BECK “WOW” NEW SINGLE OUT NOW AVAILABLE VIA iTUNES AND SPOTIFY LYRIC VIDEO NOW LIVE NEW ALBUM COMING OCTOBER 21 ON CAPITOL RECORDS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER SEPTEMBER 9
The music has flowed from Beck without pause since 2014’s Album of the Year Grammy-winner Morning Phase: from globe-spanning live shows consistently hailed as the best of Beck’s storied career to the 2015 psych-dance summer jam “Dreams” that NPR hailed as “urgently contemporary and irresistibly vintage,” USA Today labelled “a strong contender for song of the summer,” and Rolling Stone raved “This funky little groove is giving us Midnite Vultures flashbacks in the best way possible.” This creative watershed couldn’t even be confined to Beck’s output under his own name, as evidenced by sublime collaborations including the Chemical Brothers’ “Wide Open” and more recently Flume’s “Tiny Cities.”
In the year since “Dreams” gave Beck his second #1 single at AAA radio (the first being Morning Phase’s “Blue Moon”), nearly every day has been spent feverishly working up sketches at home to be fleshed out with producer Greg Kurstin (coincidentally a veteran of Beck’s live band circa Sea Change). It seemed there was a literal embarrassment of riches from which to carve out the diamond of a new album—but then Beck noticed that a track he’d been demoing at home had “gone viral”… amongst his children and their friends, that playdates were morphing into dance parties punctuated by refrains of “WOW”…
The children have spoken: “WOW,” the latest new taste from Beck’s forthcoming opus, has been unveiled to the world in all its fluorescent mutant hip hop glory. And accompanying this retro-futuristic earworm is a virtual “WOW” world built with the help of a global collective of creators on Instagram. Beck fans were first tipped off that something “WOW” was coming their way when a clip posted Wednesday on the official @beck Instagram rallied them to GIDDY UP. The following day creators and artists from the Instagram community uploaded their unique interpretations of “WOW” each with an exclusive clip of the song. Clips from various creators using #beckWOW are being shared on Beck.com.
If “Dreams” was the post-Morning Phase party we’d all been waiting for but just didn’t know it until Beck sent us the invite, “WOW” kicks off the afterparty for the next generation—coming at you live from the future courtesy of Beck.
“A sugary indie-pop stomper with a strutting hook and a ridiculously danceable chorus”—ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
“A perfect summer song”—ESQUIRE
“Urgently contemporary and irresistibly vintage”—NPR
“We love sad-folkie Beck as much as anyone but dance-y Beck is even better. This funky little groove is giving us Midnite Vultures flashbacks in the best way possible”—ROLLING STONE
“An infectious blend of dance-punk with designs of invading your ears. There’s no question that this is a strong contender for song of the summer”—USA TODAY (Song of the Week)
“A booming bona fide hit”—VULTURE
How does one of the most innovative and acclaimed artists of the last two centuries follow up a first ever GRAMMY Album of the Year victory for his “instant folk-rock classic” Morning Phase?
If one is Beck, it’s with the 180-degree turn “Dreams,” a 5-minute psych-pop dance party tour de force that has just broken the five million stream mark, averaging 1.5 million streams weekly since its June 15 release—a number that has increased with each week. Beck’s second #1 single at AAA radio (the first being Morning Phase’s “Blue Moon”), “Dreams” is Beck’s first new music since Morning Phase’s GRAMMY hat trick earlier this year.
In other news, Beck will headline the Tuesday, August 4 day of Nile Rodgers’ FOLD! festival in Riverhead, NY. Tickets for that date, Beck’s only scheduled U.S. appearance at press time, are available at:https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/881069
Beck unveils the new single “Dreams,” his first release since Morning Phase took Album of The Year honors at this year’s GRAMMY Awards. A 180-degree turn from that multiple-GRAMMY-winning “instant folk-rock classic” (Rolling Stone), the instantly and irresistibly infectious “Dreams” is a 5-minute dance party tour de force sure to delight summer jam connoisseurs of all stripes.
