It's funny how things fall into place sometimes. Last night I was looking for a lossless version of dios' (not Dio, d-i-o-s) first album, and then I read on some blog that Joel Morales, dios' lead singer and guitarist is in the process of making a Beck tribute album called When Beck Was Cool. Now, I knew that Beck with his dick in the dirt (Sea Change) was cool, but I wasn't sure any other of his work was. I was wrong, and these four posts will prove my wrongitudiness.
I still haven't found that first dios album in lossless (I used to have it,I swear, but it got stolen), but the journey has transformed me into a '93 to '94 (and Sea Change) fair-weathered Beck fan. Oh, how the tables turn. Enjoy some early Beck!
From Matt Fink at allmusic:
Before Mellow Gold and even before A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, there was Golden Feelings, an extremely limited-edition, cassette-only collection of songs. Re-released in 1999, this 17-track collection documents Beck's first officially released, self-recorded, full-length album of four-track noodlings and documents his genius in embryo. Like Stereopathetic Soul Manure, Golden Feelings features muddy production values, an array of taped TV and music blurbs, and entertaining between-track dialogues and noises. The opening cut "The Fucked Up Blues" is a fine early example of Beck's surrealist blues; some songs, such as "Magic Station Wagon," which sounds like two broken guitars being plucked violently over and over for some sort of percussive effect, are more interesting than listenable. The folkish "No Money No Honey" -- which also appeared on Stereopathetic Soul Manure, sung by a homeless man Beck recruited -- appears here in a more developed version and features what must be one of the loudest, most distorted acoustic guitar tracks ever recorded. The primitive Velvet Underground-meets-Jon Spencer Blues Explosion garage rock of "Schmoozer," as well as the humorous folk narrative of "Heartland Feeling," are some of his strongest songs to date. Dark, haunting ballads like "Super Golden Black Sunchild," the country-blues of "Gettin' Home," and an early attempt at funk on "People Gettin' Busy" round out a very eclectic set. An early, even more distorted version of Mellow Gold's "Mutherfukka" is also included. Overall, Golden Feelings is an extremely interesting, entertaining, and humorous document that proves that from the start Beck had his heart set on making experimentation his only gimmick.
Technical Information:
Artist: Beck
Album: Golden Feelings
Year: 1993/1999
Audio Codec(s): FLAC8
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: EAC split tracks
Avg. bitrate: 721 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2
File size: 220 MB
Length: 0:42:42
Tracklisting:
01 The Fucked Up Blues (2:12)
02 Special People (1:43)
03 Magic Stationwagon (1:36)
04 No Money No Honey (2:36)
05 Trouble All My Days (2:07)
06 Bad Energy (1:39)
07 Schmoozer (2:38)
08 Heartland Feeling (7:11)
09 Super Golden Black Sunchild (2:11)
10 Soul Sucked Dry (1:50)
11 Feelings (1:35)
12 Gettin Home (4:15)
13 Will I Be Ignored By The Lord (2:00)
14 Bogus Soul (1:16)
15 Totally Confused (2:00)
16 Mutherfukka (2:44)
17 People Gettin Busy
Golden Feelings Megaupload Link