Song New Beastie Boys Videos: “Off the Grid” and “The Rat Cage”
posted by on May 18 at 12:40 PM
The Beastie Boys have released a pair of videos for songs from their upcoming instrumental album The Mix-Up.
“Off the Grid” starts off with a familiar “Superfly” bassline-conga break that gets slinked up by Adrock’s chinka-chinka guitar syncopation. Pretty standard stuff, albeit funky and restrained—until the halfway point. The guitar goes all phase-shifted and psychedelic, Mike D’s drums kick in, and funky is replaced by funk, as in mood—sort of swirling, post-rock angst, playful but in a roughhousing kinda way.
“The Rat Cage” is lo-fi spy-jazz noir, sly and seductive, riding Money Mark’s midnight organ vamps and a dive-bar’s-worth of reverb. It’s propulsive, it’s suggestive, and while it’s far from virtuosic, the Beasties’ attitude and expertise come through in its overall sound.
Both tracks are better than I expected. I really like the grimy, garagey production—if there’s any whiff of punk rock here, it’s in the dirty tone of the instruments and the dudes-in-a-room looseness and echo of these songs, not in their energy. Which is fine. The Boys are 40 years old.
The Beastie Boys play a “live jazz” set at Sasquatch! next Saturday, May 26.
Just because someone's 40 doesn't mean they have to be boring/low energy, but this is pretty boring stuff. Maybe they just need to put some Miss Clairol in to cover the grey or something.
punk, however, is a young mans game. as is hiphop. this sound suits a more--ill say it--mature musician, dignified but not crusty, knowing but not cranky.
JZ---Good point....but I saw the MC5 not long ago (I consider them punk, it's debatable I guess) at Neumo's, and they pretty much kicked ass...in a decidedly not mature stoney inept jammy Beastie Boy way. I don't have anything against the B.B.'s, but when they play instruments as they have in the past, it's kind of a joke. And, at 40 I would think that they've have enough experiences to be expanded musicially enough to do something a lot more interesting than what's on these videos. I do like Mike D's drummer on the first clip...seems to be the only one with any real instrumental skills.
saying these songs are "restrained" is, in this case, another way of saying "they dont have chops." chops are not what i expect from the beastie boys though--its attitude, and these songs have that much going for them.
-- this is not old dudes playing weak material... this is older dudes playing laid back and smart tunes. (i am so happy when they play music and don't rap in their stupid, annoying voices). this is cool, i will buy the tracks on itunes for sure. good post!
The BBs get sexier and more interesting with every grey hair. They make me happy to be a grown-up.
Apparently they're playing a warm-up show at the Crocodile on Friday. I hope it's an instumental show.
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