Beck

[kaysettes]

Look's like his new album The Information is set to drop October 3rd in the States. Two new tracks are streaming at his website, sounds a lot more groove intensive than Guero. A new video too. Hope you all enjoy!

[Drizzle06]

The new album is going to have a "design your own" cover. It will come with one of four sticker sheets and you get to create your own. I also heard that there will be a contest for the most creative cover, judged by Beck himself. The Link below has a bunch more info on the new album.

 

CNN.com - You can create Beck's new album cover

[Sir Stewart]

Sounds/looks like Beck started smoking lots of pot again.

[Albert Tatlock]

Me no like (apart from about half of Sea Change), but here you go:-

 

'I'm always in danger of being dismissed as a clown'

 

His album features madcap dialogue, his stageshow features performing puppets - but Beck would like to be taken seriously. By Chris Salmon

Thursday September 21, 2006. The Guardian

 

Recently Beck got into the shipping forecast. "I remember coming into the studio one day and my producer was sitting there listening to it on his computer," he says. "I was like, 'What the hell is that?' He told me, 'It's the most relaxing thing in the world.' He said he loves to listens to it in the bath." Beck agreed - "the voices are just so pleasant" - and decided to recreate it on the finale to his new album, The Information, inviting an English friend into the studio to read out the coastal station reports for Tiree, Stornoway and Lerwick (showers at all three). "It kind of matched the mood of the song," he says.

The 36-year-old's ninth album is a welcome return to his mid-1990s form; it has that old spring in its step and twinkle in its eye, with Beck laying his absurdist rhymes over hip-hop beats and silly samples (you can hear his dog panting at one point). There's also a long conversation between Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze running in the background.

 

"We brought them in, and we were going to have a commentary going through the whole album, almost like the two old men in The Muppets. It was hilarious. A heavy beat would kick in and they would go, 'Shit! Listen to that beat! That drummer is so confident!' But we couldn't fit it all in. I asked them, 'What would the ultimate record that ever could possibly be made sound like?' That's what they're going on about. They're saying it would be like an illuminated manuscript, handmade by monks. Or it would be a record that changed every time you listened to it. It was a great conversation."

Packaged with the album is a DVD of homemade videos for each song, featuring Beck and friends messing about in fancy dress (Devendra Banhart pops up, as does Beck's wife, the actor Marissa Ribisi, with whom he has a two-year-old son). The daft, Dali-esque clips ensure that even the album's introspective songs can't be accused of taking themselves too seriously.

 

At recent live shows, Beck has been joined onstage by marionettes, each of them dressed like a member of the band, each of them spending the entire show copying their human counterparts. The gap before the band's encore features a film of the puppets, made that day at whatever location they happen to be performing in. In Edinburgh, they bought little kilts and recreated Braveheart; at V Festival in Chelmsford, they visited the Portaloos; and in Staffordshire they trashed the dressing room of V headliners Radiohead. "Yeah, we apologised to Radiohead for that," says Beck. "But, y'know - what can we do? They're puppets."

 

For years he wanted robots on stage, but it was prohibitively expensive, so he settled on a puppet show instead. The four puppeteers he now takes on tour are serious professionals, and have worked on films such as Team America. "They're great. Sometimes I look back at them during a show and the puppets will be doing something completely ridiculous, like beating the shit out of each other or doing these slow-motion Matrix moves."

 

Beck is a funny mix of the very silly and the very serious - a philosopher-poet who likes dressing up and slapstick. But even on The Information's home videos he never strays for long from his persona as the deadpan hipster. "I am quite straight, yeah," he agrees. "There has been a lot of humour in my music, but I think maybe there's a mistrust of that in musicians. I guess you're always in danger of being dismissed as a clown."

 

He has combined these two aspects of himself, the straight man and the clown, throughout his musical career, consistently changing and developing. In the 12 years since he burst onto the scene with his slacker anthem Loser, he's shifted effortlessly from lo-fi rapper to lounge lizard, and then from "the new Prince" of Midnite Vultures to dusty folk troubadour.

 

"I've just followed wherever the sounds take me," says Beck. Right at the start of his career, he brokered a deal whereby he could release noisy, experimental records on an independent label , Bong Load (1994's abstract Stereopathic Soulmanure) and more commercial work on a major label, Geffen. The arrangement soon came to an end when, to Beck's annoyance, Geffen decided to release one of his indie efforts themselves (1998's Mutations). But if his indie days are behind him, he has continued to avoid making obvious choices - probably at the expense of greater mainstream success.

 

"I think if you're going to be one of the artists that rides the top the whole time, you can't afford to take chances and experiment the way I have," he shrugs. "But that's what I do. It's the choice I made. If I was in this to achieve some sort of mass acceptance, or for the money, I'd proceed from a totally different place." He sees himself as an outsider, and for years worked on the assumption that his career could collapse at any moment. "So I just had a laugh with it, y'know. I didn't take it seriously for a long, long time." This might explain his lyrics. You might be able to hum Beck hits such as Devil's Haircut or The New Pollution, but I'd hazard a guess you haven't the foggiest what they're about. A journalist once asked Beck the meaning of a couple of lines from Loser: "My time is a piece of wax falling on a termite/That's choking on the splinters." "I don't know," came the considered reply.

 

Around the turn of the millennium, when Beck hit 30, he had a rethink about the temporary nature of his career. "I sort of realised that I would still be making records and that people are actually listening," he says. "So I decided I'd like to say something." He made Sea Change, an album that painfully detailed his break-up with long-term partner Leigh Limon; musically, its downbeat folk-rock lacked Beck's usual sparkle.

