Beastie Boys Finishing Up "Weird" New Album

The Beastie Boys are hard at working finishing up their eighth studio album, the trio's Adam Yauch (a.k.a. MCA) tells EW.com. "It's a pretty weird record," Yauch said, adding that unlike 2007's all-instrumental The Mix-Up, the new LP will feature "a lot of rhyming and playing and sampling — all combined."

"We still have a good time working together. It's fun to be able to reinvent yourself every time," the rapper said. The album is due out in either the summer or fall, with Tad Lock's Glasses — an homage to their tour bus driver's unique glasses — being batted around as a possible album title.

In other Beastie news, the group will take the stage at this year's Bonnaroo. Recently MCA, Ad-Rock and Mike D reissued their epic Paul's Boutique with remastered sound and tons more features. Check out the full story on that album below:

• Beastie Boys Mark 20th Anniversary of "Paul's Boutique" With New Website, Studio Update

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
• 
  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »

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