Beck: Classic Or Dud

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I know! Let's have an argument about Beck!

― Tom, Friday, 12 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Ultimately imperfect. I love what he likes and is unafraid to say he likes, but outside of a few songs the results make me want to listen to those folks rather than him. Points for trying, though. See: various scattered slams on him in the 136 list.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

well, he is definetely no classic. in my opinion. he first 2 albums were great in their wickedness. I loved them. But mutations isn't that good, as most people think. And his last album is just a bad joke. But Loser stays one of the best songs of the nineties. but I don't think it made him a classic.

Ludo

― Ludo, Friday, 12 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Nearing Dud status. i actually liked the 1st album, but after that, boring ironic shite. I used to have potential though, I saw play a gig once around the time of "Loser" and he reminded me of a white pixie version of Sly Stone.

― o.munoz, Friday, 12 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

This from Sterl and I as posted on our fab, way-out site InReview . Maybe You've heard of it? ----------------- Thought Experiment by Sterl and Jimmy:

Question A: Place Lenny Kravitz and Beck in order of popularity.

A: Lenny Kravitz, Beck

Question B: Why, then, is Lenny Kravitz more popular than Beck, considering that both are derivative of a particular time of music that can be placed, and both have a style that can be traced to two artists/genres (Kravitz::Beatles and Hendrix as Beck::James Brown and Stax)

A: Kravitz manages to attain broad cross-generational popularity, as those who like his influences tend to like him as well. On the other hand, those who like Beck's influences tend not to like Beck. Critical appreciation of Brown and Stax is driven more by the notion of "authenticity". Kravitz' sound was driven out by Punk, whereas James Brown and Stax never went away. The death of rock is always hailed, the death of soul never. Additionally, imagine a girl requesting a Beck video on TRL. What does she say? "I want Beck's devil's haircut, cuz' its so weird and funny." Beck traffics (for the general, not critical audience) in weirdness, and his ability to merge weirdness (not surrealism, just weirdness) with 60s Stax grooves. Kravitz, when he is requested, is "hot" and "rocks! Whooo!".

Conclusion: Popularity of Kravitz comes from the need of the older generation to have something to cling to in the new. Popularity of Beck is repackaging of what has been done before.

A (part 2): Kravitz is infinitely more stylish than Beck, who has become a slave to the form -- wears suits, dances with feet and not rest of body. Kravitz carries self as rock-star, with guitar slung low, mirrored sunglasses, etc. Beck, despite all pretensions is still too self-conscious.

Question C: Consider Beck by himself, and why is he more popular than Jon Spencer, whose style can be traced to two artist/genres (rockabilly/roots rock)?

A: Spencer is less eclectic than Beck, and more self conscious. Go figure.

― JM, SC, Friday, 12 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Um, that was interesting, but I really don't know what to say about it. Beck and Lenny are two I'd never think to compare.

Anyhow, Beck is neither classic nor dud. Can't you think of more vile, love'em hate'em artists these days, mon cheri? Beck just exists. Some of his songs are good. "Loser" is good, though sometimes not necessarily in the sense that, say, Dusty Springfield is good if you get my drift. "Jackass" is good. "Devil's Haircut" is adequate. Some of his songs are bad. He's really sort of in the middle, isn't he?

He's not an offensive personality, at least.

― Ally, Saturday, 13 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

you are right. I think Beck is a really nice guy. but Midnite Vultures sucks.

peace, Ludo

― Ludo, Sunday, 14 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Dud. Just about.

― Robin Carmody, Monday, 15 January 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

4 weeks pass...

classic. the rest of you are jackasses.

