In updating his web site and giving it a very lo-tech feel, ever the strange one Beck has begun a series called Record Club where he and other musicians cover famous albums, one song at a time. The current album covered is The Velvet Underground and Nico and comes complete with some pretty fuzzed out videos. Check them out here and look for updates Thursday evenings. Beck also appears to have gotten the DJ bug and has started a weekly series entitled Planned Obsolescence (wacky titles, ho!) where either Beck or a guest DJ spins some of the music they are digging that week. In keeping with the odd names, the first one is called Autobahn Hologram.
In addition to the Record Club and the DJ project, Beck has put up a free format interview, aptly named Irrelevant Topics,with gravely voiced troubadour Tom Waits where the two discuss hard hitting topics like California, Oscar Meyer Weinermobiles and best of lists. It’s a bit random but it’s impressive that Beck even got Waits to sit down for an interview. Beck has plans to sit down with other musicians, filmmakers and artists in the coming weeks and have these loose, conversation like interviews.
Heres a taste:
TW: You see the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile?
BH: I’ve seen it parked.
TW: They used to pass out little whistles that were about two inches long and it had three notes available. (Laughs.) Whittier lore.
BH: I was born in the McArthur park area.
TW: You remember when they drained McArthur Park, the lake?
BH: I do, yeah…
TW: They found unbelievable things: Cars, human bones, weaponry.
BH: They should have done an exhibit.
TW: I don’t know why they didn’t. I thought that’s why they drained it.
BH: I’d always heard that when they drained the Echo Park Lake they found an amateur submarine.
TW: Oh, my God.
Part one is here and look for part two next week. One request to Beck, bring on some audio of this interview.
