[Kid Presentable]

Cherry pick stuff, man. There’s a lot to digest if you try to get into entire discographies. EPMD is a great call, though. Nice little Beastie nods in tracks like Let The Funk Flow and Da Joint. There are Beastie nods throughout the Def Squad canon, too, but you would do them a disservice to only check for them because of some nods.

That’s sort of the real challenge, though. I don’t know that there are many bands ‘similar’ (and to be fair, when people say such about things like 311 you can see that first hand). Similar could be a self actualised band persona more than stylistic, though.

I mean Tribe, De La (I absolutely adore their most recent album) all the other super obvious choices, but I think it’s also cool to consider groups the Beastie Boys liked, as much as groups which may be similar. I bump a shit ton of Bossa Nova on Spotify, basically solely because of the Beastie Boys. It’s made my home a very pleasant place to be.

Drawing a longer bow, Stepfather by People Under the Stairs was in that studio photo of the Boys. I took that as a lead at one point in time.

To a similar end, Mike D was with RR during the recording of 99 problems; there’s an incredible remix of the Black album getting around to commemorate the 15th anniversary which everybody must check out. Horovitz banged on about Os Mutantes in the book, and that’s definitely worth checking out. Yauch played a little with Cro-Mags. Try that?

I personally have been quite enjoying Mac Demarco; he has the whole Lo-fi DIY thing going on. Very chill. People always talked about Edan being in the Beastie Boys wheelhouse back in 05 or whenever, maybe look into that?

As cautious as I am about you looking for ‘similar’ groups, I’m fully aware that I’m doing a terrible job with alternatives. Beastie Boys’ lane is far too unique, though, man. The most recent ATCQ album? Oh, Jungle Bothers?

A real practical tip for me has been following their peers and associates on Insta. Ricky Powell, Mario C etc they all post some shit which leads down interesting musical paths. Hurra sorta does, too. You might like his style more.

Good luck!

EDIT: McDuff dropped the recommendation for ESG the other month; very Mix-Up vibes from them. I love that shit.

EDIT EDIT: I finally realised a dream and caught the Avalanches live. It reminded me a lot of the Beastie Boys. Basically just crate-digging music-heads with a flair for the unusual. If you can find a version of their debut which isn’t gimped by sample clearances, try that. Wildflower was my shit, too.