― mygod=33, Tuesday, 13 February 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

are you people JOKING! midnight vultures was INSANLY good, i listened to it over and over and over again it was great in almost every aspect execpt for the fact that it's on tape not cd,... (i hate my life,.. why can't i afford cds) anyway he;s definatly not classic,... but so far from dud it's not funny, true if you look at SALES maybe,... but honestly what do sales prove

― Mog, Tuesday, 13 February 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

There's something about him, y'know? He's just so dang... EARNEST. He's like a puppy dog, trying to hard to please you can't help but crack a smile and enjoy it. Anyone seen him live? I saw him on the PBS show "Sessions at West 54th" and it was one of the most entertaining things I'd ever seen. Some people call him a "poser," or whatever, but that's the _point_. He's the ultimate poser, he has no musical identity beyond his Beck-ness. And he constantly surprises me. Who could have ever circa "Loser" that he had a great singing voice, circa "Debra" ?

― Jack Redelfs, Wednesday, 21 February 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

Tedium and irritation, start to end.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 14 March 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Midnite Vultures was quite good, if only because he actually tried to write proper songs rather than boring us all to death with how incredibly hip and clever he is. Dud, nonetheless.

― Ally C, Sunday, 18 March 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

His salvation is that already he gets canonized as great-white-dude, so he could pull some endless Neil Young-like career out of that. If not, his new album is going to sell very bad through lack of interest.

― Omar, Monday, 19 March 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I love his music. Sorry.

― Patrick, Monday, 19 March 2001 01:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

That's a very 'considered' argument up there, pretty funny too, but too dismissive, in my opinion. I can only defend the handful of songs I heard from Midnight Vultures, as I too dislike his previous work (collaborations excepted.)
Yes, he is shallow. Yes, he is painfully po-mo. But by amplifying these 'percieved' deficiencies, as he does on MV, he turns them into assets. His parasitic nature is taken to an extreme, feeding from so many sources (you can't deny the range of genres he raids, Stax is but one of many), it reaches a point where it becomes self- sufficient, he sounds like Beck. Yep, he's a shallow as a mirror, and the vocals don't betray this, multi-tracking himself into so many reflections, he's everyone but himself. Even the heart-break of Debra, one of the few times he isn't filtered to abstraction, is a muffled laugh. So it's not fair to compare him to Lenny 'conviction' Kravitz, and suggesting that Beck soley repackages the past is a bit like saying a DJ plays records. (What past, who's past, there's so much past out there) It's what he's chosen, and the mannor in which he combines these elements that matters, creating new sounds from instruments and sounds that could never physically occupy the same studio space, some decades apart. There's more to these incongruous combinations than sheer perversity, or weirdness, he's using them differently to how they were intended to function, re-appropriating the obsolete and turning it to his own ends. But, it still doesn't make him Classic.

― K-reg, Wednesday, 16 May 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

mutations was written in 14 days. its fucking brilliant. anyone else hear the final track bonus noise. yah i did too. brilliant. beck has every albumsomewherei n his head. not classic though. more like cult hero. matt

― matt, Saturday, 7 July 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

The Kurt Schwitters of modern music creating loveliness out of our cultural discards. Odd and charming stage persona,great visual artists, intruging Lewis Carroll doing smack on avenue A lyrics. CLASSIC

― anthony, Saturday, 7 July 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

Classic, classic, classic. Except for "Mellow Gold" and "Stereopathic Soul Manure" -- I just don't get them. I don't know if that makes me shallow or what. "Stereopathic" sounds like Ween, but even less funny. "Loser" is old news. "Mutations" is his classic, really amazing and insane and beautiful at the same time. Though I'm still bitter that the best song "Diamond Bollocks" is a hidden track.

― Jack Redelfs, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I think Mellow Gold is incredible bent cheap fun. I really started losing interest once the "Dust Brothers" got involved.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

4 months pass...

for the record, it's stereopathetic soulmanure not stereopathic soulmanure. don't believe me, look it up.

― mygod=33, Monday, 28 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Classic all over. Mutations is his masterpiece as has been said before. What I like about him is his versatility (going from indie, blues, folky songwriter to soul/funk) and eclecticism. He uses stuff which has been there before and does something new out of it. His collage chef d'oeuvre was Odelay. And it still sounds much much better than most of the electronic stuff around which usually recycles much more in terms of samples. In terms of importance I'd say Beck was for the 90s what Prince was for the 80s. The most varied and most interesting of the big selling artists. A genius.

― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 29 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Who has Beck influenced?

― Josh, Tuesday, 29 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

following your quirky hipster album run with a straightforward pop-rock album but including a quirky bonus track like you used to do to prove that you're still the same old avant you = beck influenced the betas!

― ethan, Tuesday, 29 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

He's a Scientologist. That makes him a dud.

― Ben Williams, Tuesday, 29 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Hang on comparing Beck with Prince..ha ha ha ha ha. Surely you can't be serious. On Midnite Vultures he might want to be Prince...but he sure doesn't succeed although Sexx Laws is fantastic.

I figure I'd enjoy his stage show, a nice dose of showmanship methinks and he's got a cool looking bassist and Roger Manning on keys.

Some good tracks but on the whole not classic and so not comparable to Prince.

― mms, Tuesday, 29 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

There's something very familiar about all of this Beck hatred, from a girl's perspective. It's alright for a short black man to violate gender norms, but god forbid a straight white boy should do it. He's unforgivably elfin and playful for the plaid shirt crowd. If you don't like his music, fine - but I insist that there's something more going on here. They're mostly attacks on his character, which is pretty irrelevant but fairly typical of fanboys.

― Kerry, Tuesday, 29 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Surely you can't be serious.

Well both are midgets, so you can compare them. ;)

― Omar, Tuesday, 29 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I saw Beck live, and never expected him to be a good dancer (or even to dance), but there it is.

― Sean, Tuesday, 29 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

...attacks on Beck's character.

That's probably because Beck's "character" is an annoying, ill-conceived, cheap-irony-laden schtick that was old by the time Mellow Gold came out and has gotten progressively worse. I can't imagine how his smug attitude, crappy songwriting and utterly smackable face could appeal to anyone, especially not when Ween provide a million-times-better alternative. (This is my first attempt at html and please forgive me if I fuck it up and destroy LUSENET forever...)

― adam, Tuesday, 29 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Woohoo!

― adam, Tuesday, 29 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

utterly smackable face

I think he's kinda cute'n'cuddly.

― Sean, Tuesday, 29 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I think "Get the Party Started" sounds like a Midnite Vultures track.

I don't think Beck is very good at interviews. When ever I see him on the tv being interviewed, it looks like the most awkward experience for interviewer & him. They aren't much fun to read, either.

Beck & Bjork seem to get the most awful descriptions in their writing. "Man(or woman)-child-fetus-space-pixie-cowboy-enigma" This sort of characterization has actually sort of petered off circa Mutations, for Beck. Bjork's still sadly stuck.

He used to be my favorite artist, now I'm not so sure. He hasn't put out an album in far too long. I want to know what he'll try to do. I get the feeling he's just given up. In the meantime, news about him makes me feel weird. Dating Wynona Ryder and becoming a Scientologist.

That said, I didn't listen to his stuff for about a year. I picked it up again about a week ago. The only album that left me with the feeling it used to was "Odelay".

― 1 1 2 3 5, Wednesday, 30 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

He sold out after One Foot In The Grave. Sellout.

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 30 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I like Beck's interviews. They may not be exciting and dynamic, but they're straightforward and informative, which is what I look for in interviews anyway. Also, surprisingly, many women I've talked to think he's attractive, though no Brad or even a Ben.

― Jim Eichenburg, Wednesday, 30 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Best interview evah = Interview magazine gets Timbaland to interview Beck, and they just start talking about nothing in particular, then discuss when they're open because they're looking to do more work together, and it just trails off, and every so often Interview injects something to try to get them talking about interview-type stuff but it doesn't work.

