Beck's Record Club
The enigmatic and prolific Beck has a new pet project via his website. It's called Record Club. The idea is that he and a bunch of friends sit down and, without rehearsing, cover an entire album in a day then post a song from that session for streaming once a week.
Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico "Venus In Furs" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.
It's an interesting idea and very reminiscent of Jonathan Coulton's "Thing-a-Week" project, or zefrank's "The Show". So far as I can tell the covers have been fairly true to the originals with little in the way of compositional surprises with the exception of his covers being a bit more smoother and polished sounding (which is ironic considering that he tossed them together in a day).
You see, I've never been a big fan of the Velvet Underground (GASP! I know! What's WRONG with me?!). I've always felt about the VU much the same way as I do Bob Dylan: I admire what they achieved musically and culturally, but I just don't get off listening to them. The VU just aren't quite my bag and I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe because they just seemed to be making music to smoke pot to (or shoot up scag).
Anyway, I somewhat prefer the elegance of Beck's covers (with the exception of "Herion" which is a song that, like many of Sonic Youth's songs, sounds like a bunch little kids making music). I prefer Beck (and his compatriots)'s smoother vocals to either Lou Reed and, especially, Nico... This is an interesting experiment and I hope the Beckster keeps it up. I'm interested to see what album he covers next.
Hey, I will not apologize for not liking the Velvet Underground! I'm with the cat from Art Brut:
No more songs about sex and drugs and rock'n'roll
it's BOOOOOOORING
...
I can't stand the sound, of the Velvet Underground
(white light! white heat!)
I can't stand that sound a second time around
(white light! white heat!)
-Art Brut, "Bang Bang Rock and Roll"
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico "Venus In Furs" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.
It's an interesting idea and very reminiscent of Jonathan Coulton's "Thing-a-Week" project, or zefrank's "The Show". So far as I can tell the covers have been fairly true to the originals with little in the way of compositional surprises with the exception of his covers being a bit more smoother and polished sounding (which is ironic considering that he tossed them together in a day).
You see, I've never been a big fan of the Velvet Underground (GASP! I know! What's WRONG with me?!). I've always felt about the VU much the same way as I do Bob Dylan: I admire what they achieved musically and culturally, but I just don't get off listening to them. The VU just aren't quite my bag and I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe because they just seemed to be making music to smoke pot to (or shoot up scag).
Anyway, I somewhat prefer the elegance of Beck's covers (with the exception of "Herion" which is a song that, like many of Sonic Youth's songs, sounds like a bunch little kids making music). I prefer Beck (and his compatriots)'s smoother vocals to either Lou Reed and, especially, Nico... This is an interesting experiment and I hope the Beckster keeps it up. I'm interested to see what album he covers next.
Hey, I will not apologize for not liking the Velvet Underground! I'm with the cat from Art Brut:
No more songs about sex and drugs and rock'n'roll
it's BOOOOOOORING
...
I can't stand the sound, of the Velvet Underground
(white light! white heat!)
I can't stand that sound a second time around
(white light! white heat!)
-Art Brut, "Bang Bang Rock and Roll"