Steve 'Flash' JuonThe Beastie Boys got their start as a punk rock band. If you’re rolling your eyes because you already knew that fact fine. I’m pointing this out for anybody who finds their way to this review and doesn’t understand what the Boys are doing on “Aglio e Olio.” This is a rap group who had already achieved worldwide fame and success who decided to revisit their punk roots over a decade after they had left it behind. Also by way of explanation the album’s title translates to “garlic and olive oil,” which is a famous way of making pasta in Italy. It also helps to explain the album’s cover art, which looks like someone’s head being squished in an olive press. They are squeezing their history to serve you an extended play.
If punk rock is not your thing “Brand New” will probably make you quit right at the start. It’s certainly in line with the traditions of the genre though. There’s no warm up, there’s no opening instrumental, there’s nothing but hard and FAST music the moment you press play. That’s what made punk so exciting at its inception — it broke all of the rules. Punk rock threw the rules out the window and assaulted your eardrums, and some bands actually assaulted their fans (and vice versa). It’s a loosely organized chaos that just barely holds together at the seems. Vocals can be sung or screamed, and the Boys are definitely screaming. “Deal With It” starts out slower but then hits an even FASTER tempo.
Something occurs to me listening to this album compared to their “Polly Wog Stew” release. Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D were so young and inexperienced at the time of “Cooky Puss” (in fact Ad-Rock had only just joined the band) that they had barely found their identity let alone any form of chemistry. After being successful for so long together as a rap group/jam band, they’ve unintentionally become a better punk rock group. I’m not saying “Square Wave In Unison” would make you a convert, but it’s not so far from the sound of songs like “So What’cha Want” or “Sabotage” as to be unrecognizable.
In fact not long after Del the Funky Homosapien released one of my favorite singles from his entire catalogue, the Beastie Boys had their own punk rock take on the idea with “You Catch a Bad One.” Del’s didn’t include the Public Enemy “one, one, one” scratch. That doesn’t make his better or worse, but it’s worth noting that an ostensibly punk rock album is still showing its love to rap music.
The Beastie Boys have gone on the record as saying this EP’s intent was to use up extra material they recorded that wouldn’t fit into their next album, and to release it at a bargain price so that no one would feel ripped off that it was only 13 minutes long. Some early pressings even had a sticker on the front cover informing listeners of that fact, although it incorrectly stated the length as 11 minutes. Either way you can blow through this Beastie Boys project pretty fast. The longest song is the finale “I Want Some” and it’s just barely over two minutes.
While I wasn’t a fan of hearing the earliest days of the Beastie Boys before “Paul Revere” and “Brass Monkey” (and I’m still not), if they had been making music like “Aglio e Olio” in 1983 I might have been more receptive to it. I’m the furthest thing from an expert on punk rock imaginable. I’ve dabbled in the Ramones and Rancid. I’ve seen Green Day in concert once time. My buddy SS has more punk rock cred in his pinky finger than I have in my whole body. Here’s what I can tell you though — I know what I like and I know what I don’t — and I don’t hate this. Now when it came out in 1995 I might not have been so receptive to it, because I was in full on “rap or die” mode at that point, but a quarter of a century later I’ve listened to a lot more and experienced a lot more in my life, and to me this is good punk music. It’s probably not if you’re into hardcore underground punk though, and I’m sure it’s not what the majority of Beastie Boys fans want to hear either. I’m exactly the right person for exactly the wrong EP here, and that suits me just fine.