Slumberland Records Presents - Nosh Lately?: A Tribute to Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty from D.A. Stern & Jacuzzi Boys (Artwork By: Bill McMullen)
"D.A. Stern, the solo project of David Aaron Stern, is the musical amalgamation of crossword puzzle obsession, Backgammon playing, and working as a recording engineer at Beastie Boy Adam "MCA" Yauch's studio," read a March 2017 Force Field PR press email. The Jacuzzi Boys AKA The JB's, on the other hand, according to their Facebook page, were "hatched inside a vulture's nest [and soon] emerged from deep within the Florida wilds, three radioactive chicks cawing for their piece of Electric Rock pie." It appears as though D.A. Stern & Jacuzzi Boys first worked together back in June 2017 on the latter's PING PONG REMIXED, wherein Stern provided a hedgehog-themed remix of "New Cross" from Ping Pong released on The JBs' own Mag Mag imprint the previous October. Now, as many of you may well know, this past Friday, July 13, 2018 was the 20th anniversary of the Beastie Boys' fifth studio album, Hello Nasty. It features guest appearances, as well as contributions, from Mario C. Mix Master Mike, Money Mark, Biz Markie, Bobbito Garcia, Jill Cunniff (Luscious Jackson,) Lee "Scratch" Perry, Lord Sear, Miho Hatori (Cibo Matto,) and Eric "Bobo" Correa. To help commemorate the monumentous occasion, Oakland, California-based Punk/Indie Rock label Slumberland Records decided to pair up kindred lo-fi spirits Jacuzzi Boys & D.A. Stern once more.
"20 after the Beastie Boys first said "Hello Nasty" to the world, D.A. Stern & Jacuzzi Boys are teaming up to celebrate it's birthday, in the form of a split 7-inch of covers brought to you by Slumberland Records," read a recent email announcing Nosh Lately?: A Tribute to The Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty from D.A. Stern & Jacuzzi Boys. "Focusing on two fan-favorite deep cuts, the "Three JB's & One D.A." chose songs that showcase the Beasties' unique versatility, while offering messages of mindfulness, emblematic of their later career," Force Field PR continued. Nosh Lately? is currently available to stream on both Bandcamp and Soundcloud, ahead of it's upcoming August 3rd wide release. D.A. Stern & Jacuzzi Boys' split 7-inch is now available to pre-order in both limited edition 7-inch vinyl and digital album formats with prices ranging from $1.75-7.00. I recently reached out to Daniel Gill at Force Field PR, who, in turn, got me in direct contact with Michael Schulman at Slumberland Records; over the weekend, Michael was kind enough to contact D.A. Stern & Jacuzzi Boys directly, who both graciously provided statements detailing the making-of Nosh Lately?: A Tribute to The Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty...
"Hello Nasty, while not under-rated, is never quite considered an absolute masterpiece, like Paul's Boutique (1989) or Check Your Head (1992), but I can't think of another album that even remotely sounds like it and draws from the same hodge-podge of influences. "I Don't Know," which has always been one of my favorite tracks of theirs, is one of the reasons why. Musically and lyrically, it is a complete outlier in the catalog: a Samba-based ballad about enlightenment that Adam Yauch SINGS! It blew my mind on an album that had already blown my mind with the 14 tracks that came before it. The Beastie Boys were always the best because of their fearlessness and experimentation in whatever arena they chose; "I Don't Know" epitomizes that!"
- D.A. Stern on "I Don't Know"
"Straight up, Hello Nasty was the first Beastie Boys record that I really partied to... I had been a huge fan since Check Your Head (1992), but I was too young to hook up with friends and really bug out to that or to Ill Communication (1994). At that point, I'd just listen to the albums in my room or dance and rap along in front of the TV, when videos would play, but Hello Nasty dropped in '98, my junior year of high school! It had been four years since they had released an album and I was so ready for it. I have a great memory of being at The Cameo Theatre on South Beach [Florida] in '98 for a Lyricist Lounge show...
Maseo of De La Soul was the host/DJ for the night and the moment he walked on stage for the start of the show, he dropped "Intergalactic" and the room just went nuts. It sounded incredible. Anyway, '98 was also, around the time my interest in Psych and Garage type stuff started to grow, so when [D.A. Stern] approached me with the idea of doing this split, I knew exactly which song we had to do. "Song for The Man" always stood out to me as one of their best non-Rap songs and I really felt Jacuzzi Boys could do it justice."
- Danny Gonzalez (Jacuzzi Boys) on "Song for The Man"