In 1998, the Beastie Boys announced the arrival of a new album with the release of “Intergalactic,” which in my opinion, is their biggest and best single to date. It’s certainly their most accessible single, mainstream but with a sound that’s undeniably Beastie. The accompanying video, masterfully directed by Nathaniel Hornblower, featured them battling giant robots in homage to Japanese monster flicks.
It. Was. Awesome.
Prior to the album’s release, they pulled another prank worthy of Andy Kaufman when they booked time on cheesy public access stations and ran a series of infomercials in which they hawked the album. Donning so-stupid-they-were-clever disguises, they marketed the album as a six-pack inducing exercise tool, a get-rich-quick money maker, and a juicer. Oh, they’re was also a psychic thrown in for good measure. It was an inspired bit, hardly well-advertised, which in concept and execution showcased their absolute strength as entertainers: they’re just fun. Good, stupid, irreverent, ridiculous fun.
I waited in line to buy the subsequent album, “Hello Nasty” at Tower Records in Atlanta, my dutiful wife by my side. From the very first line (“Well, it’s fifty cups of coffee and you know it’s on!”), “Hello Nasty” was amazing, and it felt like the Beasties had honed the formula, begun with “Check Your Head,” to a fine point. Rock songs mixed with instrumentals, all topped with delicious and hilarious hip-hop. They had gone delightfully old school, embracing their roots, and their lyrics remained very funny, especially when the Beasties tweaked existing classic rap lines to fit their quirks of the moment. Like this one, partially lifted from Run DMC’s “King of Rock”: “I’m the king of Boggle. There is none higher. I gets eleven points off the word quagmire.”
Sure, I was annoyed that they spoke out against multinational corporations from the safe and cozy confines of a multi-million dollar deal with a huge record label, but I had loved it when this same attitude kept them from contributing a song to “Reality Bites,” the silliest definition of my generation ever put on film. The whole album felt effortless, as though with nothing to prove they could just have fun, which translated for the listener. Even the instrumentals were bearable, though my wife would disagree.
Gone was DJ Hurricane, replaced by Mix Master Mike. Mix Master Mike is the kind of DJ that makes people who say Djing takes no talent say, “Damn, that boy good.” Not that Hurricane was no slouch, but if Mix Master Mike played guitar, he’d be Jimmy Page.
“Hello Nasty” remains a great album, if not their greatest, then certainly their least uneven. The subsequent tour was, in a word, sick. The Beasties with opening act Rancid at Atlanta’s Lakewood Amphitheater. It was in-the-round arena tour, but the Omni was gone, but that being said, this remains my favorite Beastie Boys concert. They were at the height of their popularity and creativity. Speech from Arrested Development was one section from me and my wife and our friends, rapping along with everyone else.
After “Hello Nasty,” rumors surfaced that the band had recorded and would soon release an album of country music. Somewhere, Andy Kaufman was smiling. The double-disc compilation, “The Sounds of Science,” released in 1999, contained a couple of almost country songs, performed by Mike D. as his alter ego, Country Mike. Yauch would explain in the liner notes:
“At some point after Ill Communication came out, Mike got hit in the head by a large foreign object and lost all of his memory. As it started coming back he believed he was a country singer named Country Mike. The psychologists told us that if we didn’t play along with Mike’s fantasy, he would be in grave danger. Finally he came back to his senses. These songs are just a few of many we made during that tragic period of time.”
While the Country Mike stuff was a fun goof, the previously unreleased track “Alive” officially made me worry about the band’s new direction. Peppered in between their usual pop culture references were juvenile rhymes about class warfare and immature rants about tax dollars funding defense instead of health care. With only a few lines, the Beastie Boys confirmed the oh-so-obvious: they were ill-equipped to meaningfully dissect socio-political issues. Of course, being a rabid, irrational fan, I convinced myself it was only a lark; but sadly, “Alive” revealed a coming political streak that would threaten to alienate some fans, and by “some” I mean me and my wife, who by this time had relocated from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Ch-ch-Check out my semi-coherent ramblings about the Beasties foray into political commentary, “To the Five Borroughs.”
Hello Nasty, 1998
Best Songs: Intergalactic, Shame In Your Game, Disco Breakin’, 3 MC’s and One DJ, The Negotiation Limerick File, The Move
Cool Samples: Sergei Rachmaninoff, Run DMC, Iron Butterfly, De La Soul
Political references: None, I think, but there’s a decent song about sexual harassment, a subject that has been unfairly and sometimes nauseatingly politicized by both sides of the political spectrum.
Cam’s rating: In 1998, 4 stars. In 2010, 5 stars
[Ed. Note: Previous chapters can be found here.]