Song Reader Tumblr and Requests

December 6th, 2012 by

So I am making a public request for musicians, famous and otherwise, to cover songs from Beck’s Song Reader project.

I have been collecting them at whiskeyclonenet.tumblr.com which is easily searchable by song titles, artists, instruments, tags. I am greedy and want to hear more!

1. How can I help?

You can help by creating something, anything, inspired by a song in Song Reader. If you do this, please let us know at computergirls (at) whiskeyclone.net–if you email it in I’ll post it as soon as possible.


2. Why should I do this?

I don’t know, it’s fun?

I have no idea what Beck’s expectations are for Song Reader. Maybe to have some people sing some songs or whatever. Or we, as a group, could blow his mind–have famous musicians, talented artists, creative souls, all build off of these songs.

If you’re a musician, I can assure you that Beck fans are loyal music lovers, and if we like you, we’ll remember–we’ll buy your album, go to your shows, watch your stuff.

3. What about songreader.net?

Well yea don’t forget that. Our tumblr here is easier to sort through, but the official site will get you more hits/views. And it’s only usable with YouTube or Soundcloud, while Tumblr can be just about anything.

4. I’m not sure what to do.

Email me or tweet me @almostaghost and I’ll help. If you make videos, but aren’t a musician, I’ll try to connect you to some musicians who want a video for their cover. If you want to take photographs inspired by a song, that’d be great–within limits of course, I won’t just put up a picture of your dog because you call it “Why Did You Make Me Care?” If you want to create a recipe or magic trick or whatever, go for it. I am not a musician, I can’t participate; but I can help to organize and make this awesome.

Go!

I may update this post if I think of more FAQ points I want to make.

I plan on reaching out to famous musicians, or friendly ones anyway, and see what they want to do. If anyone knows anyone who might be willing, let me know! Let’s talk this up and make stuff happen.

Beck news update

November 16th, 2012 by

Hi Beck fans!

So a lot has been happening, and as I like to every so often, thought I’d recap.

1. Song Reader: this comes out in a few weeks. I’ve seen a bit more of it than has been released so far, and I assure you, it’s very entertaining, even if you’re not a musician. You can start using songreader.net and get a preview copy of one of the songs, and start uploading your versions (if you use Youtube). If you don’t want to use Youtube, you can always send Soundcloud or mp3s or any other non-musical things to us computergirls@whiskeyclone.net and we’ll put it on our Song Reader tumblr: whiskeyclonenet.tumblr.com.

2. Beck’s final “mini-tour” of 2012 is almost over, he’s been doing a handful of shows in Australia this week. He mentioned in an Australian interview that he hoped to go back out some more in 2013, with his band (JMJ, Smokey, Roger, Joey). (PS. Beck, please give that band a name.)

3. Production work: Beck continues to be a music producer. He did a couple of songs with Dwight Yoakam for his new album, also assisted Bat For Lashes in getting her album straight (though he only ended up adding to one song on her final album). I’ve heard he’s working with Jenny Lewis and a couple of others.

4. His own work: In some Australian interviews, Beck indicated again he wants to finish the album he began in 2008, but never finished. (Think this was Rococo but maybe a different one.) He said he just has to find time between all his production duties. Otherwise, there’s no news here. I was hopeful that a new album would synergistically be released at around the same time as Song Reader, but seems not. More patience!

5. Whiskeyclone: Also, I’m adding all the song titles from Song Reader into our database, whether or not Beck actually wrote music/words for them. (There’s a lot of titles in the art. You’ll see.) Just wanted to play along, like they’re legit Beck songs, and I hope people create them! Watch the tumblr! But I do realize that this will make the giant list of songs on AlmostAGhost completely unwieldy (if it wasn’t already). I’ll get that re-organized soon into a more readable list! Sorry. Also hope to redesign the home page soon, have a cool Song Reader-inspired idea for it.

Anyway, enjoy Song Reader and be sure to share all your recordings/writings/art that are inspired by it!

Song Reader – sort of a new Beck album soon!

August 8th, 2012 by

So, Beck.com and McSweeney’s just announced this morning Beck’s new album.

And while it is a new album: there’s no Beck on it. That is, the whole thing is being released as sheet music, so that the “listener” can create their own songs. 20 brand new Beck songs given to us, without any music/recordings by Beck. I’m still getting my head around this idea, and I’m sure more will become clear as we go. (Though it is probably a good bet that Beck will drop some of his versions at some point somewhere.)

But for me, as a Beck fan, who lacks in music ability, I may be slightly out of luck here. But I do look forward to hearing different people attempt to do their versions of these songs. To that end, I created a tumblr here:

Whiskeyclonenet.tumblr.com

For which I can host/stream all the Song Readers out there who create their own cover versions. Hopefully it can be a nice place for people to hear this stuff. (This is also can be used for your versions of the 3 video game songs if anyone wants to email those in: computergirls@whiskeyclone.net ).

