Word of a planned Sonic Youth box set emerged this week when Beck let slip that he’ll be covering the band’s 1986 album EVOL in its entirety — on cassette, no less — for the project.
Sonic Youth, which just released its 16th studio album, The Eternal, hasn’t announced plans for a box set. But Beck told Pitchfork that the cover of EVOL‘s “Green Light” that he recorded for a Record Store Day split 7-inch with the band is part of a larger project.
According to Pitchfork, Beck revealed he’ll be covering all of EVOL for Sonic Youth:
“They are doing some kind of box where they are getting artists to do photographs and art and pamphlets related to Sonic Youth, and one of the things they were requesting was a cassette. So I signed up for the cassette. I thought it would be an interesting idea, at least, something that’s on cassette.”
Covering full albums is a new pastime for Beck, who recently announced the formation of Record Club, which finds the artist and friends covering entire albums in a single day, with the results uploaded to Beck.com, one song per week.
First up: Beck and Co.’s take on The Velvet Underground & Nico (after briefly considering Digital Underground’s Sex Packets). So far, they’ve posted videos of “Sunday Morning” and “I’m Waiting for the Man” (see below).
Video: Record Club, f/ Beck, “I’m Waiting for the Man”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS:
- Video: Sonic Youth performs ‘Sacred Trickster’ on Letterman
- Sonic Youth to release latest, Merzbow-assisted SYR project in July
- Sonic Youth announces dates for U.S. tour in support of ‘The Eternal’
- Sonic Youth, New Order, The Smiths issuing exclusive vinyl for Record Store Day
