Beck Visits Letterman

Enjoy last night's Modern Guilt performance in the clip below. MP3 at bottom.


MP3: Beck - Nausea (XXXchange Mix)

Beck Interviewed By NPR

Topics he discusses:

-Everyday Influences
-Modern Guilt
-Humor

Listen to the feature here.

MP3: Beck - Nausea (XXXchange Mix)

MGMT Joins Beck On Fall Tour

Catch both acts at:

9/19 San Diego, CA Street Scene
9/20 Hollywood, CA Hollywood Bowl
9/22 Phoenix, AZ Dodge Theatre
9/23 Albuquerque, NM Kiva Auditorium
9/25 El Paso, TX Abraham Chavez Theatre
9/27 Austin, TX ACL Festival
9/29 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theatre
9/30 Minneapolis, MN Wilkins Auditorium
10/2 Chicago, IL Aragon
10/3 Chicago, IL Aragon

Visit MGMT at their official site.

MP3: MGMT - Destrokk

Beck Sets Date & Track Listing For New LP

Modern Guilt is out on July 8th.

The set will include:

"Orphans"
"Gamma Ray"
"Chemtrails"
"Modern Guilt"
"Youthless"
"Walls"
"Replica"
"Soul Of A Man"
"Profanity Prayers"
"Volcano"

MP3: Beck - MTV...

The World Of B-Sides & Rarities, #682

Beck - Nausea (XXXchange Mix)

Visit XXXchange on MySpace.

Catch him on 6/21 at ATJ's Summer Festival 2008.

MP3: Beck - Nausea (XXXchange Mix)

M. Ward, Beck, Rufus Featured In 'Best Songwriters' Book

The tome was released last week. Here's a snippet from the official press release: *Song is an enthralling compilation of songwriting wisdom from one hundred of the biggest names in music. From country to rock to folk to alternative, this genre-spanning collection of interviews captures the anecdotes, history, and wisdom of the best songwriters around.* Intrigued? Purchase the book via Amazon.

Read my review of M. Ward @ Town Hall here.

MP3: M. Ward - Poison Cup [alt link]

Beck's 'Odelay' Gets Reissued

The double LP will be out in January.

Bonus tunes will include:

-'Inferno' (unreleased)
-'Gold Chains' (unreleased)
-remixes by UNKLE & Aphex Twin
-a Spanish rendition of 'Jackass'

Further details at Rolling Stone.

MP3: Beck - MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack

The World Of B-Sides & Rarities, #188

Beck - Go It Alone (Diplo Remix)

An oldie but a goodie.

Hear more Diplo reworkings at his MySpace page.

Check out Beck's fan-generated clip for 'Timebomb' here.

Two worlds collide in the track below.

MP3: Beck - Go It Alone (Diplo Remix) (alternate link)

Beck's Fan-Created 'Timebomb' Clip

Not bad, not bad at all. Enjoy 'Timebomb' below. Anything you would have changed?


MP3: Beck - Lost Cause

Beck, Shins & Strokes Light Up SNL Compilation

The full track listing for Live From SNL! Music Performances From Saturday Night Live can be found below. The album will be released on September 9th at Targets all across the country. MP3 at bottom.

1 Avril Lavigne: "Girlfriend"
2 Kelly Clarkson: "Since U Been Gone"
3 Foo Fighters; "Best Of You"
4 Arctic Monkeys: "I Bet..."
5 Pink: "Trouble"
6 Beck: "Nausea"
7 Dave Matthews: "Save Me"
8 The Shins: "Phantom Limb"
9 The Strokes: "You Only Live Once"
10 Maroon 5: "Harder To Breathe"
11 Franz Ferdinand: "Take Me Out"

MP3: The Shins - Phantom Limb

Beck To Release New Single This Monday

Here's what we know about the track via press release:

The tune is titled 'Timebomb' and it will be available this Monday via iTunes, the single will be released on August 28th for all other digital stores. "The lyric of "Timebomb" echoes some of the dark themes from The Information but is packaged in digital gris gris thunder as only Beck can do it."

We're also told that the track features "a whole gang of studio visitors on back-up vocals." Can't wait!

MP3: Beck - Cellphone's Dead

Beck, Ryan Adams, Razorlight's Johnny Design Book Covers

The goal of the campaign, as started by Pengiun Publishing, is to encourage readers to use their imagination in order to create their own covers to their favorite books (gimmick or brilliant? I'm unsure). Seven blank covers will be released this fall to some of Penguin's best-selling titles. To promote the project, Penguin has enlisted musicians to design and share their stories. Here's some quotes, via BBC.

Johnny Borrell on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: "I was running a book on the Grand National in Tokyo and I was writing out a betting slip for everyone, and decided that my bookie's name was going to be Gatsby. So the cover of this book is a betting slip."

Ryan Adams on Bram Stoker's Dracula: "I'm a huge fan of novel sleeve art and wanted to contribute...I can't reveal my secrets but I can reveal that no garlic was harmed in the making of this cover."

Beck on the entire campaign: "The idea is to provide something that calls for interactivity. Cover art and all the paraphernalia that comes with albums have always been important to me. I'm one of the people who needs a visual crutch for music."

MP3: Beck - No Complaints

Beck, Bono + Paul McCartney Interviewed For Ginsberg Doc

The Life & Times Of Allen Ginsberg was officially released last week around the globe. The 2+ hour (revisited) DVD documentary is available for purchase now via this link.

