No disrespect to the other dudes in the band. That fool was like that funky white boy around the way that had good taste in music that no one ever questioned for a minute. From the los angeles perspective that is...
not a die hard by any means, just sayin... he seemed the most in tune.
i was thinking a lot yesterday about shows of theirs id been to and dumb shit they inspired me to do when arguably what i needed most in my life was just to do something stupid. i was thinking about pauls boutique and all the irreverent funny shit they said and referenced as well as the crossword puzzle of old samples that i set off to decipher and learning immeasurably from
and then at 11pm a friend sent me a text that put all that youthful stuff in perspective. i have a former coworker friend who has got to be one of the most morally committed human beings i have ever met. she has given a decade of her life to working for tibetan health and independence: spending years over there, forming schools, busting her ass to fund projects, making do without material luxuries, raising awareness, leading student tours and work projects... and on and on, just putting herself out there. so i shot her a text about MCA, not sure if she even knew who he was, since i could never picture her listening to the beastie boys (she seems more like a meditate with tablas in the background kindof person). Her text response: "he turned me on to tibet. double sadness"
i wont try to draw a conclusion from all that, other than there's two sides to every coin and sometimes contradictory halves add up to something unique and powerful that couldnt have come about any other way
For me what really hurts about this passing is how closely I relate to the Beasties, and Yauch in particular. Growing up how many other funky white kids role models were out there? As others have stated, so many of my formative moments have had the Beasties tucked into them. Back in 1989 some buds and I did an awesome (in our own mindgardens) version of No Sleep Till Brooklyn in a High School battle of the bands. Treeplanting in the 90's I ended up landing a lady way out of my league after dancing like a maniac around her while To All the Girls blasted and cowbells clanged. Goddamn the Beasties and I made her laugh. Check your head made me loose mine. Many very very stoned moments following the BB into deep water listening to that fucker over and over and over... MCA was a great MC, but I love his basslines too.
From a purely egotistical perspective Yauch's passing reinforces my own mortallity, and him having been a huge influence, magician, and good times guru in my life his death seems to freeze my youth in amber, the rest in that vein will be a footnote.
I saw MCA on the stage a few years back and I thought that he looked thinner and looked sickly. I saw the same in Guru before he passed. I was about to try and look into what was really going on with MCA online and before I got the opportunity to do so, across the screen flashed breaking news Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys has passed away from cancer... RIP MCA. He is my favorite Beastie Boy, for his delivery and voice, he seemed to me the more focused and mature one of the three. AD Rock had the comical and fun appeal while Mike D held down the style and look.
I remember seeing them at the Rose Garden here in Portland around 96 or 97 with ATCQ and Money Mark. When they came on stage and started to do their thing kids started to bum rush the ground floor from the stands. It was the coolest thing I have seen at a show so far, and the energy they had was non stop from start to finish. He accomplished so much within his 47 years and I find it sad the way he passed, he will be missed.
Countless shows (15-20 I'd guess); most memorable was Marin Civic Auditorium ('92 or '93); played ball with dude one time backstage at Lollapalooza; powerful jr high and high school memories associated with dude's music. Adam Yauch z"l.
I remember seeing them at the Rose Garden here in Portland around 96 or 97 with ATCQ and Money Mark. When they came on stage and started to do their thing kids started to bum rush the ground floor from the stands. It was the coolest thing I have seen at a show so far, and the energy they had was non stop from start to finish. He accomplished so much within his 47 years and I find it sad the way he passed, he will be missed.
Rest In Power MCA
Could that have been in '98? I saw the same lineup in the same venue in '98. I'm from CT, and was at the tail end of a cross-country hitch-hiking trip. My friend and I had spent 2 months on the road ... we went from Burlington, VT to Red Rocks, CO in a single ride, then traveled through CO, AZ ... out to LA and then up the coast to Portland. A wild, eye-opening life experience to be sure.