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

I enjoy reading this but some of the comments are ignorant. Mutations and Midnight Vultures are great albums that are just as good if not better than Odelay. I'm sick of all those tired opinions that Beck's "unpolished music" is best. Its fun and interesting but c'mon, so are his later albums that are much better conceived.

As for Adam and Ben Williams, they need to get their heads on straight. How can judge Beck's character? You haven't even met him. Do you read Q magazine and say, "Hmm, his personality looks one diemensional. And as for Ben Williams, Beck is not even a Scientologist. If your going to make a lame judgement at least get your story straight.

― Jared Caramel (jared), Saturday, 21 September 2002 14:15 (10 years ago) Permalink

It pisses me off to no end when people associate Beck with irony. Why is it so hard to believe that a young white male might have genuine fondness for James Brown/Henry Mancini/Hank Williams? Why do ppl assume that Beck's bizarre lyrics and, err, interesting wardrobe represent a will to mock the genres he's using, and not just a will to bring his own personality to the fore in the music he loves? Why do ppl assume that just because *they're* cynical and jaded, everyone else must be, too?

I saw Beck on the Midnite Vultures tour. It was wild. It was funky. It was fun. It had every characteristic that a good Funk concert should have, and of course it's miles away from James Brown, but so what? Beck isn't JB, but he can emphasise with Brown's music and bring his own party to it. And yeah, he has a sense of humor, but so do Outkast. So did Sly Stone and Afrika Bambaata and Prince. Were they being "ironic", too?

So, yeah, I find Beck to be a classic. In a biography of his that I've read he says something to the effect that he considers his music to be a big house, and every genre is a different room that's invariably warm and inviting- that's what I love about the man, his enormous capability to embrace every genre you could care to think of and adapt it to his own personality.

Who has Beck influenced?

Most Quirk Pop in general reminds me of Beck- someone's already mentioned The Beta Band. I'd add Cake and The Eels to that list.

I don't think Beck is very good at interviews. When ever I see him on the tv being interviewed, it looks like the most awkward experience for interviewer & him

Taking sides: Beck being interviewed by Thurston Moore vs. Beck being interviewed by Space Ghost. I love both to bits.

And as for Ben Williams, Beck is not even a Scientologist. If your going to make a lame judgement at least get your story straight.

Actually, Beck has expressed an interest in scientology lately. But Prince's a Jehova's Witness, so whadyagonnado...

― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 21 September 2002 20:18 (10 years ago) Permalink

I'd add Cake and The Eels to that list.

Generally speaking I'd call that evidence for the prosecution.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 21 September 2002 20:19 (10 years ago) Permalink

daniel- the simple problem is that he seems to have a list of styles and from alb to alb he ticks them off. he doesn't seem to bring anything of his own. at no time I think this is Beck, it's just an endless Borg like assimilation of styles.

so there...

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 21 September 2002 20:58 (10 years ago) Permalink

When a German interviewer asked E whether Beck had influenced the Eels, he said "No, we're better than him. We've got three turntables and two microphones"

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 21 September 2002 21:06 (10 years ago) Permalink

Beck is classic for Odelay and Mellow Gold. He had more effect on a teenage me and my friends the Nirvana did for all their industry changing hoopla.
Im not sure about influences but Beck goes really well with Basehead and his producers record that was okay (some good single material).

Nardwaur: Beck why should people care about you and not your haircut?
Beck: Fuck off (hangs up)
One of the reasons I heart E more then Beck.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Sunday, 22 September 2002 02:14 (10 years ago) Permalink

Julio: I suppose that what he brings of himself to it would be the wonderfully fucked-up lyrics and the Pop Art sensibility, tho I'll admit that both of those aren't that original in the first place. Oh, and his voice (Johnny Cash once remarked that it has that "old mountain feel")

― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 22 September 2002 12:50 (10 years ago) Permalink

Beck goes really well with Basehead

Funny you should say that...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 22 September 2002 14:12 (10 years ago) Permalink

"There are many reasons not to be impressed by Beck."

