entertainment weekly

[cubsfirstplace]

hey i just got entertainment weekly and they gave the new cd a b+. it was a good review. also the beasties answered some questions that fans asked in the listen 2 this section its pretty cool go check it out

[Auton]

who reviewed it? Was it David Browne?

[cubsfirstplace]

no some guy name tom sinclair did

[Auton]

Oh OK, he's pretty reliable. David Browne's a dick; if he reviewed it, he probably would've given it an F or something.

[cubsfirstplace]

o is that the guy who reviewed in a world gone mad? cuz i remember someone gave that song an F and i was so mad

[paris]

IAWGM wasn't their A game, but gets more than an F for content alone.

[mca47]

entertainment weekly is usually pretty bad when it comes to cd reviews

[FittenTrimMC]

From the interview, we know that Mike D checks out this bullentin board, and he was disappointed that so many were dissing "The O.C", which he called his favorite guilty pleasure tv show.

Of course, from that posting a while back I assumed that Entertainment Weekly was going to give the Beasties the cover. NOPE. Tom Hanks.

[Auton]

I like E.W...And their reviews are pretty good, even though Browne is a little bitch sometimes

[b-grrrlie]

Can you put up a scan or a link or something...?

[FittenTrimMC]

This isn't in the magazine, but here's something from their website:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/commentary/0,6115,648966_4_0_,00.html

Beauty and the Beasties


We pick our fave Beastie Boys songs. Check out our list of the trio's 10 essential tracks, then post your own by Brian Hiatt

LIFE OF RHYME (From left) The Boys: Ad-Rock, MCA, and Mike D

On ''Ch-Check It Out,'' the first single from ''To the 5 Boroughs'' (in stores June 15), the Beastie Boys compare themselves to ''Nick at Night/With classics rerunning that you know all right.'' And that's not far off. Early on, hip-hop heads dissed the three New York white boys as inauthentic. But 18 years after they had to fight for their right to party, the Beastie Boys have ended up as the only still-thriving purveyors of old-school hip-hop. That doesn't mean they haven't experimented along the way, though. Ch-check out Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock's finest moments:

''Rhymin' and Stealing'' (''Licensed to Ill,'' 1986)
The Beastie Boys didn't invent rap-rock (that was Run-DMC), but on guitar-flooded tracks like ''Rhymin''' they and producer Rick Rubin invested the hybrid with the energy and (obnoxious) attitude that helped suburban kids develop a taste for hip-hop. Incorporating samples from both Led Zeppelin (''When the Levee Breaks'') and Black Sabbath (''Sweet Leaf''), ''Stealin''' offers hilariously unconvincing pirate/gangsta fantasies: ''Skirt chasing, free basing/Killing every village/We drink and rob and rhyme and pillage.''

''Fight for Your Right (To Party)'' (''Licensed to Ill,'' 1986)
''Fight'' both imitates and mocks the signifiers of then-popular hair metal; the squiggly guitar solo and dead-simple beat could have come from a Mötley Crüe tune. After ''Fight,'' plain old rock could never be quite as cool.

''No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn'' (''Licensed to Ill,'' 1986)
Sorry, Fred Durst -- despite modeling your entire career on this thunderous track, you've yet to come close to its impact. And you've never come up with a boast as cutting as ''While you're at the job working 9 to 5/The Beastie Boys at the Garden, cold kickin' it live.''

''Sounds of Science'' (''Paul's Boutique,'' 1989)
The Beasties made an astonishing leap on their second album, working with producers the Dust Brothers to create head-spinning sample collages (similar to the Brothers' later, more commercial work for Beck's ''Odelay''). Less a song than a multipart suite, ''Science'' moves from a pseudo-country beginning to an up-tempo finish that samples the Beatles and includes some of the Boys' most nimble-tongued rhymes (''Dropping science like when Galileo dropped the orange'').

''Eggman'' (''Paul's Boutique,'' 1989)
A sample-dense track that features ''Superfly'''s bassline and nonsensical lyrics about yolk-and-shells assaults equals Beastie perfection. Bonus points for sampling both Cheech & Chong dialogue and Bernard Herrmann's ''Psycho'' score in the same track.

''Hey Ladies'' (''Paul's Boutique,'' 1989)
Admittedly, the only hit single from ''Paul's Boutique'' was a return to the frat-boy ethos of ''Licensed to Ill,'' but it's infectious and funny enough that we forgive such sexism as ''Sucking down pints till I didn't know/Woke up in the morning with a one-ton ho.'' It also features the greatest -- and possibly only -- cowbell break in hip-hop history.

''So Whatcha Want'' (''Check Your Head,'' 1992)
After the baroque ''Boutique,'' the Beasties returned to simplicity, adding live instruments to their tracks. With vocals and drums that swim together in an ocean of distortion, ''Whatcha Want'' demonstrated that by '91, classic-sounding hip-hop somehow came off as alternative rock. What else were the Beasties doing headlining Lollapalooza in '94?

''Pass the Mic'' (''Check Your Head,'' 1992)
Even more raw than ''Whatcha Want'' (it doesn't even have a chorus), the grimy MTV hit ''Pass the Mic'' served as a reintroduction to the Beastie Boys after the commercial failure of ''Paul's Boutique.'' ''Well I'm on till the crack of dawn/Mowing down MCs like I'm mowing a lawn,'' the trio rap in, as they say it, ''the old-school way.''

