Beck: Guero

Started by Alexandro, January 20, 2005, 05:58:59 PM

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Alexandro

Odelay is not cheesy...it´s the most fun surreal rock album of the 90's.

Midnight Vultures is not shallow. It's fun and easy to listen to, but it's also a study of celebrity, beauty and health culture in the end of the century, and how that is always related to sex by the media. Well, that's what I see there...

I'm glad to find out that Mutations has a lot of fans. Back in 98 no one seemed to like it, but it's a beautiful record.

tpfkabi

if i could only have one Beck album, it would definitely be Mutations. i think it's probably in my top ten records.

i listened to Odelay a couple of days ago. i think it holds up quite well. i think it might be because they used samples of actual recordings/instruments instead of a lot of electronics. it has a 'classic' feel because they used 'classic' samples, etc.

how can Ramshackle not get to you?
how can you not groove with New Pollution?

if Beck was unknown and releaed Odelay next week i think it would be much talked about in today's music scene.
I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away.

modage

yes, that may be true but its unfortunate that the new cd sounds like an albums worth of odelay outtakes.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

life_boy

It has taken me a little time to get into every Beck album I've heard: Odelay, Mutations, I still haven't completely come around to One Foot in the Grave and Midnight Vultures yet; Sea Change was probably the easiest for me to like although it did take a little time with some tracks.  Mutations probably took me the longest to get into but it has also become my favorite Beck album since finally warming up to it.  I expect for Guero to take some time to enjoy like his others always have.

tpfkabi

I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away.

MacGuffin

The troubadour teams up with the Dust Brothers for a mature take on Odelay. Source: Rolling Stone

Guero - Due out March 29th

For the follow-up to 2002's melancholic Sea Change, Beck reunited with Odelay producers the Dust Brothers on a collection of guitar-heavy songs with party-friendly hip-hop beats. "There was a lot more freedom on this record," Beck says of Guero (Spanish slang for "white boy"). "I even attempted a couple fo rap things, which I didn't think I was gonna do." The first single, "E-Pro," is a ragged, foot-stomping rocker that uses the drum sample from the Beastie Boys' "So What'cha Want," and "Que Onda Guero" evokes an East L.A. neighborhood with mariachi horns and street noise. Jack White sits in on bass on the sparse, bluesy "Go It Alone," just one of a number of tracks Beck recorded with the White Stripes frontman - expect more collaborations from the pair in the future. But Guero isn't just Odelay redux. Uptempo tracks like "Girl" are tempered with somber, even morbid lyrics. "Some Beatles songs are pretty dark," says Beck. "Or Brian Wilson's. Some of the cheeriest songs have that undercurrent."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

Beck the outsider checks in
A new album by the singer-songwriter works in the sounds of his old neighborhood. Source: Los Angeles Times



Don't look now, but Beck is back on the street, and the street is back in Beck's music.

The singer had recorded "Qué Onda Guero," a new song that describes the colorfully chaotic MacArthur Park neighborhood where he spent part of his childhood. But there was something missing.

"The song felt kind of like it was in a vacuum," says Beck. "I was talking about all these things and I needed to bring a little bit of that world into the song. So I went down to my old street and just recorded things. I tried to find the vendedores, the women who sell things in their shopping carts, and the guy with the popsicle cart, the vegetable vans, the guys playing soccer, kids playing, all that stuff."

Sitting in a Melrose-area Cuban restaurant, Beck exudes a palpable affection for his old haunts and an excitement about the way he's brought it into his music.

Fans of the ever-shifting singer-songwriter are likely to share that enthusiasm when his new album, "Guero," comes out next week, especially those who drifted away as he followed his 1996 landmark, "Odelay," with a series of diverse, less immediately accessible records — the simple, Tropicalia-tinged "Mutations"; the high-concept funk workout "Midnite Vultures"; and the intimate, confessional "Sea Change."

Those three combined have not sold the 2 million-plus of "Odelay," whose rock/folk/hip-hop hybrids helped turn Beck from the quirky creator of the alternative radio hit "Loser" into the genre's baby-faced posterboy.

So "Guero," which comes out March 29 with a blast of fuzz guitar, playful rap tracks and dense, animated soundscapes from the "Odelay" production team the Dust Brothers, could easily be seen as a bid to reclaim his old popularity

"No," Beck objects with a laugh. "I would have made a skinny-pants record with chang-chang-chang-chang-chang guitars or something. I really tried to steer from stuff that I think of as trendy. Some of the songs to me are out-and-out 1991."

Anyway, he's not eager to relive his moment in the sun.

"I maybe had a couple of months where I'd walk in to get a sandwich and the guy behind the counter would go, 'Hey, Mr. Beck,' and that was very uncomfortable. I've always tried to focus on writing songs and making records and my singing and pushing things forward for myself, staying awake creatively, all those things. And all the other stuff is peripheral and completely out of my control.

"I don't really think of myself in the mainstream at all, but I know I'm not considered hip in that hipster world either, so I'm sort of in my own nether zone or something. Which maybe isn't a bad thing.... I don't like having to own up to any kind of scene or live up to some kind of regulations."

