It's no surprise that Beck has found a way to use technology to communicate directly with his fans and offer some exclusive content. A web site revamp allowed him to focus on a new project he's calling Record Club. It's a straight-forward concept: He gathers some friends in the recording studio, and they cover an album in one day. He'll upload a track to the site once a week. That's it.

First up: The Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground & Nico (the one with Andy Warhol's banana on the cover for neophytes). Beck and friends --producer Nigel Godrich, drummer Joey Waronker, Brian Lebarton, Bram Inscore, Yo, actor Giovanni Ribisi, Chris Holmes, and "from Iceland, special guest Thorunn Magnusdottir" -- do a fine, reverent job with opener "Sunday Morning" (see clip below).

Beck talks about the process on the site: "An album will be chosen to be reinterpreted and used as a framework. Nothing rehearsed or arranged ahead of time." He also reports that the Velvet Underground album was selected "after lengthy deliberation and coming close to covering Digital Underground's Sex Packets."

Ostensibly this means that we can expect "Waiting For the Man" next week, with album-closing "European Son" the last week of August.

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Sunday Morning' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Labels: music, video, web