1. First, and most intriguingly, Beck’s long-time musical director/bassist/friend, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, has reported that he will not be in Beck’s bad on the upcoming Modern Guilt tour. Only Brian Lebarton, the keyboardist, from the Guero/Info tours remains. If you’ve seen Beck live at all since 1996, you’ve probably seen JMJ and his fro–the only times he wasn’t in the group was on (some) of the Sea Change tours. There were 4 Sea Change tours: Beck toured alone, with the Flaming Lips, with JMJ in Australia, and then with a new band without JMJ for the summer of ‘03. Also during 2005, JMJ was not in the band, but he rejoined them in 2006. JMJ’s bass mastery, leather outfist, and general bad-assness will be missed, but really, new bands = new sounds = exciting new shows.

No word yet on who else is joining. One rumor is that one of the members of Islands was asked to drum (Beck’s been a fan for a few years, they have a remix on Guerolito), but he said no. More info on all that as we find out.

2. Next, and I find this absolutely fascinating. Over on Beck’s myspace page, recently his Top 8 Friends were changed to 8 ancient Greek figures: Alexander The Great, Archimedes, Protagoras, Aristotle, Sappho, Archaenus, Socrates, and Pythagoras. And, on their myspace pages, their only friends are Beck and Tom (the Myspace guy). So clearly, Beck (or at least his marketing team) had something to do with it. But why? Is it some indication of what the album marketing will be like? Maybe someone’s just being random? Is it some play on the ancient figures with modern guilt? A quick Google search indicates that “modern guilt” may have some connection to Greek philosophy, and/or existentialism (my thoughts on Beck and existentialism are a constantly growing list, but that’s another post). Hopefully more clues about what’s behind all this is forthcoming, or maybe it’s just a bit of random nonsense, I dunno.

So it does appear that Beck is hard at work at a new album. A recent Rolling Stone article about Odeluxe mentions that he is recording in L.A. with a producer he declines to name. Beck assured that it will be out this year.

Spin Magazine “reports” in one sentence that Beck is back to work with Nigel Godrich, which sounds possible. But then JMJ, Beck’s bassist/musical director, added to the mystery that Beck is working with someone JMJ set him up with, so I read that as someone new. (”And it’s going well,” he added.)

So… this is a report that there isn’t a lot to report, and what little there is to report isn’t quite solid info. I feel like a real member of the media.

I know this is a Beck blog but screw it, Wounded Cougar–the greatest band of all-time–Beck even thinks so*–has t-shirts for sale, and you need one.

 http://woundedcougar.bigcartel.com/product/eye-patch-bikinis-white-t-shirt

 Also, buy their CD here:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/woundedcougar

It’s the holiday season!  WUCU your friends and family with these gifts.  The more you buy, the more likely the band will be to record a second album!

 *He hasn’t said this, but can you prove he disagrees?

Again from JMJ, the setlist (songs with links are to youtube videos that have surfaced) for DAY 2 opening for The Police in Buenos Aires :

01. Devils Haircut
02. Black Tambourine
03. Think I’m In Love
04. The New Pollution
05. Fuckin’ With My Head
06. Sunday Sun
07. Paper Tiger
08. Lost Cause
09. Soldier Jane
10. Girl
11. Where It’s At
12. Nausea
13. Minus
14. Loser
15. E-Pro

*Video quality on the youtube videos is not all that great and camera kinda goes everywhere, so frxz who get motion sick watch out. hehe. Sound quality is pretty decent, however.

Here’s the setlist (songs with links point to youtube videos of the performances) posted on stewoo.net by none other than JMJ himself. Looks as if the Echoplex was indeed a warm-up and the setlist here is pretty similar.

Devil’s haircut
Black Tambourine
Loser
Think I’m in Love
New Pollution
Fuckin’ with my head
Information
Sunday Sun
Paper Tiger
Soldier Jane
Where It’s At
Nausea
Girl
Minus
Mutherfucker
E-Pro

Some comments regarding the show from JMJ as found on stewoo.net:

“Oh yeah - the gig? It was fun. Getting our sea legs for the stadiums. I think we rocked, we’ll see what the press says, since their words obviously mean a lot more than what I have to say. Had a great time tho, seriously.”

I see Newt called me out on my thoughts a few posts ago about the recent warm-up gig at the Echoplex, since I’m in LA and was there.  Sorry for taking so long to get this up, but better late than never, right?

