• Blu signs with Sire/Warner Bros., prepares to learn Industry Rule #4080 (hiphopdx.com)

• Elliott Wilson prepares to launch RapRadar, yet another mainstream rap aggregator site (folio.com)

• New RNC chairman Michael Steele wants to woo hip-hop voters, one-armed midgets (washingtontimes.com)

• Beastie Boys working on new album (ew.com)

• Overrated “legend” Rick Rubin (yeah, I said it) working with overrated rappers Clipse (ew.com)

• Eminem’s digital royalties lawsuit against Universal Music Group goes to trial (rollingstone.com)

Late passes: J. Period & Q-Tip, The Abstract Best (jperiod.com), Cool Calm Pete’s The Food Theme (thememagazine.com), Amanda Diva’s Spandex, Rhymes and Soul (myspace.com)

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.

• 8/01: Festival Pier, Philadelphia, PA
• 8/02: The Borgata, Atlantic City, NJ
• 8/04: Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore, MD
• 8/05: Boston Opera House, Boston, MA
• 8/06: Bank of America Pavilion, Boston, MA
• 8/08: Central Park Summerstage, New York, NY
• 8/09: McCarren Pool, New York, NY
• 8/10: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY
• 8/16: Red Rocks Amphitheater, Denver, CO
• 8/17: Fillmore, Denver, CO
• 8/19: Greek Theater, Los Angeles, CA
• 8/20: Greek Theater, Los Angeles, CA
• 8/21: The Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA
• 8/23: Santa Barbara County Bowl, Santa Barbara, CA
• 8/24: The Warfield, San Francisco, CA
• 8/25: Greek Theater, Berkeley, CA

8/04: Virgin Festival

www.beastieboys.com
www.myspace.com/beastieboys

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.

Here’s the track listing:

• 1. “B For My Name”
• 2. “14th St. Break”
• 3. “Suco De Tangerina”
• 4. “The Gala Event”
• 5. “Electric Worm”
• 6. “Freaky Hijiki”
• 7. “Off The Grid”
• 8. “The Rat Cage”
• 9. “The Melee”
• 10. “Dramastically Different”
• 11. “The Cousin Of Death”
• 12. “The Kangaroo Rat”

With every new recording, the Beastie Boys usually set up a number of cool happenings and side projects to create multimedia synergy. (Often the side projects are better than the albums.) So far, they’ve announced an appearance during the London leg of the Live Earth July 7 concerts around the world. They’ll appear at Wembley Stadium alongside Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snow Patrol. So far, the only U.S. dates include the Sasquatch Festival in George, Wash.; and the Virgin Festival in Baltimore, Md.

www.beastieboys.com
www.myspace.com/beastieboys