Upcoming Works

March 3rd, 2010 by

Hi, Beck freaks. Every once in awhile, I like to summarize the upcoming releases and news. As I’ve said on here before, we’re not really a news blog in a normal way, but like to keep you up with everything (and especially the things, say, Pitchfork may not know about).

The last couple of years, we know Beck has been extremely busy. And since there’s been no shows, that means lots of records! While there’s nothing concrete about any new Beck albums, there are a lot of upcoming things to look forward to. In no particular order:

1. Jamie Lidell Compass: A few years ago, Jamie opened a tour for Beck, and they’ve done some unreleased tracks together (and Record Club 3). When he was starting his new album, Beck called and asked if he needed production help, and they spent a number of sessions working on tracks. The album is done, will be released on May 18, and Beck is on about half the tracks (producing, writing, playing instruments).

2. Tobacco Maniac Meat: The lead guy of the cool electro group, Black Moth Super Rainbow, has a few solo albums. His new one is out on May 25, and Beck added vocals and lyrics to two tracks: “Fresh Hex” and “Grape Aerosmith.” Here’s a story about the collaboration.

3. Scott Pilgrim soundtrack: A movie is being made of the comic/graphic novel series, Scott Pilgrim. I haven’t read it, but it concerns a lot of bands. Beck has provided the music for one of the bands, apparently recording a ton of two-man garage band rock tracks with Brian LeBarton for it. The movie is out in the summer, not sure what’s planned for the soundtrack, which was compiled by Nigel Godrich.

4. “Life During Wartime”: Beck and Devendra Banhart perform the title track to the upcoming Todd Solandz film, Life During Wartime. (It is not the Talking Heads classic of the same name.)

5. Record Club 4: The great third Record Club just finished, and beck.com says that the fourth will return in a couple of weeks (and with “big surprises”). Keep checking Beck.com for that!

6. John Martyn tribute album: Beck has covered John Martyn in the past, in the early 2000s, he used to do “Go Easy” live on occasion. Martyn unfortunately died last year, and Beck is giving a version of “Stormbringer” to an upcoming tribute album. He recorded this in Nashville a few years ago, when he and his band stopped in and did a bunch of covers (he put a Lee Hazlewood cover up on beck.com once from this sessoin). I have no other info about when the album will be released.

7. The full cover of Sonic Youth’s album, Evol seems to have been forgotten. I wonder what happened to this? Last April, a vinyl single came out from it (“Green Light”), but nothing else has been mentioned since. Some reports said it was to be on cassette only. Where is this, I’m dying to hear it!

8. Beck was in the studio recording last November or so, according to beck.com. No mention on what exactly.

Those are the ones worth mentioning–there’s other old recordings that seem to have just been for fun (direct-to-vinyl studio experiments and stuff), and are probably long-gone.

If anyone hears anything else, or recalls anything I’ve forgotten, let us know!

UPDATE: Thanks Scott, I don’t know how I forgot about this! About a year ago, we got a free mp3 saying it was from the lost 2nd K Records album, and a promise that more was coming. This hasn’t happened yet, and nothing else has been heard from it or of it! How frustrating.

Posted in Beck, beck.com, Brian Lebarton, Evol, Jamie Lidell, News, Nigel Godrich, Releases | 2 Comments »

Compass Spinning Like A Gambling Wheel

February 8th, 2010 by

So hot on the heels of Beck’s collaboration with Charlotte Gainsbourg comes today’s news that he appears on the upcoming album, Compass by Jamie Lidell.

Lidell, of course, is on the current third Record Club, which should be wrapping up soon (there’s one track left on the album, unless they did some of the CD bonus tracks). I’m told there will be a fourth Record Club, but have no idea who is on it or what they covered. I have some theories based on who was in Los Angeles 6 months ago, but we’ll wait and see. :)

Lidell first entered Beck’s circle when he opened one of the Information tours. Lidell would often play with the band, as well as doing sets with them in spontaneous bar shows. Since then, the two have recorded together occasionally (we know about this and this but both are unreleased). Nothing had been released until Record Club 3. Also appearing on Compass is Brian LeBarton, James Gadson, Feist, and Nikka Costa (who is married to Wounded Cougar guitarist, Justin Stanley, so I’m hoping more WuCu is on there too).

