SELECT SPECIAL ACOUSTIC & FULL BAND ELECTRIC SHOWS CONFIRMED FOR JULY & AUGUST

May 19 Santa Cruz & May 20 Song Reader Event in San Francisco SOLD OUT

Beck has confirmed a return to the touring circuit this summer for three very special acoustic-only dates featuring a pared down lineup followed by two fully electric big band blow-outs.

July 2 at the Days Off Festival in Paris, July 27 for one night only of the Americanarama traveling festival at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh NY, and July 28 at the Newport Folk Festival, Beck will be playing special acoustic sets with minimal accompaniment. In addition to acoustic renditions of some of Beck’s best loved classics, these very special performances will feature never before heard material from an upcoming acoustic record. The record can best be described as a self-contained work, one that came in the form of a burst of inspiration following the completion of last year’s groundbreaking Song Reader sheet music album.

Beck will continue his east coast run a few days later with an expanded band in tow for a pair of full-on large scale electric blow-outs taking place August 2 at Bank of America Pavilion in Boston and August 4 at the Prospect Park in Brooklyn. For these shows, fans can expect more of the fare that Beck and his veteran band delivered at show-stealing stops along last year’s festival circuit, including the set lauded by The New York Times as Beck “switched easily between two guises: the deadpan dispenser of brilliant semi-sequiturs and encyclopedic musical allusions — fuzz-toned garage-rock, synth-pop, slide-guitar blues, floating psychedelia — and the sustained, heartsick ballad singer of Sea Change. Though the band was live, the music embraced D.J. culture. Beck could, and often did, suddenly switch styles within a song as easily as dropping a needle.

Prior to the July/August dates, Beck is teaming up with McSweeney’s and Pop-Up Magazine to present a night of live music and stories about music, inspired by his Song Reader, at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall on May 20. Featuring writers, filmmakers, photographers, radio producers, artists, and special musical guests, the show was announced last week, and tickets sold out instantly.

Beck Hansen’s Song Reader can purchased at http://store.beck.com/products/beck-hansens-song-reader-1.

The night prior, Beck will play a sold out one-off show at the Rio Theater in Santa Cruz.

Further performances, recordings, etc. will be announced if and when they are ready to be…

BECK

Live 2013

May 19 Santa Cruz, CA — Rio Theater (SOLD OUT)

May 20 San Francisco, CA — Song Reader event at Davies Symphony Hall (SOLD OUT)

July 2 Paris, France – Days Off Festival at Cité de la Musique (special acoustic set) – on sale Tuesday, April 30

July 27 Wantagh, NY – Americanarama at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater (special acoustic set) – on sale Saturday, May 4

July 28 Newport, RI – Newport Folk Festival (special acoustic set) – on sale now

August 2 Boston, MA – Bank of America Pavilion (full band/electric show) – on sale Friday, May 3

August 4 Brooklyn, NY – Celebrate Brooklyn at Prospect Park (full band/electric show) – on sale Friday, May 10

BECK & McSWEENEY’S PRESENT

BECK HANSEN’S SONG READER COMING IN DECEMBER 2012

Beck has confirmed a surprise show August 9 show at Bimbo’s in San Francisco in advance of his appearance at this weekend’s Outside Lands festival. Tickets go on sale noon PST for the 18+ show, with a limit of two tickets per order. Tickets must be picked up day of show at will call with photo ID and are non-transferable with no ins and outs. Doors will be at 7:30 p.m. and showtime is 9:00 p.m.

Beck has also confirmed details of the long-gestating BECK HANSEN’S SONG READER, to be released December 2012 by McSweeney’s:

In the wake of Modern Guilt and The Information, Beck’s latest album comes in an almost-forgotten form—twenty songs existing only as individual pieces of sheet music, never before released or recorded. Complete with full-color, heyday-of- home-play-inspired art for each song and a lavishly produced hardcover carrying case (and, when necessary, ukelele notation), the Song Reader is an experiment in what an album can be at the end of 2012—an alternative that enlists the listener in the tone of every track, and that’s as visually absorbing as a dozen gatefold LPs put together.

The songs here are as unfailingly exciting as you’d expect from their author, but if you want to hear “Do We? We Do,” or “Don’t Act Like Your Heart Isn’t Hard,” bringing them to life depends on you.

BECK HANSEN’S SONG READER features original art from Marcel Dzama (who created the imagery for Beck’s acclaimed Guero), Leanne Shapton, Josh Cochran, Jessica Hische, and many more, as well as an introduction by Jody Rosen (Slate, The New York Times) and a foreword by Beck. The package measures 9.5” x 12.5” with 108 pages comprising 20 individual full-color song booklets—18 featuring original lyrics, and 2 instrumentals—with covers from more than a dozen different artists.

Readers’ (and select musicians’) renditions of the songs will be featured on the McSweeney’s website. Check back at http://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader and BECK.COM for further information and updates as they are available.

“I JUST STARTED HATING SOME PEOPLE TODAY”/”BLUE RANDY” OUT MAY 28

Beck will make his Third Man Records Blue Series debut May 28th, releasing the one-off single “I Just Started Hating Some People Today” b/w “Blue Randy” (TMR 128). The record will be available day of release via thirdmanrecords.com, iTunes and of course the Third Man Records store at 623 7th Ave South in Nashville and finer retailers nationwide. There will be no pre-orders for this single.

Both tracks were recorded in 2011 while Beck was in Nashville working on new material for his long awaited next album. The songs spontaneously came together at the Third Man studio on Beck’s final day in Nashville.

Inspired by the title of “Blue Randy,” an extremely limited run of 100 Tri Color 7-inches will be available beginning 10am on Saturday June 2nd at Randy’s Records at 157 East 900 South in Salt Lake City (http://www.randysrecords.com/). An even scarcer scattering of 50 Tri Colors will be randomly inserted in mail orders for the single placed with Third Man