from the EP Polly Wog Stew, Rat Cage Records, 1982What a long strange trip it has truly been for this trio of white-boys from NYC known to the world as the Beastie Boys, quietly transforming themselves from a hardcore rock band into a hip-hop troupe (thanks to record impresario Rick Rubin and, to a lesser extent, Russell Simmons), and in so doing, managed to become one of the most well-known and loved music groups in modern American history. At the time this was recorded they were a foursome, including Kate Schellenbach (later of Luscious Jackson fame) on drums; they quickly changed their name from the Young Aborigines to the Beastie Boys, “BEASTIE” standing for "Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence”. What’s most incredible to me is that they actually got to open shows for some very famous hardcore punk bands back in the day, including the Dead Kennedy’s, the Mistfits, & the Bad Brains. While most of this EP consists of bare-bones, second-rate early ‘80s hardcore, this one track has always caught my ear---and not just due to the funny pot references, “…get my bong and do up some heavy weed man, I got some heavy Mexican stuff…lets get back to my bong…” The drumbeat is clearly influenced by fellow NYC band ESG and their danceable version of post-punk, but I love the quick few measures of gnarled hardcore riffage they give you in the middle of the song, in case you fell too deep into the delay and echo-laden madness and forgot. The Beastie Boys didn’t look back much once they jumped the hardcore ship, but this EP will always exist as a reminder to everyone that, much as it seemed later on, these cats were absolutely not bred from the ghetto.
