We all have doodles, little bits of forgotten art in the margins of our lives. In the case of Mario Caldato Jr., these were remixes and B-sides that were recorded between larger tracks that he produced for the Beastie Boys.
It can be easy to over-fetishize the Beastie Boys. You can find yourself walking a line between toxic nostalgia and true delight.
Alack, with all this walking we missed some vital parts of the line. I mean, it was never advertised that Adam Yauch played bass on a Björk track. Nobody talks about the time Mike D played drums for Ween. It's just never been brought up.
"That's true," says Mario Caldato Jr., the resident producer for the Beasties' stretch in LA, "but there's only a handful of these songs." He sits across from us on a shady patio in Highland Park, somewhat skeptical. "I don't really know what we're gonna talk about."
He's got a point. There's a lot out there. But the scant byproducts of these artists are still better than some of the music being made today, and therefore deserve a closer look. It's my kind of cultural baloney.
1995, in particular, was a potent time for these cuts. Flourishes were added to the work of Björk, Ween, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Beck and a random DJ from the streets of Japan. Most of this work came from the ABA All-Stars, a pen name for the random Beastie Boys who were available, with Mario C in the booth.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of this era in Grand Royal history, we sat down with the maestro to dish on these side songs.
__________________
How did the G-Son Studios remixes come about?
Mario Caldato Jr.: We had our recording spot in Atwater Village, and we worked on Beastie Boys records and some other projects. Occasionally someone would send us a song and want a remix.
By this period, it seems like you guys had a healthy sense of workflow.
MC: We did three years in the studio to make Check Your Head. That's a long time. That's a lot of hanging and getting to know each other, then we went out on the road and had a bunch of ideas and came back and did Ill Communication, and we knocked that one out in six months. And that's when these remixes all started happening, once we had everything dialed in. They would be in between records or somebody would be putting out a single.
The track listings usually credit the ABA All-Stars. Who was in the lineup?
MC: Sometimes Mark, sometimes Yauch, sometimes The Kid, sometimes all of us. It depended on which one we were doing. It was very in the moment.
Photo Credit: Robbe Rees
What were the steps for these?
MC: Every remix was kind of different. First, we would check the vibe. We would pull it up and hear the track first, see what's inspiring and then determine if there was some element that we wanted to add onto it.
If it was beat driven, sometimes we would program a beat, or try to sample a whole idea. Or play a beat. That was the main option. Then we would add bass or keyboard or some other groove element. And then we would add some kind of scratching, or some other flavor. Rarely did we ever add any vocals.
When it came to the block itself in Atwater, did you guys have a particular food spot?
MC: Peaches had a little taco stand. We mostly went to Nonni's, right across the street. It was this Italian restaurant, the pesto pizza was bangin'. It's not there no more.
How long was the process?
MC: Usually one day. Then maybe we'd come back the next day and do some kind of tweak, adjust a couple things. Nobody shot down ideas. We encouraged and the stronger ideas got through, and the weaker ones got put aside, no hard feelings. Pretty democratic and chill.
Can we talk about some of these songs?
Björk: "Army of Me"
MC: We toured Europe with her before this. That's a beat that got programmed, it's a combination of samples and playing.
So is that MCA in the first loop?
MC: Oh yeah, that's Yauch playing the upright bass.
That's amazing. There's not much out there since he passed away.
MC: He was a good soul. He could really bring out the best in us.
Anything else you hear?
MC: There's a lot of echoplex for the vocals that I mixed in from the board. This was all random, very on the fly; we could never reproduce that (laughs). Y'know, nobody could say, "can I have the vocals louder?" Once we sent it out, it was done.
Ween: "Freedom of '76"
There's all this vocal stuff at the beginning.
MC: They had a little speech, but I added some radio noise to it. That was Spike's idea.
Spike Jonze? He was at the remix session?
MC: Yeah. He asked me "Can you make this part sound old?"
Damn man. Directing the video and showing up for the remix.
MC: We actually did that at my house. That's Mike playing drums in my living room.
Did he play with a click track?
MC: No, it's all feel. And then that's Money Mark playing the vibraphone. We didn't change much else, I mean, the vocals are so good (Listens more.) I really like this song, I'm glad you guys like it.