Well, you lost me right there.

― Nate Patrin, Sunday, 22 September 2002 14:17 (10 years ago) Permalink

Whatever floats your boat. I was feeling particularly snarky that day, I seem to remember -- my comment at the start of the thread here really still says it all about him.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 22 September 2002 14:19 (10 years ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

>>And as for Ben Williams, Beck is not even a Scientologist. If your going to make a lame judgement at least get your story straight.

Actually, Beck has expressed an interest in scientology lately.<<

Actually, no he hasn't. And he's been more honest about his relationship to Scientology than any one of the 95,000 asinine gossip threads I've read about this.

― philo t. vance, Friday, 18 October 2002 02:50 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

He's pretty good. His last album was bad, very dull, I think, though I only heard about half of it one time. The "lost cause" song was bad, anyway. Why do people always try to say beck is ironic? What has he ever done, ever, in his life that is even remotely ironic? Name one thing. You can't!

― Applepie Baseball, Friday, 19 December 2003 07:47 (9 years ago) Permalink

I dislike Beck. Dud, diddy, dud, dud-dud, dud.

Wasn't that bit on Odelay?

I don't believe a thing that comes out of his mouth. His music seems to originate in his pinky finger and his big toe. Then he has the nerve to make an ernest, dark album. And we're supposed to dig it?

Cotton candy with hipster flavoring. Irony to the point of nothingness.

― Debito (Debito), Friday, 19 December 2003 08:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

the simple problem is that he seems to have a list of styles and from alb to alb he ticks them off. he doesn't seem to bring anything of his own. at no time I think this is Beck, it's just an endless Borg like assimilation of styles.

Sorry, wrong. That is Beck. You can say the same thing about the first three Beatles albums, although the comparison ends there.

Who has Beck influenced?

Well, me for one. And Radiohead and everyone who has heard his stuff and realizes that there are no boundries to music and that adding a good melody to the sound of breaking glass is a good thing.

― Speedy Gonzalas (Speedy Gonzalas), Friday, 19 December 2003 08:29 (9 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 95 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

yeah I don't think that has much to do with it

― the alternate vision continues his vision quest! (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 9 July 2012 16:07 (10 months ago) Permalink

Maybe he just started sucking.

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 9 July 2012 16:07 (10 months ago) Permalink

np JF! If that came on the radio, only a word or two could even come close to cluing me into the fact that that was Beck. Doesn't sound like him at all. Actually sounds like an earnest 70s to 80s(? my knowledge of this genre lacks) country song but I will enjoy it ironically anyway, first thing he's done that interested me at all *since* Mutations.

― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Monday, 9 July 2012 16:10 (10 months ago) Permalink

I like the main part of the song, before it goes all bonkers punk/funk on the way out.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 9 July 2012 17:19 (10 months ago) Permalink

(Those parts are nice too, but I wish the proper part of the song was left unfuckedwith).

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 9 July 2012 17:20 (10 months ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

this is brilliant.

― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 10 August 2012 17:18 (9 months ago) Permalink

it is pretty ingenious

however what if the songs suck

― hologram sticker of Ken Griffey Jr. at Denny's (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 10 August 2012 17:27 (9 months ago) Permalink

Beck makes a big assumption that most people can still read sheet music?

― Chewton Mendip (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, 10 August 2012 17:29 (9 months ago) Permalink

End-around On The Pirating Business.
Here’s the most brilliant part of the idea, and the part that appeals to the marketer in me. You can’t just download this album, you have to buy it. It’s not digital, it’s paper. Beck has successfully found a loophole in our digital addictions. A loophole that will find musicians and non-musicians alike wanting to purchase such a novelty, either to play the music privately, publicly, or simply to follow along while listening to the world bring the music to life. Sure, someone will probably scan the sheet music into pdfs and send them around, but my gut tells me that, since Beck isn’t recording this music himself, the only way for Beck fans to truly experience Beck within this medium is to buy the full-color, beautifully designed package in a store

I'm moderately ashamed to say that I download bootleg pdf sheetmusic all the time.

