SPECIAL FEATURE: Greatest Album Of All Time
Push The Button

Money Mark, huh? I mean, really? Money Mark?? The keyboardist dude from Beastie Boys?? Seriously? Completely. "Money" Mark Ramos Nishita is like an old dude. Like, I think he is even older than those Beastie Boy dudes or at least the same age. I know, deep, right?? Dude was just a cool dude who laid down some keyboards for The Dust Brothers every once in a while, was a carpenter/handyman, fixed some keyboards, and gave some piano/keyboard lessons. Totally just a dude living his life, right? So the dude fixes the fence at the Beastie Boys house in LA. Beastie Dudes thought he was a righteous handyman so they had him start building a crazy studio for them, which became the studio they recorded the majority of Check Your Head and Ill Communication in. Well, building a studio takes a long time, so Mark hangs with the Beasties quite a bit and they get along famously and have tons in common. Mark ends up providing a lot of keyboards for both Check Your Head and Ill Communication and actually has writing credits for about half the songs on both of those albums and he is also a touring member of the band for about five years.

So old Money Mark makes a record in 1994, called Mark's Keyboard Repair, and it's released on a tiny album as three 10"s. James Lavelle, the dude who ran Mo'Wax records and also the dude who makes that band UNKLE, gets the record and is super in, and Mo Wax reissue's the album. Mark's Keyboard Repair is 30 short mostly instrumental tracks heavy on dimestore funk. The album features a vast array of sounds and it makes for an interesting album but ultimately more of a novelty than engaging. Money Mark takes an interesting turn here, though, it takes a couple years (3 years since the release of Mark's Keyboard Repair), but Money Mark hit back with a record (Push The Button) that expanded his vibe incredibly.

Push the Button came out in May of 1998. It took the instrumental funk of Mark's Keyboard Repair fleshed it out and also added some heavy pop songs. Mark is a suprisingly adept pop song writer. The combination of the pop songs with the instrumental songs really really works for me. I've always liked an album that gave me some words and voice and melody for me to think about for awhile, but then gave me some space with none of those things (words, voice, melody) and this album does it so well. The album is really well produced by Mark and by Mario Caldato Jr. (who is a Beastie contributor and producer). The album is a bit depressing in lyrical tone, and that really feels right on this record. Some of the standout songs are the xylophone laden "Too Like You," the latin instrumental "Crowns," the Costello-y "Tommorow Will Be Like Today," and the soulful jams "All The People in the World" and "I Don't Play Piano."

Push The Button was such an important album for me in the summer of 98. I was livin in a house with six other people (on my own and not in a dorm for the first time). I was working at a bowling alley as a short order cook. It was a special time for me. It was also a special time for Money Mark. He was the opening band for The Beastie Boys on their gigantic Hello Nasty tour. That summer Money Mark played for hundreds of thousands. That summer I learned how to make some killer nachos.

Money Mark put out another album in late 2001 called Change Is Coming. It was a another full instrumental album. Sorta a letdown. This man, this Money Mark man, writes a good song, and the only place where that is really displayed is on Push The Button, aka The Greatest Album Of All Time.