Beck (Musician)

Exclusive: Beck Exhibition Coming to Sonos Studio Next Week, and Beck Himself!

Released by McSweeney's in December, Beck's Song Reader is not an album. Rather, it's a book with sheet music for original songs, which have not been recorded by Beck. (The dream of the 1890's is indeed still alive, and not just in Portland.) His fans have had a field day playing them, and not lon ... More >>

We Critique Five Interpretations of Beck's Sheet Music Song "Old Shanghai"

Not too long ago, most folks could read music in this county. Most middle class kids, at least, could bang out some chords on the piano at their parents' cocktail parties. Nowadays, of course, pianos most often serve as furniture. But that hasn't stopped Beck from releasing an "album" that require ... More >>

Jon Hamm and Adam Scott Host Sandy Benefit, With Performances by Aziz Ansari, Sarah Silverman and More

See also: *Dick Jokes for Jesus at Comedy Bang Bang's Nativity Pageant *10 Best Standup Comedy Shows in L.A. *5 Best Comedy Shows in L.A. This Week "Ladies, please prepare your vaginas," announced actor/comedian Aziz Ansari Monday night at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles, introducing masters of ... More >>

Thavius Beck, Connoisseur of All Things Geeky

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Thavius Beck might be the least geeky self-proclaimed geek I've ever met. After all, we meet up on a Friday afternoon at Amoeba Records, right before the ... More >>

Bizarre Ride: Jeff Weiss's Five Los Angeles Music Archetypes

[Editor's note: Longtime Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's new column, "Bizarre Ride," begins today. You can find it on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] The L.A. cliché is a war of shadow and light: fallen stars gone to seed, saccharine pop and gangsta rap. But this is 2012 and Dr. Dre is a headphone g ... More >>

Ten Groups Who Never Should Have Gotten Back Together

Beware fellas, bad things may be coming your way​On New Year's Eve 2009, Chris Cornell made a Twitter declaration: "School's back in session." The implication was that Soundgarden was reuniting. However, it took several months for the official announcement. The grunge pioneers would be putting ... More >>

Rodarte: States of Matter

Here come the frock stars

Top Ten LA Musician Mansions For Sale (Sorry Millionaires: Jack Black Just Snapped Flea's Los Feliz Pad)

Jack Black Buys Flea's House More Musicians Insane Mansions For Sale

Thurston Moore's New Solo Album Was Produced in LA by ... Beck???

​The NME reports that in an interview with a Philly paper, Sonic Youth very tall person Thurston Moore revealed that his new solo album was recorded in Beck's LA home, produced by the enigmatic local genius himself. "Beck sings and plays a little bit on it," said Moore. Violinist Samara Lubels ... More >>

SOMETHING ARTFUL THIS WAY COMES

Everything In Between: White Squalls and Whiteboy Blues

A first look at No Age's new album

Beck, Beachwood Sparks, Broken Social Scene Featured on 'Scott Pilgrim' Soundtrack

Beck, Beechwood Sparks, Broken Social Scene Featured on 'Scott Pilgrim vs. The World' Soundtrack

Video Debut: Charlotte Gainsbourg's "Time of the Assassins" by 'Aanteni' Director Todd Cole

Video Debut: Charlotte Gainsbourg's "Time of the Assassins" by 'Aanteni' Director Todd Cole

KamranV: Founder, Spaceland Recordings

Download: Beck and Tobacco's "Fresh Hex," Forthcoming on Anticon

Tobacco, by Seven Fields of Aphelion​The hubbub has been building for the new Tobacco record ever since it was announced that Beck Hansen would appear on two tracks therein. Maniac Meat, due out May 25 on L.A.'s own Anticon Records, is the second solo album from the erstwhile frontman of Blac ... More >>

Today in WTF: Beck Covers INXS with Liars, St. Vincent, Mutantes

Pitchfork had tipped us last week to Beck's new Record Club joint (where he gets his musicians friends to cover an entire album), and we knew this time he had gathered the mesmerizing-looking Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent), the current lineup of Os Mutantes and the Liars. What we didn't know was what ... More >>

The 10 Best L.A. Albums of the ’00s

From Beck and Dilla to Fiona, Jenny and Quasimoto, a mishmash decade of Southern California sounds

Free Nosaj Thing remix of Charlotte Gainsbourg's ''Heaven Can Wait'' feat. Beck

Free MP3 remix of Charlotte Gainsbourg's ''Heaven Can Wait'' by Nosaj Thing

Jason Reitman's Concert Highlights: David Crosby's Live Gig at Rob Lowe's House (And More)

Editor's note: This week director Jason Reitman is guest blogging at West Coast Sound. Reitman, whose new film, Up in the Air, was nominated for six Golden Globes earlier in the week (including Best Director and Best Screenplay nominations for Reitman ... congrats!), is also a pretty big music head, ... More >>

Beck and Co. Cover Skip Spence's "Weighted Down," featuring Leslie Feist and Some Wilcos

We've been slacking on Beck's consistently fascinating series of covers over at Beck.com, and have missed the fact that he and his band of crazies has been covering the entirety of Alexander "Skip" Spence's mope-rock classic, Oar. Our favorite track on the album is probably "Weighted Down," though w ... More >>

