Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty

'Hello Nasty'?  Hell ya'!

Hard Harry412 is glad the Beasties took a few years before they released this one.  It is clear that they took their time on it and it shows because this album has a number of totally classic songs on here!

'Remote Control', 'Body Movin', 'Intergalatic', and 'Three MCs and one DJ' are sweet!

The Beasties style does seem to change once again here though.  Gone are the hardcore punk songs of their last few albums (at least I don't remember hearing any), and also the distorted mics that they sometimes used (most prominently on 'Ill Communication').  Those mics made their songs sound totally grungey!  They were cool!  I am kind of sad that stuff is not on here.

However with a new DJ they seem to harken back to their 'Pauls Boutique' days with tons of samples and lots of dance-able tracks as well.  

As far as breaking new ground it actually sounds like the Beasties are singing on some of the songs!  What the heck!  Frankly they are not very good and need to stick to rapping, and hey I have been listening to the B-boys since the '80s and like them so this is serious advice not a put down!!  

Also some of the new non-rap/ non-hip-hop songs don't really seem to fit on here.  Like they have a couple of psychedelic songs where the Beasties don't even sing and have guest performers and frankly listening to that sort of thing doesn't really make it seem like a B-boys album.

Overall though this album is great, heck I don't think the B-boys have released a bad album and the fact they indulged in a little experimentation is alright.

Beastie Boys - Ill Communication

The B-boys were totally on a roll when this joint came out!

Released only a few short years after 'Check Your Head' one can tell that the Beasties wanted to continue with the new found creativity of their new 'live funk band' phase.

Overall 'Ill Communication' seems much tighter as an album.  There are not tracks that seem to be all over-place or the odd track that is out in left-field (weird instrumentals that sound like tv theme songs being an example).  Plus the couple of hardcore punk songs on here are really good too.

Spearheading the goodness of 'Ill Communication' is their mega-single 'Sabotage'.  This thing was tremendously popular back in the day!  It still rocks even now and shows that if the Beasties really wanted to, they could have easily stopped rapping and become a rock band instead.

However to their credit the B-boys sticked to rapping and avoided the pitfall of having too many fingers stuck in too many genres and confusing fans (Hard Harry412 is looking directly at Kid Rock with that last comment!)

There is some other good stuff on this album.  The B-boys certainly seemed to be experimenting with distorted mics more on this jam.  I like it since it makes them sound more 'grungey' and Alt-rockish!  

There is just one downer to 'Ill Communication' and that is the lack of good singles!  Yes 'Sabotage' is a beast, but after that their offerings are pretty weak.  'Sure Shoot', meh, just not that good as a single and the fact that it did in real life fizzle out seems to confirm my opinions.

'Ill Communication' will always be over-shadowed in my mind by 'Check Your Head' because 'Head' had two monster singles in 'Pass the Mic' and 'So Whatcha' Want', however that doesn't mean that one can't still enjoy listening to 'Ill Communication' and enjoying it for what it is!

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head B-sides

The remastered version of 'Check Your Head' I have has almost another whole albums worth of B-sides as a bonus!

There are some great jams on here!

My favorite is 'Skills to Pay the Bills', which I have been familiar with for a long time since one of the Beasties VHS video tapes I had back in the day was titled 'Skills to Pay the Bills' after the song!  The song is an up-tempo jam with the Beasties rapping with some distorted mics that sound cool and grungey.  I wish more rappers sounded like this as I would listen to rap more often then.  Heck this may be my favorite Beastie jam!

The other two songs I like on here are both just sort of fun throw-away types:

'Nettys Girl' is a humorous old-style rap that also has Mike D. singing to.  It is just real humorous.

The other one is 'Boomin' Granny'.  This song is off the hook!  With different lyrics this could have been a hit song in the '80s!  Even by the early '90s it sounded kind of old school!

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

Check Your Head!  The Beasties had kind of dropped off the radar screen after the mid-80s since 'Paul Boutique' wasn't tremendously popular, and 'Check Your Head' re-launched them into the public consciousness and also served to introduce them to Alternative Rockers!

This album is so experimental!  They were trying everything on this one!  There are raps, hard-core punk songs, and even tv-theme song like tunes on here.

The two great songs that 'Check Your Head' is known for are 'Pass the Mic' and 'So What'cha Want'.  I remember seeing 'Pass the Mic' on MTV back in the day and thought the video was great!

It is just these guys hanging out rapping!  There is no excess B.S. so I like the authentic minimalism of it.  Also their cool Green Coats really stood out and were like coloful and stuff and hence-forth cool.

'So What'cha Want' was massively popular!

The whole thing sounds totally grungey and they shot the video for it out in the woods... like it could have been shot near that bridge that Kurt Cobain lived under for awhile.

With this track the B-Boys started to really start attracting Alternative Rockers to them as fans.  Heck MCA was even wearing flannel in the video.  He could have picked up a bass and started playing with like the Screaming Trees if he had wanted to!  Myself I had liked 'Licensed to Ill' but had sort of forgotten about the B-boys during the like 7 years until 'Check Your Head' came out, so this Alt-Rock re-introduction was awesome since I had started to get into that genre hardcore.

Beastie Boys - Paul's Botique

This album really flew under the radar back in the day.

I didn't even know it existed until the Beasties had a bigger commercial success with 'Check Your Head' in 1992, at which point I picked this one up as well.

The remastered version I have now is great!  Yes the old version did seriously lack some punch in the bass compared to 'License to Ill' and I think that may have had something to do with it not being as popular.

However now there is this pretty good version out now it now holds it own with regard to production values.

Here are some of my favorite jams:

High Plains Drifter: This is just a cool mid tempo jam and the chorus is freaking cool!

Get on the Mic: A fun real old skool type rap.  Also Mike D is my favorite Beastie so a song about him in particular is always cool and welcome (even though he does not rap on it himself)

Mike on the Mic: My favorite Beastie lays down some solo raps!

This album just has so many samples and jams in it!  It is totally different then 'Liscensed to Ill' but still as fun in my mind.  Where 'Ill' had more original music by Rubin and was certainly heavier (with Led Zepplin drums in one song), this one is way more sample heavy and more of a disco/ funky record.

Really 'Paul Boutique' is sort of a one-off for the B-Boys of this style, because they would quickly shift stylistic gears on their next album.  Damn these dudes really were creative (Are they over now that MCA has passed away?  Do they still have some tapes in the attic with MCA  rapping that they can put some beats to and release one more posthumous Def Jam for a dead homie?  I for one certainly hope so.)

Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill

Hell yeah this is one of the great party albums ever!

The B-boys have created just a totally fun jam with this one.  Remember back in the 1980s rap music was mostly a dance/ party type genre.  Sure there was N.W.A. and 2 Live Crew, but they were at that time oddities.  There was none of this violence-prone anti-White stuff that has permeated this degenerating Nation.

Sure listening to this album is an exercise in nostalgia, but at this point in time during the Obama-nation, is that really such a bad thing?  Back in the '80s I had so much fun with friends, playing on our Commodore 64s, listening to 'Girls' in the background.  It is still a fun song to this day!

Can't decide what the best song is on this album though.  It is just all killer, no filler (well maybe except for 'Rhymin' and Stealin', but even that is a good song, just not a great song.  Would have been great if it had been replaced with 'She's On It' though)

The big question I have about this album though... When is there going to be a remastered version with some bonus tracks or live tracks?!?!?  Remastering albums seems to be a big thing now-a-days and I would kill to here some out-takes from this album.  (How about a nice version of 'Scenario'??)  Heck Scenario could probably be remastered and turned into one of the better tracks on this album based on what I have heard before!