Beastie Boys: Classic or Dud?

yeah to me it's not close

Sabotage effect maybe

Check Your Head was the record that really sold me on them, I thought the 1st was fun snotty party music and I hadn't really figured out Paul's Boutique yet. I took one listen to those hardcore tracks, "Lighten Up," and the hits and I was hooked.

Mike never sounded bigger on any record. IIRC from the box set notes they rolled a giant tube of cardboard to extend the bass drum to two metres long for that dusty boom.

― Dollarmite Is My Name (sic), Sunday, March 15, 2020 9:09 PM (yesterday)

I figured that had to be Mike D on the drums. I'm surprised WhoSampled.com only has one record of those drums being sampled (by Autechre).

when I interviewed them around the book, Mike and Adam were very clear the tube of cardboard was just one of a series of great wacky ideas Yauch would come up with.

CYH>IC for me, but I really, really love the chaotic flow of side one, and the buddhist suite on side four, and the proto-trip-hop of Update, and Futterman's Rule is about as heavy as their funk ever got, and Ricky's Theme is just deliriously lovely. It's Sabotage I never really wanna hear again.

Check your Head was a really big deal for me and my friends - we all loved Paul's Boutique because it got us all into disco and funk and samples and it was hip-hop that referenced the Ramones and Slayer and was everything we ever wanted.

It over three years between those records which was forever when we were 15 and when we read that there was a new Beastie Boys record coming out where they PLAYED THEIR OWN INSTRUMENTS we thought it was the most hilarious and bizzare thing we'd ever heard. It came out right before the LA Riots in my senior year of high school and was the soundtrack for the next few months; I saw them that summer and it was amazing.

Ill Communication was great in its own way but didn't have the impact on my life that the previous one did, and I felt kind of like a snob that all the bandwagon jumpers who ignored Paul's Boutique were getting back into them.

1992 and still no one to vote for!

I have no real idea how old many or most of you are, but as I remember it License to Ill was, of course, a huge smash, but Paul's Boutique was a huge bust. I don't remember that one getting any traction among my friends at all. It was 1989, so I would have been 14 or so, in 8th or 9th grade. By the time Check Your Head was imminent, Paul's Boutique was obscure enough that in early 1991 Spin did a charticle of the most underrated albums of all time, and it was on there with, like, Tusk and Lodger (which I'm sure is what had me listen to it). Check Your Head came out a year after that, and I remember it connecting with kids glomming on to the grunge trend more than it connected with fans of License to Ill, and in that sense it felt a little like a cult album from a new band, not a comeback. It stuck, though, and got traction in a way that Paul's Boutique (which was steadily becoming a hipster totem) hadn't, so that yeah, when Ill Communication came out that seemed like the real, ubiquitous "comeback." Obviously by the time "Odelay" came out people had caught up with "Paul's Boutique."

Beastie Boys fandom tends to break down to a series of waves imo, ie which ever album of the classic run (Licensed to Ill to IC) you heard when you were like 16-18 was the one that pulled you in. So kids who were too young for PB or Check Your Head didn't get on the bus til IC etc. I'm old enough to have been sorta first wave (I won a 7" of Fight for Your Right/Paul Revere during a limbo contest at a bar mitzvah lol) and then heard PB in high shool (but no one else liked it) and then CYH came out my first year of college and was just like a real OH SHIT moment. IC was a victory lap, CYH is def familiar.

CYH is def SUPERIOR I meant to say

CYH and IC have almost as many desultory jams and half-assed funk experiments. I'd say they cancel each other out.

I'd rather listen to Hello Nasty than either of them.

I remember being sorta disappointed with Ill Communication when it came out, was hoping for another left turn and it seemed kind of safe, same recipe but not nearly as exuberant and w/ none of CYH's track-to-track flow

CYH is all-time

That's basically how I saw it, Check Your Head redux

(I won a 7" of Fight for Your Right/Paul Revere during a limbo contest at a bar mitzvah lol)

super lol.

