Beck Tickets
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specialize in providing you with premium and other Beck Tickets
that are in high demand. We can help you gain access to tickets for
all major events.
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About Beck
One of the most inventive and eclectic figures to emerge from the
'90s alternative revolution, Beck Hansen was the epitome of postmodern
chic in an era obsessed with junk culture. Drawing upon a kaleidoscope
of influences -- pop, folk, psychedelia, hip-hop, country, blues, R&B,
funk, indie rock, noise rock, experimental rock, jazz, lounge,
Brazilian music -- Beck created a body of work that was wildly
unpredictable, vibrantly messy, and bursting with ideas. He was
unquestionably a product of the media age -- a synthesist whose
concoctions were pasted together from bits of the past and present, in
ways that could only occur to an overexposed pop-culture junkie. His
surreal, free-associative lyrics were laced with warped imagery and a
sardonic sense of humor that, while typical of the times, only rarely
threatened the impact of his adventurous music. Beck appropriated
freely from whatever genres he felt like, juxtaposing sounds that
would never have co-existed organically (and his habitual irony made
clear that he wasn't aiming for authenticity in the first place). If
his musical style was impossible to pigeonhole, his true identity lay
in that rootless, sprawling diversity, that determination to
acknowledge no boundaries or conventions; everything he did bore the
stamp of his distinctively skewed viewpoint. Beck caught his big break
when the bizarre Delta blues/white-boy-rap pastiche "Loser" spawned a
national catch phrase in early 1994. His debut album, Mellow Gold,
became a hit, and the official follow-up, the Dust Brothers-produced
Odelay, was widely acclaimed as one of the decade's landmark records.
Beck followed those touchstones with genre exercises in folk and funk
that still managed to dazzle with their variety, solidifying one of
the most creatively vital oeuvres in alternative rock -- or all of
modern pop music, for that matter.
Beck David Campbell was born July 8, 1970, in Los Angeles, and came
from strong creative stock. His father, David Campbell, was a
conductor and string arranger (who later worked on his son's records);
however, he left the family early on, and Beck adopted the last name
of his mother Bibbe Hansen, a regular on Andy Warhol's Factory scene
who appeared in the Warhol film Prison. Moreover, his grandfather Al
Hansen was an important figure in the Fluxus art movement, best known
for launching the career of Yoko Ono. The young Beck Hansen grew up
mostly in Los Angeles, also spending some time with both sets of
grandparents (Al Hansen in Europe, and his other grandfather -- a
Presbyterian minister -- in the Kansas City area). He dropped out of
school in tenth grade, and began playing acoustic blues and folk music
as a street busker, as well as trying his hand in the poetry-slam
scene; in 1988, he produced a cassette of home recordings called The
Banjo Story. In 1989, he moved to New York and tried to break into the
city's short-lived "anti-folk" scene, a punk-influenced movement of
acoustic singer/songwriters that included Roger Manning and Michelle
Shocked. Finding the going tough, he returned to Los Angeles after
about a year, and attempted to gain exposure at rock clubs by playing
a few songs in between the regular sets.
In the summer of 1991, Beck was discovered separately by Bong Load
label owners Tom Rothrock (at one of his club performances) and Rob
Schnapf (at the Sunset Junction street fair). The two approached him
about cutting some folk songs backed with hip-hop beats, and Beck
agreed. Gathering in the kitchen of up-and-coming hip-hop producer
Karl Stephenson, Beck recorded "Loser" and a selection of other
tracks. In 1992, Beck traveled to Olympia, WA, to record for Calvin
Johnson's K label, and also inked a publishing deal with BMG. At the
beginning of 1993, Beck finally saw his first official releases: the
single "MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack" on Flipside, and the
full-length, cassette-only Golden Feelings on Sonic Enemy. In
September, Bong Load finally released "Loser" as a 12" single, and it
became an instant smash on L.A.'s independent radio stations, so much
so that Bong Load had trouble pressing enough copies to keep up with
the demand. Combining a funky drum-machine track and Beck's nonsense
raps with bluesy slide guitar and a sample of Dr. John's "I Walk on
Gilded Splinters," "Loser" sounded like nothing else. Word spread
quickly, helped out by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, who raved about
Beck after seeing him perform at a backyard party. A major-label
bidding war ensued, and Beck signed an innovative contract with Geffen
that allowed him to continue releasing uncommercial material on
smaller independent labels. In the meantime, another indie album, the
10" record A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight, was released in
January 1994 by Fingerpaint.