To view some short trailers from the interviewees, check here.

Extras on the film include a 'Ballad Of The Skeletons' music video, scenes from Allen's last three days, a visit to Kerouac's grave with Bob Dylan, the making of The Life & Times Of Allen Ginsberg and further interviews with Andy Warhol, & Hunter S. Thompson.

MP3: Beck - Movie Theme

Today In WTF: M. Jackson Buys Stake In Bjork & Beck's Tunes

NME is reporting that Michael Jackson has bought a stake in the back catalogs of Beck, Bjork, Shakira & Eminem amongst others.

The official statement reads: "This is a milestone event for Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

The diverse collection of songs in this catalogue range from timeless classics to contemporary hits, and I am pleased to add the acquisition of Famous Music to Sony/ ATV."

Thoughts? Yay, nay or indifferent?

MP3: Beck - Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes

Today In WTF: Beck's Drummer Joins Crowded House

Via NME: Beck drummer Matt Sherrod has joined as a full-time member of the recently reunited Crowded House, according to Australian website Undercover.

The band held auditions for the position following their decision to reunite. The original drummer Paul Hester passed away in 2005. The report also says that former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, now a full member of Modest Mouse, has also been working on song-writing with Neil Finn. Marr has collaborated with Finn on a number of tracks for the new Crowded House album 'Time On Earth', to be released later this year.

Crowded House will play the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival next month in California and are currently putting together more dates which are expected to be announced shortly. 'Time On Earth' will be the band's fifth studio album, and their first release since they disbanded in 1996.

Come on, Matt! The Information wasn't THAT bad, was it? Way to ditch Mr. Hansen.

MP3: Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over

Beck Gets By With A Little Help From His Friends

It's about time! We've been hearing of a multi-disc re-release of Beck's The Information (my #9 album of '06) for quite some time. Well, the news is out. Turns out Beck will enlarge Info to three LPs: the original, the remixes, and the DVD, which includes homemade and official music videos alike.

The remix list is quite impressive I must say. It includes reinterpretations by Ellen Allien, Bumblebeez, David Andrew Sitek (of TV on the Radio), The Chap, Jamie Lidell, and Ricardo Villalobos.

Not bad, eh? You can get your hands on this triad of goodies on February 27th.

Old-school MP3: Beck - Where It's At

What Ever Happened To Beck's Album Sales?

Didn't Guero debut at #2 and eventually go platinum? That was just last year!

Seems like there's no love for the ridiculously entertaining, The Information.

After debuting at a disappointing #7, the album dropped all the way down to #19 on a 70% sales slide and now this week, HITS reports that the album slips even further, down another 19 notches to #38.

Too many albums in too short a span of time?

Perhaps people REALLY hate stickers?

What are your thoughts?

Beck.... banned!

Another one from the NME...

Beck's new record The Information has been banned from the charts here in the UK!! Apparently, doin' yer funky thang with album artwork gives you an "unfair advantage" - this also goes for the DVD that's coming with the record.

Sad, sad, sad. I mean, I don't even like stickers, but if other people want to have some sticky fun, why's that so bad mister record counting man?

Still - I'm vaguely heartened by the fact that the record company knew that this might happen - but went ahead with it anyway, in line with Beck's wishes:

"We knew before the album was released that the DVD and stickers would affect its chart eligibility, but they're both such brilliant ideas that it was never a question of us doing anything different from what Beck had planned for the release of 'The Information'."

Hopefully it'll outsell everything else out there....

Does anyone remember me?

Bend It Like Beck

In case you haven't read it all over the blogosphere already, Beck's new album The Information will get its official release on 10/3 (that's the same day as The Killers' Sam's Town for those keeping score!) Judging from the YouTube videos and the Michel Gondry-produced 'Cell Phone's Dead', it is quite apparent that Beck hasn't lost it just yet.

Fun little tidbit about the album: The artwork for The Information is either non-existent or infinite, depending on one's point of view: Each copy will come in a blank package with one of four collectible sticker sheets specially designed by American and European artists hand-picked by Beck. Pretty nifty, eh?

It will be produced by Nigel Godrich (Beck's Sea Change, Mutations; Radiohead's OK Computer, Kid A) and will surely be on many top 10 lists come December.

Mr. Hansen is also going on a mini tour.

Here are the dates:

9/27 - Chula Vista, CA - Coors Amphitheatre (with Tom Petty)
9/30 - Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre (Download Festival)
10/7 - Los Angeles, CA - 1st and Main Streets (Detour Music Festival)
10/12 - Nashville, TN - City Hall
10/14 - Chicago, IL - UIC Pavilion
10/16 - Toronto, Ontario - Ricoh Arena
10/18 - NYC - Theater at Madison Square Garden
10/23 - Philadelphia, PA - Tower Theatre

Stream the first single, 'Nauseau' here! (windows)

Old-school Beck: 'Mixed Bizness' (Quahogs remix) (MP3)

All The Deets About Beck's New Album

Right herrrrrre:
(via NME)

Beck's new album will be titled 'The Information' and is out on October 2, NME.COM can exclusively reveal.

The record, the follow-up to 2005's 'Guero', was produced by Nigel Godrich. The man most famous for his production efforts with Radiohead also worked with Beck on his 2002 acoustic album 'Sea Change', though 'The Information' will not be a stripped-down record.

The album will come with a blank sleeve and booklet and a sheet of stickers for people to make their own sleeve. It will also come with a disc of videos - one for each track.