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

hello nasty is so weird, it's one of their most diverse albums stylistically, covering every impulse they dabbled in up to that point, yet still sounds integrated and of a whole

also feels way more controlled than CYH or IC, like they're effortlessly steering this massive musicmaking starship through the universe

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Thursday, May 10, 2012 7:29 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also, in looking out to other pop styles and back at their own career, nasty seems the least tied to a particular moment in time. not "timeless" (i'll reserve that adjective for licensed to ill), but still surprisingly fresh sounding, ditching the weedhead rap-rock oppressiveness of CYH and illco. the only aspect of its sound i might call dated are the cibo matto-esque psychedelic indie pop touches, and i like those too much to complain.

i think that was the most mindblowing thing for me, at 16 upon first putting on Ill Communication and hearing Tough Guy and thinking "Woah, I thought this was a rap band!"

weedhead rap-rock oppressiveness

isn't 33% god purely the dust brothers work?

Hello Nasty was the first major incident of eighties-retro that I can remember. The music press made a big deal out of it; a hole "remember the 80s" spread in Select etc... Although now the influence seems quite muted.

*whole

weedhead rap-rock oppressiveness

i love check your head, but there's definitely a broishness there that they scrape away completely for hello nasty

Hello Nasty was the first major incident of eighties-retro that I can remember.

Maybe you missed Elastica?

The Menace? I never listened to it.

isn't 33% god purely the dust brothers work?

who's doing the "it's the joint" vocal?

Weirdly great indie-lounge song from Hello Nasty I'd forgotten all about until yesterday: 'Song for the Man'. Have had it in my head all day so I gave it the #20 spot on my ballot.

xxpost If you mean the first album and the Wire influence, that's something that never really went away. Blur were also doing a few 80s new wave things, but it was Hello Nasty's old-skool vibe that I remember kicking off the whole eighties nostalgia wave that marked the following decade. Jurassic 5 were also part of that I guess, and then the resurgence in 80s rap led to electro and breakdance etc...

CYH and, to a lesser extent, IC both seemed like they were about joining the Beasties' gang; like by buying, listening, and getting into those records you became a Beastie Boy friend by proxy, one of the guys they were hanging out with on the back of IC, or one of the people in the photos in the sleeve of CYH.

Hello Nasty seemed like the gang had gone, and they were ready to be friendly with the whole world. Or something.

Song For The Man was on my ballot. Love the ending; totally incongruous (with the Beastie Boys I knew up to then), and totally great.

Song for the Man is like an alternate universe in where Smashmouth have got ahold of themselves.

xxpost If you mean the first album and the Wire influence, that's something that never really went away. Blur were also doing a few 80s new wave things

I debated including Blur there as well, but Elastica was the first band to really sell it...from the mode of dress, to the album cover, and so on. I guess you could argue they were mining the very late 70s, but it essentially had 80s written all over it.

maybe makes sense to distinguish between 70s/80s retro in rock/punk/new wave, and the same in hip hop and dance music

late 70s & early-mid 80s, i mean

beck's odelay had begun to dig into hip hop as a retro genre a couple years before hello nasty though ("ooh, la la, sassoon")

thanks to the dust brothers, one supposes

Song For The Man also great, if a bit sycophantic/hypocritical in the light of Licensed to Ill

sounds like thurston moore is singing it

he's not, but he might

CYH and, to a lesser extent, IC both seemed like they were about joining the Beasties' gang; like by buying, listening, and getting into those records you became a Beastie Boy friend by proxy, one of the guys they were hanging out with on the back of IC, or one of the people in the photos in the sleeve of CYH.

Hello Nasty seemed like the gang had gone, and they were ready to be friendly with the whole world. Or something.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 10 May 2012 15:54 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, this is so true. I know this sounds funny, but Ill Communication had such an impact on me when I first heard it as a depressive indie kid. It was the first time I thought, "hey, dorky white guys can also be cool" and I remember feeling on top of the world for the first time in a very long time.

re: song for the man... they'd been apologizing for licensed to ill for many years when they made hello nasty

hypocritical or y'know just growing up

true, true. They still got flack for it. Especially at Reading when they told the Prodge not to play Smack My Bitch Up.

I would've told prodigy not to play for entirely different reasons

The Prodigy and the Beastie Boys were my two favourite bands at that time and to see them in succession was like a dream come true. Sadly the Prodigy were complete dross, but the Boys killed it!

they'd been apologizing for licensed to ill for many years when they made hello nasty

speaking of licensed to ill, it's funny to me that i had paul's boutique and check your head duking it out upthread for the beastie's single moment of time-capsule brilliance. it seems so obvious that it always has been and (probably) always will be LTI. so obvious, maybe, that it's easy to forget. like it's not even a question. the only question is what comes next.

