(THIS) POLL REVERE(S) — ILM Artist Poll #19 — Beastie Boys VOTING THREAD

^^^this otm.

"Finger Lickin' Good," "So Whatcha Want," "Professor Booty" -- awesome.

Plus I dunno being corny is part of the Beasties' MO.

If you value Paul's Boutique as their best record, sure. I think a lot of their best stuff is ostentatious and exaggerated without lapsing into corniness. But some of PB crosses that line for me. And maybe what does it for me is that their vocals sound very measured and rehearsed in a lot of places, whereas I prefer the stuff that sounds looser and rougher.

this should be out of 50

Goddamnit, I don't think there's any way I'm gonna be able to squeeze "Don't Let The Air Out Of My Tires" on here.

Having these separate albums and tracks polls every week, it's starting to seem like the best albums are the ones with the fewest standout tracks on 'em. They feel more ... cohesive somehow?

I didn't end up even including any demos or anything because I was so loathe to ditch any album tracks, ha!

paul's boutique is weirdly sequenced. problem isn't that it's corny, but that the second half is way better than the first. "shake your rump" is great, but "johnny ryal" and "egg man" and take things down a notch, and "high plains drifter" is one of the weakest tracks on the album, imo. "the sounds of science" winds up great, but takes a couple minutes to get cooking, and once it does, "3-minute rule" kills the energy again. from "hey ladies" on out it's flawless, but damn, that's like halfway through the album.

"Finger Lickin' Good," "So Whatcha Want," "Professor Booty" -- awesome.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, May 8, 2012 4:30 AM (3 hours ago)

i disagree that the high points of paul's boutique eclipse check your head. alfred OTM, but also "pass the mic", "gratitude", "time for livin", "the maestro", "in 3's" - plus a bunch of great psychedelic funk jams. CYH isn't as sample-a-minute head-spinning as the best stuff on paul's boutique, but the fusion of rap, rock, funk and punk is at least as impressive, imo (despite the unfashionability of such things these days). after picking up and then just as quickly abandoning distinctive producer-driven sounds on ill communication and paul's boutique, check you head is where they finally find a style that's entirely their own.

I disagree about the extent to which Rubin and the Dust Bros drove those sounds. I know what you're saying – CYH is their first attempt at self-production – but CYH sounds perfunctory and half-assed in places, a band that can't play dropping rudimentary ideas as they lose interest.

Alfred OTM

well, not OTM about the Dust Bros

Dust Bros had like 2/3rds of the Paul's Boutique tracks done before they even hooked up with the Beasties - steve shasta to thread

Speaking about the album 20 years on, Adam Yauch told Clash Magazine: “The Dust Brothers had a bunch of music together, before we arrived to work with them. As a result, a lot of the tracks come from songs they’d planned to release to clubs as instrumentals – ‘Shake Your Rump’, for example. They’d put together some beats, basslines and guitar lines, all these loops together, and they were quite surprised when we said we wanted to rhyme on it, because they thought it was too dense. They offered to strip it down to just beats, but we wanted all of that stuff on there. I think half of the tracks were written when we got there, and the other half we wrote together.”

LTI sounds like Raising Hell like a cousin looks like a brother: same family, not alike.

I understand that stuff – I read the 33 1/3 book – but the record by some alchemy sounds like a Beastie Boys record.

'high plains drifter' is great.

I understand that stuff – I read the 33 1/3 book – but the record by some alchemy sounds like a Beastie Boys record.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, May 8, 2012 9:11 AM (1 minute ago)

well, they got the kind of voices that are in your face

I know what you're saying – CYH is their first attempt at self-production – but CYH sounds perfunctory and half-assed in places, a band that can't play dropping rudimentary ideas as they lose interest.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, May 8, 2012 9:05 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

maybe that's the CW, i dunno, but i couldn't disagree more. i think CYH sounds like a band with something to prove lighting up and fucking proving it. it's engaged, experimental, endlessly entertaining, risky as hell, and scattershot brilliant. it doesn't matter to me that they "can't play", because they do play, and well. they find ways to make their limitations work, and while their musicianship may be in doubt, the vibe never falters. i probably heard CYH a hundred times between 1992 and 1994, and i never got sick of it.

"perfunctory and half-assed" in places is probably a fair description of ill communication though. good record, but it restates the same ideas with less commitment & success.

it doesn't matter to me that they "can't play", because they do play, and well. they find ways to make their limitations work

This is true of the songs I like; on the next album too.

the only one who "can't play" was Adrock, who wisely stays out of the way for the most part.

yeah, i put that in quotes cuz i don't really know. i've heard that complaint before, but the playing on CYH sounds pretty tight to me. not flashy, but capable and in the pocket.

johnny fever, any idea how many you plan to roll out?

Dunno yet, but hoping to do 50 depending on voter turnout.

Breakdown of my ballot:

Check Your Head – 7
Hello Nasty – 4
Ill Communication – 4
Paul’s Boutique – 3
Licensed To Ill – 2

I cut some things I really, really love. Sorry, Mark on the Bus - I probably could have exchanged you for one of the Hello Nasty tracks. Sorry, Egg Raid on Mojo - there was only room for one hardcore song on here, at least it wasn't something by Dead Fuckin' Last. Sorry like 1/2 of Licensed to Ill...I don't really have an excuse.