“Dreams” is classic Beck—unlike anything he’s done before yet clearly the work of the uncategorizable creative force that has brought us the likes of Odelay, Midnite Vultures, Guero and so much more. Vocals and instrumentation are provided entirely by Beck and Greg Kurstin—a veteran of Beck’s touring band circa Sea Change—and the track was written by Beck, Kurstin and Andrew Wyatt, produced by Beck and Kurstin, and mixed by Serban Ghenea.
“As he blew through some of the biggest songs of his career, he seemed to be in excellent spirits… Beck has built his entire career on boldly mixing styles together and constantly reinventing his sound… it’s a testament to his confidence as a performer and his sheer undefinable cool that it all makes perfect sense. That’s logic in the Beck Dimension, and we should all be lucky enough to visit once in a while.” —ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Fresh off his GRAMMY Album of the Year win for the universally acclaimed Morning Phase (Capitol), Beck has added three headline dates to his run of shows this May.
Beck also took home the Best Rock Album prize at this year’s GRAMMYS, while Morning Phase won in the Best Engineered, Non-Classical category.
Tickets for the newly confirmed stops in Memphis, TN, North Charleston, SC and Charlottesville, VA will go on sale Friday February 20 at 10am local time.
Tickets are already available for Beck’s previously announced appearances at the Hangout and Boston Calling festivals.
See below for a complete list of upcoming Beck shows. The new dates are in BOLD:
May 15-17 – Gulf Shores, AL – Hangout Music Fest May 16 – Memphis, TN – Mud Island Amphitheater May 19 – North Charleston, SC – North Charleston Performing Arts Center May 20 – Charlottesville, VA – nTelos Wireless Pavilion
May 22 – Boston, MA – Boston Calling Festival
MORNING PHASE ALSO TAKES BEST ROCK ALBUMMorning Phase Cover Art
Previously nominated for Album of the Year in 1997 for his sophomore album Odelay and again in 2000 for Midnite Vultures, Beck has proven the third time is indeed the charm: Morning Phase has taken top honors at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
It is the first Album of the Year Grammy win of Beck’s 20+ year career.
The universally acclaimed Morning Phase also took home the Best Rock Album award.
Morning Phase was also the winner in the Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical) category.
This brings Beck’s career Grammy tally to five including previous Best Alternative Music Performance awards for the albums Mutations and Odelayand a Best Male Rock Vocal Performance award for the song “Where It’s At.”
“BLUE MOON” NOMINATED FOR BEST ROCK SONG & BEST ROCK PERFORMANCE
Three-time Grammy winner Beck stands to add four more awards to his career tally at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards—including the night’s top honor Album of the Year.
Beck’s universally acclaimed Morning Phase was also nominated for Best Rock Album, while its lead single “Blue Moon” was nominated in the Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance categories.
Morning Phase was also recognized in the Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical) category.
Beck has three previous Grammy wins to his credit: Two Best Alternative Music Performance award for the albums Mutations and Odelay and one Best Male Rock Vocal Performance award for the song “Where It’s At.”
The 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards will air Sunday, February 8, 2015 on the CBS Television Network from 8–11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).
Beck also performed “Heaven’s Ladder” on The Colbert Report (exclusive video HERE), from the Beck Song Reader compilation album released today by Warby Parker/Capitol Records. Available athttp://smarturl.it/BeckSongReader, the album is an all-star collection of interpretations of the legendary Beck Song Reader – 20 Beck compositions released exclusively as stunningly illustrated sheet music in partnership with McSweeney’s – by the likes of Jack White, Jeff Tweedy, Jarvis Cocker, Jason Isbell, Fun., David Johansen, Jack Black, Juanes, and several more including Beck himself.
Directed by Sophie Muller and shot in Bergman-esque black and white, “Heart Is A Drum” finds Beck in a rural backwoods limbo, encountering figures from his past, present and possible future-including one with an uncanny resemblance to his former self as captured in 1993’s immortal “Loser” clip.
“Heart Is A Drum” is the latest single from Beck’s overwhelmingly acclaimed Morning Phase (Capitol). Still lodged in the Top 100 some 21 weeks since its February 25 release, Morning Phase has been hailed as one of if not Beck’s finest effort to date. Immediately upon the album’s release The New Yorkercommented “After listening to Morning Phase 50 times, I can’t find a single thing wrong with it… You don’t get many albums like this in your lifetime.” More recently Rolling Stone, NPR, The Los Angeles Times, Hitfix, among others, have listed Morning Phase high in their mid-year “Best of 2014 So Far” rankings.
