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

More sad news from the web-based crime fiction front: Bryon Quertermous is pulling the plug -- or as he fittingly puts it, the trigger -- on Demolition. This is just the latest in a string of such announcements, as these web-based publications seem to have a limited shelf life. Then again, so do their print counterparts, if the fairly recent news that the great Murdaland journal would fold is any indication.

"I know this is the right time because I don't feel bad about it at all," Quertermous wrote to contributors. "My professionalism has been flagging and I need to do what's best for my family, myself and this magazine. The site will remain up indefinitely but will not be updated."

Over nearly three years, Quertermous and co-editor Dave White published many great crime fiction short stories from writers both established and new (the latter group including yours truly.) Knowing what it takes just to keep a blog going with work and family commitments, I can certainly sympathize with Quertermous, who had the added burden of reading submissions and editing selections.

He issues a challenge that I hope is taken up: "If this pisses you off, do something about it. I'd
love to see a new zine or two form out of this and I'd be more than happy to provide guidance."

Labels: crime fiction, web

I was a major Hall & Oates fan as a kid, but would now consider the band to be a guilty pleasure. That's probably not fair -- there shouldn't be anything guilty about appreciating good pop songwriting -- but the band did itself no favors with its last couple of releases before taking a long hiatus. "Private Eyes"? Sure. "Maneater"? Not so much.

If anything is clear, however, it is that myself and all of my peers in the mid-1980s made Daryl Hall a very rich man. He gives a little something back in the form of a relatively new web show, "Live From Daryl's House." I came across it thanks to a tip on a Nick Lowe mailing list indicating that Lowe had appeared on Hall's show. I checked it out and found a great live set and a an intriuging new show.

The show is essentially this: Hall and his longtime colleague T-Bone Wolk perform songs with a visiting musician at one of Hall's homes. There are four: Upstate New York, Maine, the Bahamas or London. Lowe visited Hall in London. There, the three musicians performed a handful of songs, including "I Live on a Battlefield," "Shelly My Love," "Cruel to be Kind" and "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day." Played on three acoustic guitars, the songs chime and ring in the castle-like house, while Hall's background harmonies make one pine for future recorded collaborations.

The show debuted in November, and Lowe's is the eighth episode thus far. Previous episodes featured Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes, KT Tunstall and, of course, John Oates, among others. Are are viewable at the show's site. They blend acoustic performance with a sort of "Storytellers" vibe that suits the format well.

Perhaps this will offer a bit of career rehabilitation for Hall. Regardless, it's yet another great source of live music on the web.

Labels: music, web