Archive for December, 2007

new beck demos surface

Sunday, December 23rd, 2007

Our good friend Kristofer has recently acquired some previously-unknown Beck demos! Yeah! These are four-track tapes that are possibly – and this is Kristofer’s belief – the original tapes Beck recorded onto. They feature a number of songs that we’ve come to associate with the 1992 Demo and Don’t Get Bent Out of Shape, which appear to be compilations of this and other material (kind of like Fresh Meat & Old Slabs).

The first tape is labeled Are ??? U Positive. There’s a pic below – can anybody figure out what the mystery word is? Kristofer suggests “feeling”, as in “are you feeling positive”. What do you guys think?

Are ???? U Positive 1Are ???? U Positive 2

Tracklist:

  1. Are You Postive
  2. I’ve Just Seen a Facelift
  3. Trash Can
  4. Mmmmmmmmmm
  5. Fuck You Up & Get High
  6. Tough Fuckin Shit

The second tape is labeled R-Marcel or R-Maxcel or B-Marcel or B-Maxcel or something like that. Any suggestions on this one?

R-Maxcel 1R-Maxcel 2

Tracklist:

  1. Satan Was Way Cool
  2. Don’t Believe the Joke They Put on You
  3. In This World
  4. A Man Named Will
  5. Whiskey Be Your Lover
  6. Don’t Get Bent Out of Shape

Some other notes about the tapes:

  • They seem to be from 1992, though R-Marcel or whatever might be from eariler.
  • Both sleeves feature pictures of a young Beck. Are You Positive‘s sleeve is regular paper, R-Marcel‘s is regular paper covered in tape.
  • It’s unclear at this point whether these songs are the exact same versions that we already have from other tapes. Kristofer will confirm shortly after the holidays.
  • Kristofer will eventually share these on the hub, once he’s able to digitize them.

Post your questions, comments and suggestions and we’ll try to get everything answered!

deluxe Odelay official release date and tracklist

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

Odeluxe January 29th woot

From rollingstone.com:

On January 29th, Beck will release a double-disc deluxe version of his 1996 album Odelay that includes sixteen B-sides and compilation tracks that haven’t seen U.S. release before, as well as two never-before-released songs from the album’s original sessions produced by the Dust Brothers: “Inferno” and “Gold Chains.” The second disc also includes remixes by Aphex Twin, Mario Caldato Jr. and U.N.K.L.E., plus “Burro,” a Spanish-language rendition of “Jackass” recorded with a mariachi band.

Woo! Inferno! Yes! Gold Chains? Ok, cool!

I’m hoping there’s more new stuff than that (original Debra?), but I’m happy enough that we finally get Inferno.

UPDATE:

From marketwire.com:

Disc One of “Odelay – Deluxe Edition” adds to that original album two never before heard Dust Brothers-produced tracks from the “Odelay” sessions, “Inferno” and “Gold Chains,” and “Deadweight” from the film “A Life Less Ordinary.” Disc Two’s 16 selections include “Thunder Peel,” co-produced by Mario Caldato Jr.; the U.N.K.L.E. (featuring James Lavelle) remix of “Where It’s At,” and Aphex Twin and Mickey P. remixes of “Devil’s Haircut” (titled “Richard’s Hairpiece” and “American Wasteland,” respectively). Also heard are the once international-only b-sides “Clock,” “Electric Music and The Summer People,” “Lemonade,” “SA-5,” “Feather In Your Cap,” “Erase The Sun,” “000.000,” “Brother,” “Trouble All My Days,” “Strange Invitation,” “Devil Got My Woman,” (a cover of the Skip James classic recorded at the original Sun Studios in Memphis before they closed their doors) and “Burro” — a Spanish language version of “Jackass” recorded with a mariachi band.

That pretty much covers the whole tracklist, so it looks like the only new material is Inferno and Gold Chains. I guess we’ll have to keep waiting on that original Debra track.

Speculative tracklist based on above:

DISC ONE

  1. Devils Haircut
  2. Hotwax
  3. Lord Only Knows
  4. The New Pollution
  5. Derelict
  6. Novacane
  7. Jack-ass
  8. Where It’s At
  9. Minus
  10. Sissyneck
  11. Readymade
  12. High 5 (Rock the Catskills)
  13. Ramshackle
  14. Inferno
  15. Gold Chains
  16. Deadweight [short version]

DISC TWO

  1. Thunder Peel [New Pollution single version]
  2. Where It’s At (U.N.K.L.E. Remix)
  3. Richard’s Hairpiece
  4. American Wasteland
  5. Clock
  6. Electric Music and the Summer People [New Pollution single version]
  7. Lemonade
  8. SA-5
  9. Feather In Your Cap [subUrbia / Stray Blues version]
  10. Erase the Sun
  11. .000.000
  12. Brother
  13. Trouble All My Days
  14. Strange Invitation
  15. Devil Got My Woman
  16. Burro

NPR interview with Jack White

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

NPR has a short audio interview with Jack White about the single/songs that the White Stripes released recently that Beck produced in his living room.

