Beastie Boys on Charlie Rose

Part 1, part 2, part 3.

Best question & answer:

Rose: What do you think of the current state of hip hop?

Ad Rock: I think it's fabulous what they've done with it.

(The Beastie Boys, it should be noted, refuse to slam contemporary rap, much to the dismay of the countless music journalists who try to bait them nonetheless.)

Beasties on Tour

Pretty cool. The Beasties have a Flickr page up where they're posting shots from the road. They also have blogs -- one regular, and one for the tour. After (yet another) European tour, they're playing East Coast shows in early August. Sadly, the two NYC shows -- Summerstage in Central Park and McCarren Pool in Brooklyn -- are insanely expensive ($60 after Ticketbastard's $10 rape fee). I'll be attending the show in the BK, and hanging out in Central Park, hopefully close enough to hear the music without having to fork over the remainder of my life savings.

For those who haven't heard their latest album, The Mix Up, you really oughta. Mike D described it as different from The In Sound From the Way Out, despite both being instrumentals only. But he's wrong. It's just as funky, just as dank, and just as worthy of everyone going out and picking up a copy. My only complaint is that it's too short. Each track clocks in around 4 minutes, and with only 10 or so songs, the whole thing's over before you've even put on your leisure suit.

Peep the video for Off the Grid:

Aside from the posted tour dates, they'll also be playing a number of secret shows. From their e-mail:

THE GALA EVENTS will be in smaller spots, more exclusive, more intimate. this will be more like quality time, our time, just you and the band sitting by a fire on a tropical beach late at night being serenaded with love songs. these shows are for people that are into our weird stuff, so if you want to get weird together, this is your call. these shows will be based around the instruments. some songs will have vocals, others will be instrumental. BUT if you'd like to come to one of these shows, then dress to impress, wear a suit, a tie, a dress, a gown or whatever you feel dressed up in... AND PLEASE leave your cargo shorts, birkenstocks and t-shirts at home, this is not that kind of party.

New Beasties

Hooray! The Beastie Boys are cutting their usual four-year post-album-release slack-off period to a mere three years! This June they're releasing "The Mix-Up," the band's second instrumentals-only album.

"There are no vocals, no samples," Mike D tells Pitchfork. "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."

Who those bands are, the FunkyPundit has no clue -- though many sound suspiciously indy. There is, though, reason for hope:

"What we do a lot is listen to music together, things that we're inspired by, everything from post-punk to Afrobeat to hip hop to whatever. We're almost as much music fans as we are a band that makes music."

Another good portion of the album came from sessions with frequent collaborator Mark Ramos-Nishita, aka Money Mark, and Beasties "regular percussion player" Alfredo Ortiz. Both musicians "embellished on top of what we had already made and arranged," said Mike D.

The Beastie Boys will have a chance to air out material from the new album at a series of instrumental shows scattered throughout their beefy schedule of festival dates, where they'll stick to their hits.

Mike joked that they plan to use some of their festival dates to expand their fanbase. "We're trying to really cross over into the whole jam band, Bonnaroo, Government-- what's it?-- Gov't Mule? That whole genre. We can play up the jam band [aspect], have a hacky sack tent. The 'Hack Sack Hand'... 'Sack Hand State Fair', we're going to be performing at. We're going to be performing at a lot of state fairs and a lot of pie-eating contests, too."

When asked if The Mix-Up might provide a pastry-oriented twist on the old Spacemen 3 axiom Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To, he said, "Yeah, it would be a great record to eat pie to."

Just what my record collection has always been missing.