| The
Young Aborigines
Spurred on by diverse influences
ranging from Siouxsie & the Banshees to Joy Division,
Jeremy Shatan on bass, Kate
Schellenbach on percussion, Michael
Diamond on drums, and John
Berry on guitar formed an experimental-sounding group
known as the Young Aborigines. Before long, the Young Aborigines
established their own small fan base, which was comprised
primarily of friends like Adam
Yauch. In the September 1998 issue of Spin, Adam
Yauch recalled that within the band John would play the
guitar while Mike D, on the drums, and Kate, on percussion,
supplied the rhythm section. At the time Yauch was learning
to play the bass and according to the Beastie
Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science liner notes
he made it a point "to go to their practices all the
time and hang out."
Jeremy Shatan, a founding member of the Young Aborigines,
recalled one of the songs from those rehearsals when he
spoke with Beastiemania.com in January 2003. “During
the band’s rehearsals we used to play a pseudo-hardcore
song called "Asshole," When we did it we all switched
instruments - I played guitar (very badly), John Berry played
bass, Kate Shellenbach played Mike D's drums and Michael
Diamond sang. I actually think the experience of singing
that song did lead Mike into being the front man for the
Beasties. We recorded hours of rehearsal stuff - including
arguments! I have several tapes. We did try working at a
studio on the Upper West Side (owned by some hippie friends
of John Berry’s dad, I believe. However, we were never
very satisfied with the sound, which was rather dead. The
show at 171A was recorded fairly well by Michael’s
brother, Stephen Diamond, and I have that tape too.”
By the summer of 1981 the Young Aborigines
were performing at Jerry William’s
171 A. It was on a night during the second week of July
1981 that Dave Parsons, owner
of Rat Cage Records, first heard the news that a new band
was being formed and that band was going to be called the
Beastie Boys. "Kate said it first. She said Michael
was going to sing and everybody laughed...I was surprised
when I first heard the Beastie Boys' material because to
me it was a lot better than the Young Aborigines stuff.
It was more original. The stuff they did as the Young Aborigines
was more "tribal" sounding. Whereas what became
the Beastie Boys set sounded like a kid rock'n'roll band.
The songs were entities and it fit them. Previously they
were trying to be like music they listened to. The Beastie
Boys were a real garage band or loft band. What happened
was that they played a few shows; the first real one was
with Even Worse, the band John
had been in for awhile, and then they broke up. Later they
would get back together to record Polly
Wog Stew at 171 A. It seemed like they were always
doing that band of the week musical chairs."
People tend to ask what lead to the
end of the Young Aborigines. But there is not one clear
cut answer. Instead it was a combination of a couple of
things that factored into the group’s hiatus which
has lasted over twenty years. Things with the Young Aborigines
were put on hold and shelved when Jeremy Shatan left to
spend the balance of the summer of 1981 elsewhere. When
he returned in the fall, the Beastie Boys were already getting
booked to play around the New York Hardcore scene. The hard
and fast hardcore sounds that Michael, John, and Kate had
gotten interested in did not appeal to Shatan. The Young
Aborigines had faded away.
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