The Viper and His Famous Orchestra performing The Beastie Boys’ “Rhymin’ and Stealin'” in the upstairs of the Channing-Murray Foundation in Urbana, Illinois in the Year 2000. I think this took place in July, shortly before I moved from Champaign to Turkey (we do a song in Turkish elsewhere in the set), and I think we were playing as part of a benefit.

click here to download the mp3

The instrumentation was sparse — no ukulele (I played the egg shaker — and eggs come from a chicken, not a bunny, dummy!). Just bass, trombone, and suitcase, and mostly just in the breaks. This was, I think, so we could roam as we spit. Most of the Adam Yauch lines seem to handled by Riley Broach, vocalizing with appropriate gruffness.

The show was recorded on a handheld analog tape recorder — I believe just through the built in mic — by Brad Allen. You can hear a little device-on-lap noise at the beginning. In digitizing it, I did a little bit of equalizing to cut out volume spikes but I didn’t otherwise  alter the original recording.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p30LK-h9