Blogs
  • Go! 3/7-3/9
    06:00PM 03/07/08
  • R.E.M. Accelerate: An Advance Review and Song-by-Song Analysis of the Band's New Album
    04:06AM 03/08/08
  • Your Weekly St. Louis Food Blog Digest
    03:45PM 03/07/08
  • This Is Hawkwind -- Do Not Panic
    06:08PM 11/09/07
Related Articles

National Features

  • Houston Press
    "It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"

    For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.

    By Chris Vogel
  • SF Weekly
    The Candidate

    Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.

    By Matt Smith
  • The Pitch
    How Not To Be a Rap Star

    First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.

    By Nadia Pflaum
  • Village Voice
    Project Runaway

    What becomes a gossip columnist most?

    By Michael Musto

Since the release of Licensed to Ill in 1986, all paths to New York nostalgia have gone through the Beastie Boys. But with The Mix-Up, an all-instrumental record, they have nothing to say. To the 5 Boroughs, released in 2004, was an exercise in reminiscence masquerading as a nod to current events — post-September 11 New Yorkers hailing the city of their youth. The Mix-Up, in contrast, is an admission of obsolescence. Not that it's bad. Tossed off, underdone, monotonous, unfinished and redundant — maybe. But not bad. Think back to "Lighten Up" and "Groove Holmes," the lounge instrumentals on Check Your Head. Now remove the dub and the samples, but leave the low-key vamps, Fender Rhodes, crispy 4/4 snares, congas, vintage distortion and a metered shuffle. "Off the Grid" even crams in handclaps, a meandering guitar solo and an ethereal keyboard. But it stands out only because it doesn't repeat incessantly. Given that the Beastie Boys made an art of plundering everything they could get their hands on, what's left but the history they once made?

Riverfront Times Insiders

  • Local food, music and news blasts
  • Free Stuff

Personal of the Day


More Personals >>
NOW CLICK THIS