So after a week away scrambling up mountains and blissfully being without any signal or Wi-Fi, I found myself humming a tune yesterday as I packed the car. It went something like this:
All you Trekkies and TV addicts Don't mean to diss, don't mean to bring static All you Klingons in the fucking house Grab your backstreet friend and get loud
Took me a bit to remember what it was* but I got there alright, Ch-Check It Out by Beastie Boys.
First track and lead single from To The 5 Boroughs, a welcome return to form since the soggy Hello Nasty, I was enough of a sad fan boy to be a first day buyer of the CD single and the 12″. When would I ever learn?
Sidestepping the alarmingly skinny rat-thang with the saggy skin on the cover, ‘Ch-Check It Out’ was an absolute blast. There they were, my three favourite people in the world** absolutely in attack mode again! We got swearing, loud in-your-faceness, bragging, not bragging, needle-nosed pliers and some great rhymes ‘Light rays blazin’ / You’re out of phase and my crew’s amazin”; plus bonus Klingons.
I was struck again today just how cleverly the way they sample Peggy Lee’s ‘Sittin On The Dock Of The Bay’ is, itself a clever reworking of a great track. I just find the way the Beasties just hit their stride with their distinctive triangular rhyming as intoxicating and exhilarating as always and the track lasts exactly long enough to thrill and not a nanosecond longer.
Now, I go by the name of the King Ad-rock I don't wear a cup nor a jock I bring the shit that's beyond bizarre Like Miss Piggy (who, moi?)
The 12″ of Ch-Check It Out is padded out with those old lazy ass hip-hop staples instrumental and acapella versions – why Capitol Records, why? Things get salvaged by ‘Ch-Check It Out (Just Blaze Remix)’, which I was prepared to hate, but really enjoyed^^. As it says, this is a version remixed by the producer Just Blaze and it immediately adds a great deal of heft to the song, slowing it down, adding loads of scratching and giving it a totally different chorus and feel. Good job.
A completist I may be, but I’m a tired one with sore knees, so Check It Out is all you get tonight folks, I had meant to flip on Open Letter To NYC and To The 5 Boroughs.
So, basically buy it, even if only for the drawing on the back by Adam Yauch’s father of his son at work with his Beastie besties.
1191 Down.
PS: Because I love you, you big sexy slob:
*I run Memory 2.0 on a very old cranium-based system, rather than constantly Googling shit.
**apart from my immediate family, if they’re reading this^.
^if not, then yeah, my three favourite people in the world.
^^having absolutely no recollection of it at all.
“taH pagh taHbe’. DaH mu’tlheghvam vIqelnIS.
Qatlh QuchlIj vam Doch Daq vo’wI’ HIq vIneH,
vaj jaj law’ moj puqloD.
chaH Dochvam’e’ vIqelnIS, nI’be’ yInmaj ‘ej maSuv manong ‘ej maHoHchu’be’chugh, nI’be’ yIn ‘ej qem ‘ej yIbej. Hegh.
QuchlIj vam Doch Daq vo’wI’ HIq vIneH,
vaj jaj law’ moj puqloD. Hegh.”
That art work is great from Yauch senior. I’ve never checked this record out as I had the impression it was disappointing after Hello Nasty, so good to hear a contrarian view point.
He was an architect apparently, so sad for him to see his son predecease him.
To The 5 Boroughs is good, much more straight forward hip-hop. This single and ‘Open Letter to NYC’ are excellent.
I never liked Hello Nasty much, although they were amazing live on that tour – it was too wishy-washy for my tastes, I am tempted by the super new deluxe version of it though, but that’s just my own stupidity.
They seemed way more culturally relevant to me at Hello Nasty – I was at university and Intergalactic was everywhere. Probably part of my perception l.
I’m gonna have nightmares about Grandma Clanger sprouting skinny rat arms. Thanks for that.
Haha sorry Bruce! She just really fitted that pic