BEASTIE BOYS [20.06.07] SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE It's been three years since 'To The 5 Boroughs' and Adam Horowitz, Adam Yauch and Michael Diamond have decided to take a big chance for their new album - not rapping. Yes, you read that right, The new Beastie Boys album will have no vocals. Early last year, a friend told me something that was quite depressing. They said 'Did you know the Beastie Boys are now all in their forties?'In addition to making me feel very old, this terrifying fact raised a further query. Exactly how long can you rap about having 'more rhymes than Jamaica's got mangoes' when middle-age is creeping ever closer? A possible answer could be : release an instrumental album. Which is exactly what the Beastie boys have done with 'The Mix-Up', the trio's seventh studio album. Mike D (age 41) explains some of the thinking behind the boys' most recent career direction. "You know, when we first got together to make this record, we definitely hadn't decided to make an instrumental record at all. That wasn't our plan when we went into the studio. We just kind of - I think our initial plan was really just to go in and pick up instruments and sit in a room together and play some music, because we felt like on the last record, on the 'To The 5 Burroughs' album, how we made the music, like each of us spent a lot of time like on computers or on laptops or samplers and kind of brought that stuff in together and collaborated that way. So in this record, we kind of thought okay, well let's kind of do 180 degree turn and do something different and just sit down and play some instruments in a room together and see what comes of it. And then kind of the more, the further down we got in doing that, songs kind of started to feel pretty whole to us, and we didn't - we weren't really sure where there was room to put vocals on them. So we just kind of kept going and adding stuff on them and then we're like, you know what? Maybe we should just leave them this way." It's natural that people should be worried. Fans who have been around since 1986's 'Licence To Ill', might be starting to think that an album full of instrumental tracks might signal the death of that classic Beasties sound, and that it may be gone forever. But Adrock (age 40) has faith in his old school followers. "We're testing to see who's really a fan and who's not. You know what I mean? That's our attitude right now. I think, you know, I think if you like the band, you know, if you like a band, you should be happy with them doing whatever. When Elvis Costello came out with a country album, I loved it. He was feeling himself." In July, Adrock and Mike D (along with MCA - the eldest at 42) will perform at Wembley Stadium as part of the global Live Earth concerts. It was no surprise that they would take part, considering their political and environmental activism in the past. Mike D felt obligated from the beginning. "When we were approached about doing the Live Earth thing, our feeling was that obviously this is - in terms of the global environment and global warming right now - this is a topic and a situation that we cannot - nobody can afford to wait on. This is very, very immediate and necessary, so anything - when we got the call asking us to participate, it was an immediate yes, because any event or chain of events that's going to help to focus massive amounts of people around the world in terms of action and change and actually making inroads and giving some solutions to this problem is necessary, and we appreciate it." All three members are dedicated to the cause, but Adrock takes a lighter view. "You know, I just really want to share the stage with Phil Collins. That's the only reason why I'm doing it. Fuck the world, you know?" 'The Mix-Up' is released on June 26 through Capitol Records. back to top ^

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