I think this could be fun, and hopefully a lot of musicians participate, from lo-fi amateur to famous to different genres to huge fans to whoever.

More to come…

Hijacked Flavors

July 6th, 2012 by

Hi all,

Beck’s mini-tours this summer continue onward, playing 2-3 nights every so often. Later this summer he does Vegas and San Francisco, and then in November, he is going to Australia. I do not know what this means, or implies. I intend to write more about the shows after the Vegas/SF ones happen, but at one of the shows I saw, Beck referred to it as “dusting off the cobwebs.”

One thing this tour did do was kick me into gear, and I have finished an informational revamp of Hijacked Flavors. I do not know who uses the site to this detail, except me, but regardless, I’m very happy with it now. Basically, I went through every show one by one, googling each to find as much info about every concert as I could. (Which would be tedious if it weren’t so interesting!)

Things I updated:

1. Venue names – lots of errors with these before, from minor spelling mistakes (“theater” instead of “theatre”) to needing to input the full official venue name instead of shortened versions to a few that were just totally wrong. Cities, too, were often slightly off, listing neighboring big cities nearby, instead of where the actual venue lies. But I fixed that.

2. Band members – this was what kicked off my revamp. After Smokey Hormel rejoined the band, I went and searched Hijacked to see how long it had been since he played. It told me he had played 35 shows or something. That, I knew, was waaaay off. So I really wanted to fix that. Now every band member is listed and searchable, so if you want to know how many shows, for example, JMJ has played, you can (472). I think there’s probably less than 10 shows where I was not sure who was playing.

3. Opening acts – this was actually kind of fun to figure out and enter. A lot of international shows are still missing this info, I could not locate it, though I figure it is more possible there wasn’t an opening act for those. For Beck’s numerous festival appearences, if I could find the lineup for the festival, I only included the artists who played on the same stage on the same day as Beck. (Otherwise, I’d have to enter like 100 bands in.) If this information is missing, it is because I could not find it.

4. Youtube – I’ve embedded a fair amount of Youtube clips onto the concert pages, as well. This is something I wasn’t as thorough with though, so if there’s any amazing Youtube clips that aren’t embedded on their respective pages, let me know.

So if any readers want to send ticket stubs, diary entries, half-assed memories of setlists, or anything that might be worth documenting, please send it along. (Also thanks to everyone who has done this in the past!) If you see any mistakes or anything, feel free to send along proof too. :)

Thanks all for reading.

Feel free to join our hopping Facebook group here.

Beck Summer Tour 2012

May 22nd, 2012 by

Beck’s little batch of tour dates kicks off today!

In case you missed it, Beck is doing 4 shows this week up the west coast headed to Sasquatch Festival in Washington, 2 shows in NYC around the Governor’s Ball Festival, and then 2 shows in August including Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco.  I have no idea if other shows are in the cards or not (I’d hope so).  I also have no idea what to expect, but do know that Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Joey Waronker are in the band again.  One site claims Smokey Hormel is back also!  We’ll know in about six hours if that’s true.  :)

If anyone is going to any of these shows, please keep good track of the setlist for me and send it along.  If anyone wants to ustream it through their phone back to Beck fans worldwide, also let me know and we’ll host your stream link.

Also, similarly, I’ve been updating Hijacked Flavors with lots of information lately, mostly opening acts and band members and stuff.  But if anyone saw Beck, in the ’90s in particular, and remembers ANYTHING about the shows please pass it on.  Even if it’s a vague recollection or just one song you remember for sure I’d like to add it.  :)

Finally, join our Facebook group: more ‘news’-y things happen there than I care to post regularly here.  :)  Also if everything works out I’ll occasionally post in there live from the shows I’m going to (tonight and Thursday).

Tonight’s show, I won’t lie, is making me quite nostalgiac.  Not only with JMJ, RJMJ, Smokey and Joey… but the El Rey.  My first Beck concert was in 1997 on the Odelay tour, and it was awesome.  But it was the second one I saw at the El Rey shortly after the Odelay tour that really kicked off my Beck bootleg collecting.  That night, “Beck and Friends” played a whole bunch of acoustic/country vibe songs, as a sort of way to come down after the long Odelay tours.  Hearing Odelay live was amazing, but realizing Beck could also play other styles?  Since I couldn’t go to every concert, I took to listening to as many as possible.  And here we are.  Beck’s at the El Rey again.  14.5 years later.

I hope it’s not a pure nostalgiac show (except for “Where It’s At”), I’m not ready for Beck to go there.  So fingers crossed this summer leads to some news about more regular new music.  But regardless, there’s going to be some good concerts!

