Tim Carr, a Hopkins-bred entertainment entrepreneur whose career included producing an influential new-music festival for Walker Art Center and signing the Beastie Boys to a key record contract, was found dead Wednesday in his rented apartment in Pattaya, Thailand.

Carr, 57, had been in Thailand working on a movie about a rock band.

A former music critic for the Minneapolis Tribune and other local publications, Carr worked in the performing-arts department of Walker Art Center in the late 1970s and famously produced M80: The No, New Now Wave Festival at the University of Minnesota fieldhouse featuring outsider and experimental young bands from throughout the world including Devo, Richard Lloyd and the Suicide Commandos.

Carr became a talent executive at record labels in New York and Los Angeles, signing the Beastie Boys to Capitol Records, where they recorded their landmark "Paul's Boutique" in 1989. Other artists with whom he worked included Babes in Toyland, David Byrne, Megadeth, Joan Jett and Cibo Matto.

Jon Bream