Beck: Classic Or Dud

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)

Best since Guero is the new Best since Up.

Guero >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Up

None of his albums since Midnite Vultures are worth more than a courtesy listen tbh

hey sea change isn't bad

Cosign imago

guero is great

hey sea change isn't bad

Not bad, no, but every artist he was riffing on did it better first and with a lot less fuss.

Mutations is way better than Sea Change

Guero is where i jump off. it sounds like someone bored in a LA studio throwing stuff at the wall

Mutations is way better than Sea Change

Yup, somehow conjures a melancholic atmosphere much more affectingly and convincingly than Sea Change does even though the lyrics are more of the same stream-of-consciousness gibberish as all the other early albums

Mutations is way better than Sea Change

Yep. When Sea Change was released and was a crashing bore I had to remind myself that Beck had already done "slow" without sacrificing wit or rhythm.

about half of sea change is very good and the other half is beck playing four chords as slowly as possible hoping hat a song emerges

“little one” is one of my fav beck songs ever still

The sea change tour was weird too. Flaming lips opened and were their joyous selves, almost as if to make becks set even more of a bummer. The lips as his backing band didn't save the sea change material from feeling like a slog, beck seemed to not want to play to the crowd in his usual way; instead braying like a wounded soldier.

Sea Change is where I gave up, I find it unlistenable

I do like some stuff on Guero, that's about it for the last 15+ years

Really nice boards of canada remix of broken drum on guero lito

I'm not a massive Beck fan but I've always had time to check him out. As far as post-MV stuff goes, I like boring Beck - Sea Change and Morning Phase are both great. I liked Guero a lot too. I was a little meh on Information and Modern Guilt, but at least I could still see "Beck" in those albums. This new one... literally anyone could be doing these songs. Feels like mere coincidence that it's Beck on vocals.

Lips backing band seemed like a great idea that failed. suppose outside of Steven they aren't good enough musicians to play that material. they were trying to do his funky and Odelay stuff and it was pretty bad imo. you look at his Midnight Vulture tours and he had this awesome band of pros playing funk jams every night, now it was these stoner junkies who were used to playing along to their own backing tracks.

Sea Change is alright but i never go back to listen to it. and from time to time he still does interesting stuff (Modern Guilt is a later record i am sort of warming to).

the new stuff though, nah.

Sea Changes has some nice James Gadson drumming.

Yeah Adam that sums up the sea change tour well. Midnite Vultures show was amazing