In the hilarious liner note/photo package with the disc is an indignant letter from a punk fan in about 1982 or so complaining bitterly about the Beastie Boys as being little more than "a pathetic, feeble imitation of Minor Threat." The thing is, that's fairly accurate. Collecting some of the long out-of-print/hard-to-find early releases by the ...

In the hilarious liner note/photo package with the disc is an indignant letter from a punk fan in about 1982 or so complaining bitterly about the Beastie Boys as being little more than "a pathetic, feeble imitation of Minor Threat." The thing is, that's fairly accurate. Collecting some of the long out-of-print/hard-to-find early releases by the band -- the Polly Wog Stew EP and the Cookie Puss single, mainly -- Some Old Bullshit is mostly that, if an entertaining enough variety. The eight Polly Wog Stew tracks are brattish hardcore and not much more, mainly interesting to hear Mike D's lead snotty whine and sometimes amusing lyrics ("Egg Raid on Mojo" is about carrying out such an assault on the doorman of a Manhattan club). "Jimi" is the best of the bunch because it isn't anything like hardcore, but more an attempt at noisy psychedelia that sounds like a sweeter, younger version of the Butthole Surfers. There's one other reason to at least give the album an initial ear: the drummer at this point was Kate Schellenbach, eventual founding member of Luscious Jackson a decade later. The Cookie Puss tracks signal the initial transmogrification of the Beasties into the hip-hop monsters of the later '80s, if a bit hamhandedly. There's old-school synth beats and bass, some minimal scratching, and vocals that in retrospect sound like Ween, but not much else -- the mock reggae anthem "Beastie Revolution" is pretty funny, though. As an amusing bonus, two radio tracks from the hardcore days are included: rough takes on "Egg Raid on Mojo" and "Transit Cop." ~ Ned Raggett, Rovi