Two years after surprising fans with their first blistering live version of the Beastie Boys’ classic, New York hardcore band Show Me The Body cover Sabotage as their latest single ahead of a special anniversary show and limited-edition vinyl release of their seminal album Body War.
Show Me The Body release their cover of Sabotage by Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys released Sabotage over thirty years ago, back in 1994. Show Me The Body have history of their own with the song, having made it a mainstay of their live set two years ago. Banjo has never sounded so hardcore!
Fans were eager to enjoy a recorded version so the band finally obliged. Their Sabotage single was produced by Kenneth Blume.
The accompanying music video was created in collaboration with Popular Front, a grassroots media organisation that covers war and conflict.
“The way we get our message out is by making our documentaries and doing our journalism. Making a documentary that is fair, accurate, truthful, and properly calls things out is more important than doing neutral reporting for me. You can’t be neutral in a non-neutral situation. Imagine if people were neutral about the Nazis. I believe that truthful reporting means being honest about what you think is right. ” – Jake Hanrahan interviewed by Refugee Worldwide
Show Me The Body’s video for Sabotage combines footage from their recent highly-charged pop-up show in Southwark Park in London – which was presented by Popular Front – as well as archive footage provided by that organisation.
To celebrate the single release, Show Me The Body and Popular Front also collaborated on a t-shirt.
Why did Show Me The Body cover Sabotage?
As well as it being a classic song that still sounds fresh and raw, Sabotage by Beastie Boys allies with Show Me The Body’s ethos and ideology,: “Become an upsetter. Make yourself a disturbance. Become the problem. Disrupt what is clean and easy. International solidarity with all fighting struggling and working people. Radical love compels me to fight.”
Show Me The Body first covered Sabotage at a surprise show in Tompkins Square Park in August 2023.
As for the Popular Front collab in particular, Show Me The Body’s founding member, vocalist and banjo player Julian Cashwan Pratt explains: “I am a straight up a fan of Popular Front. Their crew does hard work to tell true stories…To work together on Sabotage is a self-fulfilling prophecy. New York band with a New York song reaching out to the world at war with a message of love and solidarity.”
10 year anniversary of Show Me The Body’s seminal Body War
Pratt and co-founder bassist Harlan Steed have released three albums and several EPs over the past sixteen years. Their seminal hardcore record Body War marked their emergence from the New York underground scene in 2016.
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the release of Body War, Show Me The Body will be performing a special hometown show at 99 Scott in Brooklyn on October 17, 2025. This gig will have an all New Yorker line-up featuring Roc Marciano, Wiki, Fatal Realm, Baby Osama, and Ferment.
A special anniversary edition of Body War will be released on vinyl on the same date. If you’re interested, pre-order ASAP because only 880 copies will be available worldwide.
Digital distribution is in partnership with Loma Vista Records with the physical release through the band’s label and mutual-aid organisation, CORPUS.
CORPUS is a collective based in Queens, NYC, with the explicit aim of organising non-traditional DIY spaces, art events and underground shows in New York, and spreading its community ethos worldwide through live shows and punk and hip-hop mixed tours.
The release includes a newly recorded version on 7″ of the fan-favourite song One Train from Show Me The Body’s 2014 Yellow Kidney EP. The accompanying video was directed by Pratt and CORPUS’ Asha Maura. It pays homage to the original music video which followed Pratt and his Kung Fu teacher, David Kaplan, training in New York. The new video, filmed in Rome features Kaplan, Pratt and his young daughter recreating some of the scenes.
More announcements are expected soon from Show Me The Body in this special anniversary year.
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