I used to have a dubbed cassette with License to Ill on on side and Invisible Touch on the other.

I rarely play any of them these days, but if I did I would reach for them in chronological order: License first, Boutique second, maybe if very very seldom (functionally never) CYH and Communication next, never for of the rest of them. I think when this thread revived recently I gave Hello Nasty another shot, but I lost interest pretty quickly.

And yeah, I never really liked Ill Communication that much, despite being heavily into Check Your Head. These days I mostly listen to In Sound From Way Out.

CYH is the fun dress-rehearsal, IC is the slightly more slick performance. I like both about equally.

CYH has a ton of great deep cuts, always loved "Live at PJs"

live at PJ's might be apex beasties

A mix that Cut Chemist did to accompany the Beastie Boys Book touring exhibition, name-your-price on Bandcamp.

I'm only seeing the option to get it if I subscribe to his bandcamp releases

Is the documentary tonight?

I'm only seeing the option to get it if I subscribe to his bandcamp releases

you snozzed and lost I guess :(

I guess so!

documentary is the 24th, I believe

Yeah, 24th. But according to Pitchfork it's "no fun" and as subversive as a "bowl of soup" so I guess I can skip it. Kidding aside, genuinely curious if it's that bad or this is Pitchfork killing the two gen X idols (Beastie Boys and Spike Jonze) with one stone thing.

not sure how much stock i put 2020 pfork's judgments of 'fun' or 'subversive'

Was it Sam Pitchfork or Emily Pitchfork who said that?

Hope it streams somewhere other than Apple TV eventually

^^ yeah. I'm not signing up for another streaming service I won't watch otherwise.

just wait until someone you know buys an apple device and scam their account login

You gotta fight for your right, etc., etc.

The doc was ok I guess. Was hoping for more insight into their music making process.

they cover more of the music stuff in the book; i think they cherry picked what they thought would be more entertaining for a general audience?

i loved it

but i am at the point where i dont require anything from them, i just love seeing them talk & i love how much they still love each other & throw jabs and funny looks at each other & make each other laugh

that Yauch/Aerosmith story will never not be hilarious

i legit bawled over Adam’s talking about the last gig <3

he looked like he was about to break down toward the end

yeah def

reading the book now
really great

The audiobook is so good—I didn't see the actual book until after I listened, and glad I didn't

The book is really fun, even the captions & footnotes are great - and Roy Choi has a special segment of Beasties inspired recipes which is v cool

I agree, it’s cool looking and inventively laid out but I really dug all the contributors reading their own words and it just cohered really well... I was surprised when I saw the book how scrapbooky it was (not a bad thing)

they did a live AMA on reddit last night & it is a total mess & not exactly illuminating but still <3

technical snafus trying to facetime with jonah hill was like watching Dads use tech was so funny to me

but them facetiming w ~Biz Markie~ is 100% worth the whole thing

link here, it’s about an hour


https://youtu.be/CQh-F7sCoTo

Oh god, fuck bringing Jonah Hill into this.

My friend had the book on her coffee table and I spent a good two hours or so going through it. Maybe rudely.

ooh, thanks Veg

Enjoyed the doc, but unscripted Beastie content is always welcome. I’m a few minutes in and Mike has already started laughing so hard he’s fallen off camera. Excellent

oh god at Biz Markie calling them back and hollering about being called at 11pm

the best

I've got the book and have been meaning to dig in soon, is it worth holding off on the doc, and reading the book first? Thanks loves.

i think so

book is a legit wealth of riches - doc kinda skims the cream, as it were

Makes sense yeah, thanks!

it’s no biggie to watch the doc first though - honestly it’s a good advertisement for the book & is a good way to make you wanna read more

win win either way

I don't feel like any band ever truly copped to being shitheads and pigs as sincerely as the Beastie Boys. really loved that Kate Schellenbach got a chapter to tell the story of her being kicked out of the band, and call Rick Rubin an asshole

otm