If It's Too Loud...

August 6, 2007 was the last time Beastie Boys played Boston. I was there, in the very last row of the Bank of America Pavilion, and it was an amazing show. We all know what happened after that, and I thought those songs were lost forever. When I saw that Mike D was showing up at his sons' band's shows, and then started playing solo shows, I was hopeful, but didn't know what that meant. Last Friday saw the release of Mike D's first solo album, the really great Thank You , and he returned to Boston for a show at Royale. Unsurprisingly, Mike D 5D focused on their just released album Sunday night. That doesn't mean that Mike D's previous band was ignored. There was plenty for those that had never heard the songs on Thank You , or were there only for Beastie Boys classics. Opening with "Hello Brooklyn," they also played "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun," "Remote Control," and a one song encore of "So What'cha Want." The ne...

I don't think anything could have been more directly marketed to me than this release from Atlanta's Mattiel. The band fronted by Mattiel Brown have released Double Cover , which is, as the name implies, a pair of covers. Mattiel chose Beastie Boys's "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" (which is one of my absolute favorite Beastie Boys songs) and The Clash's "Guns Of Brixton" (also one of my favorite Clash songs). Any time a band is going to release two covers of two of my favorite songs by two of my favorite bands, I'm going to be interested. It especially helps when Mattiel covers them so perfectly. Each one stays almost completely true to the originals while adding just enough of their own sound to it to keep it interesting.  You can listen to Mattiel's take on "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" below. Double Cover is available now on Mattiel's Bandcamp . For more on Mattiel, check out the artist's Facebook . Double C...

Earlier this year I stumbled upon Brass Against and fell in love with their brass band covers of Rage Against the Machine, as well as a few other hard rock/metal legends. They've truly outdone themselves with their latest cover: Beastie Boys's biggest hit "Sabotage." Personally I would have preferred another song, but "Sabotage" fits into their repertoire perfectly. Plus, Sophia Urista's vocals might just be perfectly made for this song. She brings the ideal level of intensity needed for "Sabotage," and if the Beastie Boys can no longer perform this song for us, Brass Against are more than welcome to take it over. You can watch the video for Brass Against's cover of "Sabotage" below. For more on Brass Against, be sure to check out their website .

Sizzy Rocket just released a cover/parody of the Beastie Boys' 1986 hit "Girls." Her version is much slower paced, in a more modern electro-pop style, and it's also a whole lot more feminist. With lyrics like "They like the way that we walk / But they don't wanna hear us talk" and "But they have no idea / The pressure that we feel."  I completely understand the sentiment, but the song is almost 30 years old. Between this and the GoldieBlox parody/rip off of the song, there seems to be this newfound focus on the misogynistic lyrics. This feels odd, because the song is older than the people complaining about it. It was meant as a joke, but once the Beastie Boys realized people were taking it seriously they completely disavowed the song and never performed it live. Later songs contained lyrics like "I want to say a little something that's long overdue / The disrespect to women has got to be through / To all the mothers and the sister...

Tomorrow is Record Store Day, which usually isn't a big deal for me. It may be blasphemy, but the vast majority of Record Store Day releases are old releases put out in a new format, and I don't want to stand in line for the chance to pay a premium for music I already own. However, this year there is at least one Must Have. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion has been performing a cover of the Beastie Boy's forgotten classic "She's On It" in a medley with Link Wray's "Jack the Ripper" for a while now, and they recorded an official version of it for release on Record Store Day. It's everything you want it to be. Anytime one of my all time favorite bands records a cover of one of my other favorite bands, I need to have it. For a list of other Record Store Day releases, head on over to their official website . To check in with Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, check out their website . The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion / She's On It - Jack ...

To say Yoko Ono isn't my thing is an understatement of epic proportions. However, her video for "Bad Dancer" deserves some attention, just because of the guest stars it features. I'll take any peek into what Ad Rock and Mike D of the Beastie Boys are doing, and when you add Ira Glass of This American Life, Questlove of the Roots, Roberta Flack, and others into the mix, you'll want to watch it at least once. The video features Ono and her cohorts all dancing badly, which sounds (and is) super cheesy, but it also ends up being a lot of fun, which isn't a side of Ono you get to see a lot. Will the song make anyone's best of 2013 list? Nope. Is it worth checking out in between cat videos on a Tuesday morning? Yeah, sure. Why not?

I've never gotten the whole Yoko Ono thing, but some people do. And apparently Ad-Rock and Mike D get it. Yoko One Plastic Ono Band have an album coming up on September 17, Take Me to the Land of Hell, which features a ton of collaborations including ?uestlove, tUnE-yArDs, members of Wilco, Cibo Mato, and more. You can stream "Bad Dancer" with Ad-Rock and Mike D over at Pitchfork . It's definitely not my thing, but it has the surviving Beastie Boys on it, so here you go!

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from any of the Beastie Boys, so forgive me if I freak out a bit that MIKE D JUST RELEASED A NEW SONG! “Humberto Vs the New Reactionaries (Christine and the Queens Remix)” was recorded for Kenzo’s Spring/Summer 2014 fashion show, which isn’t exactly a very punk reason to record music, but I’m 100% ok with anything I get from Mike D. It’s a 10 minute epic that was designed to update American hardcore. At first I didn’t get it, as it’s very electronic, but after a few minutes it just clicked. It’s American hardcore for the 21 st century, complete with guitars and electronica blended together perfectly. Astute Beastie Boys fans will recognize the New Reactionaries’ name from  "Too Many Rappers (New Reactionaries Version)” on Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. It’s obviously not a Beastie Boys song, but it makes me desperate for whatever he or Ad Rock have coming up next. Check out "Humberto Vs the New Reactionaries (Christine and the Que...

Forgotten Fridays is a weekly feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. Once a week we go back and remind you, and help decide if they were any good. BS 2000 was a side project of Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys and Amery Smith, aka AWOL. Simply Mortified  was their third release, and was also the final release from the Beastie Boys’ vanity record label, Grand Royal records. Since they lived on opposite coasts, the two members would take pieces of songs they had been working on and pass them back and forth. What you get is a fun record that sounds very little like a Beastie Boys project. It’s very lo-fi and synth-heavy. Cute would be an accurate description. While it doesn’t feel like it should be taken all that seriously, it’s hardly a novelty release. “Sick for a Reason” rails against former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani. “Bo...