Sorry like 1/2 of Licensed to Ill

yeah, i'm fighting the urge to just list all the tracks on LTI and call it a ballot

LTI's weird because it didn't win for me in terms of individual tracks, but it came in second place on my albums ballot.

All of LTI's tracks are in one way or another 'favorites'...for me it was more "HOW favorite are you, mr Track"?

Professor, what's another name for a favorite track?

Well, I think it's BOOTY

that's what it is

My shortlist for Hello Nasty was at least 6 or 7 songs...love how well that album has stood up over the years.

Yeah, I really liked Hello Nasty. I don't think I've given it a try since about the year 2000.

You oughta!

listening to "I Don't Know" and "Super Disco Breakin" now.

see also Unite, Negotiation Limerick, Putting Shame in Your Game, Three MC's, I Don't Know...so much of it is really good

I still remember a lot of lines from these tracks, similar to PB or LTI...the writing strikes me as really fresh and sharp
but I may be overselling so I will shut up now lol

no I love it -- a poll I created a couple years ago got underwhelming results (deadline problems, I think).

It's my third favorite after the first two albums.

voted

me too

surprisingly easy, toughest thing to rank was the videos tbh

turns out i really love all of mike d's silly shit

No Sleep Til Brooklyn -- classic for being CLASSIC, or dud for a decade's worth of rap metal?

(I know, Rock Box was first, but Beasties still seem most culpable.)

KLASSIK

all classic, not even 33% dod

Oh I know, it'll be on my ballot. It's just, hearing it now it's hard to shake the knowledge of what's to come.

i can't understand complaints* about PB (*please don't try to explain them to me.) i love it from start to finish. then again i feel the same about CYH and hello nasty.

b-b-but i'm prepared to elaborate

re: the Paul's Boutique backlash, it's really interesting to see how the Beasties' longterm fanbase slowly formed and rallied around that album in the 90s via RIAA certifications

1986-87: Licensed To Ill goes platinum 4 times over
1989: Paul's Boutique just goes gold
1990-1991: no new album sales certifications for either
1992: Check Your Head goes platinum
1994: Ill Communication goes platinum
1995: Paul's Boutique finally goes platinum
1998-1999: Hello Nasty goes triple platinum and every earlier album racks up at least another million sales, including Paul's Boutique

Weird. I don't guess I ever realized Hello Nasty was the one that pushed them into the stratosphere. They were much more omnipresent in pop culture between CYH and IC. I'd just assumed each of those albums went multiplatinum nearly immediately.

(I do remember Paul's Boutique sort of tarnishing them for a couple years, though.)

actually, i skimmed over the fact that Ill Communication went 2x plat in 1996, but still

1996-98 was also of course the era when Odelay came out and people started talking about the Dust Bros. and Paul's Boutique a lot, and there were a ton of white rap/rock acts suddenly all over alternative radio that the Beasties kind of became the de facto elder statesmen of it. it felt like they really became more central to that audience then than in the first half of the '90s when they had this kind of awkward tertiary role in the Lollapalooza era.

The Beasties had found their moment in the late nineties. Hello Nasty felt bigger than IC even if you didn't know its sales figures.

This is somewhat obvious, but there's a clear similarity in the careers of the Beasties/Beck/Eminem. They begin as clowns/novelties (not an aesthetic judgement--those early records are my favourites by them), release a second album that critics write about very seriously, and after that, it's up and down.

A little than an hour left to vote. If you're on the fence, get off it and send me a ballot.

A little *less

FIN.

Albums unveiled tomorrow.
Top 50 tracks over the course of the week.
Videos after tracks.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

DROP

Forgot this, on the psychedelic tip: "59 Christie Street" has the Hendrix sample, and "Car Thief" as a whole has a certain elements that I think qualify it.

Again, I think psychedelia is just one element in the mix, but I think it's there.

Here's a playlist I made a few years ago: all the Paul's Boutique samples I could find on Spotify.

http://open.spotify.com/user/nathanwoolls/playlist/2lqepdfazLKllqynRPQBSL

(also if anyone's interested - Nation of Millions samples: http://open.spotify.com/user/nathanwoolls/playlist/3CUxIrGEInLzlVZeaiLLhR and 3 Feet High & Rising samples http://open.spotify.com/user/nathanwoolls/playlist/3lcfUhB2hHcvWGE3RzPfJk

Awesome thanks. This stuff, I lap it up.

Spotify suddenly now worth every penny, ty nate.

Things that are psychedelic about Paul’s Boutique:

and the riff at the end of "looking down the barrel of a gun", and overall, randomness embraced as an aesthetic approach

LTI was a good alb for drinking, but I know when my friends and I started listening to paul's boutique, certain substances made it a much richer listening experience, as good as spacemen 3 or monster magnet or w/e we were jamming at the time

so in that sense, if it wasn't psychedelic it was at least psychedelic-friendly

Ill Comm is the true psychedelic beasties album.

^^^^ this guy knows what's up

great playlists sir!