― spanky hotel frogstrot (how's life), Friday, 10 August 2012 17:32 (9 months ago) Permalink

Second part of that thought being that this will be up on mediafire in short order.

― spanky hotel frogstrot (how's life), Friday, 10 August 2012 17:32 (9 months ago) Permalink

Beck makes a big assumption that most people can still read sheet music?

well I dunno if he assumes "most people" - he's obviously making an assumption about his fanbase and this does limit it. fwiw I can read chord charts but sheet music eh not really (a skill I have forgotten due to lack of use)

― hologram sticker of Ken Griffey Jr. at Denny's (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 10 August 2012 17:37 (9 months ago) Permalink

Most musicians can't read sheet music, let alone fans.

(He would be much better off doing it in Tab tbh)

― Chewton Mendip (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, 10 August 2012 17:38 (9 months ago) Permalink

Some sheet music has the chords written, maybe even the guitar forms. If not, then EGBDF is the code breaker.

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 10 August 2012 19:00 (9 months ago) Permalink

he should have released midi or Finale files, then everyone could just load their favorite plugins and bounce down the tracks.

― 40oz of tears (Jordan), Friday, 10 August 2012 19:03 (9 months ago) Permalink

LOL @ that slobbering article, tho. But cool for Beck. Not sure how 'fresh' and 'genius' this innovation is tho, it's pretty much the standard way things were done before recorded music, back when everybody had a piano in their house. Just swap out 'piano' with 'Garage Band'. Are there going to be specific arrangements?

I could see music teachers in high schools and colleges using this medium as a teaching platform for students.

Sheet music being used to teach students? No way...

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 10 August 2012 19:07 (9 months ago) Permalink

Neat idea

― Ówen P., Friday, 10 August 2012 19:09 (9 months ago) Permalink

LOL @ that slobbering article

yeah really. classic author bio.

I am the Founder & CEO of Ideasicle, a virtual marketing-ideas company pioneering the "Expert Sourcing" model.

― dmr, Friday, 10 August 2012 19:28 (9 months ago) Permalink

the sheet music idea is pretty corny imo. no surprise it's a McSweeney's collaboration.

― dmr, Friday, 10 August 2012 19:30 (9 months ago) Permalink

I absolutely love the thinking behind this idea

however I will probably never buy this

― keeping things contextual (DJP), Friday, 10 August 2012 19:33 (9 months ago) Permalink

Bad article, I download tonnes of scores. I'll buy it, sure, sounds fun. I bought the Gonzales sheet music and it was a solid purchase

― Ówen P., Friday, 10 August 2012 20:07 (9 months ago) Permalink

Bad article, I download tonnes of scores. I'll buy it, sure, sounds fun. I bought the Gonzales sheet music and it was a solid purchase

― Ówen P., Friday, 10 August 2012 20:07 (9 months ago) Permalink

Bad article, I download tonnes of scores. I'll buy it, sure, sounds fun. I bought the Gonzales sheet music and it was a solid purchase

― Ówen P., Friday, 10 August 2012 20:10 (9 months ago) Permalink

Bad article, I download tonnes of scores. I'll buy it, sure, sounds fun. I bought the Gonzales sheet music and it was a solid purchase

― Ówen P., Friday, 10 August 2012 20:10 (9 months ago) Permalink

Love the idea. And yet...

The songs here are as unfailingly exciting as you’d expect from their author, but if you want to hear “Do We? We Do,” or “Don’t Act Like Your Heart Isn’t Hard,” bringing them to life depends on you.

...that bolded title is SO McSweeney's.

― Trewster Dare (jaymc), Friday, 10 August 2012 20:18 (9 months ago) Permalink

Beck makes a big assumption that most people can still read sheet music?

