Beastie Boys “rock the vote,” work on new album
For most of us, Tuesday’s election couldn’t come soon enough. Between the nonstop news cycles, once a day canvass calls, and everything else that has defined the last few weeks leading up to the Presidential showdown between Barack Obama and John McCain, it’s gotten to the point where politics has basically taken over every aspect of our life, even our music.
But then again, in at least some circumstances, the constant barrage of benefit concerts, politically influenced music websites, and pro-Obama essays has resulted in a little more than just offering us a clear picture as to who some of our favorite musicians will be supporting on Tuesday. Take the Beastie Boys for example. Until just recently, the New York hip-hop trio has been lying low, only making h
eadlines for its producing of a basketball film. However, being no strangers to political commentary, the group has recently surfaced to offer its support for Barack Obama in form of a series of musical performances.
The Brooklyn natives recently embarked on a seven-date, “get out the vote” tour, along with a few high-profile friends, to “battle ground states” across the country. The stint wrapped on Saturday, where the band closed out its performance with a “tribute” to the outgoing President.
“This election is too important, too much is at stake to stay at home. We hope that you can come out, have a nice night, dance, sing, get your freak on and then wake up the next morning and get everyone that you possibly can to get out and vote. If they have early voting in your state then ask people to vote early; Let’s get everyone we can out there on election day.”
- Beastie Boys
Now I know you’re probably asking yourself, “how is what the Beastie Boys are doing any different than Chris Martin flashing handmade armbands, Jay-Z predicting what will happen if Barack wins, and all the political commentary that has become just as prevalent at concerts these days as fake Coachella posters floating around the web?” Well you see, now that the Beasties are out in the open, they’re talking, and not just about the present.
In fact, by the time the winner of Tuesday night is inaugurated, we could have a brand new album from the Mike D, Ad-Rock, and MCA in our hands. In an interview with Billboard last week, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz revealed that the group is currently hard at work on the follow up to 2007’s all-instrumental The Mix-Up and hopes to have it out “sometime next year.” Described heavy in both vocals and words, the currently untitled effort will reportedly echo the group’s current political sentiments.
Well, that is depending on what you call political.
“And it’s political, depending on what you call political. You know, if toilet talk and fart jokes are political, which they can be, in that sense yeah, very,” Ad-Rock told Billboard, an idea further expanded on by Mike D and MCA to MTV:
“It’s pretty scatological, to be completely honest. There are probably more scatological lyrics on this particular album than ever before,” MCA added. “If you don’t know what that means, go home and look it up.”
Scatological (noun): 1. An obsession with excrement or excretory functions. 2. The psychiatric study of such an obsession. 3. Obscene language or literature, especially that dealing pruriently or humorously with excrement and excretory functions.
“Not to give too much away, but there are in-depth studies on animal behavior and their organs,” D snickered. “Actually Beastie Boys: Animal Kingdom is really not a bad title for it — just going to put that out there.”
“[There's] a lot of stuff on it. I would say there’s a lot going on with the record,” MCA said. “There’s a lot of layers to it. It’s a deep record. It’s overwhelming, in a good way.”
So in summary, the Beastie Boys’ forthcoming effort will be very political, but not so much so that a bit of “poop” talk can’t be incorporated, but too much that will prevent them from going “in-depth.”
Sounds like my kind of album.
While no release date was given, the band did go on to confirm that the album will be composed entirely of brand new material, meaning as of now, The Mix-Up won’t be mixed up.
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