Hot take: “Gratitude,” from 1992’s Check Your Head, is the best rock song that the Beastie Boys ever made. It’s better than “No Sleep Till Brooklyn.” It’s better than “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party).” It’s even better than “Sabotage.” (“Gratitude” might not be better than “Rhymin’ & Stealin’,” and that might count as a rock song, but we’re splitting hairs here.) “Gratitude” is a fucking stomper with an actual beat and a monster bass riff and a great Ad-Rock vocal performance (“and that’s roooiiiiight!”). Someone should hang it on the wall of the Louvre. Nobody’s done that yet, but a great young hardcore band has just paid homage.

The Chicago band Buggin released a hugely promising self-titled EP last year, when they were still called Buggin’ Out. Today, they’ve followed that one up with a new two-song single. We’ve already posted the band’s A-side original “Brainfreeze,” which rocks. Today, we get to hear them take on “Gratitude.”

Unlike a lot of other Beastie Boys rock songs, “Gratitude” isn’t a hardcore tantrum. Hardcore is in the song’s DNA, but the song is more of a funky ’70s psych-rock bong-ripper. In their version, Buggin make it into more of a hardcore song, swapping out they Money Mark organ solo for a mosh-part breakdown. But Buggin have also kept the bones of “Gratitude” intact, and if you can’t get prime Ad-Rock to scream on your song, then Buggin’s Bryanna Bennett makes a great replacement. Check out the Buggin cover and the snowboard-centric video for the Beasties’ original below.

“Brainfreeze” b/w “Gratitude” is out now on Flatspot Records.