Good to see two Beastie Boy related updates in one day. The original version of “Canal” appears on Ratking’s debut album So It Goes, out now.

“It’s the story of some young men and women from a small town who grow up dreaming of playing softball. The other kids laugh at them because they are so scrawny but then one night a famous ballplayer from long ago comes to them in their dreams and says hey kid you can do it and then they start chewing tobacco and breathing through their eyes and next thing you know they are rappers in the big city and they drink champagne on the field. Yo Kev is a joint co-production of Catch Club: Home of the Soft Hands and Team Pressure: No Pressure, We Need This.”

Here are the facts regarding Maximum Hedrum as we know them: Sam Spiegel (Squeak E. Clean, NASA) and Derrick Green’s (Sepultura) partnership started nearly a half-decade ago with a chance encounter at a dodgy dive bar that both members call “among São Paulo’s finest.” Shortly after their first drink together, Spiegel relocated to Los Angeles and kept in touch with his newfound friend through a series of letters and mixtapes carried via ones and zeros, flesh, and feathers. Inspired by their mutual love of vintage leisure suits, inexplicable corners of the Internet, and “Camille”-era Prince, Spiegel invited Green to Los Angeles to contribute his death metal-worthy scream to an album he was producing for the Australian band, The Bumblebeez.

Spiegel and Green note that there’s more where that came from—although both have committed to reading the full works of robo-spiritualist Ray Kurzweil before proceeding with future recording sessions. While we wait, the band plans for tour dates in the U.S. and around the world, and will be releasing additional music videos and remixes in the coming months. Stay tuned…and stay dancing.