Archive for the ‘Cat Power’ Category

Modern Guilt Stuff

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

So over the last week, there’s been a little bit of news here and there, thought I’d provide a summary.

Two weekends ago, Beck sold tickets on Saturday morning to a show here in LA Monday night. It was at his usual pre-tour warmup club, The Echo (he’s done this 3-4 times in the last few years). On Monday afternoon, the show was cancelled, citing scheduling conflicts. Also there were unsubstantiated rumors about that Beck was unhappy that there were scalpers scalping the tickets for obscene amounts. Either way, show didn’t happen.

Then last night, Beck and his new band finally played The Echo. There was not very much advance notice to fans, tickets weren’t sold. The LA Times, after the fact, called it “invitation-only.” They played a bunch of hits, and 4 of the new songs. I’ll put more on the show on Hijacked Flavors when I get a chance.

Beck’s new band is guitarist (Jessica Dobson (who makes music as Deep Sea Driver), Bram Inscore on bass, Scott McPherson on drums (who played with Elliott Smith), and Brian LeBarton is back on keys (until Wounded Cougar takes off again). Welcome to the new band members!

The album, by the way, is thus:

1. Orphans (with Cat Power)
2. Gamma Ray
3. Chemtrails (listen to it on beck.com!)
4. Modern Guilt (watch Beck play it live at the Echo last night here!)
5. Youthless (also the name of an old poetry zine Beck made as a kid)
6. Walls (with Cat Power)
7. Replica (apparently drum-n-bass-y)
8. Souls Of A Man
9. Profanity Prayers
10. Volcano

Not sure what happened to the song “Beggar’s Shoes” yet; it could be “Soles Of A Man” maybe?

Also… expect the album in about a month (or so I’m told; it could change).

Modern Guilt

Monday, May 12th, 2008

Rolling Stone has more info, if you haven’t heard already, about the new album. To sum: it’s got a mix of songs, a good 60s vibe, was played mostly just by DangerMouse and Beck, and may be called Modern Guilt. Four songs include “Modern Guilt” (sounds like The Zombies, who Beck has covered before), “Beggar’s Shoes” (“twangy guitar and uptempo beat”), “Chem Trails” (epic with Joey Stagecoach Waronker on drums), and “Walls” (melancholy with Cat Power).

YEA!

Here’s the link.

New Album Summary

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

OK, yesterday’s article was followed by a little bit more information on the new album, so I thought I’d sum up what we know. This could very well be out-of-date by tomorrow morning, but let’s see:

– Earlier this year, Beck told Rolling Stone, “We’re not going to get sidetracked. This one might be coming out sooner than people would think — definitely this year.”

– In that article, Beck refused to name who he was working with as his producer (some initial reports said it was Nigel Godrich). We have since learned that Beck has teamed up with Danger Mouse! How’d that happen? Beck’s longtime friend/band leader/bassist, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, worked with Gnarls Barkley, and set them up.

– An article about Danger Mouse in Rolling Stone said he had been tirelessly working on the new Beck album in early March.

– As I said yesterday, some news leaked out that the album was imminent, a quick release in the next month or so.

– Now we’re getting little hints that the album is full of collaborations, including one with my future girlfriend, Cat Power. There were earlier reports that Beck was in the studio (prior to Danger Mouse getting there), messing around with Jamie Lidell. That, I guess, is another possibility for a collaboration. Anything else is just pure speculation at this point.

– Beck’s touring band (i.e., Wounded Cougar) helped out a little on this record, but not much.

– And finally, Beck’s first quote about the album from here: “Beck describes the new set as the most concise collection of music he’s ever created. “The goal was 10 songs, 30 minutes, every song over before you want it to be. No fast-forward material. Anything that gave us any trouble was scrapped. There’s no fat on this record whatsoever.”

Stay tuned for more!