Archive for the ‘News’ Category

It’s My Fault For Being Famous: Beck & The White Stripes Collaborate

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

So a few weeks back, The White Stripes announced an upcoming single with a “special guest,” and yes, as any good Beck fan thought, the possibility of it being Beck had to have been high. 

 And we were right!  Pitchfork has the story… Beck produced the b-sides for the upcoming White Stripes’ “Conquest” single, and played on a couple of them.

A recap of all the times Beck and the Stripes have worked together (this is from memory, so I make no promise for it being complete):

1. Beck appeared in the Stripes’ video for “The Hardest Button To Button” (see it here).

2. Beck showed up to play bass on “The Denial Twist” at the Stripes’ show in LA in August 2005.

3. Jack showed up to play guitar with Beck & Smokey Hormel at their show in Detroit in August 2002.  They played “99,” “Last Fair Deal Gone Down,” and “Cold Brains.”

4. Jack plays bass on “Go It Alone” on Guero, and they reportedly did a few other songs together then too (but it’s the only one that’s out yet).

5. In a photo gallery on beck.com, Meg was pictured, hanging out with Beck and his band on a boat in Australia (I think in 2003).

6. Beck covered “Black Math” once on stage (a bootleg surfaced of this show, but it has not fallen into the hands of Beck collectors yet).

7. Jack White interviewed Beck once, read it here.

That’s all I got. 

My Summer News

Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

Hello, sorry for the lack of updates, but Beck’s been quiet.  But there’s a few new things to note here.

 1. “Timebomb”–a song Beck has played live a few times–will be a digital single soon, according to the .com.  No word on when exactly, or where (probably iTunes, as Beck’s album covers are all over iPod commercials).  Hopefully there will be b-sides!  “Timebomb” is a fun song.  There will also apparently be a 12″ vinyl version too.

 2. So for a while we’ve heard about the Deluxe 10th Anniversary version of Odelay.  It has not happened, and it has been 11 years since Odelay was released.  But I’m told that Odeluxe is still being worked on, and a release is still planned.  Stay optimistic!  (There’s also plans for another deluxe version of an older album, but I can’t tell you which one quite yet!)

 3. Beck recently put up a nice tribute to Jeremy Blake on .com, and promises a tribute to Ingmar Bergman soon.  I guess there is a reason to go to beck.com now!  Keep using the site for things, Beck.

 4. Beck’s been in and out of the studio for the last few months, doing different things.  I posted about some of them before on here.  It is still, as usual, up in the air what will come out and when.

5. Also Beck’s band has released an album (Beck’s not on it).  They’re called Wounded Cougar, and you need the record.  Even if you are not interested in hard rockin’ facemeltin’ heavy metal, you probably do want to support a bunch of amazing musicians putting out their own records completely independently.  Go to their myspace for info on how to get the record.

beck interviewed for new elliott smith book

Tuesday, May 15th, 2007

From Spin:

Elliott Smith, the troubadour behind haunting acoustic compositions such as “Needle in the Hay” whose life came to an untimely end in 2003, will be memorialized with Elliott Smith, a 200-plus-page photo book compiled by renowned photographer Autumn de Wilde, the same lady behind the lens of the cover shot from the singer/songwriter’s 2000 album Figure 8. The book, also containing Smith’s handwritten lyrics and interviews from Ashley Welch, Smith’s sister, Beck, Ben Gibbard, Chris Walla (Death Cab), and Matthew Caws (Nada Surf), among others, will arrive in November courtesy of Chronicle Books, alongside a five song CD of previously unreleased live material. The project’s proceeds will be donated to the SIMS Foundation to supply affordable mental health care to musicians, and Outside In, a Portland, OR-based homeless youth non-profit group…

De Wilde then recorded chats with the likes of Beck and Walla — whose discussion on being photographed will become the book’s forward — Caws, and Welch, as well as Mark Flanagan, owner of L.A.’s Largo Club, Neil Gust (Heatmiser), Sam Coomes (Quasi/Heatmiser), producers Rob Schnapf and Jon Brion, and Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie), the latter an individual who had never known Smith, but divulged the late musician’s deep influence unto his music.