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Beck's major-label debut, Mellow Gold, was released in March 1994,
and Geffen also reissued "Loser" on a national level. Instantly
labeled an anthem for the so-called slacker generation, the song was a
sensation, climbing into the Top Ten and hitting number one on
Billboard's modern rock chart. Mellow Gold was a hit, climbing into
the Top 20 and eventually going platinum. Initial reviews were
somewhat mixed; many critics raved over the album, but others were
reluctant to lavish praise on an artist they weren't sure would ever
be anything more than a one-hit novelty. Meanwhile, Beck immediately
took advantage of his Geffen deal to release two more indie albums in
1994. Stereopathetic Soul Manure, issued on Flipside, consisted of lo-fi
noise rock, while One Foot in the Grave -- which included the material
from Beck's 1992 session for K Records, fleshed out with new
recordings -- was a bare-bones acoustic folk collection. Later that
year, Bong Load released another indie single, "Steve Threw Up."
Beck's low-budget body of work, especially his indie recordings,
seemed to place him as part of the emerging lo-fi aesthetic, whose
other adherents included Pavement, Sebadoh, and Liz Phair.
In the summer of 1995, Beck undertook his first major promotional
tour, appearing as part of the fifth edition of Lollapalooza. For his
second major-label album, he entered the studio with producers the
Dust Brothers, who'd been a significant force behind the Beastie Boys'
groundbreaking masterpiece Paul's Boutique. Odelay was released in
June 1996 to massive acclaim, and wound up topping many year-end
critics' polls; it was commercially successful as well, reaching the
Top 20, selling over two million copies, and spinning off a string of
MTV hits that included "Where It's At," "Devil's Haircut," "Jack-Ass,"
and "The New Pollution." "Where It's At" went on to win a Grammy for
Best Male Rock Vocal, and Odelay also won for Best Alternative Music
Performance. Late in 1997, Beck contributed the single "Deadweight" to
the soundtrack of the film A Life Less Ordinary, which starred Ewan
McGregor and Cameron Diaz. In the spring of 1998, Beck's artwork was
featured in a joint show with that of his late grandfather.
Also in 1998, Beck began work on a new, folk-styled album -- in the
vein of One Foot in the Grave -- that was originally slated for
release on Bong Load. However, excited by the results and the presence
of Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Geffen stepped in and released
the album themselves that November. Titled Mutations, the record's
quiet, gently trippy tone and relatively straightforward approach made
it an unlikely progression from Odelay, and indeed both Beck and
Geffen made it clear that the record was never intended as the
official follow-up. Although everything about Mutations was low-key,
it still became Beck's third straight Top 20 major-label album. In
early 1999, lawsuits between Geffen, Bong Load, and Beck began to fly
over the abrupt release change of Mutations, but were eventually
worked out in friendly fashion. That summer, Beck recorded a duet with
Emmylou Harris on "Sin City," a track featured on the Gram Parsons
tribute album Return of the Grievous Angel.
The official follow-up to Odelay took an exhausting total of 14 months
to record. Released in November 1999, Midnite Vultures was designed as
a party record, running the gamut of variations on funk and allowing
Beck to play the roles of R&B loverman and horny Prince disciple.
Reviews ranged from glowing to indifferent, and Midnite Vultures
didn't sell quite as well as its predecessors. Mutations won Beck
another Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance in early 2000,
and he embarked on an extensive international tour in support of
Midnite Vultures. In 2001, Beck recorded a cover of David Bowie's
"Diamond Dogs" with cutting-edge hip-hop producer Timbaland, and also
contributed to French electronic pop stars Air's 10,000 Hz Legend
album. His next project was another folk-styled album titled Sea
Change, again recorded with Mutations producer Nigel Godrich and
released by Geffen in September 2002. Beck promoted Sea Change with a
brief acoustic tour beforehand, then announced that he had hired the
Flaming Lips as his backing band for the more extensive official tour
following its release.
Beck Hansen spent his formative years in coffeehouses creating a
suburban, angst-ridden presence that would eventually lead to a
multi-platinum career and inspire legions of 7-Eleven slackers. Since
the surprisingly successful single "Loser" (1994), Beck has continued
onwards and upwards, releasing a number of diversely creative,
genre-jumping releases. He has emerged as one of the decade's most
colorful postmodern artists -- from the contemplative One Foot in the
Grave to the Dust Brothers-produced, folk-hop masterpiece Odelay and
the recent Midnite Vultures. This album owes as much to Prince's
Around the World in a Day as it does the Beastie Boys' Paul's
Boutique. Magnetism and quirky charm (he once threatened to play
K-Mart retail stores exclusively) dutifully intact, Beck continues to
party way past bedtime -- singing, dancing, and raking it in like it's
1999.
Beck Tickets
Ticket Retriever sells tickets for Beck concert events. We
specialize in providing you with premium and other Beck Tickets
that are in high demand. We can help you gain access to tickets for
all major events.
How to Find Beck Tickets:
1. Browse our ticket inventory by clicking on the "Beck" button.
2. Sort ticket events by price, section, or row.
3. Use the seating chart to help you find the Beck tickets that meet
your preferences.
4. Place your ticket order for Beck Tickets on our secure
system.