I Fly Like An Eagle And I Drink Old Crow

The cover of the upcoming Beastie Boys album The Mix-Up. I was completely unaware of this until yesterday. Apparantly, it will be an all-instrumental album. Does this mean the sort of funky instrumentals found on Check Your Head and Ill Communication, or does it mean sample-dense hip hop tracks without the vocals? My first guess was the latter--clearly, they had heard the Coconut Monkeyrocket CD and were so impressed that they decided to go into the studio and immediately jack Jason's sound for their own! But I guess I was wrong. NME quotes Mike D as saying "We play instruments on the whole album as opposed to sampling. It might make you flip your wig right off, or your hairpiece if you're a casual listener." Read the rest of the piece, Mike drops a hilarious Spinal Tap reference down near the bottom.

But this is actually pretty cool. I was hoping they'd go back to the experimental stuff on Check Your Head next, now that they have a few more chops under their belt. So I continue to hang on for one more album.

Anyway, new Big Screen column up. Lots of cool stuff happening in L.A. this month. Lots of great stuff up on The Fake Life this week, including a Spidey 3 review, so check it out.

Be sure to download this past week's episode of This American Life. it includes interviews with former Guantanamo detainees, and it is absolutely horrifying how far past the crossroads we have already gone.

On the lighter side, a Hunter Thompson lecture from 1977, and Matt and Trey do Alan Watts.