Autumn De Wilde has worked with Beck on a number of occasions, I believe. I seem to remember her taking a whole bunch of photos for him and his albums. Anybody know which ones?

beck on ginsberg dvd

Tuesday, May 15th, 2007

Beck will be in the special features of the DVD for the 1994 movie The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, which will be released July 17, 2007.

tour/new album update from JMJ

Friday, April 27th, 2007

JMJ has posted a new blog on his MySpace and his web site. Of note for Beck fans:

Just back from Beck Japan/Australia run, probably the final leg of touring in support of “The Information”. It was pretty fantastic. Lots of rocking, good meals, riding bikes, seeing temples, shaking hands, taking photos, going to clubs, and long flights. Got some super cute and bizarre presents for my Zelly. Good to be home, but it’s always sad to me to put the final button on an album cycle. I always wish there was more….

Starting on new Beck album in fairly short order…in fact, I’d say we’ve actually already begun a while ago.

There’s more there, so go read the whole thing.

Bonus link: Brian Lebarton has been putting up a ton of awesome pics at his Flickr page.

a single solid light

Friday, February 9th, 2007

More news from HMV Japan via HamBeck. Also coming out on April 4 (in addition to Odelay Deluxe) will be an 18-disc singles boxset. The tracklist will be:

Disc 1 「LOOSER」
1. Looser
2. Corvette Bummer
3. Alcohl
4. Soul Suckin Jerk(reject)
5. Fume
6. Totally Confused
7. MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack
8. Steal My Body Home

Disc 2 「BEERCAN」
1. Beercan
2. Got No Mind
3. Asskizz powergrudge(Payback!’94)
4. Spanking Room
5. Loser(pseudo-muzak)

Disc 3 「PAY NO MIND(Snoozer)」
1. Pay No Mind
2. Special People
3. Trouble All My Days
4. Supergolden

Disc 4 「WHERE IT’S AT」
1. Where It’s At(Edit)
2. Make Out City(remix by Mike Simpson)
3. Where It’s At(remix by Mario C.and Mickey P.)
4. Where It’s At(remix by John King)
5. Bounus Beats6. Where It’s At(remix by U.N.K.L.E)

Disc 5 「DEVILS HAIRCUT」
1. Devils Haircut
2. Dark And Lovely(remix by The Dust Brothers)
3. American Wasteland(remix by Mickey P.)
4. .000.000
5. Devils Haircut(remix by Noel Gallagher)
6 Groovy sunday(remix by Mike Sipmson)
7. Lloyd Price Express(remix by John King)
8. Clock

Disc 6 「THE NEW POLLUTION」
1. The New Pollution
2. Richard’s Hairpiece(remix by Aphex Twin)
3. Electric Music And The Summer People
4. The New Pollution(Mario C.& Mickey P.remix)
5. Lemonade
6. Thunder Peel

Disc 7 「SISSYNECK」
1. Sissyneck
2. The New Pollution(remix by Mickey P)
3. Feather In Your Cap

Disc 8 「JACK-ASS」
1. Jack-Ass
2. Jack-Ass(Butch Vig mix)
3. Jack-Ass(Lowrider mix by Butch Vig)
4. Burro(Mariachi Version)
5. Strange Invitation
6. Devils Got My Woman(Skip James cover)
7. Brother

Disc 9 「DEADWEIGHT」
1. Deadweight(Edit)
2. Erase The Sun
3. SA-5

Disc 10 「TROPICALIA」
1. Tropicalia
2. Halo Of Gold
3. Black Ballon

Disc 11 「NOBODY’S FAULT BUT MY OWN」
1. Nobody’s Fault But My Own
2. One Of These Days
3. Diamond In The Sleaze

Disc 12 「SEXX LAWS」
1. Sexx Laws
2. Salt In The Wound
3. Sexx Laws(Wizeguyz remix)
4. Sexx Laws(Malibu remix)
5. Sexx Laws(Instrumental)
6. Sexx Laws(A Cappella)
7. Sexx Laws(Wizeguyz Instrumental remix)
8. Sexx Laws(Wizeguyz Bonus Dub)
9. Sexx Laws(Night Flight To Ojai)

Disc 13 「MIXED BIZNESS」
1. Mixed Bizness
2. Mixed Bizness(Nu Wave Dreamix)
3. Mixed Bizness(Cornelius remix)
4. Mixed Bizness(DJ Me DJ You remix 01)
5. Dirty Dirty
6. Mixed Bizness(Dirty Bixin Mixness)
7. Arabian Nights
8. Mixed Bizness(Alternative Mix)
9. Mixed Bizness(Cornelius Instrumental)
10. Mixed Bizness(DJ Me DJ You remix #2)
11. Mixed Bizness(Transatlantic Rmx)
12. Mixed Bizness(Fernando G. Rmx)
13. Mixed Bizness(Transatlantic Rmx Instrumental)
14. Mixed Bizness(The Latain Mix)
15. Mixed Bizness(Hardmix)

