Murphy's Law

Back in 1987, during Punk Heyday 3.1, the Beastie Boys were beardless twerps who caged women onstage, screamed "Brass Monkey" and handpicked Murphy's Law, a cartoonish bunch of Queens skate thrashers, to open for them on tour. In the intervening years, the Boys have matured, established families and gone old-school all over again, but Murphy's Law continues to viciously play the "never grow up" card. The band's punk contemporaries could fill several warehouses with moderately decent and oppressively earnest songs about voting, but Jimmy Gestapo and company are still the after-party band. They still hoist tunes with subtle titles such as "Greenbud," "Beer" and "Bag of Snacks." The new Murphy's Law? Same as the old. If graying Beasties in a world gone mad bums you out, sometimes getting sprayed with suds is just what you need to cheer up.