 

What makes this new album so rewarding is its successful marriage of his quirky, beats-driven side with his more direct, emotional writing. One minute he's spitting classic Beck nonsense verse, the next he's singing sweet love songs or worrying about the state of the world. One track, Dark Star, seems to criticise American foreign policy, however obliquely - "A widow's tears washing a soldier's bones/Sterilised egos, delirium sequels/Punctured by the arrows of American eagles". Beck won't be drawn on his politics, however. "The whole mood of the country is in some of the songs," is all he'll say.

 

He will admit to being a Scientologist, although in the past he has been reluctant to talk about it. Today, he insists he's always happy to discuss it. "I think journalists are more uncomfortable [with it]," he says, "but I'm fine." While he doesn't come across as particularly knowledgeable or passionate on the subject, he explains that Scientology is "something that you can draw on. It's helpful." I ask him why Scientology is surrounded by so much mystery. "I think that's in the media," he says. "It's very open and the actuality of it is quite different." So it's a positive thing? "Oh yeah, absolutely. Doors are open. People go and have lunch."

 

He insists that the Church of Scientology is a "humanitarian" organisation that does sterling work in terms of drug rehabilitation, education and counselling. "When we had 9/11, besides the police and the firefighters, they were the ones allowed in there, 'cos they effectively could help," he says.

 

He affects surprise that people are so interested in Scientology. "I'm Jewish as well. I was raised celebrating Jewish holidays and nobody ever asked about that. And my grandfather was a Presbyterian minister, so I grew up with that, too." He is, he says, a man of many faiths. "I also have a lot of friends who are Buddhists. I grew up in a very culturally and racially diverse neighbourhood. I think the key is tolerance and people stretching out of their own perspective a little bit."

 

Beck admits he cares what people think of him. "It's something you can't help. I mean, nobody wants to be misunderstood. But I'm not in the tabloids wearing my whole life on my sleeve. I'm just a working musician." And that working musician is happy with what he's achieved. "I wish I'd been able to make more albums, but yeah, I think it's gone all right. For me, I feel like I'm still in school. I'm just figuring all this out as I go along".

[muller]

I was online when it leaked on Oink last night. I have it waiting for me at home, hopefully it wont disapoint.

[dennis]

so far so good. better than guero in my opinion.

[tongue-tied]

i really like Cell Phone's Dead, Think I'm In Love, and We Dance Alone. Not crazy about Nausea, and kindof dislike 1000BPM. and that's all i've heard. gonna pick it up next week (and a half) because the stickers/videos are a good gimmick.

[m_thomp]

One play through and I'm really liking this (apart from the final bit of the last song medley when I thought I was being hypnotised to join the Scientologists). It's good, much better Guero, star of the show is Godrich's production, he makes the the instrumentation much more solid and rich (even the samples) without sounding over-polished.

 

Good work, Beck fella!

[solace]

so far so good. better than guero in my opinion.

haven't listened yet, but wouldn't take much

 

edit: on track 3, liking it so far

[EL the Famous]

*cough, cough*

[Sir Stewart]

*cough, cough*

Seconded.

[solace]

just finished... it tails off near the end and shoulda been cut down by about 3-4 tracks, but def a very solid and much more focused sounding record. nice return for him for me.

 

guero suffered from sounding like a mix tape and having no real cohesive flow.

[explodo]

I think this is way, way more uneven than Guero. Hopefully it grows on me because right now it is almost unlistenable...

[solace]

you're wack jack

[tongue-tied]

listening to the whole thing, about halfway through. strange apparition kindof lost me, but otherwise, pretty good.

[tongue-tied]

and done

 

the last few minutes are hilarious.

[HighFives]

who wants to PM me this? please

[Synthesizer Patel]

listening to the whole thing, about halfway through. strange apparition kindof lost me, but otherwise, pretty good.

 

I really like Strange Apparition. I am liking the whole thing so far, the production is incredibly good and suits his voice really well.

[Albert Tatlock]

Forgot to say: I am a big fan of the Radio 4 shipping forecast though (original version).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast/shipping/index.shtml

There's a link to listen to it on that page.

[muller]

Had my first listen to this today on the way into work and was very impressed. The opening few tracks especially are fantastic, it does dip slightly in the middle IMO and is slightly too long, but all in all a great album. The best Beck album in a long time.

[HighFives]

ITS MELLOW GOLD MEETS MIDNIGHT VULTURES.

[Dr. Steve Brule]

Got my hands on a couple promo copies at the store... BOTH HAD DIFFERENT STICKER SHEETS!! ARGH! I finally made my choice and stuck the stickers.

[Welsh Rich]

This is going to be one of the few albums I'm going to rush to Fopp to get on Monday lunchtime... I think it's great. Much more cohesive than Guero and yet lost none of his punch or ear for a tune... great stuff...

[explodo]

I've come around to this 384%. It took a week of constant listening, but forget all of my earlier statements. Some really, really good stuff on here.

 

Anybody know anything about a vinyl release?

[HighFives]

I've come around to this 384%. It took a week of constant listening, but forget all of my earlier statements. Some really, really good stuff on here.

 

Anybody know anything about a vinyl release?

I haven't heard anything about it but all of Becks albums have been released on vinyl as well as cd so I'm sure he wont stop now.