The new album's title reflects that image of the outsider.

"I think literally it means 'blondie,' but it's like 'white boy.' It's the kind of thing I got yelled at me growing up. And friends of mine. So it's kind of a funny L.A. thing that certain people can relate to."

Beck Hansen is 34 and sports a thin beard, but he still has the look of a wide-eyed adolescent as he picks at a salad on a recent evening. Married to actress and screenwriter Marissa Ribisi, he positively beams when he talks about their 8-month old son, Cosimo, and there's an air of serenity about him that might come in handy in a couple of days, when he heads to Europe with his new band.

There, he'll start the kind of touring cycle that in the past has gotten out of hand — he still regrets staying on the road for three years after "Odelay" came out instead of taking a break to record another album.

"He's in such a great place," says Mike Simpson, who formed the Dust Brothers production duo with partner John King. "With his new wife and the baby on the way and then having the baby midway through [the recording], it was a very happy, happy scene....

"I was so impressed at how Beck has really learned to balance all the demands on his time, both personally from his family and from the entertainment world at large.... He was amazingly focused and really driven to make a great record."

But if all is going so well, why does "Guero" have such an air of doom and disquietude alongside its upbeat larks? Eerie dissonances suggest grotesque shapes, and Beck's ominous, soulful singing and recurring images of death, ditches and bones give parts of the album a blasted, apocalyptic tone.

"I didn't want it to just be sort of a goof-fest or something," says Beck, who was determined to extend the emotional aspects of the downbeat "Sea Change" into the new album. "I think some of that questioning and some of that uncertainty was bound to ripple from that record."

But there were deeper sources, dating back to the days after Sept. 11.

"I think a lot of it probably echoes that time of uncertainty that myself and a lot of friends were going through.... Maybe we've all kind of progressed on and come to peace with certain things. But I think some of it's still there — there's the war, and about the second week that I started on the record and writing the songs, a friend killed himself, so that was kind of a shock wave through my whole circle of friends....

"So I don't know, there was just certain things in the air.... It's just kind of what was filtering in at the time."

Despite the time lag, Beck believes the album's essence remains timely.

"There are certain basic things that are just universal," he says. "If a song's an angry song, that's just part of life. A song of regret — these are things that are as common as the air, and they're things that you cycle through."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

tpfkabi

i like Beck a lot and think he's made a great string of 4 records (i haven't heard Mellow Gold other than Loser). from the sounds of the clips i've heard this sounds like a dud. on the other hand, i've heard some talk of it being dark and all i've heard are really sunny tracks. i'm anxious to see how it gets reviewed.
I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away.

modage

Quote from: bigideashas anyone downloaded both the early leaked version and the actual final product? i don't really want to spoil the album, i just want to download the tracks that didn't make the final album, and/or tracks that have undergone major changes from early version to finished studio version.
the finished album has a few small differences from the earlier leaked version.  most notable being the absense of the two songs Chain Reaction and Send A Message to Her (both found on the deluxe edition), in its place the actual songs Broken Drum and Farewell Ride.  other than that there are a few small differences in E-Pro, and a few other tracks but nothing major.  its strange because Send A Message To Her was probably my favorite song on the album and its only a b-side, except the earlier mix had a more sparsely vocaled chorus which i prefered.  the songs broken drum and farewell ride arent doing anything for me at first, drum sounds like a sea change era song with 'laser blip' percussion.  so i still have to give it more listens before weighing in with a final opinion.  but on first listen, i'd still have to say 'good.' by no means a bad album, but a disappointment from beck with some great songs on it.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

tpfkabi

i got the special edtion. it looks like the two that replaced where the only ones that were solo Beck. i'm actually pleasantly surprised. on the way back from Best Buy i was skeptical, but just an hour or so ago I played Nintendo and listened to it on headphones. it has already begun to grow on me. Que Ondo Guero and Hell Yes made me laugh. it reminded me of some of the Midnite Vultures b-sides.  there's just something about females talking on tracks with beats (remember Miami by Will Smith "bienvenido a Miami"). if Hell Yes doesn't at least get minor play at clubs or produce a decent single, Interscope's promotional team needs some help. i'm not familiar with the track names yet, so i'll talk more in depth later.

i really wonder if Beck didn't take unreleased songs from his prior 5 albums and rerecord them. the obvious biggest presence here is Odelay/Mellow Gold (the Dust Brothers presence and several tracks with slide guitar/harmonica/random people talking on songs), but then there are Sea Change strings and downcast lyrics on a couple of songs, a song or two that could fit on Mutations, and some Midnite Vultures era b-sides.
I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away.

modage

he said he wrote about 30 new songs when he got together with the Dust Bros again and it was like no time had passed.  but he also said he wanted to try to combine sea changes introspective darker lyrics with some of the sunnier sounding songs so there wouldnt be a separation.  if anything this album does sound like a combination of all the previous becks.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

tpfkabi

Earthquake Weather's chorus seems like new territory for Beck. never heard him sing quite like that. Missing (Brazilica) is also nice to drive around with the windows down.

the DVD has the E Pro video as sort of an Easter Egg. it reminds me of that 3-D Nintendo that flopped several years back. i doubt very seriously that video will get much play though. i read in Rolling Stone that Christini Ricci has a cameo in the video for Hell Yes, so i guess that's the next single.
I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away.

