Beastie Boys Book

Product Information

I just wanted to know little tidbits about the recording process and how they feel about some of their records in retrospect.

Although we had our own great times, and I would change very little, I can't help feeling envious of the life lived and described by the Beasties in the dirty and dingy NYC of the early 80's. The guy's making soup and talks about making the soup more than the album and Will delivers it deadpan.

Like your first hit of Heroine, you’ll be chasing the natural highs and start to crave another chapter, wondering who is going to be reading next! A common question about this book seems to be: should I read the print book or listen to the audiobook? It perfectly captures the feeling of being 16 years old and finding music that's strange and foreign but also completely familiar, a kindred soul beckoning across decades from the grooves of a dusty LP from the bargain bin.

I can't say enough, about what intelligent, animated storytellers both Michael Diamond and Adam Horvitz are. 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. An honest, charming and insightful scrapbook of adventures, ideas and dumb funny stuff that will make you laugh your bum off. Adam “AD-ROCK” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond offer revealing and very funny accounts of their transition from teenage punks to budding rappers; their early collaboration with Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin; the almost impossible-to-fathom overnight success of their debut studio album Licensed to Ill; that album’s messy fallout; their break with Def Jam, move to Los Angeles, and rebirth as musicians and social activists, with the genre-defying masterpiece Paul’s Boutique. With a style as distinctive and eclectic as a Beastie Boys album, Beastie Boys Book upends the typical music memoir.Early band member Kate Schellenbach is given a chance to tell her side of the story of why she felt she was "fired" from the band and her observations of that time. Alongside the band narrative you will find rare photos, original illustrations, a cookbook by chef Roy Choi, a graphic novel, a map of Beastie Boys' New York, mixtape playlists, pieces by guest contributors, and many more surprises. Beastie Boys fans will devour this book, as will anyone interested in the early days of hip-hop, the art/music/street life of New York City in the 1980s, and the alternative-nation zeitgeist of the ’90s. insightful about the group’s shifting music and are expert yarn-spinners, homing in on telling vignettes rather than doling out a straightforward history .

The numerous short pieces that make up this book don’t so much resolve the mystery and tensions as highlight the sometimes baffling features of their collaborations.Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here.

They made me want to go out and listen to bands I haven't heard in years ranging from Sly and Family Stone, Black Flag, Bad Brains, The Jam, The Cure. The heartfelt passages of Adam Horvitz and Michael Diamond's grief over the passing of their friend, band mate, and brother, Adam Yauch were prolific and meaningful. And one album away from MCA issuing his famous apology for “the disrespect to women” to “the mothers and the sisters and the wives and friends.

In its images and fractured mini-chapters, this book continues with the style of those early collaborations, unfortunaely minus the influence of Yauch. Along the way we're treated to a history of NYC during the late 70s/early 80s where things like CB/GB and Danceteria were part of the landscape and names like Jean Basquiat, Andy Warhol and the Butthole Surfers are mentioned in passing. It's a love letter to friendship, to music (all of it), to New York City, to beat-up musical gear, to mixtapes, to exploration.