Beck Launches “Irrelevant Topics” Interview Series With Tom Waits
Beck’s ever-changing official Website welcomed a new feature yesterday called Irrelevant Topics, where the rocker hosts completely random and topic-spanning conversations with fellow musicians, writers and artists. For his first chat, Beck recruited fellow Californian troubadour Tom Waits for a conversation that spans from Golden State folklore, having concerts canceled because of monsoons, finding Van Goghs at garage sales and the painful chore of list-making. Bottom line: it’s a pretty awesome read.
“When asked to do these kinds of interviews, I’ve noticed that invariably there will a moderator appointed to, as an editor once put it, not let the conversation ‘veer off into irrelevant topics,’ ” Beck says of the inspiration behind the newest Beck.com venture. “Although it’s a publication’s objective to get something that fits the conventional format, I became interested in where the dialogue would go if it were allowed to take its own course, however mundane or esoteric.” Like Beck’s Record Club and his new Planned Obsolescence mixtapes, the Irrelevant Topics section will be updated every week, with Part Two of the Waits conversation on the way.
Another recent addition to the Beck Website is his Record Club‘s version of the third song off of The Velvet Underground & Nico, “Femme Fatale.” While Beck promised that his Record Club would re-record the entire VU & Nico album in the span of one day with no rehearsals, “Femme Fatale” likely didn’t serve as too much of a challenge for the Modern Guilt singer as the track was often a live staple for Beck in concert. Next up, “Venus in Furs.”
Related Stories:
• Beck and Co. Cover Velvet Underground’s “Waiting For the Man”
• Beck Announces Plans to Redo Classic Albums for Record Club