The current Morning Phase tour has only served to multiply these accolades. See “Heart Is A Drum” live as the Beck road show resumes August 14 in Salt Lake City and continues through the fall. Dates are listed below.
BECK 2014 TOUR
08/14/14 – Salt Lake City, UT – Pioneer Park
08/15/14 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks
08/19/14 – Vancouver, BC – Deer Lake Park
08/20/14 – Seattle, WA – Marymoor Park
08/21/14 – Troutdale, OR – McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater
08/23/14 – Monterey, CA – First City Festival
08/29-31/14 – Stradbally, Ireland – Electric Picnic
09/04/14 – Isle of Wight, UK – Bestival
09/06/14 – Portmeirion, UK – Festival No. 6
09/08/14 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Heineken Music Hall
09/10/14 – Brussels, Belgium – Forest National
09/11/14 – Paris, France – Zenith
09/13/14 – Madrid, Spain – dcode Festival
10/03/14 – Austin, TX – ACL Music Festival
10/10/14 – Austin, TX – ACL Music Festival
“Like a kid getting a special package in the mail and opening it up with anticipation, these interpretations of songs from the Song Reader book have surpassed what I could have imagined when putting the book together. The book addressed the idea of a song in its most elemental form, letting others give it a voice. It amazes me to hear how these musicians have made the songs their own and in the process revealed that the interpretation is the living breathing soul of the piece. These interpretations have made the book something new— something better.” —BECK
The now legendary Beck Song Reader – twenty Beck compositions previously released exclusively as stunningly illustrated sheet music in partnership with McSweeney’s — will receive a long awaited traditional release on July 29, when Warby Parker/Capitol Records issues the Beck Song Readercompilation album, produced by Beck and Randall Poster, known for his music supervision work with directors Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Sam Mendes and many others. Warby Parker will commemorate the release of Song Reader by reissuing limited-edition Carmichael frames created in collaboration with Beck, this time in Black Cherry — as well as a new edition of the Song Reader book, featuring two new prints from artist Marcel Dzama.
“No one embodies the spirit of creativity and collaboration more than Beck. From the moment we heard about his Song Reader, we were eager to join forces on the project. We’re thrilled to have worked together to introduce an album and a great pair of frames,” says Warby Parker co-CEO and co-founder Neil Blumenthal.
The 20-track all-star collection features exclusively recorded versions of Song Reader charts by the likes of Jack White, Jeff Tweedy, David Johansen, Jason Isbell, Fun., Eleanor Friedberger, and several more including Beck himself.
“I was incredibly excited when Beck asked me to produce a collection of Song Reader recordings with him,” says the album’s producer Randall Poster. “Beck’s dynamic musical energy and creative passion inspired the artists — some of our favorite and greatest artists at that — to make these songs their own and render them with authority and distinction. They are both a reward and an invitation to join in on a unique and enduring song enterprise.”
The Warby Parker release of Beck Song Reader marks the first officially recorded incarnation of the project, which has already inspired interpretations from hundreds of musicians the world over. The record includes the studio-quality debut of songs previously only played live either by Beck himself or at one of the handful of Song Reader concerts staged over the last two years. The most recent of these was presented by the L.A. Philharmonic in partnership with McSweeney’s and Warby Parker at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on November 24, 2013. Described by The Los Angeles Times as an “expertly delivered and received night… another big step in Beck’s long, fascinating evolution,” the show’s highlights included Jarvis Cocker’s interpretively danced “Why Did You Make Me Care?” and Jack Black’s borderline frightening “We All Wear Cloaks,” the latter of which makes its recorded debut on the Beck Song Reader album.
The limited edition Carmichael glasses’ two-tone hue combines Beck’s two favorite colors, in a design inspired by Beck’s genre-bending music and unimpeachable personal style. Equal parts eclectic and charming, Carmichael will be available online at warbyparker.com and at Warby Parker stores and showrooms beginning July 29. The new edition of the book will be available at store.mcsweeneys.net, and at Warby Parker stores.
