BEASTIE BOYS
CHECK YOUR HEAD
ALBUM REVIEW
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Released 04/21/1992, the 3rd official BEASTIE BOYS studio album, CHECK YOUR HEAD, is a genius title because this album is “all up in here” and is the perfect psychedelic ASMR accompaniment to justify your luxury headphone purchase.
While this episode is more than a little bit “off the reservation” we feel like with the right headphones and the right relaxers you’ll be in just the right mood to really enjoy it from beginning to end.
Loaded up with a wide variety of sonic textures, grooves, and more 70’s vibes than even Tarantino can shake a stick at (including the gratuitous use of Hammond B-3 keyboards and visions of wood paneled walls and orange shag carpeting), CHECK YOUR HEAD is the perfect album to make the trip back to 1974 “back when thunder sounded like thunder”.
Released 4/21/1992
Recorded 1991–1992
Producer Mario Caldato Jr.
TRACKS
JIMMY JAMES (aka “The Man so nice they named him twice…”)
The perfect vibe for when you’re “headed towards the runway and coming in for a landing” (so to speak). With the various 70’s vibes it feels like Tarantino should write a movie to this album and then use this album as the soundtrack to that movie.
This is quality coming down tunes and is most definitely a headphones album.
The retro, lo-fi samples give it that vintage 70’s vibe, back when the wallpaper, the carpet, the furniture, and the appliances were all some combination of orange, brown, yellow, and pea green.
FUNKY BOSS
70’s detective movie or cop movie (or TV show). Or maybe a sitcom. Who would play the part of the funky boss?
“Was that Richard Pryor?”
PASS THE MIC
It sounds loud in the best way with a big sexy fucking groove to it.
That bass line was used later in either a Snoop Dog or Dr. Dre tune that I can’t place at the moment…
GRATITUDE
That’s a pretty sick bass with that groove. If you watch the video, you can actually see them playing instruments, which is pretty fucking trippy, especially if you’re more familiar with the Licensed to Ill days. That organ is such a straight up 70’s vibe that you can literally see the wallpaper, carpet, and furniture color scheme just by listening to this.
LIGHTEN UP
Wait, is this Law & Order SVU?
This is nice vibey, segue, interlude music that almost has vibes of the old David Letterman house band from back in the day. This is definitely high on the list of “best relaxer albums EVAH!” as it’s kinda hard to tell the difference between samples and real instrumentation.
FINGER LICKIN’ GOOD
There’s almost a strange percussive component to the vocals.
3:00 WTF!? Was that Robert Zimmerman?
SO WHATCHA WANT
The weird samples are great as they transport you briefly to another reality.
I remember this video. If you peep at the background, there’s no doubt that they were high when they made the video. Actually, everyone was probably high. From the director to the sound guy to the production assistants, everyone involved with this album and this video was probably high.
This is a drug album, without question, and if you’re curious to know what that means exactly, just know that you’ve not done enough drugs to understand.
THE BIZ VS THE NUGE
This is just kind of ridiculous…with the right amount (and the right kind) of relaxers, you’ll laugh at this for a solid hour, at least.
TIME FOR LIVIN’
You can still hear some of their punk influences from the early days.
This sounds like a throwback to their early days as punk band back in the day; just straight up, hard core, stripped down, and ugly with distorted vocals and a cool breakdown near the end.
SOMETHING’S GOT TO GIVE
This is 100% vibe…with an insanely dark music video to boot (relative to the vibe of the music). Very Planet Caravan sounding vocal effects over a solid beat that drones on constantly and keeps things moving. Definitely use those headphones.
THE BLUE NUN/STAND TOGETHER
The Blue Nun sounds like a television commercial right out of the early 60’s.
From a late 60’s sounding Blue Nun product placement faux advertisement to the next song. The weird synthesizer effect is way better than the bizarre, out of tune saxophone as initially heard on Licensed to Ill. (Was the sax on Stand Together from that album? Was it Brass Monkey?)
POW
Definitely not a traditional record. This is a headphone relaxer experience, and you can hear all the textures, depths, and layers of all the tracks on the song.
(Slower…)
You can practically see the credits roll…beautiful women with huge afros and knee-high boots, grooving with everyone at a bachelor pad until the “origami” wears off and then everything slows down. The organ is very reminiscent of Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs.
THE MAESTRO
Good groove and heavy in a very simplified, minimalistic punk way.
GROOVE HOLMES
This is pure groove and vibe, all day. This would be a good tune to listen to while enjoying a blunt and a nice glass of scotch. The organ though really brings out that 70’s retro vibe.
LIVE AT P.J.’s
That’s a heavy and funky bass riff.
Really, you’ve got to listen to this with headphones. There’s just no other way to say it.
Also, check out the “sobering” advise at the end.
MARK ON THE BUS
This one just feels weird…listen to the left side…pay close attention.
PROFESSOR BOOTY
“What’s up with her?”
The dry drums have a nice vibe and sound. It’s cool how they can blend real instruments with samples and turn them into something completely innovative and unique. The shift toward the 80’s sound at the end completely changes the entire vibe of the song to the point that it could have been something else.
IN 3’s
In 3’s (or “In 7’s” as we call it) is a fun way to wrap up the album. They could have played this album on any Quentin Tarantino movie and it would have made for an acceptable soundtrack. It sits outside of time, in terms of the various eras of music, but then Tarantino is the same way with his movies: they exist in a dimension where time doesn’t behave in a linear fashion and music is transcendent with regard to where it belongs in history.