I was 13 when "Fight for Your Right" hit the radio, and if there's ever been a more perfect marriage of song and age I could barely imagine it.

I was talking about Beastie Boys with someone the other day and they pointed out that I'd completely forgotten LTI. I always do.

I don't really like Licensed To Ill, save a couple of songs. This is entirely down to the snare sound giving me a headache. There, I said it.

I do like their punk tracks on Aglio I Olio and Some Old Bullshit though.

I think if you weren't around/culturally aware when License to Ill broke it doesn't have nearly the impact. As far as my actual cultural experience of the Beasties its all about my delinquent cousin being into Check Your Head, the "Sabotage" video, the massive ubiquity of Hello Nasty (the album everyone could love) and getting high and really really into Paul's Boutique in college (like ~10+ years after the original release). For a huge swath of younger Beasties fans, LTI is a footnote.novelty record. One song (might) make my ballot.

'Song For The Man' apart from the vocals sounds like a Blur b side to me. I don't mean that in a bad way, I love Blur b sides.

The plinky plonk piano reminds me of Madness as well actually.

Yeah Licensed To Ill sounded pretty corny and outdated when I first heard it - I grew to like it but I'd still rank it below the four that followed.

who's doing the "it's the joint" vocal?

sample from Funky 4+1's That's The Joint

who's doing the "it's the joint" vocal?

dude:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzuskHUux6U

33% God is def 100% Dust Brothers but it was released under the Beasties aegis so whatever

I think if you weren't around/culturally aware when License to Ill broke it doesn't have nearly the impact. As far as my actual cultural experience of the Beasties its all about my delinquent cousin being into Check Your Head, the "Sabotage" video, the massive ubiquity of Hello Nasty (the album everyone could love) and getting high and really really into Paul's Boutique in college (like ~10+ years after the original release). For a huge swath of younger Beasties fans, LTI is a footnote.novelty record. One song (might) make my ballot.

― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:15 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, this is the same for me. LTI is a relic, but not an enjoyable album for me. The production's too sparse and the rapping's too shrill.

Licensed to Ill may be their only Gen X album, with all the rest squarely hitting Gen Y.

I guess I'm in the minority about finding Hello Nasty pretty boring. I'd go back and listen to it but I sold my copy a year or so ago. They're rapping had really devolved by that point - very sub-Run DMC/"everybody say the last word of every line in unison" yawnsville. and I was never interested in them writing indie rock songs either.

love LTI tho.

Yeah, I'm gonna be 33 next week, so I was about 7 when LTI came out, and novelty record sums up my feelings about it. Fight For Your Right is on my ballot, but only that.

I think if you weren't around/culturally aware when License to Ill broke it doesn't have nearly the impact

Yeah this is true, and I was only about ten and never paid them much attention for nearly another decade - find the album as a whole a little lame but I put those singles on back-to-back this morning and the rush was incredible.

man you think the rapping on "Putting Shame in Your Game" and "Intergalactic" and "Just a Test" shows erosion?

Yeah, my only grievance with a large chunk of Hello Nasty is the cadence of their rhyme style (which carried over even worse on 5 Boroughs). It's so leaden. Hot Sauce was a (very welcome) move away from that, and it's too bad there'll never be more tunes now.

For me the key thing about Hello Nasty isn't the rapping at all (which I agree is nowhere near as head-spinning as PB or gang-cool as CYH); so much so that I don't even think about the rapping on it, or even really think of it as a rap album. It's the musical breadth, the sound palette; it's enormous, and incredibly... happy? There's a lot of grime and fug on CYH and especially IC (which is WAY cool) and it's all dispersed on Hello Nasty. It's incredibly open-minded and communicative.

I was 13 when Licensed to Ill came out so it doesn't necessarily seem like a novelty to me, though lyrically it's the most ridiculous. And guess it's sparse too, but but it's of its time: it is a 1986 rap album. I hadn't thought about it in forever (don't own the cassette anymore, and now only have the 89-98 albums/singles) but seeing them do The New Style on Chappelle's show that was floating around earlier in the week reminded me that I was obsessed with it at 13 for good reason.

they did rely on that "der-der-der-der-der-der-DER!" type of rapping a lot though - especially by the TT5B stage.