We Gonna Party for the Right to Fight

For all the kiddies out there wondering what us old people talk about when we talk about being “Old School,” check out the Beastie Boys catalogue. They were Old School even when they were the new kids on the block. And though their musical leaning have evolved over the years, their flow has remained old school, interplaying with each other as MCA, Ad-Rock and Mike D trade off lines even though posse albums died around the time of the West Coast-East Coast feud. So Old School, there have been no vanity projects, just the three of them releasing albums together.

It took a while for Hot Source Committee Part One to see the light after the diagnosis of MCA with cancer (who now has a clean bill of health) which delayed the album which was originally supposed to come out in late 2009. In traditional Beastie Boys fashion, who never miss chance to make a joke, retiled the album Hot Source Committee Part Two, with almost the exact track list as Part One. Now the tracks originally set for Part Two will be released as Part One at a later date. Maybe.

Hot Source Committee Part Two is reminiscent of the electric vibe of Hello, Nasty but with more live instrumentations at points throughout the album like on the guitar fuzz of Say It or the punk drive of Lee Majors Come Again, their snottiest work since Sabotage. But aside from the opener upbeat seventies porn groove of Make Some Noise, most of the tracks lack the weird fun of tracks off of Hello, Nasty. And when all the other current rappers are over abusing auto-tune, the Beastie Boys over did it a bit on the vocoder especially on Tadlock’s Glasses.

But when their voices do come through it is classic Beastie Boys, whether they giving nods to the olden days shouting out rotary connection, John Salley and implore the listeners to be kind and rewind while Mike D calls himself the Jewish Brad Pitt. And it is about time someone put Kenny Rodger’s Roasters on blast (even if Kenny Rogers’ Gambler is my gambling theme). And Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament may be their funkiest instrumental to date. Though Part Two may not stand up to the rest of their catalogue, here’s hoping Hot Source Committee Part One makes it out before the end of the world next year.

Song to Download – Make Some Noise

Hot Sauce Committee Part Two gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Feed Your iPod vol. LIX: Super Disco Breakin'

What better way to start your day, let alone an album, than with the line “Well its 50 cups of coffee and it’s on”? And that is how we were introduced to the Beastie Boys’ Hello, Nasty and showed the boys shying away from their traditional guitar heavy riffs of their earlier albums to a more electronic sounding album full of 808 beats. Though I would recommend paranoid druggies to avoid this song thanks to the multiple sirens throughout the album. Hello, Nasty may be the groups best party album and Super Disco Breakin’ can get any party started off right.

Super Disco Breakin’ – Beastie Boys

Now Here’s a Little Story I Got to Tell about Three Bad Brothers You Know so Well

In honor of its twenty-fifth anniversary, the Beastie Boys commemorated the event with Fight for Your Right Revisited to answer all the unanswered questions like did your mother kick them out of the house for not cutting their hair. My initial thought when this came out was, “wait, Fight for Your Right is a quarter century old?” Nothing makes you feel older that hearing about the twenty-fifth anniversary of an event that happened when you were in grade school.

But Licensed to Ill, this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame, was the perfect album for a pre-teen with a number of great sing-a-long primed for boys on the playground. Sure we didn’t know much about them at the time (and arguably still do not), but Girls got sung over and over again back in greade school (and middle school, and high school, and college, and reunions). But (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!) was an anthem for a generation even if we did not know how to fight or party just yet.

Most rap album would be happy with two songs of that quality, but Licensed to Ill is wall to wall jams: No Sleep to Brooklyn is a road trip staple that is required listening at high speeds with the windows rolled down; Paul Revere is the ultimate posse track with Scenario that only song that comes close to matching it in that category; Brass Monkey remains an instant sing-a-long; all of which I could spit verbatim to this day.

And the production from Licensed to Hill was off the hook and is now the definition of old school. The production is so crisp it is a shame that Rick Rubin does not produce more rap record that he does these days (listening to 99 Problems clearly shows he still got it). Rhyming and Stealing sets the table perfectly with samples from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and The Clash especially with Kerry King of Slayer shredding a couple of tracks. While Paul Revere remains one of the most classic beats in the history of rap and a prerequisite beat for any freestyle rapper to spit on. And let’s not forget the “mmmmmmmmm… Drop” from The New Style which is one of the most iconic moments in rap history. With the release of a new Beastie Boy album finally being released this week, do not forget to go back and listen to how the group got to this point.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 4/30/11

The Killing: I am a little surprised they are sticking on the teacher for more than an episode as a suspect. I wonder if the series is going to click off suspects one by one until they find the killer or will it be a suspect they looked at earlier in the season, but thought they cleared. Either way I am still enthralled. You can download The Killing on iTunes.

The Event: When the token hot chick talked about how cold it is in Siberia this time of year, I had to laugh when she said it was ten degrees. I was walking my dogs in negative wind chill this past winter, a stone cold assassin should not be complaining about double digit weather. But my favorite part of the episode was the “da, da, da” moment at the end when the creepy dude realized, after having it all day, that the coffee spilled on his shirt. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Event on iTunes.

Survivor: Redemption Island: I have given a lot of crap to Ometepe for keeping Boston Rob around, and he should have been the first one out on his tribe, but keeping him around now is a smart move because no one will vote for him. But the problem now, with Philip taking the other spot, you are now at Rob’s mercy to get that third spot at the final tribal (assuming there will be three). And now with all the Zapatera, the four fighting for that third and final spot are almost out of options depending when and who returns from Redemption Island. So unless Grant goes on an Immunity run, we might as well flash forward to the finale and give Natalie Tenerelli the million dollars. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.



Justified: The first season really build with every episode to the season finale but this season something seemed to build to a head every couple episodes. Hopefully this season finale will have the same result: edge of your seat entertainment and one of the best forty minutes on television. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: I have long believed that the show will eventually get Sheldon drunk and have him sleep with Penny (although Amy would be more likely now that she is a cast member now) and I thought that might happened this episode, but only Amy getting her drink on, then her smoke on. Oh, yeah, more smoking monkeys please. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.

Community: Now I was only a math minor, but I am pretty sure if Shirley was impregnated around Halloween that her kid was early even had it been a Chang baby. And after the plotline, they probably should have retired the handshake. You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Community on iTunes.

Friday Night Lights: What a juxtaposition of Tammi spending a whole week trying to hammer it into the girls of East Dillon about making good decisions while her daughter was a couple miles away making a pretty bad decision of her own. I wonder if Julie’s affair is what was going to happen with her creepy English teacher that got interrupted by the writer’s strike in season two. But at least we were witness to another great Coach Taylor put on your bulletin board speech. I really need to upload his great quotes onto my iPod and listen to them on a loop while working out. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.