COUNTRY MIKE / BEASTIE BOYS - COUNTRY MIKE'S GREATEST HITS

Country Mike is an alter ego of Michael Diamond (Mike D) from the Beastie Boys. The rumored story goes that at some point after Ill Communication Mike D was hit by a large foreign object and lost all of his memory. When he regained consciousness, he believed he was a country singer named Country Mike. The doctors said that the best thing to do was to play go along with it, otherwise it would be very dangerous to his mental health. The other Beastie Boys played along, and they recorded several songs, until Mike came back to his senses. Long time Beastie Boys fans were still a little shocked when the news spread that the Beastie Boys had recorded the full length Country Mike's Greatest Hits album. In the August 15th, 1998 Much Music television interview with the Beastie Boys prior to their performance in Barrie, Ontario, Mike D jokingly hinted that the possibility of a country album. "…We working on this country album with Garth Brooks because we figured inevitably this can only last but so long. But then…ok then…we can come with that...the country album with Garth and regain the status. The blow by blow procedure." As is often the case when the Beastie Boys are having their way with the media, there was more than an ounce of truth mixed in with Mike D’s words. At first only a few songs leaked out of the Atwater Village, California Grand Royal compound: "Sloppy Drunks", "Country Mike's Theme", and "Country Delight." They found their way into the hands of a reputable Beastie Boys collector, and he then in turn began spreading the word that the country music recordings did indeed exist. Although he was on the cutting edge having the tracks nearly a year before anyone else, he had the titles slightly askew. Getting a hold of the mythical tracks "Country Delight", "Country Mike's TV Theme", and "Sloppy Drunk" was suddenly all people in trading circles could talk about. The envied collector proved to be a difficult fellow, and it took the release of the Beastie Boys Anthology: Sounds of Science (1999) for others to get to listen to Country Mike croon. Who in all of Nashville, TN would have ever dreamt that former NYHC (New York Hardcore) front man, Michael Diamond, would release the most sought after country record of the early twenty-first century. Approximately least nine months after the three tracks were leaked and also following the release of the Beastie Boys Anthology: Sounds of Science, vinyl copies of Country Mike’s Greatest Hits began to appear on eBay.com. Online bids were ranging from three to four hundred dollars for the single 12” record. Yet amongst the crazy bidding there were some who were cautious and held off on getting involved with the auction wars. Many wondered if these were just promotional albums and the commercial version would soon be available for less than twenty dollars through the Grand Royal online store. Fans were getting mixed singles from the band too. Adam Yauch, who was responsible for the liner notes regarding Country Mike in the Beastie Boys Anthology: Sounds of Science, said the following in a television interview conducted in Portugal (1998). "Well there is the country album. It is pretty much done. There’s actually one song that needs to be mixed. It was out but we recalled it. There was one song…there were no sleigh bells on this one song…so we need to record those sleigh bells and remix that." Perhaps due to that remark message boards began to contain an occasional post with a person swearing that he or she had seen a phantom copy of Country Mike’s Greatest Hits in a record store. Since the album was never sent to record stores, but instead sent to friends and family as a holiday gift from the band, those sightings rate right up there with Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, and Abominable Snowman encounters. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Beastie Boys were an American hip-hop trio from New York City, United States: Brooklyn and Manhattan. Originally formed as a four-piece hardcore punk band, The Young Aborigines, in 1978 by Michael Diamond (vocals), John Berry (guitar; died May 2016), Adam Yauch (bass) and Kate Schellenbach (drums), for the majority of its career the group consisted of Mike D (real name Michael Diamond), Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz) and, until his death in May 2012, MCA (Adam Yauch). The Beastie Boys were the first successful white rap group and one of the few acts from the early days of hip-hop that still enjoyed major success their whole career. Their rock and punk-influenced rap has had a significant impact on artists both in and outside the hip-hop scene. And they were the first rap group to gain a substantial following with alternative rock fans. The Beastie Boys came together in 1979 as a punk band called The Young Aborigines. In 1981 MCA joined the group and from the suggestion of their guitarist John Berry, they changed their name to Beastie Boys. Their line up then consisted of Adam Yauch (aka MCA) on bass, drummer Kate Schellenbach (later of Luscious Jackson), guitarist John Berry (of Big Fat Love), and Mike Diamond (aka Mike D) on