Watch the Bizarro Kenny G Version (and Video) of Beck's "Sexx Laws"

Sexx Laws​Remember Beck's incredible video for the incredible Midnight Vultures tune, "Sexx Laws"? Directed by Mr. Hansen himself, the goofy surrealist short features DayGlo footballers sacking a group of well-meaning Ojai New Age-ists, resulting in Jack Black getting smacked with a slab of dr ... More >>

Beck Celebrates Genius Composer Harry Partch, Apparently As Part of Confusing Beef with Fiery Furnaces

So, bear with us because this can be a bit confusing: UK paper The Guardian reports that Beck has released a new song through his website called "Harry Partch." It's pretty weird and great, as befits an homage to one of the most original semi-obscure genius composers of the 20th century (also, like ... More >>

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Half Beards, Beck, and Bread Baseball in New Video "Heaven Can Wait"

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Half Beards, and Bread Baseball in New Video "Heaven Can Wait"

Detour Festival Goes on 'Hiatus'; Whisper Campaign Begins on Impending Amphitheatre Announcement

The LA Weekly's annual Detour Festival, which over the past three years has brought to downtown Los Angeles Basement Jaxx, Beck, Justice, Cut Copy, Gogol Bordello, the Mars Volta, Hercules and Love Affair, and dozens of other bands and DJs, is on hiatus. As in: there isn't going to be one this year. ... More >>

Beck, Arabian Prince, Dennis Wilson, Love: Four More Great L.A. Reissues of 2008

Diggin' in the crates

Over the Weekend: Beck at the Bowl, Man Man Taco Fiesta, and Anniversary of Gram Parsons' Death

I've never welcomed a Monday with more relief. Over the weekend, pre-Emmy parties on Friday and Saturday crowded Hollywood, while the actual ceremony on Sunday at the Nokia made living downtown a pain the ass for anyone like me who wasn't glued to a television. Plus, we got a shock Saturday morning ... More >>

My Problem with Beck 2008 Can Be Summed Up with "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat"

I didn't realize what exactly my problem has been with Beck's recent output until the fourth song of Saturday night's show at the Hollywood Bowl. It was a cover of "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat," Bob Dylan's wry, funny, bitter blues song from 1965's Blonde on Blonde. Here is the song from the album, fo ... More >>

Outside Lands Day 1-Don't Quote Me On It, But I Think This Radiohead Band Has a Chance to Get Big

(all photos by Christopher Victorio) Don't expect much. No one with an iota of common sense would attend a music festival after being struck by the snarling combination of African Sleeping Sickness/Mono/Ricketts/Gout/Scurvy that waylaid me for a full two weeks of misery and and continues to leave ... More >>

Record Reviews: Beck, Abe Vigoda, Nico Muhly

Also, James McMurtry, Barn Owl

Three New Beck Songs Streaming Online

If you don't already know by now, Beck has a new album coming out on July 8 called Modern Guilt. In a carefully crafted rollout, the little one with the big hats has dropped a few songs at a time to calm the obsessives. Three have found their way to iLike. They're streams, but they sound okay. Th ... More >>

Live in LA: Beck's Surprise Show at the Echo, June 9

Beck at the Echo, June 9. Photos and text by Jeff Miller At this point, it's a foregone conclusion: when a Beck tour's on the horizon, he'll invariably test out his band at some small club on the Eastside, braying through new material and old-school classics while taking his lucky (but pretendin ... More >>

New Beck song, "Chemtrails," streaming at Beck.com

photo by Autumn Dewilde It starts off lightly with Beck Hansen in soft, sad falsetto mode, his moan high lonesome and sounding like a missing Beach Boys harmonist. This, friends, is a Southern California song by a Southern Californian which contains a vibe to die for. Then the drums kick in, and t ... More >>

Detour Videos

Some performances from last year's Detour Festival... Beck - Mixed Bizzness Basement Jaxx Beck - Clap Hands Oh No! Oh My! The 2nd annual Detour Festival is this Saturday in downtown L.A. Click here for ticket information and the full list of bands, including Kinky, Turbonegro, Satellite ... More >>

Weird Scenes Inside the Silver Mine

From old-school heads to prepubescent punks, Silver Lake is where L.A.’s indie rock heart still beats

Pre- and Postmodern

L.A. WEEKLY DETOUR FEST, FEATURING QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, BECK, PEEPING TOM, BASEMENT JAXX, RED KROSS and others in the streets of downtown L.A., October 7

Citizen Beck

Coming to terms with our native son

Citizen Beck

Coming to terms with our native son

Bong Hits, Bluegrass, Pervy Puppets, and Tom Petty As Hipster

The Zombies Are Coming

Morning Becomes Sifl & Olly

Foghat Does Quaaludes, Wille Does Reggae

Your Popsicle’s Melting

Beck’s Guero parties with death, wakes up with life

Hi, Robot!

Handpicked for Beck EP, local androids get drunk, stoked, bummed

Waves of Sympathy

The Contemporaries

Orton Hears a Hansen

Edited by Kateri Butler

Death Mix 2001

Junkman’s Journey

Beck at the crossroads

Strange Cargo

Brazzaville on Danger Island

Preppie Living Wage