Beck Stuff 2012

February 3rd, 2012 by

Hey, long time no post. But I figure–if Beck’s not going to do anything, why should I? Haha j/k.

Anyway, as you probably heard, Beck is lined up to headline the Sasquatch Festival up in Washington this May. Justin Meldal-Johnsen is lined up to be in the band, and who knows if it will lead to more or just be a one-off evening or what. Stay tuned!

(UPDATE A DAY LATER: Beck does have another show lined up for May 27, in Bend, OR. Still unclear if this is just a little Sasquatch run (same area of the country in the same weekend) or something more ambitious. The Bend show is with Metric, info here.

Can’t remember if I posted here on this before or not, but this Youtube user has been posting clips from a Beck show in 1992 or 1993. One of the clips is video from the actual performance of “Ozzy” that is on Stereopathetic. It’s amazing! There’s also a few unknown songs up there, like “Weak Ass Shit,” “Know I’m Gonna Make It,” and one I called “Crushing The Cantaloupe.”

Lastly, over the past few years, even though Beck hasn’t been releasing anything, he has been registering new compositions to the copyright song database. There’s a handful that remain unknown–I hesitate to imply a new album from these, but they must be from something!

“Curfew” – ended up in I Am Number Four but wasn’t on the soundtrack so we haven’t heard it

“City Of Refuge” / “Iron Horse” / “Jacksontown” / “Tournequit”: all four of these were registered at the same time; they seem blues-influenced by their titles. “Iron Horse” ended up in the TV show Sons Of Anarchy, so perhaps Beck gave them 4 bluesy songs? I’m just speculating here. A short clip of “Iron Horse” is on Youtube, other 3 unheard.

That leaves:
“She Coulda Done Better” & “Looking For A Sign” & “Constellation” (registered around a year ago)
“Cities” & “Spiral Staircase” & “Touch The People” (registered recently)

So again, I hope these are a sign that some sort of music is coming soon… :)

Beck news

August 29th, 2011 by

So as I like to do every so often, I’ll try to summarize what Beck’s been up to in case you missed anything. And, yes, despite the lack of official Beck material, he’s actually been pretty busy! (First, check beck.com for some current news, like Autumn DeWilde’s photo book.)

Foremost, Beck has continued with the producer chapter of his career. After the Charlotte Gainsbourg and Jamie Lidell albums last year, this year he has also done albums with Thurston Moore and Stephen Malkmus. Both of those kept Beck in the news, as much of the press around their release was focused somewhat on Beck’s production. (And even some joint interviews with Beck.) Coming up, there are some more Charlotte Gainsbourg tracks (an EP and a sort of compilation album but with new material) that Beck produced, including some songs like “Paradisco” that Beck played live a few years back. Also on the producer-front, Beck is apparently producing Dwight Yoakam’s upcoming album. (!) I’m actually really getting into the idea that Beck is a producer at the moment. It’s a great position for his talents.

Beyond the producer thing, most everything else is on hiatus: Record Clubs, new albums, everything. Beck in a recent interview with Pitchfork sounded like he’s pretty unsure how to proceed, so I guess we’ll have to be patient! (And if you haven’t read that interview, go do it, it’s fairly revelatory.)

However, Beck has started doing the occasional live thing, which after a few years away from the stage is nice to see. He did a charity concert in San Francisco in May. And last night, he was the headliner of a Serge Gainsbourg tribute concert. The show, which was apparently mostly Beck’s idea, featured many singers doing the songs of Serge Gainsbourg. The house band also included Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Joey Waronker, James Gadson, and Justin Meldal-Johnsen. Beck sang 4 songs: “Nefertiti,” “Teenie Weenie Boppie,” “Les Sucettes,” and “Ah! Melody.”

I was there and filmed the first 3 songs: sorry the video quality is poor, I wasn’t close, but it sounds ok:

My video got linked around the web on some of the bigger news sites and blogs, which is great. Hope you all enjoy it! It just goes to show though: Beck, we’re all still here. We’re all still hungry for anything you want to give us, even if it’s a shaky dark clip of you singing “Teenie Weenie Boppie.” Any bit of Beck news is pored over, from recent interviews to 10-seconds of a new song being in a movie trailer (“Curfew”). Your base, Beck, is waiting… :)

Beck on the Lonely Island CD

April 21st, 2011 by

Everyone’s favorite part of Saturday Night Live, Lonely Island, have a CD coming out in a couple of weeks (May 10).

Beck is apparently on it, on a song called “Attracted To Us.”

http://www.thelonelyisland.com/music

!

Demolished Thoughts and Scott Pilgrim

March 11th, 2011 by

demolished thoughts

So, first… the new Thurston Moore album, Demolished Thoughts, will be released on May 24. That’s the cover there. Beck produced it, and I’m quite excited to hear what the two of them did together. (Will it be half as creative and amazing as the Yanni covers?!)

