Monday, November 16, 2009

Beck and Wilco ham it up for 'Record Club'

RECORD CLUB, the informal and irregular gathering of various musicians to record an album in one day's time, has begun posting tracks from its third endeavor. The current album is SKIP SPENCE's classic OAR and as reinterpreted by Beck, Wilco, Feist and Jamie Lidell. First track "Little Hands" is up now at Beck.com and new tracks will be posted every Thursday in the same order as the original album sequence.

RECORD CLUB's version of OAR came together in June of this year when Wilco joined Beck and Lidell managing to record all 12 tracks in a night. Leslie Feist happened to be in town editing her documentary and joined in, as did drum legend James Gadson, known for his timeless work with Bill Withers. The session took place at Sunset Sound Studios in the same room where the Rolling Stones recorded much of Exile On Main Street.

Record Club is an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in one day. The album chosen to be reinterpreted is used as a framework. Nothing is rehearsed or arranged ahead of time. A track is put up at BECK.COM once a week. As you will hear, some of the songs are rough renditions, often first takes that document what happened over the course of a day as opposed to a polished rendering. There is no intention to 'add to' the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens. And those who aren't familiar with the albums in question will hopefully look for the songs in their definitive versions.

The two previous RECORD CLUB subjects have been THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO and SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN.

For further information, go to http://www.beck.com/record_club

~Information courtesy Nasty Little Man

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