The Beatnigs (album)

The Beatnigs is the only album by the San Francisco band The Beatnigs, released in 1988. It combined punk, industrial and hip hop influences.

Production
Michael Franti wrote all of the lyrics to the songs; he also played bass. The album was produced by the Beatnigs. An enclosure explaining the origins of the band's name was included with the album.

Critical reception
Spin wrote that the album mixed "the Last Poets’ severe rhetoric with the horrific industrial grinding of Einstürzende Neubauten." Trouser Press wrote that "this striking San Francisco quintet explodes in a tight and danceable riot of industrial percussion, vocals and tape manipulations." The New York Times called the album "a powerful conglomeration of taped sounds - speeches by Malcolm X, for instance - industrial noise made with saws, sirens and oil drums, and a conventional rhythm section." MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide called it "the most interesting and innovative album any of Franti's three groups has made, loaded with sonic twists and turns." The Spin Alternative Record Guide deemed it "an angrier warm-up to De La Soul a year later: choppy beats mingled with inflammatory news items, goofy how-to spiels, exhortations from Malcolm X and others, and twisted loops of electro-industrial din."

Track listing
All songs written by The Beatnigs.


 * 1) "(Welcome) - Television"
 * 2) " C.I.A."
 * 3) "(Instructions) - When You Wake Up In The Morning"
 * 4) "(The Experience Of All Of Us) - Street Fulla Nigs"
 * 5) " (Re-Classification) - Control"
 * 6) "Malcolm X"
 * 7) "Nature"
 * 8) "Burritos"
 * 9) "Rooticus Sporaticus"
 * 10) "Who Is Doing This To All My People"
 * 11) "Rules"

CD 'bonus tracks'

 * "Jazzy Beats"
 * "Pre-War America"
 * "Television" (Radio Edit)
 * "Television" (Remix)

Personnel

 * The Beatnigs
 * Henry Flood - congas, timbales, industrial percussion
 * Andre Flores - keyboards, sampling, vocals, industrial percussion
 * Michael Franti - vocals, bass, tape edits, industrial percussion
 * Kevin Carnes- vocals, tape edits, industrial percussion
 * Rono Tse - industrial percussion, circular saw, siren electric buzzer, tire rim, chains, whistle, oil drum, shakers, tambourines


 * Also
 * Robert Collins - piano


 * Engineer
 * David "Davy D" Bryson


 * Remix
 * "Television" (Remix) remixed by Adrian Sherwood, Gary Clail and Mark Stewart