Thursday, February 16, 2006
Posted at
05:49
by
Mike Miliard
“First thing we do, let’s kill all
the lawyers.” — Shakespeare.
“The party is over with. Grab your
stuff and go and nobody goes to jail.” — A cop.
We shoulda known it wouldn’t last. The Beatles’
publisher, EMI, has put the kibosh on djBC's Beastles mash-ups (going so far as
to block the page via his ISP even after he took the songs down). Sorry folks.Those two great tastes that taste great together,
the Beatles and
the Beastie Boys, are back for round
two. (They may not know about it, but their lawyers probably do.) This time
The Beastles’ new album — copping the
title from a
Replacements
record? — is called
Let it Beast, and once again the whole is something completely different from the sum of its parts. Hopped up, slowed
down, sped up, and thrown in a blender by Somerville mixmaster
djBC, John, Paul, George, Ringo, AdRock, Mike D,
and Yauch wanna hold your hand
and shake your rump.
If the mash-up is “passé,” djBC — co-proprietor, with Lenlow, of the popular Mash. Ave. night at the
Independent — hasn’t heard about it. (Neither have the legions of aural alchemists at
GYBO.org, the global bootleg
clearinghouse that recently escaped legal trouble by agreeing to only link to
its members' mash-ups rather than linking to the MP3s directly.) BC’s mixology
makes for a twitchy tension between McCartney’s dulcet piano swells and the screeching bravado of those nasty
little men (“Let it Beast”), Lennon’s spectral voice hovering above
lounge-louche organ/bongo funk (“A Day in the Life of a Beastie Boy”). Even
George’s sitar-hazy mystic warblings get pumped up with scabrous scratches and
manic breakbeats (“Love You to Check It Out”). Think George Martin as the third Dust Brother.
And let’s be real: “Looking Down the Barrel of a Warm Gun”
is a title that writes itself.
If that Brady Bunch-style cover looks familiar, it’s
because it’s drawn by famed cartoonist Josh
Neufeld (American Splendor,
World War III Illustrated,
Duplex Planet). It’s downloadable
as a PDF to make nifty jackets for the CDs burned by the iPod-less. Hell, even
vinyl fetishists can find satisfaction in the digital age. “Whatcha Want,
Lady?,” from the first Beastles record, can be found on a wax compilation here.
LISTEN: “Belly Movin” (MP3)
LISTEN: “Electrified Kite” (MP3)
LISTEN: The Beastles debut (torrent)