Anyway, for our final night (before a cross-country bus trip ... ugh) we grabbed a hotel room and were throwing back some celebratory Mt. Rainiers when we noticed a huge amount of kids our age gathering at the Rose Garden across the street. Figuring it was probably a good show, we went and asked who was playing ... Beastie Boys and ATCQ. Uhhh ... yes, please. So we grabbed cheap tickets from a scalper and got in in time to catch ATCQ's last song (Scenario?).
*edit ... Then Mix Master Mike starts rocking Tom Sawyer and it was on! Fantastic show.
I remember seeing them at the Rose Garden here in Portland around 96 or 97 with ATCQ and Money Mark. When they came on stage and started to do their thing kids started to bum rush the ground floor from the stands. It was the coolest thing I have seen at a show so far, and the energy they had was non stop from start to finish. He accomplished so much within his 47 years and I find it sad the way he passed, he will be missed.
Rest In Power MCA
Could that have been in '98? I saw the same lineup in the same venue in '98. I'm from CT, and was at the tail end of a cross-country hitch-hiking trip. My friend and I had spent 2 months on the road ... we went from Burlington, VT to Red Rocks, CO in a single ride, then traveled through CO, AZ ... out to LA and then up the coast to Portland. A wild, eye-opening life experience to be sure.
Anyway, for our final night (before a cross-country bus trip ... ugh) we grabbed a hotel room and were throwing back some celebratory Mt. Rainiers when we noticed a huge amount of kids our age gathering at the Rose Garden across the street. Figuring it was probably a good show, we went and asked who was playing ... Beastie Boys and ATCQ. Uhhh ... yes, please. So we grabbed cheap tickets from a scalper and got in in time to catch ATCQ's last song (Scenario?).
*edit ... Then Mix Master Mike starts rocking Tom Sawyer and it was on! Fantastic show.
Yup, same show I am getting old because I swear to god I was 16 or 17 at the time, smh.
MCA's passing was deeply saddening. I spent all day listening to Beastie Boys records and watching the criterion DVD with my kids the day he died. All they knew was "Brass Monkey" so their little minds were blown. When it was over they gave me a laundry list of songs to get for them. Check your head indeed.
This is an end of an era for sure. It's rare a public figure passes that means anything other than a distant, removed, avatar of a human being, but this? This is someone who you've listened to for 25 years. Watched evolve and saw yourself in it all. It's a trip.
I gotta go edit B-Boy Bouillabaisse so these dudes can bug out to it.
def hitting me finally today. I have been drunk in NOLA for 4 days so it didn't really sink in until today at work with my mind wandering. countless memories of their shows, their music, etc.
just remembering now how there was a moment at about 4 AM on Sat night when someone had put Brass Monkey on the juke box and as soon as it ended nearly the entire bar drowned out the next song (no recollection what it was) with the first few bars of Slow and Low. diverse crowd in there but I swear the whole bar yelled it as if on cue.
Man, this really hurts. I can't recall another artist passing away that has affected me like this.
These guys inspired and influenced me in a million ways. I remember the crazy tantrum I threw when I was 13 and my mom wouldn't let me go to the License to Ill show because of the girls in cages and all inflatable penis and all. That must have been the craziest shit ever. Waiting for their next albums to come out was just plain torture, I just couldn't have enough of them.
Paul's Boutique was an absolute work of perfection, every little thing about it. My friends and I had a band in high school called Cookiepuss, we played songs off of it and wrote our own as if they belonged on the album. What a blast, belting out Egg Man at the Sadie Hawkins dance and jumping off the stage into a crowd of people all singing along. The Beasties conjure nothing but fun times and really good memories. Maybe that's a part of why this is so incredibly sad to me, it's like the end of an era.
What's clear from the widespread and overwhelming outpouring of love for MCA shows just how incredibly important these three guys are to an entire generation. Not just in their music but through their activism and general attitiude, which was all about having a good time no matter what.
I can only imagine how torn up his family and the other two Beasties are right now. My heart goes out to them.
The world will not be the same with Adam Yauch. RIP.
