Country Mike - Country Mike's Greatest Hits (1995)
In the late '90s, the Beastie Boys took yuletide gift-giving to a new level by putting together a limited-edition album of new music for hundreds of their best pals. Only a few hundred copies of ‘Country Mike’s Greatest Hits’ were made and sent out with a Christmas card from 'Country Mike and The Boys'. Because it was never officially released and has only been obliquely referred to by the Beasties in public, it's difficult to determine exactly when the album was issued, but according to the Beastiemania fan site, a test pressing was first made in 1999, and it was sent out at Christmas 2000. What we do know is that it wasn't really a Beasties record at all, at least in terms of genre; instead, they adopted a tongue-in-cheek Nashville sound for the 13-song set, which they dubbed 'Country Mike's Greatest Hits'. The members of the group had (seemingly sarcastically) floated the idea of making a Christmas album a handful of times in the late '90s, but no one had any reason to believe they were serious — and when a pair of tracks from the Country Mike's sessions popped up on the 1999 'Sounds of Science' Beasties compilation, there wasn't any reason to think they were anything other than goofball unreleased cuts tossed in to add something extra to the mix. In fact, the '...Science' booklet chalked them up to an injury to Mike D earlier in the decade, as expanded in the liner notes. "At some point after 'Ill Communication' came out, Mike got hit in the head by a large foreign object and lost all of his memory. As it started coming back he believed that he was a country singer named Country Mike. The psychologists told us that if we didn’t play along with Mike’s fantasy, he could be in grave danger. Finally he came back to his senses." Eventually, copies of 'Country Mike's Greatest Hits' started circulating on the underground market, where original vinyl pressings of the record still fetch commanding sums. As it's not the usual style of music for the Beasties it might not appeal to all of their fans, but it's a light-hearted distraction put together by them as a side-project with laudable intentions, and so deserves a hearing.
Track listing
01 Sloppy Drunks
02 Railroad Blues
03 We Can Do This
04 Country Delight
05 Don’t Let The Air Out My Tires
06 How Do You Mend An Achin’ Heart
07 One Song A Night
08 Country Christmas
09 Kenny Jones (Country Knows Best)
10 Country Mike’s Theme
11 On Your Way Up Again (The Fowl Song)
12 We Can Do This (Live)
13 The Half-Wit
Suggested by 'The Greatest Album's You'll Never Hear' by Bruno MacDonald
You may have seen some back and forth in the comments section about the sound quality of this album. Unfortunately the only copy that I could find online was a mono rip which was posted on Youtube, and which was not the best quality sound-wise. Every other post seems to have been taken from that original rip, and so I'm afraid that this is the best you are going to get until someone posts a stereo copy online. Although I was advised to delete this post I've decided to leave it up, and it's entirely up to you whether you download this copy or view it on Youtube - the sound quality will be identical in either case so it's your choice.
Been looking for this record for years. Many thanks
ReplyDeleteAlso love all the Phish Halloween shows. Got ant others?
What happened during the digitization process? Not only does this sound terrible, it's monophonic.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately this is the only copy that I can currently find online, and so it's the best we have. It's unlikely to have been accidentally set to mono when it was ripped, so perhaps it was deliberately recorded like that for 'authenticity'. I'll keep looking, but this will probably have to do for now.
ReplyDeleteYour statement that "it's unlikely to have been accidentally set to mono" is preposterous. Have you never heard the tracks on the compilation you specifically mentioned?
DeleteThis pathetic rip of a youtube rip of another rip is way beneath you and this awesome blog.
All I'm saying is that if I rip an album I would have to deliberately reset the setting to mono, and why on earth would anyone do that? As it is there are only two rips of this album available online (and believe me, I've spent hours looking), and they are both mono rips on Youtube. If you have a stereo copy that you'd like to share then feel free to send it over and I'll update the links.
ReplyDeleteNobody accused *you* of deliberately screwing up the sound. What I said was your claim that it was *supposed* to sound like garbage made no sense since those tracks sound much better and are in stereo on the compilation that *you* mentioned by name but apparently never actually listened to.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate what you've done in the past but it's super shitty and just idiotic to suggest that 1: because you apparently never fuck up a rip that magically means no one else ever fucks up a rip, and 2: tracks that we already know are not meant to sound shitty and in mono are supposed to be mono and sound shitty.
So what exactly do you expect me to do? Delete this post because it's not in pristine sound quality? There are people out there who want to hear this, but until someone posts a stereo rip then this is the best that we have, and there's absolutely nothing that I can do about it.
ReplyDeleteActually, you *should* delete the post. You already admitted what I suspected from the start, that it's a rip of a youtube rip that itself was a bad mono rip. So just let people look for it and find it there in shitty quality, rather than spread it around in even shittier quality.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it would help if you downmixed the stereo tracks to mono, added a mono logo to the cover and re-uploaded?
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice idea, but I'd hoped that someone might have volunteered a stereo mix by now so that I could upgrade the post. The issue with Anon seems to be that these tracks are all in mono already, and just because a couple of stereo mixes were included on a compilation doesn't necessarily mean that the bootleg was in stereo. I've managed to find a site which has a copy for sale, which allows 60-second samples, and by downloading them and running them through Audacity it confirms that the bootleg CD is indeed in mono, and so until someone gets hold of the master tapes this is the best that we'll get.
ReplyDeleteHi PJ! I just ran across your excellent little blog here while searching for the complete "Crazy Wisdom Masters" recordings. (Thanks for those!)
DeleteAnyway, I happen to have a pristine copy of the actual "Country Mike" LP. I'd be happy to digitize it into a lossless format and send it your way. I can't jump on it right away because we're knee-deep in a home theater remodel, so my records/CD's/tapes and audio gear is all boxed up in storage. Give me a week or two and I'll see if I can't dig it out and find some time to make that for you. I have a Pro-Ject table with an Ortofon cartridge, so hopefully it won't come out sounding half-bad.
I've only played it a couple times over the years, and never as a serious front-to-back listen. So I honestly couldn't tell you right now if its even an actual stereo album or not. It wouldn't surprise me if they mixed it as a straight mono recording anyway. There's certainly nothing inherently bad about mono. But thats another topic for another day...
Thanks again for the JBs tracks. I gave them a quick audition last night, but plan on actually listening to them later on this evening. Sam and I are friendly acquaintances, (DJ "Sammy B"), so next I talk to him I'm gonna say, "Look what I found!" Lol. Take care and keep up the good work! I'll get the "Country Mike" to you as soon as I can.
Thanks so much for the offer. Hopefully it will put the mono/stereo thing to bed once and for all. You can get my email address from the other blog listed in my profile, and thanks again.
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