― Chewton Mendip (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, August 10, 2012 12:29 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

p sure this isn't targeted at most people. also fwiw learning how to read sheet music when you already know how to play an instrument intuitively is like 10000000000x easier than learning how to play an unfamiliar instrument when you know how to read sheet music*. also if yr an electronic music person, then either a) being able to sight read isn't a thing, just painstakingly plot it out like u always do or b) it still isn't a thing because the way a lot music software seems to work is by mimicking the basic structure of sheet music: higher tones are higher up on the thing you're looking at, tones that come quickly one after another are closer together, or explicitly linked.

this is a cool idea, if corned up with the mcsweeney's association, but cool. i probably wont buy it but if it encourages other "popular" musicians to actually put out official sheet music/tab, then i'm down.

*nb this might just be sour grapes because i can plonk out the sequence of anything on a piano, given some sheet music, even though i haven't played regularly since i was eight---but i'll never at any point in my life be able to say "i can play the piano."

― catbus otm (gbx), Friday, 10 August 2012 20:28 (9 months ago) Permalink

I want Orbital to put out sheet music for Wonky

― keeping things contextual (DJP), Friday, 10 August 2012 20:34 (9 months ago) Permalink

I'm pretty competent with fakebook-style sheet music -- i.e., a right-hand melodic line and chord names. If it's more complicated than that, sometimes I can slowly pick it out, though at a certain point I'm simply not technically skilled to pull off moving parts with both hands.

― Trewster Dare (jaymc), Friday, 10 August 2012 20:35 (9 months ago) Permalink

On piano, that is.

― Trewster Dare (jaymc), Friday, 10 August 2012 20:35 (9 months ago) Permalink

right but you can read a fakebook

i mean the great thing about sheet music is that it makes learning/practicing go a lot more quickly. the difference between me looking at a piece of paper with instructions vs me trying to remember what i'm supposed to be doing next is getting it right the fifth time vs getting it right the 30th time

― catbus otm (gbx), Friday, 10 August 2012 20:37 (9 months ago) Permalink

anyway figuring out sheet music is somewhere between learning how to play guitar hero and learning how to play D&D probably, harder than figuring out what to do with a checkers game, easier than emacs

― catbus otm (gbx), Friday, 10 August 2012 20:40 (9 months ago) Permalink

my friends' band publishes the sheet music for their stuff and might very well make more money on that than on the records (but they have a big brass nerd following).

― 40oz of tears (Jordan), Friday, 10 August 2012 20:42 (9 months ago) Permalink

has anyone released and album only for player piano roll?

― Jandek at the Disco (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 10 August 2012 20:43 (9 months ago) Permalink

Did Conlon Nancarrow?

― Trewster Dare (jaymc), Friday, 10 August 2012 20:49 (9 months ago) Permalink

has anyone released and album only for player piano roll?

I think this is an April Fool's joke: http://wilcoworld.net/#!/the-whole-love-now-available-on-piano-roll/

― dmr, Friday, 10 August 2012 21:07 (9 months ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

Beck has been seriously doing work the last few years--and seemingly just for the joy of it, since it's been almost totally under the radar (with some of the best of it released for free).

Newest example, and totally incredible: a "remix" of five years of Philip Glass' oeuvre into a single 20-minute piece. Give it a shot, I doubt it's what you'd expect from either names:

http://soundcloud.com/dunvagenmusic/nyc-73-78

― Soundslike, Thursday, 18 October 2012 18:36 (7 months ago) Permalink

Follows on his Harry Partch tribute:

― Soundslike, Thursday, 18 October 2012 18:36 (7 months ago) Permalink

And the fantastically wonderful full-album cover of Skip Spence's 'Oar' he did with James Gadson, Wilco, Feist, and Jamie Lidell:

― Soundslike, Thursday, 18 October 2012 18:38 (7 months ago) Permalink

that Harry Partch track is one my favorite things Beck's ever done. I missed getting the mp3 when it was a free download, but I'd buy it given a chance. the Glass mix is great too; gives me hope someday he'll do an entire full length album that fragmented; in most people's hands, something that changes around that much would not hold my attention but he knows how to do this

― Milton Parker, Thursday, 18 October 2012 21:28 (7 months ago) Permalink

Hey DJP I fuck with Guero

― Raymond Cummings, Friday, 19 October 2012 00:59 (7 months ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

If retro-fetishism did not exist we would be forced to invent it (and then sell it as super-nifty xmas presents!)

