Beasties Back With "Boroughs"

New album ends six-year break

The Beastie Boys will break a six-year silence with the release of To the 5 Boroughs this summer.

The Beasties began writing material in late 2001 and did most of the recording last year in their new New York City studio, producing the record themselves. After using live instrumentation on much of their last three records Mike Diamond (drums), Adam Horovitz (guitar) and Adam Yauch (bass), have largely abandoned the approach on Boroughs, going for a more classic hip-hop vibe.

"I am sure that we will get back into playing instruments again in the near future," MCA said on the band's Web site. "But for now, we are just going to do hip-hop shows, turntables and mics. It's kind of nice to keep it simple for a minute. There are some live instruments here and there, but most of it is programmed."

Though the album features a number of pointed political references, the Beasties' condemnation of the war in Iraq, "In a World Gone Mad," which was put on the band's site last year for download, won't be among the fifteen tracks.

Since touring behind 1998's Hello Nasty, the Beasties have only made sporadic appearances, including the New Yorkers Against Violence concert in the fall of 2001 and a benefit for Jam Master Jay's family in 2003. The trio plans to tour in support of the record, though the only show lined up so far is the Summer Sonic Festival in Japan in August.

In other news, Yauch is producing the next record by Washington, D.C., hardcore legends Bad Brains, at his New York studio.

(April 8, 2004)

I hope this album is good. I'm lookin' forward to it.

Originally posted by Silver Bullet
I hope this album is good. I'm lookin' forward to it.

Ditto to that

Beasties Plan New Release Blitz

By Barry A. Jeckell
Billboard

The Beastie Boys will celebrate this week's release of their new album, "To the 5 Boroughs," with a slew of concert and media appearances, some of which are open to fans. The album is due Tuesday (June 15) via Brooklyn Dust/Capitol.

Tomorrow night (June 14), the veteran rap group will sit with Matt Pinfield for a live satellite radio special that will be heard on more than 50 U.S. radio stations. The trio -- Mike D (Michael Diamond), MCA (Adam Yauch) and Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz) -- will preview music from the album and take calls from fans during the hour-long "The Night Before the 5 Boroughs" broadcast.

On release day, the group will stage a special performance for an MTV special that will take place at the cable music network's New York studios. Fans on the group's official Web site e-mail list were offered a chance at the 40 available passes to the show that will be the basis for a half-hour program. This is in addition to "$2 Bill" performance taped last week in Las Vegas that will air June 20 on MTV2.

The same night as the New York MTV taping, the group's Web site will be relaunched with new content and the trio will perform on CBS' "The Late Show With David Letterman."

Finally, on Thursday, the Beasties will perform at Washington, D.C.'s intimate 930 Club. Tickets for the show are being given away via radio station WHFSM.

A handful of tour dates in support of "To the 5 Boroughs" have been confirmed, beginning with a June 11 performance as part of KITS (Live105) San Francisco's BFD festival in Mountain View, Calif. The next day, the group will perform during KROQ Los Angeles' annual Weenie Roast festival, which will be Web cast on the station's Web site.

Also planned is a June 18 showing at the WPLY (Y100) Philadelphia Feztival in Camden, N.J., and a June 20 set at the WXRK K-Rock) New York Dysfunctional Family Picnic in Wantagh, N.Y. That same night, the group will perform live on Canada's Much Music Video Awards, which will take place in Toronto.

Also on tap are Aug. 7 (Osaka) and Aug. 8 (Tokyo) performances during Japan's Summersonic festival.

The 15-track "To the 5 Boroughs" is led by first single "Ch-Check It Out," which rocketed to a career-best No. 3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in only four weeks and took over the top spot on that chart this week.

"Seventy percent of the album or more is basically us just trying to entertain each other and have a good time," Mike D recently told Billboard. "That being said, it's only natural that there were certain days we came in and couldn't help but be thinking about things that were a lot more serious. We really felt there were things we had to say."

I love this album!!!!
It totally ROCKS! :rock:
The Beasties did it again!

am I the only person who thinks they're much ado about nothing?

They were okay in the 1990's when they added instruments to their sound, but now they have an "well, alternative isn't popular anymore, so we don't have to try to appeal to that audience anymore" attitude and made a straight-ahead hip hop album... yet rock stations that won't touch somebody like Outkast, even tho Hey Ya and Roses seem more fitting with the format than Ch-Check It Out.

Well, what I don't get is why they are so huge with the rock community, I can kinda see why some rap fans target how racist people can be when it comes to supporting someone like Eminem, but not touching Jay-Z or Ludacris, because it's the same way with the Beasties... Check-Check It Out is getting a lot of airplay on the local rock station, and the DJ even said "if you haven't bought this album yet, you suck!!!", but they probably would never play Outkast, who IMO, are closer to alternative music than the Beasties ever could try to be.

Beastie Boys need to retire. Only cd i liked by them was Licensed To Ill minus the rock songs on that cd.

Originally posted by isiahthomas
Beastie Boys need to retire. Only cd i liked by them was Licensed To Ill minus the rock songs on that cd.

the rock songs on License To Ill were the only good songs they ever recorded period IMO