As we continue to give the Beastie Boys their flowers just about every year that one of their LPs celebrates an anniversary divisible by five, and as the locations that have defined the band over the past four decades continue to literally become landmarks celebrating them, there’s been little thought paid to new material from surviving members Mike D and Ad Rock. Yet after a string of quietly promoted shows around California lately, including a set at LA’s The Plaza Nightclub & Dance Hall last night with his group 5D (featuring members of his sons’ band Very Nice Person), this morning he’s dropped a new single called “Switch Up” that marks the first new material from a Beastie Boy since 2011’s Hot Sauce Committee Part 2.
You can listen to the three-and-a-half minute breakbeat recording below (which was made in collaboration with Very Nice Person), check out more images from the Plaza show below, and catch Mike on either coast later this month with a show at Sid the Cat Auditorium in Pasadena this Sunday and one at Xanadu in Brooklyn on May 22 and 23.
