Listen all of y'all..

Beastie Boys - Sabotage

video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sbglyeed4g

I remember buying the CD single of this song when I was a 15 year old metalhead. At that point, I viewed the Beastie Boys with the same kind of disdain that I reserved for all hip-hop, the certainty of absolutes, or binary good/bad-no gray area, them and us. Then this song came out, metal magazines all over the world gave it glowing reviews, I went out and bought it, and my life changed. I've been a Beastie Boys fan since I first heard it, but moreso when I heard the B-side, Get It Together, because that opened my eyes to how good hip-hop can be. And when you start hearing bands like Cypress Hill and House of Pain, it's very easy to recognise a kinship between alternative music and hip-hop.

So this song, which is essentially as punky a song as the Beasties have done since the Cookie Puss/Same Old Bullshit era, opened my, and I'm sure many other, eyes. And it's a great song. A great honking, growling slab of feedback and fuzz guitar from Ad Rock with more, MORE!, fuzz stacked on top of it, courtesy of MCAs gigantic fuzz bass. This is thrown into the mixer with Mike Ds competent punk drumming and Hurricane's screechy turntable and the traditional Beastie vocals - shouty, Brooklyn-y, snotty, almost call and response and delivered with what can only be a smile on their faces.

This was also the first music video that I remember as being a work of art on its own, as opposed to as an extension of a(n often mediocre) song. Spike Jonze's 70s cop show images meshed perfectly with the song and created a benchmark for a great music video.

So, all in all, this is a work of genius from a band who have grown from young, loud and snotty to elder statesmen. Now if only they'd release a new album..

Verdict: Fuzzing Cool

Tomorrow: Who cares, it won't be as good as this.