Beck
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Profile and Interview by Paul Moody, Dazed & Confused, 1996
BECK’S OFFBEAT HUMOUR and devil-may-care demeanour usually leaves journalists baffled, and interviews that reveal very little. But this time Beck is unafraid to drop his ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Gerrie Lim, Rock's Backpages audio, 4 February 1994
Beck talks about his early influences and songwriting; about Mellow Gold; about his loathing of MTV; about being censored in Singapore... and about slackers and Generation X.
File format: mp3; file size: 24.7mb, interview length: 27' 01" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 19 January 1997
Beck talks to Barney Hoskyns about hip hop, folk, blues and the making and success of Odelay, and about country music, Los Angeles, his artist grandfather, Tom Waits and more.
File format: mp3 File size: 72.9mb, interview length: 1h 15' 57", sound quality ****
Interview by Andrew Stafford, Rock's Backpages audio, 30 October 2019
Beck talks about his latest album, Hyperspace: working with Pharrell Williams; what the songs are about; on not being a slacker, and his working life; looking back at the '90s, and feeling outside of that periods's music; modern production processes; on his Record Club and Song Reader; writing for Johnny Cash; having no single musical home; his LA youth; losing his recordings in the Universal Studio fire; on not being a Scientologist, and it having no influence on him, and lastly how he sees his future.
File format: mp3; file size: 59.2mb, interview length: 1h 01' 41" sound quality: *****
List of articles in the library
Interview by Mark Kemp, Option, March 1994
Why do people like Beck? You know he's a loser, definitely. How do you fans like a song about Beck being a loser? He isn't ...
Beck: Mellow Gold (Geffen/All formats)
Review by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 19 March 1994
INGOT'S DREAMING ...
Review by Dave DiMartino, Musician, April 1994
ANYONE WHO thinks these aren't weird times in the music biz should consider the case of 23-year-old Beck, who is, according to Billboard, "at the ...
Kip Winger With A Protein Shake: The Punknology According to Beck
Interview by Gerrie Lim, BigO, April 1994
THOSE OPENING NOTES attempt to warn you: a slinky salvo of slide guitar and then some hip-hop percussion, and then some dude starts rapping, wending ...
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 7 May 1994
WHETHER BY preference or rationalization, slacker victims trumpet their dropout status with dilapidated jeans, greasy hair and a sarcastic, defeatist posture. Enter 23-year-old Beck singing, ...
Profile and Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, June 1994
How can Beck be a Loser? He's ridiculed MTV, yet it still gives heavy rotation to this Kansas runt and his band of OAPs. ...
Beck: One Foot in the Grave (K) ***
Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 3 July 1994
Minimalist Hootenanny From Independent Beck ...
Beck et al: Don't fake the folk
Overview by Cliff Jones, The Face, August 1994
A WASTED voice wails to a scratchy guitar, drifting in some desolate, unforgiven shopping mall limbo: "I was working at McDonald's, doing the late night ...
Essential Guide To "Explicit" Albums
Guide by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1994
Back in 1985, one seemingly harmless song led a woman to take unprecedented action against the American recording industry. Thanks to her moral crusade, albums ...
Yoyo a Go Go: The Olympia Spirit
Report by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 8 September 1994
The ticket is love rock and minimalism at Yoyo a Go Go ...
Beck and Sebadoh: It's Saturday, It's Two O'Clock and It's... Slackerjack!
Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 26 November 1994
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Get BECK, the blue-eyed, wigged-out Californian space baby whose slacker anthem 'Loser' topped the American charts, ...
Beck: The Slack and Bright Minstrel
Profile and Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 26 November 1994
In the boho East Village cafes he listened to Woody Guthrie's back catalogue and shouted along to his acoustic guitar. But that was before 'Loser' ...
Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 28 November 1994
IS THIS the age of the neurotic self-obsessive? Sold out signs at Beck's debut UK gig suggest that his curious blend of twitchy unease and ...
Beck: Water Rats, King's Cross, London
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 10 December 1994
WOOLLY HATS off at the door, please. Now, put out that spliff and stand up straight, you silly people. This is Beck, and he's too ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, The Face, January 1995
You probably know him as "that slacker guy" who recorded 1994's lo-fi radio anthem 'Loser'. That's fine by Beck, but just don't call him the ...
