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Beastie Boys played the 9:30 Club in DC, reissuing Paul's Boutique & releasing a new album in '09

Beastie Boys @ 9:30 Club, Washington DC, January 19, 2009 (Peter Hutchins)
Beastie Boys

“What to say. it was an amazing week for citizens of the world. A tremendous moment in time and in history. It’s been said so much already, but it is all true. Finally, for at least a moment, the premise and the promise of what America is: equal opportunity for all, stops being hypothetical and becomes reality. A wake up call to the world at large that America is once again a land of potential and possibility, not privilege and greed. So many words and images have been put out there, so I will leave y’all with these few scattered images from our swing state travels:

This is and was a campaign by the people for the people. It really was inspiring seeing the many who sacrificed so much of their time, energy, and recourses for the Obama campaign. We are talking all types of people, from all types of places. In many cases traveling hundreds of miles to be of service in a state other then their own.Many students, yes, but also plenty of Bea Arthur types, regular working peeps, you name it. This was not about big money or infrastructure. I will always remember the rickety walk up field office in Milwaukee. Cots set up for people working long shifts. An impromptu day care. These are the people who did the work. On election day itself Yauch and I were in Denver, aka the big D for big E. We had the good fortune of watching the concession and acceptance speeches in a big ball room filled with peeps from the Colorado Obama campaign. I will always remember the beaming radiant smile on the face of a seventy something year old african american women following Obama’s acceptance speech. I can only imagine what that moment meant to her. Then there was the dancing and singing in the streets afterwords. I can’t remember ever seeing something like that in my lifetime. Maybe in europe after the world cup. In hind sight, the mood that night was more like people celebrating the end of a dictatorship then a democratic election.”
Mike D (November 12, 2008)

Beastie Boys recently announced that “It’s true – we’re reissuing a digitally remastered version of Paul’s Boutique to celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary.” Amazon adds: “digitally re-mastered for the 1st time, overseen personally by the band to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the release. The original vinyl artwork has been faithfully restored in this 8 panel eco-friendly limited edition CD with fold-out poster.”

Beastie Boys played the “Hey, America Feels Kinda’ Cool Again, Inaugural Gala” last night at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC with Sheryl Crow, Citizen Cope, and Justin Jones. Proceeds from the show went to Rock The Vote.

Beastie Boys are ALSO working on and/or finished with new material for a new album release in 2009. They (don’t actually) talk about it in the video below…