UPDATE: A couple of hours after I wrote this, Beck.com notes a bit more about what his involvement was with this record: “Beck worked last year with singer Jamie Lidell on his new forthcoming album The Compass. He produced, recorded and co-wrote songs, as well as performed on several others. Sessions began early last year and continued in the summer. The album will be out in May but you can hear the first song “The Compass,” which was recorded by Beck at Oceanway Studios (where Sea Change and Mutations were done) and features him on acoustic guitar and percussion. “

Posted in Beck, Brian Lebarton, Jamie Lidell, Record Club, Releases | No Comments »

An IRMinder

January 26th, 2010 by

Charlotte Gainsbourg’s new album, IRM, came out today in the United States and Canada. Beck wrote all the songs, and played most of the instruments, and put a lot of work into the record. Go pick it up today!

PS. Charlotte is appearing on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic on Wednesday January 27. Beck is supposed to appear with her; he hasn’t played with her at any of the other promo shows or gigs she’s done so far. (link).

Posted in Beck, Charlotte Gainsbourg | 1 Comment »

Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg Shows and Press

December 10th, 2009 by

So, the Charlotte Gainsbourg album, IRM, has been released in Europe. It is due out in North America in early January. So some promotions and stuff have started, including shows and TV appearences (at least in France, anyway). My understanding is that some of Beck’s band went and backed her on some shows last month, though Beck may not have been involved (see this video, which has Bram Inscore and Brian LeBarton, but no Beck). However, it appears from this blog that they are going back this week to do more, and this time Beck will be involved.

So if anyone is in France and reads this blog, and hears more or goes to any shows, please let us know. If you can record any TV appearences, tape any concerts, grab any setlists, etc. please share with us: computergirls@whiskeyclone.net.

I’ve heard IRM and I must say, I think it is quite impressive. Beck and Charlotte have done some press for the album, there’s some up on charlottegainsbourg.com. Hearing about how they collaborated was very interesting. (However, some are in French. If anyone can pull any useful info out of any interviews, or maybe links to interviews, again, drop us a line!)

UPDATE: I’ve since learned that Beck is NOT in Paris on this trip either. Whether he will be playing any shows in the future with Charlotte, I’m not sure. But as of now, we as a Beck site, don’t need to track the setlists and things. But feel free to share if anything cool pops up!

Posted in Beck, Charlotte Gainsbourg | 3 Comments »

new section: horrible fanfare

December 6th, 2009 by

Today we’re launching a new section of whiskeyclone.net, called Horrible Fanfare. This is a section in which we share fan-made comics about or related to Beck and his music. It should be pretty fun times.

So far we have a great issue based on Mexico, contributed by the very talented Suedehead. It’s pretty awesome. We also have a little comic that we made, starring Beck and based on Spider-Man’s first appearance ever, in Amazing Fantasy #15. Both comics are available to view online, or to download in CBR and PDF formats.

For any budding artists or writers out there, we are open to more submissions. Drop us a line at computergirls@whiskeyclone.net.

A word on technical issues: there will be some. We wanted to make this new section pretty and fancy and fun, and we’re using some fancy tech to do it. For some of you, this may cause issues. If you run into trouble, please let us know in the comments.

Posted in Announcements, Art, Beck, Whiskeyclone, Whiskeyclone Updates | 1 Comment »

Harry Partch

November 18th, 2009 by

So earlier this year, Radiohead released a song called “Harry Patch (In Memory Of).” It was only sold online, and was about the last surviving British veteran of World War I. Then earlier this month, the dude from the Fiery Furnaces went on an anti-Radiohead rant, which included some nonsense about how stupid it was they wrote a song about Harry Partch. Partch is an experimental composer and musician. He concluded his rant by saying “I’d make fun of Beck too, but I’m afraid of Scientologists.” All for press right? But since nobody gives a shit about the Fiery Furnaces and their lame novelty albums, everyone promptly ignored it. Except Beck, who is showing them who rules around here. He apparently wrote a song about Harry Partch and it will be on beck.com later today. Cool!

