Beck: Classic Or Dud

"Minus" and "Diamond Bollocks" are top 5 for sure.

"Outcome" too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwG52KzCOa4

Ah shit, sorry Alfred - being a dolt. I love "We Live Again" and "Diamond Bollocks" blew me away as a teenager hearing that rip through the end of the album

How does it compare to Sea Change?

Sea Change is a lot better, it has more depth, in the string arrangments, in the vocals even. Morning Phase is just a lazy sunday morning record. So I guess at least the title was apt.

Morning Phase is just a lazy sunday morning record.

Not a bad thing. Pairs well with coffee and the morning paper.

Dude got married and became a scientologist and forgot what fuck fun is

Wasn't he always a scientologist?

yes he's born into the church.

I probably would not rate "Black Tambourine" if not for INLAND EMPIRE.

i think it's possible i saw him doing his antifolk thing in NYC in '89-91? When i was at the Sidewalk Cafe to do 5 mins of standup comedy?

otherwise i saw him at M axwell's circa Odelay and he was groovy.

also laffed my ass off first seeing this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdzY49xlvdY

i love that old interview. i loved his Space Ghost appearance too.

why so serious now? Beck was hilarious as fuck.

xenu doesn't like joeks

it's like "That Mellon feeling" has become his MO

Hesitant to put it all on a sciento. People grow boring when they age after all and have kids and mortgages. But I guess more than anything he doesn't see much of anything or anyone outside his sciento world so pretty hard to get inspiration when you are so secluded mentally

iirc he was born into the Church, spent his young adult years kind of avoiding it, ended up coming back around to it and embracing it fully when he married Marisa Ribisi. There was a story Paleface used to tell about Beck in NYC in the early 90s couchsurfing and playing on street corners, but still having wads of crisp hundreds in his wallet, that I think implies that someone in the Church was funding his excursions all along. I dunno, I've read some weird shit on Operation Clambake etc.

People grow boring when they age after all and have kids and mortgages

actually this is backwards, as you get older you realize how boring 20yos are

he was def into it during odelay

and VERY into it during midnight vultures

where can i buy all of his mellow gold-era clothes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNwOJvot5Cc

strong Scientology vibes here w the whole "I feel confident about my career" motivational lyrics. like he's really making fun of the whole thing.

Has he had a plu sign

Plus sign today

Stupid phone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNkOIti-zto

industrial folk! i have a folder called 0000 Beck (Early Beck) that has a dozen or so early tapes and they are all amazing. i have listened to Fresh Meat and Golden Feelings the most but everything is pretty much on those levels. there are some re-recorded songs that appear in different versions. lots of cool sound collage stuff in between the tracks. mixtape style a la Stereopathetic Soul Manure. some minimalist electonic acapella noisey Prince tributes, some really transcendental post-folk as well.

i really love the lofi quality of this stuff. Beck records his voice at different speeds at times, and sometimes it sounds as if the entire track is wobbly. i really love the asthetic. he is a country yokel who found a synthesizer, the kind of misfit stoner troubled white trash kid cartoon character that would be friends with Beavis and Butthead. he sounds so out of it, howling like a drunk train hopper, his voice crackling in a strangled beast yodel. Pee Wee Herman X Tom Waits?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKvmnC7sEok

i like how he really trashes his voice. is it a fluxus technique? it makes me think of Yoko Ono. his folks were all about the art scene back then, i'm sure he had heard those records. i believe he samples his father David Campbell's orchestral compositions at times.

Fresh Meat is still my favorite, mostly cos "Steve Threw Up" is so brilliant and funny and crass. what a great idea for a song.

Yes that early shit is very nice. I like to think of B as broke with his fear and depression fighting it out on tape

Buck Fuck Iowa is great. Satan was way cool.

After many wars, people got bored, so God gave them Jesus. Soon they killed Jesus, and got bored again.

So Satan gave them rock and roll.

