Capitol Records – 21 Apr 1992
The Beastie Boys third album mixes all their influences into a musical masterpiece.
One, two, three… The Beastie Booooooooys! They are, they comin’ home…
Some hardcore Beastie fans might say Pauls’s Boutique is their best album, Ad-Rock has said that Hello Nasty is his personal favorite, I believe Check Your Head should be in that discussion. This is the album that the B-Boys re-invented themselves with. This record is hip hop, funk, hardcore, jazz, and whatever other musical style you want to call it. The album would set the tone for their next several releases. The B-Boys picked up their instruments and just started jamming. This went on for quite some time and at one point they thought of just doing an instrumental record. Luckily Mario Caldato Jr (producer, engineer) talked them into adding the vocals. On this album not only did they use guitars and drums, they used a bunch of percussion instruments like the cuica, the conga, the batá; and other instruments like the organ, Wurlitzer, drum machines, while Ad-Rock was cutting it up on the turntables. They would continue to sample songs on loops but this was less sample heavy than their previous records. This was the first album to be fully co-produced by Mario Caldato Jr who would go on to co-produce Ill Communication and Hello Nasty and the first appearance of keyboardist Money Mark.
It starts off with the sample heavy hip hop song “Jimmy James” a similar track to what came before on Paul’s Boutique. “Pass the Mic” which features a lot of cool shit, a nice bass line, a Bad Brains sample, a car alarm sample, and a homemade Mike D cardboard kick bass reverb chamber. The video for “Pass the Mic” is filmed at the same studio most of this album was made, G-Son Studios on Glendale Blvd in Atwater Village. Most of the video takes place on the back stairs with some shots of Christian Hosoi on the half pipe inside.
“Gratitude” blends some harder lyrics, some percussion instruments, a funky beat, and lots of fuzz bass.
“So What’cha Want” featuring Mike D on the drums, Money Mark on the organ, and distorted vocals by use of the Sony variety mics, you can’t help but bob your head to this one which would go on to be one of the band’s classics hits.
“Time for Livin’” takes the boys back to their roots as a hardcore band. “Something’s got to Give” takes it way down and funky, experimental, and just different.
While working on “Stand Together” Money Mark was making some repairs at the studio and the boys kept hearing the screw gun noise, so they sampled it, and it is heavily featured in this one, take a listen and see if you can pick it out.
Ending the record with “Namaste” which has a funky, romantic, meditation feel, with trippy vocals provided by MCA.
While making this record the Beastie Boys built their own studio on the west coast far away from where they grew up, complete with a skateboard half pipe, basketball hoop, parquet wood floors, and a stage. They played instruments and held jam sessions for over a year before even discussing vocals. It seems liked they really explored their musical tastes and were not afraid to take risks and literally try anything. This created their most stylistically diverse record to date and broke any external expectations on what the bands musical style was. Peter Sichel may not be a fan of this album, but Mike D’s sophisticated high hat, MCA’s fuzz bass, and Ad-Rock’s scratching, this album checks all the boxes (or the heads). Like Jimmie Walker would say “it’s dynomite!
Likes fine beer and cheap cheese. He has been a DJ, sound mixer for commercials and television, and currently designs motorcycle parts. He also has a habit of creating pastiche style cover songs and changing the chorus to incorporate “Jeff” or “Sorley.” (sigh… it’s true – Jeff)
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