Second, I’m sure you all have seen lately that some of the Scott Pilgrim outtakes hit some websites lately. To me, it shows just how much eager interest there always is for Beck material! A few of the links I’ve seen have stated that Whiskeyclone leaked the songs, and for the record, that is not so. We’ve known about them since they initially leaked 6 months ago or so, when they were played on a web radio show. Some fans grabbed them from that stream, and they’ve been around since then. What caused their recent “discovery” and thrust into the mp3-blog world this week, I have no idea.

The 3 songs that were taken from the web stream are “Disgusting Rainbow,” “No Fun,” and “Gasoline Eyes.” They were outtakes from the sessions where Beck and Brian LeBarton wrote a pile of songs to be used as Sex Bob-Omb’s songs in the Scott Pilgrim film. They did not make the final cut for the film, or the soundtrack.

A fourth song, “Indefatigable,” also leaked. It is not from the web stream. It was included in the film, but was not released on the soundtrack. The track that surfaced there was ripped from the DVD and then looped to make a slightly more complete song.

Upcoming Beck Stuff

February 16th, 2011 by

Hey everybody… sorry it’s been so long, but really Beck isn’t up to much at the moment. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t stuff to talk about here! I don’t intend Paper Tiger to be a news site, but I do like every once in awhile to bring up all the things we know about on the horizon to look forward to. I’ll start with the confirmed things we know about:

1. In a couple of days, the new movie I Am Number Four comes out. Beck has a new song called “Curfew” in it. I do not have any idea if there will be a soundtrack CD release or not.

2. Sometime this year, Thurston Moore is releasing a solo album. Beck produced it! They recorded it at Beck’s house. It was initially announced that the album was called Benediction, but most recent reports say it’s called Demolished Thoughts. (No release date that I’ve seen yet though, but it’s coming this year for sure.)

3. That leads to Beck’s cover of Sonic Youth’s album, EVOL, in its entirety. Not a Record Club, but something he did for, I think, some sort of EVOL deluxe project at the request of Sonic Youth. The release of this is probably up to Sonic Youth, but it’s been floating out there for at least a couple of years now. Hopefully it’s not lost!

4. At the same time Beck registered the copyright for “Curfew,” he also registered songs called “Constellation” and “She Coulda Done Better.” I have no idea what those are.

5. Also last year, Beck produced some songs with Stephen Malkmus and his band the Jicks. Haven’t heard anything about this since last May, which indicated that their work would be out in 2011. Hopefully it still is coming!

6. And of course, Beck mentioned to Pitchfork last summer that he had an album done that he was trying to figure out how to release. (He thought about calling it Rococo, so that’s what fans refer to it as for now.) Nothing’s come of it yet though! (Beck also mentioned that he had some songs that he had finished before doing Modern Guilt.) And of course, there’s the millions of other things he’s probably recorded since then we’ve never heard of and will never hear.

7. I’ll copypaste this from the last “update” I did, last March, and note that I still don’t know when it’s coming:

John Martyn tribute album: Beck has covered John Martyn in the past, in the early 2000s, he used to do “Go Easy” live on occasion. Martyn unfortunately died last year [2009], and Beck is giving a version of “Stormbringer” to an upcoming tribute album. He recorded this in Nashville a few years ago, when he and his band stopped in and did a bunch of covers (he put a Lee Hazlewood cover up on beck.com once from this session). I have no other info about when the album will be released.

8. Beck.com said Record Clubs would resume, and man I hope it does soon. I loved getting a new Beck song every week! The story is after the last one, Beck tried a few times to get one together but for whatever reasons, it never really happened. So he eventually just sent it on a hiatus. He did for a short while have a voting contest, where you could vote for the Record Club tracks that you would want to have on a sort of “best of the Record Club” CD. That was last November.

9. And, as always, I have to mention the 2nd K Record. With the release of One Foot In The Grave Deluxe, Beck dropped the tantalizing note that more info was coming about the album he began for K Records after finishing One Foot. He never really finished it, but it sounded like some of the songs were still around and he was planning to drop them. To tease, he included a song called “The Way It Seems.” No new info about it since… *sigh*

10. Finally, Beck is scheduled to play one concert, but it’s not until August. It is at the Hollywood Bowl, and Beck will be part of a Serge Gainsbourg tribute concert. We all know Beck is a huge Serge fan. It looks like Justin Meldal-Johnsen will be along and a sexy time will be had by all. More special guests will probably be announced in time too.

I’m sure some little things slipped my mind here. But that’s what we’re looking at. I do strongly believe that 2011 will see a Beck album proper. But that’s mostly an educated guess, not based on anything concrete. It’s hard to believe Beck hasn’t played his own concert in almost two years now. Must he be getting as restless as we are?