daverea.com

Subtitle: Woefully underprepared.

Unfortunately, new music discoveries this week haven’t done much coinciding with bloggable experiences. Except maybe for one…

Tuesday morning, on my drive in to work, I decided to trade in my typical morning AM news station (yes, I am that boring) for some quality time with our local indie station, WBER (it is, after all, the only station that matters). Tuning in is always a crapshoot, given how varied their playlist is and how many different special-interest shows they run, but on this particular morning the DJ struck gold…

The song was Electric Worm by the Beastie Boys, from their new instrumental album called The Mix-Up.

I’ve been a Beastie Boys fan for a while – at least since Hello Nasty – so when I called the station and discovered they were behind this particular funk-infused, Hammond-B3-rockin’ bit of jazz, I was surprised to say the least. Once I got home and nabbed the rest of the album, I was even more surprised. While it’s certainly not the nouveau sounds of MM&W or the more classic funk of Galactic, The Mix-Up stands up on its own as a foot-tapper that’ll keep all but the avant-garde purists happy. The songs run the gamut, from trippy to slow and contemplative, topping out with the driving beat of 14th St. Break.

If you’re looking for Intergalactic or Body Movin’, you might want to look elsewhere – but if you want to groove out, The Mix-Up is definitely worth some airtime in your headphones.

Or whatever it is you play your music through these days…