Disc 14 「NICOTINE & GRAVY」
1. Nicotine & Gravy
2. Midnight Vultures
3. Zatyricon

Disc 15 「E-Pro」
1. E-Pro
2. Venom Confection(E-Pro remix by Green.Music & Gold)
3. Ghost Range
4. Bad Cartridge

Disc 16 「Girl」
1. Girl
2. Girl(Recluse Street Remix by Octet)
3. Bit Rate Variations in B-Flat
4. Girl(Junior Senior Remix)

Disc 17 「HELL YES」
1. Hell Yes
2. Ghettochip Malfunction
3. Gucci Bag in Flames
4. Gameboy / Homeboy
5. Fax Machine Anthem

Disc 18 「BLACK TAMBOURINE」
1. Black Tambourine
2. Black Tambourine(Instrumental)
3. Black Tambourine(South Rakkas Crew Remix)
4. Superthriller Daddy Daddy Remix)

The price for this collection is listed at ¥12,600, which is about US$100.

deluxe cockroach telling me what’s real

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

Hi everyone.

I have some exciting news for you. Most of you have probably already heard that a deluxe version of The Information is coming out soon (Feb 27 in North America). It’ll have the international bonus tracks, a bunch of remixes, homemade videos for all the songs except O Menina, and two studio videos.

Last year, though, we kept hearing news about a deluxe 10th anniversary edition of Odelay coming out. When 2006 ended without official word of the rerelease, many of us gave up hope of seeing it. Well, it’s back, baby! HMV Japan has a page up for the rerelease! There’s not much information there, other than a release date (April 4) and the fact that it’ll be 2 CDs. Hopefully we get official confirmation and a tracklist soon. And hopefully there’s some new stuff on there that we haven’t heard before.

(Thanks to my favourite Japanese Beck blog HamBeck for linking to this.)

2006 Year in Review

Thursday, January 4th, 2007

It may be a little bit late for this, but who doesn’t enjoy a good year-end review? 2006 was a good year for Beck fans, so I’ve put together this list of all the new Beck stuff that was released or discovered last year. For all the non-commercially-released stuff, make sure to head over to the BeckTabs hub, your Mecca for Beck earcandy media. (I can’t believe I wrote earcandy. I apologize.)

Keep in mind, this list is leaving out a whole mess of great concerts, club gigs and TV appearances, not to mention videos, puppet shows, t-shirts and lots of other great stuff. You can find a lot of that on the hub, too.

December

November

October

September

August

July

March

January

So what am I leaving off? Any major Beck events you think deserve attention? Let us know in the comments!

(On a personal note, I saw Beck perform three times in 2006, tying with 2002. Yeah, me!)

When The Information Comes, We’ll Know What We’re Made From

Sunday, October 1st, 2006

So it’s Information Week around the world.. if Beck’s new album isn’t out where you are already, it should be really soon. Nothing as fun as when a new album gets released. There’s 15 tracks on it, and depending on where you are, any number of the three bonus tracks (“Inside Out,” “Oh Menina,” and “This Girl That I Know”). Each CD comes with a DVD full of homemade videos for each song. The CD also comes with one of four sticker sets, with which you can make your own cover. Enjoy! If you want to mail a picture of your covers to this site, I guess they’ll be displayed. It seems like “Cell Phone’s Dead” and “Nausea” are going to be singles, but to what extent, I’m not sure (“real” videos were made for both) (fingers crossed for b-sides).
The band is doing a short US tour this month, with the idea of a fuller tour a bit later on. Go see them, they’re an energetic, fun, and tight band. I saw them last week and had a blast.

Looking to the future.. there obviously isn’t much talk about that yet. Beck was asked in a recent podcast/interview about that, and it sounds like he’ll be working Information for a bit.

Hardware Defective

Saturday, July 22nd, 2006

The first single from Beck’s new album (no name, nor release date known, yet) is called “Cell Phone’s Dead.”  A video was shot by Michel Gondry.  Bootleg collectors will know the song as “Knock Out” from some of the club shows in early 2005.  You can hear the song over at Beck.com now… enjoy!