Warby Parker and artists’ proceeds from the Beck Song Reader album will go to 826 National, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students, ages 6–18, with expository and creative writing at eight locations across the USA. For more information, go to http://826national.org/. For every pair of frames sold, a pair will also be distributed to someone in need through Warby Parker’s Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program.
The complete track listing for Beck Song Reader is as follows:
1. Moses Sumney – Title of this Song
2. Fun – Please Leave A Light On When You Go
3. Tweedy – The Wolf is on the Hill
4. Norah Jones – Just Noise
5. Lord Huron – Last Night You Were A Dream
6. Bob Forrest – Saint Dude
7. Jack White – I’m Down
8. Beck – Heaven’s Ladder
9. Juanes – Don’t Act Like Your Heart Isn’t Hard
10. Laura Marling – Sorry
11. Jarvis Cocker – Eyes That Say “I Love You”
12. David Johansen – Rough On Rats
13. Jason Isbell – Now That Your Dollar Bills Have Sprouted Wings
14. The Last Polka – Marc Ribot
15. Eleanor Friedberger – Old Shanghai
16. Sparks – Why Did You Make Me Care?
17. Swamp Dogg – America, Here’s My Boy
18. Jack Black – We All Wear Cloaks
19. Loudon Wainwright III – Do We? We Do
20. Gabriel Kahane & yMusic – Mutilation Rag
About Warby Parker
Warby Parker is a transformative lifestyle brand with a lofty objective: to offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially conscious businesses. For every pair of glasses sold, a pair is distributed to someone in need through the Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program.
Since early on, Warby Parker has taken an interest in cultivating and developing emerging musicians, showcasing new talent like HAIM, Niki & the Dove and Father John Misty at the Warby Parker Citizens Circus at SXSW in 2012, to the Artists in Residence program, where the brand hosted a selection of developing artists at The Standard Hotel for a long weekend of composing and recording. The Warby Parker release of the Song Reader is another step in the brand’s ongoing support of the music industry.
Warby Parker is available at www.WarbyParker.com as well as stores and showrooms across the country.
As 2014 album of the year front-runner Morning Phase (Capitol) refuses to budge from the top 40, Beck has extended his rapturously received current tour by nearly a dozen new dates. The newly announced shows begin July 11 at the Uptown Amphitheater in Charlotte, NC and run through the summer — including appearances at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium, at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, and concluding with a sure-to-be-legendary August 14 headline at Red Rocks in Morrison, CO.
As anyone who caught jaw-dropping recent turns at Coachella, last month’s Austin City Limits TV performance (to air this fall a date TBA in the venerable PBS series’ 40th anniversary season) or elsewhere can attest, Beck’s upcoming dates are not be missed. A glance at the reviews of this most recent run easily puts them among the most enthusiastic raves of his — or anyone’s — career:
“Inside a three-tier-brimming ACL Live at the Moody Theater last night, from the first song to the last… Beck rocked the flock… hypnotized the hall… hard in lyric and voice, but cushioned by singer-songwriter intimacy… crescendoing into a Zeppelin-like stomp…. tapped serious delirium from both band and audience”–AUSTIN CHRONICLE
“Like a fisherman casting a lure, Beck on Sunday night offered a lesson in how to draw a tired, coming-down crowd and muster one more burst of adrenalin… In doing so, he presented a convincing argument as being a godfather to this holy Coachella mess, one in which said pop music sub genres could not only live harmoniously but also spawn a new vibe”-LOS ANGELES TIMES
“Stunning… a glorious sampler, as sonorously rich as his brilliant new album”-OC REGISTER
“A classic, spontaneous Beck performance”-ROLLING STONE 50 Best Things We Saw At Coachella 2014
Citi is the official credit card of the Beck Tour. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets through its Citi Private Pass program beginning Wednesday, May 7 at 10AMlocal time through Thursday, May 8 at 10PM local. Visit www.citiprivatepass.com for details.
Check Beck.com for information on ticket sales, additional dates as they are confirmed and announced, etc.
