Beastie Boys upload 1995 hardcore EP ‘Aglio E Olio’ to streaming services for the first time

Beastie Boys have uploaded their 1995 hardcore punk EP ‘Aglio E Olio’ to streaming services for the first time today. The move comes 25 years after its initial release – listen to it below.

The 11-minute long ‘Aglio E Olio’ was put out in the interim between 1994’s ‘Ill Communication’ and 1998’s ‘Hello Nasty’.

In a 1999 interview, Mike D said the EP came about when they recorded too many punk and hardcore songs to fit naturally on ‘Hello Nasty’ and decided to instead compile them for an EP. Suicidal Tendencies drummer Amery “AWOL” Smith plays on the recordings, after he had come to the studio initially to help the band set up.

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The title comes from the Italian words for “garlic” and “oil” – the simplest pasta dressings – supposedly to signal the no-frills approach of the music. An adhesive label on the initial release read “Only 8 songs, Only 11 minutes, Only cheap $”.

The version now circulating on streaming services does not include the two bonus tracks on the physical release, ‘Soba Violence’ and a cover of The Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’ featuring vocals from Miho Hatari. The latter track diverges significantly from the hardcore of the rest of the record.







Beastie Boys announced a new greatest hits compilation, ‘Beastie Boys Music’, earlier this month. It’s set to be “a companion piece” to this year’s Spike Jonze-directed Beastie Boys Story and 2018’s Beastie Boys Book.

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