Tag Archives: Beastie Boys

The Beastie Boys have embraced a strange contradiction. On the one hand, their instrumental album The Mix-Up earned reviews that ranged from middling to scathing — though not necessarily worse than those that greeted their last proper full-length, 2004’s To the Five Boroughs, which led Village Voice to call the group washed up.

On the other hand, their national tour is completely sold out. In fact, their live shows always sell out. The Brooklyn trio may be in the legacy chapter of its two-decade-plus career, but it is a glorious legacy. Their first three albums are not only core hip-hop texts, but rock and roll classics. Their brash, obnoxious style resonates loudly in current music, from Andre "I fuck like a ninja" Legacy to "Fett’s Vette" nerdcore hero MC Chris. Beastie Boys are unquestionably one of the great artists of the past twenty years.

So perhaps this tour, like others before and surely others after, will be about witnessing the greats before they become too removed from their glory years. Of course, the next album can always restore their primacy…who knows?

In the meantime, check out the tour dates below. One dollar from each ticket benefits Artists Resources in Action (ARIA), which has set up an EcoFund for the tour. Fans are also encouraged to bring their old cellphones and PDAs for cellular recycling. For more on the latter initiative, visit www.reverbrock.org/beastieboys.

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According to an article on NME.com, the Beastie Boys’ new disc is called The Mix Up. The Brooklyn trio’s seventh album will hearken back to the classic Check Yo Head-era, and utilize live instruments instead of the sample-heavy big beats of more recent works. With luck, it will be as good as Check Yo Head, which many consider the Beasties’ finest hour.

"We play instruments on the whole album, as opposed to sampling. There’s more rock on there. If you know us you can trace the influences and they’re no completely surprising. Someone who listens to us casually might think ‘What the hell are these guys doing?’," says Mike D in the NME.com story.

In a subsequent news item on Pitchfork.com, Mike D described The Mix Up as "an instrumental album. There are no vocals, no samples. We played everything. But as different as that might be from To the 5 Boroughs, it’s equally different from instrumental songs we’ve done before, like the ones that were on The In Sound From Way Out! That was kind of one direction and this one [has] different influences, like Public Image Ltd., Gang of Four, the Slits, Killing Joke." The Mix Up hits stores on June 26.

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