BECK Live 2014 New Dates in BOLD
06/19/14 – Cleveland, OH – State Theatre 06/20/14 – Columbus, OH – LC Pavilion 06/21/14 – Dover, DE – Firefly Festival 06/24/14 – North Adams, MA – Mass MOCA 06/25/14 – Montreal, QC – Place des Arts (SOLD OUT) 06/27/14 – Toronto, ON – Sony Centre (SOLD OUT) 06/28/14 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre 06/30/14 – New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom 07/01/14 – New York, NY – Central Park Summerstage (SOLD OUT) 07/11/14 – Charlotte, NC – Uptown Amphitheater 07/12/14 – Asheville, NC – Thomas Wolf Auditorium 07/14/14 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium 07/16/14 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant 07/18/14 – Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Festival 07/19/14 – Grand Rapids, MI – DeVos Performance Hall 07/20/14 – Louisville, KY – Forecastle Festival 07/22/14 – Atlanta, GA – Fox Theater 07/23/14 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater 07/24/14 – Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion 07/27/14 – Philadelphia, PA – XPN Festival 08/15/14 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks 10/3-5/14 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits 10/10-12/14 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits
As 2014 album of the year front-runner Morning Phase (Capitol) logs its fourth week in the Top 20, two additional dates have been added to Beck’s hotly anticipated spring/summer tour. At press time, Beck’s recently announced dates in New York, Santa Barbara, Tucson, Montreal and Toronto have completely sold out.
Tickets for the two new dates–an April 10 second night at Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theater and and additional New York City show June 30 at the Hammerstein Ballroom–go on sale to the public Friday, April 4 at 10 am local time. Pre-sales begin April 2 (see below for details).
In addition to the upcoming live dates, Beck will follow his stunning turns last month on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with two more appearances on the small screen this month: April 1 on The Ellen Degeneres Show and April 22 on Jimmy Kimmel Live. OnApril 27, Beck will make his return to the venerable Austin City Limits series, taping a performance to air at a later date TBD.
Aside from being the first chance to hear the songs of Morning Phase in the flesh, Beck’s upcoming dates are not be missed–a glance at the reviews of his most recent handful of dates from summer 2013 shows easily puts them among the most enthusiastic raves of his–or anyone’s–career:
“Electrifying… another example of a Beck show that was so good, so special, that if you missed it, you simply missed it. It probably won’t go down like that again.”–THE BOSTON GLOBE
“It seemed downright perverse that a show this good only received two performances – the band had played Boston a couple of nights earlier – but then again, Beck has made a specialty, and a great success, of defying expectations and playing by his own rules.”–THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
“more like a 20 year retrospective on one of the most important artists of our generation rather than just a typical concert… As soon as the first few notes of ‘Devil’s Haircut’ hummed through the speakers, it was as if someone fired a gun in the air. Everyone’s attention was drawn to the stage and it pretty much stayed there for the next two hours.”–THE VILLAGE VOICE
“Defying music-business logic is one of the Californian’s areas or expertise, but it’s also the reason he commands such a devout following, even after more than two decades… and boy, has he covered a lot of ground up to now.”–THE NEW YORK POST
Citi is the official credit card of the Beck Tour. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets through its Citi Private Pass program beginning Wednesday, April 2nd at 10AM local time through Thursday, April 3 at 10PM local. Visit www.citiprivatepass.com for details.
Check Beck.com for information on ticket sales, additional dates as they are confirmed and announced, etc.
BECK Live 2014 New Dates in BOLD
04/09/14 – Santa Barbara, CA – Arlington Theatre (SOLD OUT) 04/10/14 – Santa Barbara, CA – Arlington Theatre 04/13/14 – Indio, CA – Coachella (SOLD OUT)
04/20/14 – Indio, CA – Coachella (SOLD OUT)
04/23/14 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theater (SOLD OUT)
04/24/14 – El Paso, TX – Abraham Chavez Theatre
04/26/14 – Dallas, TX – Edgefest 24
06/19/14 – Cleveland, OH – State Theatre
06/20/14 – Columbus, OH – LC Pavilion
06/19-22/14 – Dover, DE – Firefly Festival
06/24/14 – North Adams, MA – Mass MOCA
06/25/14 – Montreal, QC – Place des Arts (SOLD OUT)
06/27/14 – Toronto, ON – Sony Centre (SOLD OUT)
06/28/14 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre 06/30/14 – New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom 07/01/14 – New York, NY – Central Park Summerstage (SOLD OUT)
07/18/14 – Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Festival
07/19-20/14 – Louisville, KY – Forecastle Festival
