Album of the day - Beastie Boys "Hello Nasty"

I've never been a Beastie Boys fan, although for a long time I've thought maybe I should be. When I was a youngster, during their "Licensed to Ill" era, I was afraid of them. I lived in Maryland at the time, and I remember hearing about the Beatie Boys kidnapping people and taking them to a concert. I was only 10 at the time, so I guess I didn't realize it was a conteast, and the people being "kidnapped" were winners. A 10-year-old hears "beastie" and "kidnap" and certain thoughts fly through his head. Hearing "License to Ill" 20 years later, the album hasn't really aged well.

The only other connection to the Beatie Boys I've had was in D.F.L., and awful hardcore band that Adam Horowitz produced (and allmusic.com claims he was once a member). The band was awful on record (I got a free copy of "Proud to Be" from Epitaph Records) and awful live (I saw them open for Pennywise, I think). Just truly awful.

But this is supposed to be about "Hello Nasty," an album that kind of confirms that I'm not a Beastie fan. Some songs on the album are good, although I didn't pay close enough attention to tell you which ones I enjoyed. But a lot of the songs fell into a mediocre category, and some I thought were absolute filler. Nothing grabbed me on this record, and maybe it's the kind of album that requires multiple listens to truly appreciate. I didn't outright hate the album, because their combination of rap, electronic music and rock is not unpleasing to the ears.

I'll try to listen to "Paul's Boutique" soon, and that will tell me for sure where I stand on the Beasties.