''Sabotage'' (''Ill Communication,'' 1994)
The Beasties' early rap-rock flirted with heavy metal, but the relentless, mosh-inducing ''Sabotage'' recalls the group's pre-hip-hop origins as a hardcore band. It is also, for some reason, the only Beasties song to be covered by Phish. But we won't hold that against it.

''Intergalactic'' (''Hello Nasty,'' 1998)
Perhaps the most fun Beasties song ever, the robot-voiced ''Intergalactic'' includes some of the trio's catchiest rhymes -- just try to get the sing-song line ''Mario C likes to keep it clean'' out of your head. For all the Beasties' lyrical irony, ''Intergalactic'' reveals that, for them, hip-hop is pure joy.

Agree with our list? What are your favorite Beastie Boys songs?

Post your response below.

Here's what I put for mine:
1. Shake Your Rump - Best Hip Hop
2. Sabotage - Best song with Instruments
3. Hold It Now, Hit It - Best Weave
4. Eggman - Most Hilarious
5. Hey Ladies - Best Dance
6. Sure Shot - Best sample
7. Rock Hard - AC/DC sample kills
8. Jimmy James - Best of CYH.
9. Sounds of Science - Beatles sample kills
10. No Sleep til Brooklyn - best of their rap/rock days.

[abcdefz]

Here's the review, from EW online.

Again, the writer gives it a B+.


Who could have predicted the Beastie Boys would become such upstanding elder statesmen? When ''Licensed to Ill'' put white rap on the map back in '86, the notion that these obnoxious cutups would grow old(er) gracefully, much less still be around close to two decades later, seemed ludicrous. Charmingly lovable louts who brought a hedonistic sensibility to everything they did, the trio seemed destined to crashland in rehab and, once their moment waned, the cutout bins.

Thankfully, they've carried on, sporadically releasing records, getting involved in good causes, and letting their licenses to ill lapse. Album by album, lyrics glorifying getting drunk and high (not to mention objectifying women) have gradually vanished from their music, to be replaced by something resembling family values. The New Agey piety they've sometimes exhibited (for a while there, you half expected to find the guys sporting caftans and rapping in Zen koans) might be embarrassing if it weren't so obviously heartfelt. Hey, even white punks on dope can grow up.

To the 5 Boroughs is the Beasties' first all-new CD since 1998's ''Hello Nasty'' and thus has the feel of a bona fide event. As might be inferred from the title, ''Boroughs'' is the group's gift to their hometown in the post-9/11 era. ''Dear New York, I know a lot has changed/Two towers down but you're still in the game,'' Mike D raps on ''An Open Letter to NYC,'' the album's anthemic centerpiece. The track includes a ton of New York-specific shout-outs (''I remember when the Deuce'' -- 42nd Street and Times Square to you out-of-towners -- ''was all porno flicks,'' raps Ad-Rock wistfully) and prominently samples the Dead Boys' ''Sonic Reducer.'' It sounds so rousingly righteous you don't even mind that the Dead Boys were from Cleveland.

Sonically, the disc falls somewhere between the Beasties' two best efforts, ''Licensed'' and 1992's ''Check Your Head,'' minus the latter's weird, megaphone-like vocal effects. The beats -- by Mixmaster Mike and the Boys -- are simple and effective, with a welcome lack of distracting bells and whistles that made ''Hello Nasty'' feel overstuffed. It's also the globally aware group's most politically charged album to date. ''Is the U.S. gonna keep breaking necks?/Maybe it's time we impeach Tex,'' raps MCA on ''Time to Build,'' one of several instances in which George W. is given a lyrical smackdown.

Elsewhere, the trio come off as flag-wavers for a multiculti, worldwide peace-and-love movement. On ''We Got The,'' they pose the rhetorical musical question, ''Who got the power to make a difference?'' while ''All Life Styles'' offers ''My name is Ad-Rock and I aim to please/And I gotta spread love in society.'' In Beastieland, it seems, positivism, self-respect, and clean living is the new style, while bling-blingin', thuggin', and quaffin' Courvoisier is wack. On ''Triple Trouble,'' Mike D even manages to insert an alcohol-awareness verse: ''See, I like to party, not drink Bacardi/'Cause I'm not looking to throw up on nobody.'' Fight for your right to party -- but party responsibly! (We can only assume Ad-Rock is being ironic when he brags that he's ''got class like pink Champale.'' Isn't that sort of like proclaiming yourself a gourmand because you eat at Taco Bell?)

Don't think ''Boroughs'' is all about deep moral issues, though. There's plenty of the usual pure, dumb fun here. One of the things that make the Beasties such a hoot is their knack for spouting eye-rollingly silly boasts with unabashed glee. Check these: ''I've got billions and billions of rhymes to flex/I've got more rhymes than Carl Sagan's got turtle-necks''; ''I splash on beats like sauce on spaghetti/Putting MCs out of business like they be Crazy Eddie''; and -- my personal fave -- ''...a track so sick it'll make you feel all queasy/Make you do like Fred Sanford with 'I'm comin', Weezy!'''

Ultimately, a session with the '04-model Beasties is like getting together with old friends with whom you used to engage in stupid behavior, and finding the bond is still there even if the vices aren't. Factoring in the social commentary and implicit preachiness, the Beasties still yield (almost) as many yuks per minute as a Three Stooges marathon. Need a break from bad news, bad feelings, and bad music? Think of ''Boroughs'' as license to chill.

(Posted:06/18/04) <----------- ???