Beck's Record Club Tackles Skip Spence's "Oar" with Wilco, Feist

For the third album covered in its entirety by Beck's Record Club, the Modern Guilt rocker recruited Wilco, Feist and Jamie Liddell to perform Skip Spence's 1969 offbeat folk-rock album Oar. Beck's Record Club, "an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day," laid down Oar back in June, when Wilco were in Los Angeles in support of Wilco (The Album). "They came by after a long day filming a TV appearance and still managed to put down 8 songs with us," Beck writes on his Record Club site. "Leslie Feist happened to be in town editing her documentary and heard we were all getting together." Jeff Tweedy's 13-year-old son Spencer also joined the Record Club for "additional drums."

First up is the Club's faithful take on Oar opener "Little Hands," with Beck on lead vocals as Tweedy and Feist strum along. As explained in their mission statement, the Record Club doesn't rehearse or arrange before recording; they remain true to the opening tracks of the original version, but allow for more experimentation on Side B songs. Beck is no stranger to Spence's work, however, having previously covered Oar's "Halo of Gold for the compilation More Oar: A Tribute to Alexander "Skip" Spence. Since "Halo of Gold" was an Oar bonus track added to the CD reissue, it's unclear if the Record Club will tackle that song again.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, Beck's Record Club — which has featured guests like MGMT, Devendra Banhart, Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and actor/brother-in-law Giovanni Ribisi — has also covered the Velvet Underground & Nico's self-titled album and Leonard Cohen's Songs of Leonard Cohen. Although the albums are recorded in one day, Beck's Record Club only unleashes one song per week on the singer's official site, so keep an eye out for Oar's "Cripple Creek" next week.

Related Stories:
• Beck Recruits MGMT, Wolfmother, Banhart For "Leonard Cohen" Redo
• Beck and Co. Cover Velvet Underground's "Waiting For the Man"
• Beck Announces Plans to Redo Classic Albums for Record Club

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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