Profile by Andy Gill, MOJO, February 1995
Prolific post-grunge Dylan type records dozens of songs for several labels, then rolls-up and smokes the rejects. ...
Interview by David Bennun, The Guardian, 1996
AT THE AGE OF 25, Beck Hansen has the air of a man who is surprised by nothing. Either that, or he is surprised by ...
Profile and Interview by David Bennun, Melody Maker, 1996
Isn't BECK the slacker king and self-proclaimed 'Loser'? So how come he's the hardest working man in showbiz? Why has Noel Gallagher chosen new single ...
Profile and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Pulse!, June 1996
IT'S THE MIDDLE of a lazy Los Angeles spring day, and the view from the roof of the Griffith Observatory reveals a sprawling basin shrouded ...
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 13 June 1996
THE BIG QUESTION that followed the runaway success of Beck Hansen's major-label debut, Mellow Gold, was: Can this precocious child of bohemian stock survive one-hit ...
Review by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 22 June 1996
BECK is back. But is the slacker guru's new opus a celebration of eclectic musical styles or just an aimless shambles? ...
Beck: Odelay (Geffen/All formats)
Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 22 June 1996
MR BOHO RISING ...
Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 21 July 1996
Beck casts aside the label or slacker savant — who needs all that alternative angst, anyway? — and lets out a yelp or sonic joy ...
Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, August 1996
Is there life after 'Loser'? Eric Weisbard explores the artistic ups and commercial downs of the boy wonder known as Beck. ...
Beck: Ogden Street Concert Hall, Buffalo, NY
Live Review by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, October 1996
"Who are you?" a voice asks Beck not long into the goofball savant’s utterly delightful new album O-de-lay. "I’m the Enchanting Wizard of Rhythm," he ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1997
Rockin', Writin', Survivin' in L.A. ...
Report and Interview by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 23 January 1997
ONE NIGHT a few years ago, I was doing laundry with Beck in Los Angeles, listening to him ruminate on whether he might be a ...
Interview by Cliff Jones, The Face, February 1997
That fuzzy folk fella, BECK HANSEN, might now be enjoying full-on international acclaim, but has it helped him and his music become any better understood? Meet the man who believes his generation needs to grow up ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, March 1997
ON A WARM January afternoon of the kind that’s almost unique to Los Angeles, an enormous lime-green 1969 Chevrolet pickup is lumbering noisily up a ...
Beck: The Rolling Stone Interview
Interview by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 17 April 1997
"YOU gotta do the chicken thing again." Beck's manager interrupts the 26-year-old singer's lunch on the set of the British popular music show TFI Friday ...
With Beck all things are possible
Report and Interview by Craig McLean, The Face, May 1997
He is rhythm wizard, zombie fawn, Prada punker, Spice Boy and hip hop beatnik. Step with us, if you will, into Beck's American dreamstate: where ...
Live Review by Dave Simpson, Melody Maker, 17 May 1997
BECK TO THE FUTURE ...
Live Review by Paul Morley, Uncut, July 1997
HOWDY. America is always new. The world is always new. Go ask Beck. If you can catch him! ...
The Dust Brothers: Brothers of Invention
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Details, August 1997
They pulled poetry out of Beck. They wrung gold out of Hanson. Now they're remaking the Rolling Stones. Rob Tannenbaum meets the Dust Brothers. ...
Beck Picks Up The Slack And His Last Name
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 8 August 1997
YOU KNOW he's not a loser. It haunted him three years ago, but by now Beck figures most people have come to terms with the ...
Beck: El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 21 November 1997
Beck's Acoustic Outing Is Quirky, Rewarding ...
Beck: El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles
Live Review by Marc Weingarten, MOJO, January 1998
BECK MAY be Modern Rock's master ironist, but he takes his roots music very seriously. They're just very gnarled roots, is all. ...
Review by Jim Irvin, MOJO, March 1998
Supposedly one of his "parenthetical" releases in the vein of Stereoscopic Soul Manure and One Foot In The Grave. The "official" follow-up to Odelay is ...