Rock and roll became bigger than religion. Everyone wanted to be in a rock and roll band. When Robert Johnson wanted to learn how to play guitar, all he had to do was go down to the crossroads and ask Satan. Satan gave Jimi Hendrix a can of lighter fluid to set fire to his guitar. He even lent Jim Morrison some beads and a pair of leather pants. Satan hung out with all the rock stars. And when they got too famous, or too fat, or their music started to suck, he helped them make the best possible career move. He killed them.

That was so cool.

When the Water Will Take Back the Land feels a lot like early Dylan.

so lol i ended up watching a whole bunch of Beck music videos last night. i've always loved "The New Pollution" ever since i saw it as a kid so i did a lot of reading. Beck directed it himself and there is an animator credited (Andrew Doucette) so alot of things i thought were found footage were likely shot for this video. i wanted to play spot the reference.

we have the dancing girls
https://media.giphy.com/media/EbDtvBwtuE55S/giphy.gif

they are a direct reference to the 1968 Serge Gainsbourg video for "Monsieur William"
https://media.giphy.com/media/UfqyyEq4Tebo4/giphy.gif

we have the Kraftwerk shot
https://media.giphy.com/media/ExgjNz02a9Rvi/giphy.gif

this seems to be a less specific reference. i couldn't find that exact shot but they are wearing the outfits from the "Pocket Calculator" videos. this clip from "We Are the Robots" has that robotic movement. this specific shot is also referenced in "Beercan"
https://media.giphy.com/media/Qlb7uSOdy7nMY/giphy.gif

there are the cool trippy vector animations
https://media.giphy.com/media/47Ysjq2ejjiKY/giphy.gif

these probably refer to 60s computer animator John Whitney Sr.'s 1961 catalog
https://media.giphy.com/media/tOSszzwh1hDz2/giphy.gif

i always wondered what the reference was for the 60s band in the beginning? makes me think of Pink Floyd's "Scarecrow" video where they are just running around in a field. but there are the animal masks. is it the Beatles? Os Mutantes? i've always wondered...
https://media.giphy.com/media/qhyHTOQzLnVOE/giphy.gif

tbf its probably just "random 60s psych band" but it's possible it could be directly based on an earlier music video

HOT MILK

"Motherfucker" sounds like a proto Marilyn Manson

Time lapse footage of duct tape lies

i always wondered what the reference was for the 60s band in the beginning?

there might not be a direct shot-for-shot reference but it looks like elements from "magical mystery tour" & "head" kinda spliced together. i'm not sure what other bands were making these types of movies '67/'68.

i always wondered what the reference was for the 60s band in the beginning? makes me think of Pink Floyd's "Scarecrow" video where they are just running around in a field. but there are the animal masks. is it the Beatles? Os Mutantes? i've always wondered...

"i am the walrus" from the magical mystery tour film, no? they have the animal masks and are gamboling in a field.

yeah "I Am the Walrus" is probably it. i love the 16mm look, it is very MMT.

Fear has a glare
That traps you like searchlights
The puritans stare
Their souls are fluorescent

The skin of a robot
Vibrates with pleasure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc4shIwV5dM

i ended up at this live version of "Tropicalia" with the Flaming Lips as his backing band. what is this shit? this is so weak and pathetic, no wonder they split.

the "Mutations" promo with him being interviewed by the robot is classic tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX54mI6c1JA

the way this is packaged reminds me of what Cornelius was doing 10 years ago

I think Harry Partch was his apex

this guy seems lost

I haven't heard Colors yet, but it's been getting pretty meh reviews and, obviously, next to no discussion here.

dunno felt like up all night was that moment where beck finally channeled new radicals

Oh god. That sounds. . . awful.

I listened to it once. I think it might be his worst record. To me it’s the first time he sounded like he was chasing someone else’s trend.

I listened to it once. I think it might be his worst record. To me it’s the first time he sounded like he was chasing someone else’s trend.

Too bad the catchiest song is a Police pastiche (No Distraction).

feel like i may as well listen to Maroon Five as this new stuff

its like shitty earbud selling music

I haven't heard Colors yet, but it's been getting pretty meh reviews and, obviously, next to no discussion here.

― he doesn't need to be racist about it though. (Austin), Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Has it? Most of the critics on my FB wall are enthusiastic about it: best since Guero, etc.

(I don't care other than the first track)