I have to say, I've been fascinated with the responses to Yauch's death. I guess I'm surprised I'm NOT more affected by it. Obviously, I think it's a bummer, esp. given his age but while I think the BBs were incredibly important, they were never actually that formative to me. So, in that regard, I think Guru's passing - and definitely MJ's - were more personally impactful. This isn't, at all, to question why other people were so moved by Yauch. I totally get it even if I don't, personally, "get it."
First, let me say that a couple times today I took great joy in bumping the aformentioned "A Year And A Day" at top volume while thinking about the beatiful simplicity of its construction (drums from "Ebony Jam," guitar from "That Lady," scratches from "High Powered Rap," free-associative solo fusillade from Yauch, boom, done), the sublimely bugged circumstances of its creation (Yauch in a darkened studio, spinning on an office chair and rapping through an army-surplus helicopter pilot's helmet that had been wired to the sound board), and its perfect overall realization, its presence. Man, still such an important record for me.
That said:
mannybolone said:
I have to say, I've been fascinated with the responses to Yauch's death. I guess I'm surprised I'm NOT more affected by it. Obviously, I think it's a bummer, esp. given his age but while I think the BBs were incredibly important, they were never actually that formative to me. So, in that regard, I think Guru's passing - and definitely MJ's - were more personally impactful. This isn't, at all, to question why other people were so moved by Yauch. I totally get it even if I don't, personally, "get it."
I think I know what you mean.
The Beastie Boys actually were very formative for me, but even so, it's been a long time since they've put out anything that really mattered to me on a level deeper than being a diffusely pleasant reminder that somewhere out there the Beastie Boys were still doing their thing. I think this is the case for a lot of people, and it's been interesting to see Yauch's death become the occasion less for memorializing his particular contributions than for a kind of public funeral for the Beastie Boys.
I'm not trying to be cruel, but it really does seem like there's this widespread catharsis from people finally getting to openly say goodbye to a well-loved group that, privately, they'd long since written off.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
Speaking personally, I wouldn't say I'd written them off. More like I was glad they were still around, even though I hadn't really bothered with the last few records. They were/are one of those bands where I was always fascinated to at least hear what they'd come up with next.
Hard to imagine them continuing, though. On an obvious level, Yauch's voice was such a major component of their sound, and who knows what other kind of contribution he made. It must be like the musical equivalent of losing a limb.
Comments
No disrespect to the other dudes in the band. That fool was like that funky white boy around the way that had good taste in music that no one ever questioned for a minute. From the los angeles perspective that is...
not a die hard by any means, just sayin... he seemed the most in tune.
rest in peace to MCA all day forever and onward.
Rest In Peace
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sashafrerejones/2012/05/adam-yauch-mca-beastie-boys.html
DL GR#1 here: http://stumpo.net/beasties/
Had to drink some brass monkey last night.
i was thinking a lot yesterday about shows of theirs id been to and dumb shit they inspired me to do when arguably what i needed most in my life was just to do something stupid. i was thinking about pauls boutique and all the irreverent funny shit they said and referenced as well as the crossword puzzle of old samples that i set off to decipher and learning immeasurably from
and then at 11pm a friend sent me a text that put all that youthful stuff in perspective. i have a former coworker friend who has got to be one of the most morally committed human beings i have ever met. she has given a decade of her life to working for tibetan health and independence: spending years over there, forming schools, busting her ass to fund projects, making do without material luxuries, raising awareness, leading student tours and work projects... and on and on, just putting herself out there. so i shot her a text about MCA, not sure if she even knew who he was, since i could never picture her listening to the beastie boys (she seems more like a meditate with tablas in the background kindof person). Her text response: "he turned me on to tibet. double sadness"
i wont try to draw a conclusion from all that, other than there's two sides to every coin and sometimes contradictory halves add up to something unique and powerful that couldnt have come about any other way
i'm really thankful for Adam Yauch today
http://usat.ly/JTSgpn
From a purely egotistical perspective Yauch's passing reinforces my own mortallity, and him having been a huge influence, magician, and good times guru in my life his death seems to freeze my youth in amber, the rest in that vein will be a footnote.
R.I.P
(like a lot of people here), these guys soundtrack some great times for me and my friends.
