was scorned for terminating Craig's contract — effective Tuesday (May 29) — wore a smile. Techno music may have been born in Detroit, but this was only the second time the city had a chance to relish it. A tornado could have wiped through site — sending pacifiers, glow sticks and Red Bull cans into oblivion — and this show would have gone on. Music fans from around the world descended on Detroit determined to hear more than 70 acts, ranging from DJs Doc Martin and Laurent Garnier to bands Tortoise and Jazzanova. Dressed in rain-soaked club wear, the festival saw people and families of all ages and races grooving to a variety of entertainment. The DEMF had a number of memorable moments, many of which infused popular music with the beat mixing of DJing or the record scratching of turntablism.

Canadian John Acquaviva closed his two-hour, festival-stealing DJ set Sunday afternoon by dropping Eddy Grant's 1983 hit "Electric Avenue" into his mix. He started by laying the song's factory sound effects over a slippery beat, eventually inserting lyrics and finally the entire track.

The night before, Static Revenger opened his pounding set with the oozing guitar and screaming fans from Peter Frampton's live version of "Do You Feel Like We Do." Kid Koala, a flashy turntablist who announced he was available "to DJ weddings and children's parties," spliced up Tears For Fears' "Shout" so much during his set Sunday that when he finally played the chorus, which the packed crowd sang along to, it was a shock to hear what song he had been working. The artist with the most pop music references — and the most people watching him — was Beastie Boys DJ Mix Master Mike. Dropping at least a record a minute during his 90-minute headlining set on Sunday, he made sure to play plenty of Beasties, along with sprinkling familiar lines from Rage Against the Machine and Rush over underground hip-hop albums that begged for boogying. Mike said before his set that he was never influenced by Detroit techno, but couldn't resist Craig's invitation. "I just heard 1. 5 million people were here last year," he said. "That's a lot of ears." Mix Master's mainstream appeal drew a large crowd, but as Craig said many times during the weekend, the DEMF is not about recognizable artists, but the history of electronic music and its future. Techno trailblazer Juan Atkins, before being cut off at the end of his festival closing set (Derrick May was to follow), traced electronic music's origins by playing some of his early tracks next to those by Afrika Bambaataa and Kraftwerk.

Kevin Saunderson reunited his 10-piece electronic ensemble Inner City to warm up for Atkins, though it was the reunion of A Number of Names that created the most buzz. The Detroit duo behind 1981's "Shari Vari," often cited as the first techno track, played their guitar and synth music together for the first time in 19 years. Long Island hip-hoppers De La Soul made history the heart of their Sunday afternoon show, chronicling their own career from 1989's 3 Feet High and Rising to last year's Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump. On the other end of the spectrum was the self-proclaimed future of hip-hop, Saul Williams, whose debut album was released in Europe earlier this year, "but America isn't ready for it yet," he said. The lyricist, who starred in the movie Slam, garnered mixed reactions with his preachings put to electronic and rock grooves. The real taste of things to come could be heard Friday night from the underground Bacardi/Real Detroit Weekly stage, where Autechre were breaking down techno beats on their computers and building them back up with all sorts of twists and turns. With U.K. superstar DJ Carl Cox calling in sick Monday, the final day was bland until the Detroit legends Inner City and Juan Atkins took the stage. When Derrick May came on to announce the DEMF would end early, he introduced Craig to wild applause. Craig's final words: "It was my pleasure to have you in Hart Plaza. We rocked it once again."

• De La Soul
• Carl Cox
• LTJ Bukem
• Mix Master Mike
• Carl Craig

Mix Master Mike
Photo: MTV News

Turntable wizard Mix Master Mike will provide the score to "Jails, Hospitals and Hip-Hop," an upcoming film adaptation of writer/actor Danny Hoch's solo performance piece.

"Jails" combines footage from Hoch's one-man shows, performed at both theaters and prisons around the U.S., into a poignant multiple-character study of the ways hip-hop has been integrated into our culture.

Mix Master Mike said the producers of "Jails" came to the right person to create the turntable-based score. "I've been to jail and to the hospital, so since I always wanted to score a motion picture, this was a perfect fit," he explained. "In scoring this, I matched the mood of the scene with scratch music. There's this one scene where Danny's performing in front of inmates, and I felt psychedelic and psychotic music was right for that scene, since being locked up would make anyone crazy." The film was co-directed by Hoch and Mark Benjamin, who made the documentary "The Last Party" about the 1992 Democratic National Convention and was the cinematographer for Marc Levin's award-winning 1998 film "Slam." "Jails" will premiere in New York on March 30 before making a limited-access U.S. run.

Mix Master Mike is one of the founding members of the San Francisco Bay Area's Invisibl Skratch Piklz, the preeminent turntablist crew, and he's also the current DJ for the Beastie Boys, with whom he toured after their 1998 album Hello Nasty, featuring the collaborative track "Three MCs and One DJ." Following a number of experimental hip-hop collage and "breaks" records, he released his debut solo LP, Anti-Theft Device, in 1998, as well as the EPs "Suprize Packidge" and "Eye of the Cyclops."

• Mix Master Mike