Posted in Beck, Releases | 2 Comments »

Stuff

November 12th, 2009 by

Evening! Sorry it’s been 2 months since an update. As I say regularly, this isn’t necessarily a news blog, but I do like to keep you up-to-date. Beck’s been up to a few things lately that I thought I’d mention.

Record Club: The second Record Club (Songs Of Leonard Cohen) ended last week. Devendra and MGMT and Beck had a good time going through the songs, even drastically changing some of them. Record Club #3 begins today as well! It’s Skip Spence’s Oar. Beck’s covered some of Oar in the past, releasing “Halo Of Gold” on a tribute to Skip album, and doing “Little Hands” live once. This Record Club involves Wilco, Feist, Jeff Tweedy’s son Spencer, James Gadson, Jamie Lidell, and Brian LeBarton. The first song is up on beck.com now, check for it every Thursday! (Also, still no word about what the fourth Record Club will be!)

Charlotte: Also the album Beck cowrote and produced with Charlotte Gainsbourg has started to hit the webs. It will be released in January, I think. The stuff I’ve heard sounds cool, it’s creative and promises to be interesting.

Devendra: Beck and Devendra Banhart recorded the title song for a movie called “Life During Wartime.” (It’s not the Talking Heads classic.) I’m not sure when the movie is coming out or what.

Jamie: In describing the new Record Club, Beck mentions that “Jamie Liddell was in the studio with me working on his new record.” This was last June. Are they collaborating? Beck producing? This is news, and should promise to be great. (Jamie opened some of the Information tours.)

Norah: Pitchfork reported that Beck did a remix of a song for Norah Jones. She also said she wanted Beck to produce her new album, but chickened out in asking. :(

Beck: I don’t know what, but recently on beck.com Beck mentioned that he’d been in the studio for the last month. (That’s why there was a break in Planned Obsolescence DJ mixes, and probably some of the other sections.) New album?

Posted in Beck | 5 Comments »

Quick Note re: MGMT

September 12th, 2009 by

I noted earlier who was involved with the current Record Club recordings.  I took what Beck listed on beck.com to start that post… well I just noticed that beck.com’s comments changed.  Initially, it had said that Matt from MGMT was there… but now it says “This time around the group includes Devendra Banhart, Ben, Andrew and Will from MGMT.”

There is both a Matt and a Will involved with MGMT, but it looks like it was Will Berman there and not Matt Asti, for those keeping track.  (And it might just be me.)

Posted in Beck, Record Club | No Comments »

album covers

September 4th, 2009 by

songs of leonard cohen – beck.com

modern guilt – beck.com

modern guilt – hugo & marie

velvet underground & nico – beck.com

odelay – that guy sven

Posted in Art, Beck | 1 Comment »

Record Club #2

September 3rd, 2009 by

… started today over on beck.com with the classic Songs Of Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen’s first album. It is full of amazing poetic songs and haunting folk melodies—that can easily be reinterpreted every which way. This sounds like it will be an experimental and creative Record Club.

Go and enjoy!

The band according to beck.com is Beck, Devendra Banhart, Ben Goldwasser & Andrew VanWyngarden & Matthew Asti (from the band MGMT), Andrew Stockdale from Wolfmother, Binki Shapiro from Little Joy, and two members of Beck’s band (and the last Record Club), Brian Lebarton and Bram Inscore.

Connections! Beck and Devendra are apparently friends, as Devendra opened a show for Beck, and they did a joint interview together in some guitar magazine once. Beck I believe said that one of Devendra’s songs is one of his son’s favorites, and at the show they did together, they sang a couple of songs together. Also reportedly, Beck has produced a song with Devendra for some upcoming release (details sketchy, but Beck mentioned it in an interview).

MGMT opened much of Beck’s Modern Guilt tours, and they shared the stage a few times (including this crazy show, which by the way, someone must have a recording of to share with us?).

Binki Shapiro is also a friend, an LA musician, she appeared in some of the Information videos and sang backup on a Sia song (which Beck also sang backup on).

Beck said “Andrew [Stockdale] from Wolfmother showed up at some point. That’s how it’s been working out. We’ll get together a group of people, and other people start showing up.”

Leonard Cohen was one of Beck’s stated influences on Sea Change. (Anyone got the quote?)

Posted in Beck, Downloads, Evol, Record Club, Remixes | 1 Comment »

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