Rest In Power MCA
Could that have been in '98? I saw the same lineup in the same venue in '98. I'm from CT, and was at the tail end of a cross-country hitch-hiking trip. My friend and I had spent 2 months on the road ... we went from Burlington, VT to Red Rocks, CO in a single ride, then traveled through CO, AZ ... out to LA and then up the coast to Portland. A wild, eye-opening life experience to be sure.
Anyway, for our final night (before a cross-country bus trip ... ugh) we grabbed a hotel room and were throwing back some celebratory Mt. Rainiers when we noticed a huge amount of kids our age gathering at the Rose Garden across the street. Figuring it was probably a good show, we went and asked who was playing ... Beastie Boys and ATCQ. Uhhh ... yes, please. So we grabbed cheap tickets from a scalper and got in in time to catch ATCQ's last song (Scenario?).
*edit ... Then Mix Master Mike starts rocking Tom Sawyer and it was on! Fantastic show.
Whoops ... yes, that is what I meant. A little brain flip. I'll edit.
Yup, same show I am getting old because I swear to god I was 16 or 17 at the time, smh.
http://books.google.com/books?id=-5EbyHNqgkwC&lpg=PP1&rview=1&pg=PA147#v=onepage&q&f;=true
MCA's passing was deeply saddening. I spent all day listening to Beastie Boys records and watching the criterion DVD with my kids the day he died. All they knew was "Brass Monkey" so their little minds were blown. When it was over they gave me a laundry list of songs to get for them. Check your head indeed.
This is an end of an era for sure. It's rare a public figure passes that means anything other than a distant, removed, avatar of a human being, but this? This is someone who you've listened to for 25 years. Watched evolve and saw yourself in it all. It's a trip.
I gotta go edit B-Boy Bouillabaisse so these dudes can bug out to it.
Rest in peace, Adam Yauch
def hitting me finally today. I have been drunk in NOLA for 4 days so it didn't really sink in until today at work with my mind wandering. countless memories of their shows, their music, etc.
just remembering now how there was a moment at about 4 AM on Sat night when someone had put Brass Monkey on the juke box and as soon as it ended nearly the entire bar drowned out the next song (no recollection what it was) with the first few bars of Slow and Low. diverse crowd in there but I swear the whole bar yelled it as if on cue.
These guys inspired and influenced me in a million ways. I remember the crazy tantrum I threw when I was 13 and my mom wouldn't let me go to the License to Ill show because of the girls in cages and all inflatable penis and all. That must have been the craziest shit ever. Waiting for their next albums to come out was just plain torture, I just couldn't have enough of them.
Paul's Boutique was an absolute work of perfection, every little thing about it. My friends and I had a band in high school called Cookiepuss, we played songs off of it and wrote our own as if they belonged on the album. What a blast, belting out Egg Man at the Sadie Hawkins dance and jumping off the stage into a crowd of people all singing along. The Beasties conjure nothing but fun times and really good memories. Maybe that's a part of why this is so incredibly sad to me, it's like the end of an era.
What's clear from the widespread and overwhelming outpouring of love for MCA shows just how incredibly important these three guys are to an entire generation. Not just in their music but through their activism and general attitiude, which was all about having a good time no matter what.
I can only imagine how torn up his family and the other two Beasties are right now. My heart goes out to them.
The world will not be the same with Adam Yauch. RIP.
That said:
I think I know what you mean.
The Beastie Boys actually were very formative for me, but even so, it's been a long time since they've put out anything that really mattered to me on a level deeper than being a diffusely pleasant reminder that somewhere out there the Beastie Boys were still doing their thing. I think this is the case for a lot of people, and it's been interesting to see Yauch's death become the occasion less for memorializing his particular contributions than for a kind of public funeral for the Beastie Boys.
I'm not trying to be cruel, but it really does seem like there's this widespread catharsis from people finally getting to openly say goodbye to a well-loved group that, privately, they'd long since written off.
Hard to imagine them continuing, though. On an obvious level, Yauch's voice was such a major component of their sound, and who knows what other kind of contribution he made. It must be like the musical equivalent of losing a limb.