Who's Who > HistoryHome  
Frontline Band Photo
Frontline
Frontline

As you may or may not be aware, the Check Your Head song "Time for Livin'" was not an original Beastie Boys composition. In fact, it was a combination of lyrics from Sylvester Stewart (Sly and the Family Stone) and music originally written by a New York band called Frontline. The band's line-up was comprised of Mackie on drums, Noah Evans on bass, and Miles Kelly on guitar.

Former band member of The Young and the Useless, Adam Trese, said the following about Frontline in a June 2003 interview with Beastiemania.com. "Frontline rocked. They were just super talented kids who rehearsed a lot more than they played. Which is as it should be, as opposed to TYATU who rarely rehearsed outside of soundchecks. Noah Evans and Miles Kelly lived in an artist's residence called West Beth, which has also been home to several other current entertainers, the most famous being Vin Diesel."

"This giant building was the size of an entire city block. It was filled with the talented kids of artists. Noah was the son of Jazz great Gil Evans. We all hung out there at some point. Frontline had a huge rehearsal room in the basement with amazing gear. Noah later went into recording." In fact, Noah Evans was the assistant engineer on Everlast's (formerly of House of Pain) Eat at Whitey's album (2000). He has also mixed, produced, or engineered recordings for several other musicians.

"Mackie Jayson is one of the greatest drummers I've ever seen. He played the drums on the Bad Brains' Rise (1993) album and with many other great bands including Urban Blight. He also played drums for the Cro Mags." Mackie appears on the Cro Mags' Age of Quarrell/ Best Wishes disc (1994). The disc is the product of having combined two complete albums, just like Some Old Bullshit combined the Beastie Boys' Polly Wog Stew and Cooky Puss releases. For the record, Best Wishes was originally released on the Profile label in 1989.