The exciting thing about the show was the new band: Beck’s usual crew (Wounded Cougar) was mostly otherwise committed, and in Beck’s zeal to go to South America and open for The Police, he had to get a new band together.  Justin Meldal-Johnsen, the longtime music director/bad-ass bassist/Leatherman, was there.  Beck’s drummer from 1994-2000 (and sporadically since), Joey Waronker, was back again.  Joey and JMJ are amazing together.  Guitar was played by Jason Falkner, who played on Sea Change and Info, and was in Jellyfish with Roger Joseph Manning Jr.  And finally keyboards/effects/tambourine was provided by none other than Nigel Godrich, producer of Mutations, Sea Change and Info (and the 6th member of Radiohead).

Apparently, the band had only rehearsed three or four times.  The setlist, posted below, was all the songs they knew together (tho I’m postive JMJ and Joey could play anything; not so sure the other guys–including Beck).  The songs after “E-Pro” were not on the setlist, and were spontaneous encore additions.

The music was relatively heavy-sounding, not quite as subtle or diverse as usual Beck concerts.  The band’s chemistry and tightness was good, but nowhere near as strong as Wounded Cougar–who had been Beck’s touring (and studio) band for a number of years and become quite impressive.  But it was the first show (of only 4) and I assume will get even better.

Highlights were the songs pulled from Mellow Gold, and not played in around 10 years, “Motherfuker” and “Fuckin With My Head.”  I really enjoyed Nigel Godrich’s goofy little keyboard break on “The New Pollution.”  “Girl” was played extremely fast.  “Sissyneck” and “Lord Only Knows” were also memorable, but I’m such a sucker for anything Odelay, and may be biased on those.

Anyway, hopefully some of the South American gigs will get recorded too.  This is an interesting lineup for the band, and it would be great to hear them grow.

There was a media report or two back not long ago that Beck was working on a song with Shirley Manson for her solo album.  I had added it as “Unknown Shirley Manson Collaboration” on Almost A Ghost.

Turns out, this rumor is not true.  The media lies!  Don’t believe everything that you read!  Get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve!

Beck’s right-hand man, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, does and has worked with Shirley and he debunked it.

Beck is, however, going to be on Sia Furler’s upcoming album, so look for that!

Hello, sorry for the lack of updates, but Beck’s been quiet.  But there’s a few new things to note here.

 1. “Timebomb”–a song Beck has played live a few times–will be a digital single soon, according to the .com.  No word on when exactly, or where (probably iTunes, as Beck’s album covers are all over iPod commercials).  Hopefully there will be b-sides!  “Timebomb” is a fun song.  There will also apparently be a 12″ vinyl version too.

 2. So for a while we’ve heard about the Deluxe 10th Anniversary version of Odelay.  It has not happened, and it has been 11 years since Odelay was released.  But I’m told that Odeluxe is still being worked on, and a release is still planned.  Stay optimistic!  (There’s also plans for another deluxe version of an older album, but I can’t tell you which one quite yet!)

 3. Beck recently put up a nice tribute to Jeremy Blake on .com, and promises a tribute to Ingmar Bergman soon.  I guess there is a reason to go to beck.com now!  Keep using the site for things, Beck.

 4. Beck’s been in and out of the studio for the last few months, doing different things.  I posted about some of them before on here.  It is still, as usual, up in the air what will come out and when.

5. Also Beck’s band has released an album (Beck’s not on it).  They’re called Wounded Cougar, and you need the record.  Even if you are not interested in hard rockin’ facemeltin’ heavy metal, you probably do want to support a bunch of amazing musicians putting out their own records completely independently.  Go to their myspace for info on how to get the record.

JMJ has posted a new blog on his MySpace and his web site. Of note for Beck fans:

Just back from Beck Japan/Australia run, probably the final leg of touring in support of “The Information”. It was pretty fantastic. Lots of rocking, good meals, riding bikes, seeing temples, shaking hands, taking photos, going to clubs, and long flights. Got some super cute and bizarre presents for my Zelly. Good to be home, but it’s always sad to me to put the final button on an album cycle. I always wish there was more….

Starting on new Beck album in fairly short order…in fact, I’d say we’ve actually already begun a while ago.

There’s more there, so go read the whole thing.

Bonus link: Brian Lebarton has been putting up a ton of awesome pics at his Flickr page.