What’s up with the new Beastie Boys album? The NME claims The Mix Up will “hark to the style of the band’s classic albums Check Your Head and Paul’s Boutique.” Contradicting this, they quote Mike D saying, “We play instruments on the whole album, as opposed to sampling.” Paul’s Boutique, of course, was 100% glorious Dust Brotherly samples. So which is it?

To confuse matters further, Mike D tells the Fr0k that “it’s an instrumental album. There are no vocals, no samples.” How does that hark to the style of Paul’s Boutique at all? The only instrumental on Paul’s is the silly “5-Piece Chicken Dinner,” which was actually just a snippet of “Shuckin’ The Corn” from the Deliverance soundtrack.

My theory: the dope who wrote the NME article has never listened to Paul’s Boutique.

More Mike D quotes and the track list after the jump…

Mike D: “There’s more rock on there. If you know us you can trace the influences and they’re no completely surprising. Someone who listens to us casually might think ‘What the hell are these guys doing?’ It might make you flip your wig right off, or your hairpiece, if you’re a casual listener.” —NME

“We’re trying to really cross over into the whole jam band, Bonnaroo, Government– what’s it?– Gov’t Mule? That whole genre. We can play up the jam band [aspect], have a hacky sack tent. The ‘Hack Sack Hand’… ‘Sack Hand State Fair’, we’re going to be performing at. We’re going to be performing at a lot of state fairs and a lot of pie-eating contests, too.”—Pitchfork

Track list:

Be For My Name

14th St. Break

Suco De Tangerina

The Gala Event

Electric Worm

Freaky Hijiki

Off The Grid

The Rat Cage

The Melee

Dramastically Different

The Cousin Of Death

The Kangaroo Rat

The Mix Up is due June 26 on Capitol.

MP3: The Beastie Boys – “Shake Your Rump” (a cappella) from the Beastie Boys A Cappella Download Page.

Update: Capitol Records Press Release

BEASTIE BOYS GO INSTRUMENTAL, AGAIN

“The Mix-Up” – All-Instrumental Album Out June 26

Mike “Mike D” Diamond, Adam “MCA” Yauch and Adam “Adrock” Horovitz have confirmed a June 26 release date for their seventh studio album, “The Mix-Up”, on Capitol Records.

The Mix-Up is Beastie Boys’ first-ever full album of all-new instrumental material. The follow-up to 2004’s To The 5 Boroughs, The Mix-Up features Diamond, Horovitz and Yauch back on drums, guitar and bass, with able assistance from Keyboard Money Mark and percussionist Alfredo Ortiz, on 12 brand new wordless, sample-less, scratchless originals. Sure to please fans of the instrumental cuts from Check Your Head and Ill Communication and the cult hit compilation album made up largely of those tracks, The In Sound From Way Out!, The Mix-Up finds NYC’s favorite sons drawing on one of their arsenal’s primary strengths and pushing it into bold new directions.