[benchillin]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh2012

Guy Garvey from one of my favourite bands Elbow tweeted this today
My old friend Irshad wrote this touching piece about MCA http://j.mp/JX0blx https://twitter.com/#!/Guy_Garvey

now that is a tear jerker

1 week ago
adam yauch dies
> The Beastie Boys 1992 album Check Your Head soundtracked the period in my life when my closest freindships were formed. My freind Bob brought the tape into our smoky college common room one hazy afternoon and from the minimal black and white cover alone, I knew this was something new and different.
At that time we were all too skint to be part of the dominant youth culture of the time - namely popping esctasy and going to techno raves. And even if we did have fifteen pound for a pill and the rest of the money needed to get to raves, none of us would have been into it. So when I opened up the multilayered inner sleeve of CHECK YOUR HEAD and soaked in the DIY mish mash of collages of what looked like a bunch of mates who spent loads of time just hanging out, I saw a mirror of what we were doing at the time (minus making groundbreaking music)
> > And the music was like nothing that wed heard before. Theyd had another album out calls PAULS BOUTIQUE that some really cool kids talked about, but this was the first time most of us had such an incredibly groovy mix of rap, rock, comedy and meditation on two sides of tape. Each song was at once simple and dense with layers that even now, twenty years later something new will pop out. The album opens with a shuffling hip hop beat looping in over what I later found out was a jimi hendrix sample. “People how you doin there’s a new day dawning” begins the rap of the now deceased member Adam Yauch, prophetic words indeed “Call the earth mother its a brand new morning” he goes on. And it was a new day…
On one level The Beastie Boys had harnessed a spirit of independence and expressed it creatively in a way that inspired many of the people in that common room. Some of us went on, like myself to become directors, others became writers, and notably some of us who discovered that album became the band Elbow. Because it is a work of art so inherently born of a long term freindships, CHECK YOUR HEAD was the validation we needed that what were doing at the time - mainly spending hours each day hanging out with each other - was worthwhile and productive.
> > I remember summer days spent in that common room with that album on repeat, and in the evenings hanging out in car parks, CHECK YOUR HEAD was the album that got the party started, the album we headbanged to, the album we breakdanced to, the album we watched the sun come up to and the album we set the world right to.
As well as effortlessly blending genres, we could actually afford to wear what they wore. Puma States trainers at the time were being sold on the sale rack at TIMPSON in Bury for 7.99. A year later they were 39.99 at JD Sports. The Beastie Boys helped us understand what we believed in and showed us how we could express our beliefs and succeed. For the kids of my generation, the passing of Adam Yauch is a sad day. > > Irshad Ashraf is a documentary director. www.irshad.tv > > > > > > IRSHAD ASHRAF > > www.irshad.tv