If you’re not already familiar with Brass Against, you should be. The New York City collective has made a habit of breaking the internet with their high-energy big-band takes on hard-rock classics, including tunes by Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, Pantera, Tool, Black Sabbath and more. The group’s latest cover reimagines a rap-rock essential, the Beastie Boys’ 1994 rip-roaring romp “Sabotage,” the guitar-heavy lead single from the hip-hop trio’s fourth studio album, Ill Communication. As classic as the song is in and of itself, it was made even more iconic by its Spike Jonze–directed music video, which saw the Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D hilariously parodying Seventies TV crime shows like S.W.A.T., Baretta and Starsky and Hutch.
The Brass Against video doesn’t see the musicians donning fake moustaches or running over city skylines, but it is action-packed in its own way. An ensemble of horn musicians back powerhouse singer Sophia Urista, who brings out the soul in “Sabotage”‘s screamed verses, bringing the rendition to a climax when the other players join her in a gang-vocal chant of the tune’s chorus. Check it out below; you can catch Brass Against live throughout 2019 at one of their extensive tour dates.
Of course, Brass Against’s big-band take is hardly the only unusual or noteworthy cover of the Beastie Boys to ever come across our radar. In 2015, Korn and Slipknot all jammed onto one stage together — at London’s Wembley arena while on their joint Prepare for Hell Tour — for an insane too-many-dudes-to-count version of the incendiary song. Check out footage of that once-in-a-lifetime collaboration below.