 You can buy these songs at iTunes now!  It’s the “Conquest” single, with the b-sides “It’s My Fault For Being Famous,” “Honey, We Can’t Afford To Look This Cheap,” “Cash Grab Complications On The Matter,” and a mariachi version of “Conquest.”

Beck’s Daniel Johnston cover remastered and rereleased

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

The Daniel Johnston Tribute album The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered was remastered and rereleased this week. It features Beck’s cover of True Love Will Find You in the End.

JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!

But way too late for Channukah.

[Amazon.com link]

Beck’s Timebomb becomes international dance craze!

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

An art student is using ‘Timebomb’ to get people dancing all over the world! Her project is called “Global Dancing Call and Response” and is an awesome idea:

Sarah Febbraro wants you to dance with her.

She wants everyone to dance with her.

The 32-year-old Art Institute of Chicago student and sometimes dance instructor has posted a short dance of her invention on youtube.com.

The idea is for people to learn it and in turn post videos of themselves cutting loose.

[Source]

Check out the original video below, followed by some response videos of others joining in.

Original:

Some responses:












International Fresh Meat And Old Slabs Week

Monday, December 17th, 2007

So, the other day I played Fresh Meat And Old Slabs for the first time in ages.  And I immediately declared it International Fresh Meat And Old Slabs Week.What does that mean?  I don’t know.  But if you are newer to Beck, it is a good time to download this old gem of a tape.  (You can do that at the BeckHub, instructions here–though use this address instead of the one listed: dc://becktabs.homelinux.org:1411 ).

These old tapes were what really made me a Beck fan.  Back in the day, you could easily get all the CDs, but what joy it was to get on old Beck fansites (Truck’s and Slo-Jam Central and Comat0se’s disco) and read about these tapes and songs.  There was a Beck mailing list too that made connecting with people and actually getting a copy of these tapes.  This spirit has definitely carried on to Whiskeyclone.net here and the group of us who regular the hub.

Fresh Meat itself is a very good collection of songs. Culled from a bunch of sessions/tapes such as Golden Feelings and Don’t Get Bent Out Of Shape, Beck reportedly put together this bunch of songs as a collection for his mother for her birthday. A few copies were distributed–I believe by Bibbe herself–and copies quickly spread among collectors.As a collection though, the tape is fantastic. It runs the gamut of weird tape experiments, hilarious folk songs, heartfelt blues, and lots of little sound interludes. Most of all, Beck shows his early folk/blues mastery with many of his early favorites: “Mexico,” “Heartland Feeling,” and different versions of “Satan Gave Me A Taco,” “Leave Me On The Moon” and “Hollow Log” than you’re probably familiar with. Fun! Not to mention my personal favorite Beck blues, “Going Nowhere Fast.”

My compass is spinning like a gambling wheel
It takes a hideous misfortune for to tell how I feel
Goin’ nowhere fast

I’m sick to my skin with silence and doom
I’ll break my back, I’ll cry on the moon
Goin’ nowhere fast  

What great verses!If you do have this tape, give it some play this week. Post your thoughts/rememberances/feelings below.

Reminder: From The Basement on Saturday!

Friday, December 14th, 2007

British Beck fans, don’t forget to watch (and record!) From the Basement featuring Beck tomorrow night, Saturday December 15th at 9PM on Sky Arts (Channel 267) and Sky HD (Channel 268).

For those of you who don’t know, this is a performance by Beck and his band (from last year I think) performing live in Nigel Godrich’s basement. Beck friend Jamie Lidell is also on the episode I believe.

Here’s a YouTube preview, unfortunately the same as the video I linked to before:

whiskeyclone.net megafeed + homepage updates

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

hello,

due to a request from one “cyanide breathmint” i have created an (almost) all-encompassing rss feed for whiskeyclone.net. its address is:

feed:http://whiskeyclone.net/rss.php

this feed includes:

  1. almost a ghost updates
  2. hijacked flavors updates
  3. paper tiger updates

it does not include:

  1. disco quebrado updates (i haven’t been tracking those and don’t have time to start right now; also, it’s not getting updated often)
  2. paper tiger comments (you can subscribe to those here)

in addition, the whiskeyclone.net homepage is pulling the five most recent entries in this feed and displaying them, so you can get up-to-date information there now.

i hope you all enjoy this. i know i do.

conquest EP out on itunes

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

the white stripes’ conquest single/ep is out on itunes in the us and canada, though i’m not sure about the rest of the world. beck produced the b-sides and appears on two of them.

vinyl should be out soon.

Wounded Cougar: Lick The Holidays!

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

I know this is a Beck blog but screw it, Wounded Cougar–the greatest band of all-time–Beck even thinks so*–has t-shirts for sale, and you need one.

 http://woundedcougar.bigcartel.com/product/eye-patch-bikinis-white-t-shirt

 Also, buy their CD here:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/woundedcougar

It’s the holiday season!  WUCU your friends and family with these gifts.  The more you buy, the more likely the band will be to record a second album!

 *He hasn’t said this, but can you prove he disagrees?