Beastie Boys Book

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For example, Adam's favorite album is Hello Nasty, Mike's least favorite song is "What Comes Around," and the beginning of "The Maestro" was taken from a message they got on an answering machine thanks to Yauch having the defunct Paul's Boutique number routed to an unused phone in a basement or something. The only weak point for me was when they got on a tear about listing artists that were either influential or some DJ would spin at "x, y, or z" place and that's fine.

Horovitz and Diamond share sincere moments of reflection about their music, their friendship and the guy who taught them to fix radiators, to care about human rights, to own up to mistakes and to grow up. But interestingly, many are written by others: social critics providing context and opinions on the group’s influence (including an argument by Jonathan Lethem that they unintentionally started gangster rap), an essay by Amy Poehler hilariously reviewing their music videos, one by a fashion journalist slamming their many looks over the years, a photo collection by director Spike Jonze, an absolutely hysterical (and fake) review of the Ill Communication album in which the reviewer spends much of the review discussing a soup he was making while listening to the album, and an absurdist imagining of the life of the Carvel Cookie Puss ice cream cake (the subject of the Beastie Boys’ first single) by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead. Everything about their life seems to prove that they were destined to be great because they wouldn't give up until they were.I just wanted to know little tidbits about the recording process and how they feel about some of their records in retrospect. And the reverence Mike Diamond and Adam Horowitz still have for Adam Yauch (RIP) further humanizes them. The Beastie Boys Book by Mike Diamond is a coffee table book full of pictures but it also contains quite a lot of thoughtfully written essays covering the life of the band in detail. But I was most moved by what I learned about Yauch, about what an amazing person he was, still being taught by this band, at age 42, who not to trust, where to spend my money, by what acts and non-acts I’ll be remembered. This is one of the only times I can think of where I'd recommend getting both the print and audio versions at once.

The literary equivalent of the band's classic third album, Check Your Head: sprawling, eclectic, irreverent, clever, hyper and cool, driven by the engaging home-brewed DIY ethic which for over 30 years defined the trio's approach to creativity. I didn't know why I liked those albums, and I didn't know most of what they were saying, or even what the words meant (you know that interlude bit on "B-Boys Makin' With The Freak Freak"? Having an all star ensemble to read various chapters was cool but I enjoyed the parts read by Ad-Roc and Mike D the best, so I think they could have done the whole thing themselves and actually enhanced the experience.Not your typical autobiography this is more like a gigantic fanzine where Michael and Adam tell the story of the Beastie Boys through a diverse and varied selection of tales using a number of different styles; a bit. This was so disappointing, juvenile humour, nothing of interest really said as everyone was nice to them.