Celebrate Brooklyn! is back for its 35th go-round with an array of internationally acclaimed artists in tow. This year’s summer-long New York City festival features performances by the likes of Jim James, the Roots, Beck and many more. The fest is heavy on free shows, though some events -- the Beck and James gigs among them -- are ticketed benefits.
The Newport Folk Festival returns to Fort Adams State Park in Newport, R.I., on July 26-28 with a variety of folk, bluegrass and folk-rock musicians in tow, among them Beck, the Avett Brothers, Feist, the Lumineers, Jim James, Andrew Bird and the Decemberists' Colin Meloy.
Was there a more surprising hit in 1994, or in the first half of the 1990s for that matter, than Beck’s ‘Loser?' When it was released early in the year, it sounded at first like any one of the disposable alt-rock goofs that mixed and matched music genres for yuks and was given the green light during the post-Nirvana signing frenzy. But ‘Loser’ turned out to be so much more.
You’ve seen them at parties, lurking in the corner, waiting to engage in battle disguised as conversation. They’re indie rock know-it-alls, and no matter what band or musician you mention, they’ve got an opinion — strong and almost certainly negative — ready to ram down your throat
Beck recently covered David Bowie's 'Sound and Vision' for a new commercial campaign launched by the Lincoln car company. It's part of a new series called 'Hello, Again,' in which newer artists cover older classics.
The blurring of the indie rock and fashion worlds continues. Last year, Lana Del Rey helped break down the wall when she became the "global face" for an H&M ad campaign. Now, legendary designers Yves Saint Laurent have hired Beck to model part of their new menswear collection.
Earlier this year, when Beck announced plans to release his 'Song Reader' book, which features sheet music for 20 songs he wrote but hasn't recorded, he hoped other musicians would take on the challenge of piecing together the tunes and maybe even try recording them. Now that 'Reader' is out -- it hit shelves earlier this month -- some musicians are doing just that, and Beck has started a website, songreader.net, which features videos of various musicians -- most of them amateurs -- trying their hand at interpreting the songs.