MacGuffin

Q&A: Beck
On his new album, life as a family man and the strange appeal of Yanni Source: Rolling Stone



Beck has bounced back from the breakup that inspired Sea Change, his mellow masterpiece of 2002. He's happily married, with a nine-month-old son, Cosimo, and has been playing high-energy surprise gigs at L.A. clubs to gear up for a summer tour behind his new album, Guero. The disc was co-produced by the Dust Brothers (who also worked on Odelay!) and is packed with tracks on which Beck lets his freak flag fly: On "Que Onda Guero," he gives shout-outs to Tang's Donut shop, Michael Bolton and Yanni. Speaking from L.A., Beck pauses when a photo arrives from a recent tsunami benefit featuring himself with friends Eddie Vedder, Will Ferrell and Jack Black. "What a man moment," says Beck. "I remember I was playing 'Lost Cause' -- it was a very intimate moment -- and Will came out wearing a red leotard, doing interpretive dancing. I tried to be serious, but when he started humping my pump organ, I totally lost it."

What music did your parents play when you were a kid?

For some reason I have a memory of Camelot. I remember that playing, and crawling on the floor across the room to stare at the cover, which had the actors from the movie. My mother likes show tunes, musicals, that kind of thing. Also, I had a 45 of Snow White, where she sings, "I'm wishing... I'm wishing," y'know, when she's singing into the well. I was probably about three.

Why did you have that?

I had one of those toy record players -- it was greenish-yellow and white, early-Seventies style, and Snow White was probably one of the records it came with. There were other records, one about a bear and probably something about a train. Another record that was on constantly in my house was The Harder They Come. Those hot L.A. afternoons, all the doors and windows open... that played for years.

Did you play music for Cosimo when he was in the womb?

Yeah. I was in the studio the whole time, my wife would come visit, and he heard all the songs. And he hears whatever's on in the house. Like, when he was first born, we played a lot of quiet classical music. It helps him sleep. And a friend got him a baby Beatles CD, like, quieter versions of Beatles songs.

What was the first song you wrote?

I used to have a tape recorder, with one of those cheap RadioShack plastic microphones. I used a calculator that had little melodies -- like the bastard cousin of "Frere Jacques" -- when you hit the buttons. My brother was the drummer, he played pencils on a cassette-tape box, and I wrote a song called "Bells Are Ringing." We'd seen this Kraftwerk video with all these little instruments, so that's what we were aspiring to do.

Why is your stage name Beck, instead of Beck Hansen?

I didn't really think about it too much. I just started showing up at these open-mike nights at clubs, bars and coffee shops, wherever, and somebody would always ask me, "What's your name?" before I went on. I'd just say, "Beck." People had other nicknames for me.

Like what?

There were these kind of Fifties greaser guys that a friend of mine hung out with who called me Dutch Boy.

Around then, you were writing a lot of, say, jokey songs. What was the most absurd one?

They were all pretty goofy. There was a street fair, and a friend of mine named Steve had been drinking and eating too much street-fair food. He met a pretty girl, went on the carousel and threw up all over her. It was called "Steve Threw Up."

Did you incorporate funnel cakes?

That's the whole song! I just made up things he probably ate. Like falafels and pizza. It didn't work out once he added motion.

In '89 you rode a Greyhound bus from L.A. to New York. What did you listen to on the trip?

I think I had some old Blind Willie McTell and Son House and Yazoo cassettes on my Walkman. I remember I was in Texas and at one point all the civilians got off the bus, and all the convicts got on. It was a little hairy. Somebody had a big boombox playing Kenny G. I'm not kidding. This pretty rough character came up to me while I was listening to my Walkman and he was telling me to watch out, because when I fell asleep he was going to cut me [laughs].

You name-drop Yanni on "Que Onda Guero." What have you picked up from him, musically?

Really just more superficial things, like the mustache [laughs]. And the idea of music as an event, played at historic locations. Didn't he play the Taj Mahal?

Nice. What music was playing at your wedding reception?

It was a Russian band, I didn't catch the name of it. I don't know if they had a name, they were just working Russian musicians. We found them through my wife's seamstress. It seemed like a good idea.

What's your favorite TV theme song?

That's a good question.... Oh! The Wild, Wild World of Animals, one of those nature shows in the Seventies. It was pounding drums and a synthesizer over crazy footage of ferocious animals and teeming giraffes and elephants.

What music do you recommend for lovemaking?

Brazilian is always good. Any Joao Gilberto. Or some Mancini for the grandparents.

So you stick to Brazilian?

At that point, I'm not thinking about music.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Pubrick

why do you suck now?

i need another break up.
under the paving stones.

modage

there are 4 new songs up at beck.com.  they're good.  it's like old beck is back from his guero mediocrity.  unfortunately they seem to be 'exclusive' to his site and theres no word on whether you'll be able to get them in any (iTunes/cd) form so for now, stream away...  www.beck.com
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.