At 1:11 in, it’s still instrumental. Definitely sounds like it fits right in there with the Herbie Hancock albums of the early 70’s (check out Headhunters from ’73 and Thrust from ’74).
NAMASTE
The funk and the slink of the grooves just scream “FUCK MUSIC”. There are a ton of layers on the production, an almost quadraphonic sound and atmosphere that really “builds the room” so to speak in terms of acoustics, loudness, depth of space along with the treble, midrange, and bass.
The last song…again with the 70’s organ/keyboard vibe. Trippy poetry masquerading as lyrics in this spoken word piece done in the style of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. A nice way to close out.
Now reload that bowl and let’s start it over again…
“Is that Richard Pryor?”
Get ready for a Bunkerpoon ghost story regarding some paranormal activity captured during our recent Mastodon episode, find out what you’re NOT supposed to do when the red tide reaches the slippery shores of Snooch Gulch, remember that “Eerie Inhabitants 1988 thunder does not sound like 2025 thunder“ and JOIN US for CHRONICLES II: Part II – Off The Reservation with the BEASTIE BOYS and get ready to CHECK YOUR HEAD.
Show Notes:
(00:07): “It sounds like Eerie inhabitants thunder…”/ “They had better thunder than we did…”/ “There’s a crack in the ice wall…” / #flatearther / “My ears are perfect…”/ “I can’t see Mt. Everest from my house…”/ “The thunder they had in the 1800’s…”/ ***WARNING: #listenerdiscretionisadvised *** / “How long were you married?” / ***WELCOME BACK TO THE METAL NERDERY PODCAST!!!*** / “Actually it’s part III, officially…”/ #ChroniclesII
(04:47): ***PATREON SHOUTOUTS*** / JOIN US on the Patreon at patreon.com/metalnerderypodcast / “It’s Cream of Crème soup…it’s gonna stick to your ribs…”/ You can EMAIL US at metalnerdery@gmail.com with your #Shittah / #LiftTheCurse FLY OR DIE (Don’t Bury The Dream) / “You wanna do it?” / #PsychicSlayerOfTheEpisode / “I don’t wanna play no more…” / #BunkerpoonGhostStory /
“Is that 3-D?” / “Write in 7’s…”/ #Slayer BORN OF FIRE (Seasons In The Abyss – 1990) /
#SmogMountain
(13:27): #TheDocket METAL NERDERY PODCAST PRESENTS: BEASTIE BOYS – CHECK YOUR HEAD / #OffTheReservation / #markthetime / “You guys remember the GOOD thunder?”/ Released 04/21/1992; the 3rd official #BEASTIEBOYS studio album… / NOTE: Polly Wog Stew was their first EP / “We had different sun in 1988…”/ Find out what you’re NOT supposed to do when the red tide reaches the slippery shores of Snooch Gulch. / BEASTIE BOYS (Polly Wog Stew – 1982) / “You put a lot of emphasis on…”
(21:47): #CheckYourHead / JIMMY JAMES / “This next one is the first song on our new album…”/ “Yo, welcome to Rap Nerdery…” / “It’s a LOT different than the first one…”/
FUNKY BOSS / “That’s some 70’s sounding shit right there…” / “Is that Richard Pryor?” / PASS THE MIC
(27:37): GRATITUDE / #onmicburp / #usethoseheadphones / “Sound designed soundscapes for your brain…”/ LIGHTEN UP (with a healthy dose of 70’s Hammond keyboard tones…) / “That’s 70’s right there…all day…”/ FINGER LICKIN’ GOOD
The 70’s atmosphere stuff fair outweighs the rap stuff… / SO WHAT’CHA WANT! / “That’s some 70’s keyboards right there…”
(36:37): THE BIZ VS THE NUGE + TIME FOR LIVIN’ / “That sounds like old school punk…”/
SOMETHING’S GOT TO GIVE / “There’s a lot of texture to this…that’s just all vibe music right there…”/ “I just wanna get high now…”/ THE BLUE NUN + STAND TOGETHER / Some psychedelic #ASMR to justify your luxury headphone purchase… / “It’s like synthesized farting…”
(44:47): POW / “I’m sensing a huge hairy bush…”/ “Slow it down…” / “You need to handle that for a little bit…it wouldn’t quit looking at me…” / #MyPrecious / THE MAESTRO /
“See, they remixed and remastered the weather…” / GROOVE HOLMES / The sound of Hammond B-3 organ, wood paneled walls, and orange shag carpeting that made the 70’s an epic decade…
(51:17): LIVE AT P.J.’s / “They say ‘y’all’ a lot…”/ “It feels like it’s 1974 and I’m just hanging out…with the GOOD thunder…”/ MARK ON THE BUS + PROFESSOR BOOTY / #usethoseheadphones / “They’re genius for calling it CHECK YOUR HEAD because this album is “all up in here”/ “It should be called “In 7’s” but it’s not, it’s IN 3’S…”/ “It’s totally 70’s T.V.” / “It’s a lot to digest…”/ #edibles
(1:01:27): NAMASTE / “What do we call him? Is that Harold?” / #readthoselyrics #atmospheric #usethoseheadphones #usethoserelaxers / “Everything we did today was NOT our general wheelhouse…”/ “I’m sorry #KISS fans…”/ “There’s something for everybody…”/ “This was definitely a little ‘off the reservation’…”/ #MushroomChroniclesII / THANK YOU FOR JOINING US! (WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE TRIP!) / #ThePoopCruise / #shitwater / #untilthenext #outroreel