Cougar Microbes

 Over 25 years have passed since the release of ‘Licence To Ill‘ and the Beastie Boys still sound as exciting as ever. In today’s musical landscape their shared delivery style is almost singular and on ‘Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2‘ the true New York kings are as good as they have ever been.

Cougar regular Thom says ‘you’d expect the Beastie Boys to be out of touch by now but I can safely say I have not, and don’t think I will tire of their unpredictable nature. ‘Hot sauce committee part 2′ is sophisticated and balls out cool‘

Best still the Beasties have the power to make illustrious guests shine. There are few groups around today with as distinctive vocal styles of Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA. The latter in particular sounds as hungry as ever following the cancer scare which practically shelved ‘Hot sauce committee pt 1‘. We are glad to have him and his partners back.

TRACKS:

Too Many Rappers [new reactionaries version] (featuring NAS) by Beastie Boys

Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win (featuring Santigold) by Beastie Boys

Last week’s ‘All Points West’ festival was an opportunity for a bunch of artists to wish MCA a quick recovery and celebrate the music of the Beastie Boys.

Jay-Z’s, who replaced the Beasties headline slot on Friday,  covered ‘No Sleep To Brooklyn’. Not one to be outdone, Chris Martin offered a reworked piano led version of ‘Fight For Your Right‘.

Once again, get well soon MCA!

TRACK:

Coldplay – Fight For Your Right To Party (live @ All Points West)

Beastie Boy Adam Yaunch (AKA MCA) has been diagnosed with cancer of the preaortic gland and lymph node. The rapper, flanked by friend and bandmate Ad-Rock, took a novel approach to breaking the news to fans by broadcasting it to the world via a youtube video and added that he expects to fully recovery. However, inevitably their tour schedule and imminent album ‘Hot Sauce Committee‘, due in September, will be delayed until he gets better.

I was lucky enough to catch the Beastie Boys in September 2007 at Brixton Academy in what was a stellar performance and I can’t wait to see them again. Here is to a speedy recovery to the man who has  got more rhymes than he’s got grey hairs, “and that’s a lot because I’ve got my share“.

TRACK:

Beastie Boys – Roots Down (5 Alive Remix)