the mic. Beastie Boys' debut EP, the Pollywog Stew vinyl 7" was released in 1982. The band's first foray into hip hop, the Cooky Puss 12", followed in 1983, with The Young and the Useless guitarist Adam Horovitz (aka Adrock) replacing John Berry. "Cooky Puss" would be the first B Boys record to receive play at NYC clubs like Danceteria as the band played its first shows outside the city. The Mike D/MCA/Adrock Beastie Boys lineup debuted in 1984 with the "Rock Hard"/"Beastie Groove" 12." Produced by Rick Rubin, who went on to produce albums for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash and Audioslave. The "She's On It"/ "Slow And Low" 12" followed in 1985 and Beastie Boys went on Madonna's "Virgin Tour." as her opening act. Licensed to Ill dropped in fall 1986 and became the first Beastie Boys album--and the first Rap album ever--to go #1. Fueled by Fight for Your Right and No Sleep Till Brooklyn it remained at #1 for seven weeks and simultaneously reached #2 on the urban chart, becoming the fastest selling debut to date for Columbia and the first hip hop record to break 5 million. In 1989 Beastie Boys released their second album Paul’s Boutique produced by Beastie Boys and the Dust Brothers. Paul's Boutique laid down the blueprint for a generation of emergent genres and went over the collective head of a nation. The likes of "Shake Your Rump," "Lookin' Down The Barrel Of A Gun," "Car Thief," Shadrach," and the hip hop "suite" "B-Boy Bouillabaisse" contained lyrical and musical references too plentiful and diverse for the average mind to compute in one sitting. Check Your Head, released in 1992, heralded the return of live instrumentation into the B Boys mix. The album was produced by the band and Mario Caldato Jr. (who first worked with B Boys as engineer on Paul's Boutique), Check Your Head would yield a watershed of new B Boys staples, including So Whatcha' Want, Pass The Mic, "Gratitude" and "Jimmy James." With the assistance of Keyboard Money Mark, Eric Bobo and assorted percussionists, Beastie Boys returned to the touring circuit and Check Your Head hit double platinum. In the summer of 1994, Ill Communication, also produced by the band and Mario Caldato Jr., entered the charts #1. The album featured such hits Sure Shot and Sabotage. Ill Communication was supported by Beastie Boys' first arena headline tour since the '80s. Following the tour's conclusion, Beastie Boys recorded and released Aglio e Olio consisting of eight songs clocking in at 11 minutes, the EP recalls the vintage hardcore punk of the band's infancy. On July 14 1998, their fifth album titled Hello Nasty was released. Spurred by the monster success of the "Intergalactic" single and video, the record clocked first week sales of nearly 700,000 in the U.S. and went straight in at #1 in England, Germany, Australia, Holland, New Zealand and Sweden. Early in the tour, Beastie Boys made live tracks available for free download to fans unable to attend the shows-and were blindsided by their label pulling the tracks down. Having closed 1998 by accepting the Video Vanguard lifetime achievement honor at the MTV Video Music Awards, Beastie Boys rang in 1999 with Artist, Band and/or Record of the Year accolades from the likes of Rolling Stone, SPIN, The New Yorker and Playboy, among others. A month later, at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, the now quadruple-platinum Hello Nasty took Best Alternative Music Performance, while "Intergalactic," nailed Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group--the first time an artist has ever won in both Rap and Alternative categories.1999 would also see "Intergalactic" take Best Hip Hop Video honors at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. Beastie Boys' sixth studio album, To The 5 Boroughs, released in summer 2004, was the band's third consecutive #1 debut-and Rolling Stone magazine's only 5-star review of the year. To The 5 Boroughs was supported by world tour - traveling pageant - supported by Talib Kweli and Bob Moore's Amazing Mongrels (yes, a live dog show, hence the pageant appellation). 2006 saw the release of the film, Awesome, I Fuckin' Shot That!, a concert film made up of footage filmed by audience members, which debuted at Sundance in early 2006 and was released theatrically the same year. In 2007 Beastie Boys released The Mix-Up, first ever full length offering of all-new, all-original instrumental recordings. On February 3rd, 2009, they digitally remastered and released Paul's Boutique on their website. The band's next record, "Hot Sauce Committee Part 2" was released in the first quarter of 2011. It features the same tracklisting as the previously announced "Hot Sauce Committee Part 1", which was delayed indefinitely after Yauch was diagnosed with a tumor on his parotid gland (which was successfully removed). Bassist and vocalist Adam Yauch died on May 4, 2012 of cancer. In June 2014, Mike D stated that the Beastie Boys would not continue their careers as a group, as a promise to Adam Yauch. "We have not been able to tour since MCA, Adam Yauch, died," Diamond said. "We can't make new music." Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.