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Experimental Remixes: "Flavor Pt. 2"
MC: That's Mark playing clavinet, probably Mike on drums. Definitely Beck on vocals.
That little descending warble there at .51?
MC: That's an echo or a record of some old synthesizers. That "What Goes Up" bit is a Biz Markie sample, that was probably Ad-rock. We loved Biz and his records were always nearby.
Who is saying "Beck and Mike D, white boys in the house"?
MC: That was Russell Simins, the drummer for JSBX. He'd always come around the studio. Russell was a trip. That was just a wild jam. But the vocal sample you hear on Flavor Pt. 1 is the other Russell Simmons, the actual producer.
Beastie Boys: "Root Down EP"
There's this hidden track at the end of the Root Down EP, which is Japanese?
MC: Ohhhhh, that's an ad for some Japanese shows, I think. That's this guy MC Boo, we hooked up with him over there out of nowhere. We ended up bringing him out on stage.
Money Mark: "Mark's Keyboard Repair"
You took that gatefold inner photo, right?
MC: Ha, yeah. Mark needed a photo so I jumped out and did it. That's his van, Mark always has a van. I produced "Pinto's New Car" on that.
I used to drive home from my girl's place with that playing and all the windows down. Thank you.
Beck: "Minus" and "000.000"
MC: That's actually not an ABA production. Beck showed up at G-Son with Joey Waronker, his drummer. So we did a couple sessions, like two or three days when we weren't working with the Beastie Boys.
Did you have any idea, sitting there in the booth, that you were part of some classic record?
MC: No. By that point, Beck figured, "Let's do this live thing first." He did like it. But it was kind of wacky, all over the place. Then he went and started working with the Dust Brothers, they had a refined sound, all these loops and things. It was more structured, and that became 95% of Odelay, except for Minus. There was no punky element, so he figured they'd go back and toss that in. I mean, it's cool, I'm glad they ended up using it.
That random session is history now.
MC: As my daughter says, it's her favorite record. It's special.
So the other songs were used as B-sides?
Yeah. There were some weird songs, I don't know if you heard 000.000, it's on the Odelay Deluxe Edition. For that one I took the tape and said, "Yeah, it sounds alright. Hold on a second," and I flipped the reel backwards. It went zoot zoot zoot zoot and then I slowed it down and put it through the plate reverb. He was like, "Daaaaaaamn." You know, it's kinda creepy.
Any final tech notes?
MC: For those sessions, Beck used the Sony Variety Karaoke Mic (ECM-V1), which is what we used for "So Whatcha Want". If you just cup it like this (mimicking hand over mic), then it sounds distorted. That was our number one weapon, and people who used our studio wanted that broken mic sound. And that was on Odelay all over the place and Beck handled it so well.
I got that mic for all three of the Beastie Boys for Christmas, but the original one, that's mine.
__________________
Speaking of cheap sounds: while prepping for this interview, I didn't know how to best remind Mario of these songs, so I grabbed the Bluetooth speaker from my shower on my way out the door. When we sat down I was a bit ashamed to hand him such chintzy gear.
Photo Credit: Robbe Rees
But as each track played, he held the speaker closer and closer to his ear, like an old telephone. His face would light up. And by the end of our lunch, it turned out that he had plenty to talk about.
I still have so many questions. I want to ask about Bobo. Or dig into their drugs of choice. I want to know why we can't just have Beck shemp for MCA so we can get more Beastie tours and albums. It wouldn't be any crazier than Ronnie Wood joining the Stones.
But those are Mario '95 questions, and Mario '25 is a family man now. And this guy has already been nice to me about my stupid shower speaker.
So we just shake hands as I thank him for the songs. "Hey, it was a chance to put our stamp on someone else's vision," he sighs, "And that brought us all together."
Lee Keeler is a writer and educator living in Northeast Los Angeles.
Previously:
• Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage' was about the band's frustration with their sound engineer
• Beastie Boys Story to show at select U.S. IMAX theaters
• 'Beastie Boys Story' drops in April, watch the first trailer
• The forgotten trans history of the first Beastie Boys record
• Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage' starring Big Bird and the Sesame Street gang
• Before GoldieBlox, Beasties plundered the 'Girls' melody (fair and square)
• Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage' reenacted with librarians
• Still Ill: 25 Years of 'Ill Communication' by the Beastie Boys