The Verve, Beck: Haigh Hall, Wigan
Live Review by Dave Simpson, Melody Maker, May 1998
HAIGH DUDE! ...
Beck, Al Hansen, and the new Art Rock
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, World Art, September 1998
LAST MAY, "Beck and Al Hansen: Playing With Matches" opened at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. This fall and winter the exhibition can be ...
Review by RJ Smith, The Village Voice, 24 November 1998
BECK TO THE BASE ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, December 1998
Downbeat apocalypse: US master of ironic eclecticism unearths a diamond in the trash. ...
Review by Alan Light, Vibe, December 1998
THE FINE people at Geffen Records have said that Mutations — the latest from every critic's favorite pop-lockin', folk-rockin' superfreak — is strictly "for the ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Q, December 1998
New album which isn't the new album, but which still has a certain genius. ...
The Shock of the Old: Beck and the New Roots Explosion
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, December 1998
"...to be an American (unlike English or French or whatever) is precisely to imagine a destiny rather than to inherit one; since we have always ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 16 January 1999
Last week, Pete Waterman the Brian Clough of pop, stoutly defended his new teenpop cadets Steps and his revitalised label PWL. Here Doctor Waterman offers ...
Nigel Godrich: How to Become a Hot Producer In Eight Easy Steps
Interview by Marc Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1999
Beck, Radiohead and Pavement producer Nigel Godrich explains ...
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, February 1999
WITH THE MTV Unplugged era now firmly behind us, Beck is at some pains to explain that tonight’s show – one of only two in ...
Beck: The Town Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Q, March 1999
He's released an odd new album. Oddly, he's only going to play it once. ...
Beck takes his seven-year itch to law
Report by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 21 May 1999
A music magazine called him The Most Important Man in the World, but now the future of ultra-cool rocker Beck depends upon lawyers. MAX BELL ...
Casino Royale: Beck, Tenacious D, Tropicana Casino & Resort, Las Vegas NV
Live Review by RJ Smith, Spin, August 1999
HORNS: CHECK. WIGS: CHECK. FALSETTO: CHECK. BECK PULLS OUT THE STOPS IN SLOTSVILLE. BUT THOSE BUFFETS ARE TOUGH COMPETITION ...
Being For the Benefit of Mr. Hansen
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, The Observer, September 1999
THE GANG’S all here: Yoko Ono and Gwyneth Paltrow, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, Kate Moss and Evan Dando. All have ventured out on a ...
Beck: "Postmodern Irony Is Like A Bad Smell In The Bathroom"
Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 16 October 1999
Has he who smelt it dealt it? Beck answers some burning questions. ...
Arty like it's 1999 — Beck: Midnite Vultures (Geffen)
Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 12 November 1999
Tom Cox picks over the latest from a surreal, scrambled brain ...
Beck: Midnite Vultures (Geffen)
Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 20 November 1999
LOVE SEXXY! ...
Beck: Midnite Vultures (Geffen 4904852)
Review by Tom Doyle, Q, December 1999
The Untouchable: He's a law unto himself now. ...
Beck: Midnite Vultures (Geffen)
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, December 1999
Beck out-hips himself with his fourth album for Geffen, his sixth in all ...
Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Request, January 2000
BECK WAKES up at 8 a.m., alone on the rock-star bus, wondering what the hell happened last night. He and his band were in Santa ...
Beck: Wembley Arena, London ****
Live Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 25 March 2000
Chameleon colours ...
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, July 2001
IF IT WASN'T quite the summer garden party it should have been, Radiohead's big homecoming bash at Oxford's South Park was mostly (or at least ...
Low Down and Low Key: Taking the Road Less Travelled
Essay by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, September 2002
BECK SOUNDS like he's channelling the long-dead British folk-rock poet Nick Drake on his latest album, Sea Change (Geffen). For ‘Round the Bend’ the pace ...
Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 20 September 2002
Beck's new album, written after a nasty split with his fiancee, is so forlorn that the music press is afraid for his health. But, he ...
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, October 2002
Tears of a Clown: Beck is back, riding that midnight train from Malibu ...