"Beck’s latest album comes in an almost-forgotten form — twenty songs existing only as individual pieces of sheet music, never before released or recorded. Complete with full-color, heyday-of-home-play-inspired art for each song and a lavishly produced hardcover carrying case, Song Reader is an experiment in what an album can be at the end of 2012 — an alternative that enlists the listener in the tone of every track, and that’s as visually absorbing as a dozen gatefold LPs put together."

http://www.songreader.net/
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/11/beck-a-preface-to-song-reader.html

― Oneohchex Point Charlie (Spectrist), Wednesday, 14 November 2012 07:37 (6 months ago) Permalink

Is there no cheaper version than the one for $50?

Also noted that Jody wrote the notes?

― calstars, Thursday, 15 November 2012 20:44 (6 months ago) Permalink

This is a fantastic idea.

― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 15 November 2012 21:34 (6 months ago) Permalink

i hope there are songs with more conceptual annotations like "5 seconds of banjo sample"

― da croupier, Thursday, 15 November 2012 21:43 (6 months ago) Permalink

I'll just go ahead and say it, at this point I like Beck post-"success" (or at least post-making-an-album-and-touring, circa 2008) than I liked him in his supposed heyday. And I quite liked 'Mellow Gold' through 'Sea Change'. But he's doing what I think an artist should do who finds wealth: doing exactly what excites his artistic capacity, not necessarily more of what makes him money. The fact that a lot of it is given away (ie "Harry Partch" or the Record Club releases solidifies my sense he's doing what he's doing for the best reasons.

― Soundslike, Thursday, 15 November 2012 22:55 (6 months ago) Permalink

Yes, but in a shop the other day, the single "Tropicalia" came on, and it reminded me of how it was nice when he'd come up with these a-sides, and they'd get played on the radio and 'ting.

― Mark G, Thursday, 15 November 2012 23:10 (6 months ago) Permalink

There's a non-signed version for $34. Wish there was just a PDF d/l for $10.

― calstars, Friday, 16 November 2012 15:22 (6 months ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

At it again--I'll definitely be listening:

http://www.beck.com/index.php/beck-reimagines-david-bowies-sound-and-vision

― Soundslike, Saturday, 9 February 2013 18:14 (3 months ago) Permalink

Paid for by a car company

― calstars, Sunday, 10 February 2013 20:06 (3 months ago) Permalink

That obviously negates the artistic effort of the 180+ musicians involved. . .

― Soundslike, Monday, 11 February 2013 03:41 (3 months ago) Permalink

Jesus H. Christ, what a gigantic error of taste that was! To make a Big Band, Big Top, Cast-of-Millions version of a song about "drifting into my solitude over my head" shows that you may have the means, but you've completely lost the meaning.

Wearing a ten-gallon hat, Beck points at one corner of the tent and the musicians there respond! He points at another and lo, a heavenly host of evangelical singers replace Eno's synth line (a hundred times more effective on a synth)! It's like looking through a telescope the wrong way; megalomania never made everything look so small.

This PT Barnum buffoonery made the Glass Spider Tour - for which Bowie was rightly lambasted - seem like an Unplugged performance. Just a big yucky gaffe, enough in-and-of-itself to downgrade Beck from Classic to Dud status.

At least it sold some gas-guzzling Lincoln SUVs, though. I'm certainly buying one after watching.

― Grampsy, Monday, 11 February 2013 05:05 (3 months ago) Permalink

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