| Kate
Schellenbach
Legions of fans underestimate the
importance and significance of Some
Old Bullshit; thus it is underappreciated along
with Kate Schellenbach's contribution to the Beastie Boys.
Although Michael Diamond's
recollections in the album's liner notes are brief, they
do provide fans with a portal to the past. With this portal,
fans can look back into time to see how a handful of friends
growing up in the New York Hardcore scene came together
in 1981. Although the majority of material on Some Old
Bullshit was previously released on Dave
Parsons' Ratcage Records label in the early 1980s, few
people outside of New York were even aware that the band
had punk rock roots. According to Dave Parsons' recollections,
Kate Schellenbach was one of the first people that he met
upon arriving in the heart of New York's music scene. "I
had met Kate on the third day I was in New York City. She
had written a letter to Mouth of the Rat back when
it was a Florida punk 'zine. I met John Berry the same night
at Tier 3. I think it was a pop show there and we all hung
out front. I remember John was a little skinny kid then.
John Berry and Harley Flanagan
were always roughhousing and kicking each other into garbage
cans...this was 1979. The South Florida punk scene was very
severe and wild. The dance floors were like battle scenes
or gang fights and when I got to New York I found it all
pretty tame. We had a motto in the Mouth of the Rat:
"Keep the violence off the street and on the dance
floor where it belongs. However, they were still "pogo-ing"
in New York. I soon got to know all the kids from the street
in the East Village."
Dave Parsons recalls that Schellenbach
had an artistic gift when it came to reproducing a venue's
hand stamps on the hands of her underage friends. "Kate
would be at every show, literally every show, all over downtown.
She used to carry a pouch full of colored pencils, markers
and such. As soon as someone would go into the club and
come back out she would duplicate whatever the stamp design
was for that night and then everyone would get into the
club. She could do any stamp design. Back then they had
some interestingly complex ones, but she was quite an artist."
Before long Parsons opened the first Ratcage Records store
and got to know Kate and the rest of store's regulars even
better. "There were groups of girls that would all
hang out around the store and at shows...the Moppy Scuds
and the Snotty Teens. Kate was one of the ring leaders and
all the other little girls followed her. Adam
Yauch and Michael Diamond came into the scene later
on. I stress here that almost none of the downtowners knew
much about those two until they started proving themselves
at shows: Michael with his guts and enthusiasm and seeming
vulnerability and Adam with his honesty, good naturedness
and musicianship. Before that it was like, 'Kate, who are
these guys?'
Beginning with the Young
Aborigines and then later with the original Beastie
Boys line-up, Kate Schellenbach went from being a fan in
the crowd to being a performer on stage. Her skills set
her apart as one of New York's premier drummers and as things
began to take off, Kate found herself touring outside of
New York with the Beastie Boys. Although Adam
Horovitz had replaced John Berry on guitar in 1983,
Kate Schellenbach was still an active member of the band
well into 1984. However, as Rick
Rubin's influence on the band increased, the band's
image changed and that ultimately lead to Kate's departure.
In the September 1998 issue of Spin, Beat
Brothers member Thomas Beller went on the record to
tell his memories of how Kate ended up leaving the Beastie
Boys. "No one ever actually said, 'Kate you're out.'
She went away for a weekend, and Rick bought the other three
members matching Adidas sweat suits, red and black warm-ups,
and sneakers. They were at the Manhattan club Area dressed
up like a trio and Kate bumped into them, kind of by accident.
She just started crying, because it was obvious that there
was not going to be a woman in a band that's, like, going
to have an inflatable penis on stage."
Prior to the Check
Your Head sessions it was as though two distinct
versions of the Beastie Boys existed, one of which Schellenbach
had been a part of. Yet by the early 1990s, those two versions
merged and the Beastie Boys once again found themselves
playing instruments. This renaissance helped return old
NYHC material like "Egg Raid on Mojo" and "Riot
Fight" back to the Beastie Boys' repertoire during
the 1992 Check Your Head tour. Perhaps under different
circumstances, Kate may have even sat in on drums during
the tour. Instead though, she was still busy playing occasional
gigs with New York bands and working on what would become
Luscious Jackson's second
album.
Kate and the rest of the Luscious
Jackson ladies achieved long overdue commercial success
in 1996. Yet following the departure of keyboardist Vivian
Trimble, Luscious Jackson did not fare well. In 1999 Kate
Schellenbach along with Jill Cunniff and Gabby Glaser, both
formerly of the Moppy Scuds, put out Luscious Jackson's
final album, Electric Honey. Following a bit of touring
in support of the album, the announcement was made that
Luscious Jackson was disbanding and each of the ladies would
be pursuing other projects. Since the release of Electric
Honey, Kate has drummed on albums by Dusty Trails as
well as the Indigo Girls. Luscious Jackson fans still have
hope that the band will reunite and head back into the studio,
but until then they will be keeping an eye out for Kate's
guest appearances.
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