Interview by Paul Lester, Uncut, December 2002
UNCUT: The forlorn orchestral folk of Sea Change is a radical departure from the postmodern funkadelia of 1999's Midnite Vultures. ...
Interview by David Dalton, AnOther Magazine, Fall 2002
LATE AFTERNOON, hotel room in L.A. I’ve just downloaded four tracks from Beck’s new album. A song is playing. ‘The Golden Age’. "Desert wind cool ...
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Blender, April 2003
Vital statistics on Beck's 'Loser' ...
Beck: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 29 April 2003
AS A PROFESSIONAL ENIGMA, Beck Hansen has a reputation to maintain, and it is tiring work. He feels compelled to stay one step ahead of ...
Beck: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 1 May 2003
BECK HAS thrown Bob Dylan's career into reverse. He has arrived at a venue famous for being scandalised by Bob going electric to unplug his ...
Beck: The Apollo Theatre, Manchester
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, July 2003
Solitary refinement: Stunning one-man set as the eclectic troubadour of cool goes back to his folk-blues roots ...
Beck: Main Stage, Reading, Saturday 6.35pm; Blur: Main Stage, Reading, Saturday 9.30pm
Live Review by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 30 August 2003
Battle of the Old-Timers: Funky robots take on a chaotic Blur ...
Interview by Mac Randall, Harp, March 2005
PREDICTING BECK Hansen's next artistic move is a game for fools and rock pundits only. Any sane person gave up trying long ago. Plot this ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Scotland on Sunday, 26 March 2005
ON THE SURFACE, nothing is wrong with Beck Hansen. No wires protrude from his dirty-blond moptop. No glazed expressions, no shifty answers, no sense of ...
Review and Interview by Paul Trynka, MOJO, April 2005
Billed as a return to his Odelay style, Beck's eighth album is at its best when striking new ground. ...
Review and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, April 2005
Funky-go-lucky yin to the mournful Drake-meets-Gainsbourg yang of Sea Change. ...
Beck: The Man Who Wasn't There
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, June 2005
Beck's back, with a b-boy bouillabaisse to compare with his grooviest work. But behind the impassive visage, what's really going on? And can he really ...
Beck: Song Reader – Twenty New Songs By Beck
Review and Interview by John Lewis, Uncut, January 2013
TALK ABOUT RETRO… a beautiful reminder of Beck Hansen's talents — via the medium of sheet music! ...
Beck: Barbican & Union Chapel, London
Live Review by John Lewis, Uncut, September 2013
Where he's at… Beck tackles his backlog of songs, with a little help from his friends ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 24 February 2014
A MAVERICK musical magpie, Beck has over his 20-year career veered off into nu-folk, Mississippi blues, hip-hop, country, funk and electro-hued pop noir. He never ...
Beck's back: A new album from pop's coolest chameleon
Profile and Interview by Ian Gittins, Daily Telegraph, 1 March 2014
The singer-songwriter Beck talks about his new album, Morning Phase, the latest turn on a zig-zag career. ...
The Musical Advice Beck Took from His Kids
Interview by David Kamp, Vanity Fair, 11 October 2017
In advance of his new album, Colors, the prolific performer talks about the creative process, his recent turn toward pop, and the trend of D.I.Y. ...
"I miss people. I have a longing for connection and human contact": Life on Planet Beck
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 30 January 2018
THE CHILSTON PARK Hotel in Lenham, Kent, was once owned by Judith and Martin Miller, the antiques stars of the '80s who wrote the Miller's ...
Transcript of audio interview by Andrew Stafford, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 30 October 2019
This is a transcript of Andrew's audio interview with Beck. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
"I think there's a misconception": Beck on Scientology
Profile and Interview by Andrew Stafford, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 22 November 2019
BECK LOOKS toasted. Under round vintage sunglasses and a broad-brimmed black hat, the cheeks of one of the most inventive, elusive artists of the last ...
Beck fears most of his music has been destroyed
Report by Andrew Stafford, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 26 November 2019
BECK HAS given details of his work that he fears may have been lost in a fire which ripped through a Universal Studios lot in ...
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