Ah, the Beastie Boys are the perennially lazy boys of the music world. Every Presidential administration they are contractually obligated to come out with a new album. Whether or not it is good is a whole other question. For those youngsters, too young to remember what the Beastie Boys sounded like, let me remind you.
Long ago, in a fabled time called the 80s, a band came from New York City. They called themselves “The Beastie Boys” and played thrash punk. After realizing how much more people cared about rap, they changed their style. Instead of being some sweaty guys in an abandoned factory playing on a Wednesday night to a flock of the converted, they asked the question “So Watcha Want?”
The last time I paid attention to them was when “Hello Nasty” came out. For me, that was the last time they had an impact on my life. I’m not sure what caused the attention. Perhaps it had to do with the radio. Back in the late 90s, the internet was painfully slow for downloading. K-Rock still existed. Put together, it was inevitable I’d be exposed to them at some point.
Going back to Paul’s Boutique and Ill Communication, I’m sort of amazed at how amazing these albums are, literally decades after release. “Sabotage” is just as much fun as it was when it came out. The video itself directed by Spike Jonze wrecked roughly $70,000 worth of video equipment. It was worth every penny. Even now as I heard “intergalactic planetary” play in a Planetarium as I was drinking beers, I thought “Man, I miss these guys.”
I might want to get upset for what happened to the Beastie Boys but I know plenty of bands who did the same thing. Countless bands from the 90s made it big back then and now they can sit back. They got grandfathered in by developing a fan base before people downloads, before people streamed, before people did a lot of things. Beck did the same thing; think back to what interesting projects and concerts he’s having now compared to the 90s when he’d freak out on a regular basis. No, I can’t dislike the Beastie Boys for taking this well-traveled road.
Their new album is called “Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2”. While they say it will be more rap-orientated than their last album “The Mix-Up” which was an all instrumental-affair, that doesn’t reassure me. I completely ignored that instrumental album after I heard their 2004 album “To the 5 Boroughs”. Perhaps “To the 5 Boroughs” confirmed the fact they were getting cheesy. Sure, their heart was in the right place when they wrote “An Open Letter to NYC” but it sounds terrible. I mean, I enjoy living here, but as I heard that song I sort of cringed as it appeared to confirm all the hubris New Yorkers are stereotyped to have. In case that wasn’t bad enough, the rest of the album was completely forgettable, a particularly bad thing as it took about six years to make. Oddly I do remember their review on Allmusic as being one of the first times I began realize the internal politics of review sites. When I first saw the review it was two stars and said they sounded old with dated references. A few weeks later, I noticed it got 4 and a half, the same score as Faust’s first album. I guess whoever first wrote it was being honest; whoever re-wrote it was remembering the tenure the Beastie Boys had collected.
Now I hold my breath. From the few tidbits I’ve heard, it will at the very least avoid the badness of the last two albums. Will they return to their greener pastures or will this be another attempt to remind people they exist and are from New York. We’ll see.