** Beck has dropped a surprise digital release dubbed Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime, which rounds up six previously released singles, soundtrack cuts and covers in tandem with unheard original recordings of Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End.”
The project will be released on opaque red vinyl on Feb. 13 and can be pre-ordered here. It is named for the Korgis song Beck famously covered on the 2004 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack and has long been featured in his live shows. Also included are Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” the Flamingos’ “I Only Have Eyes for You,” John Lennon‘s “Love” and Caetano Veloso‘s “Michelangelo Antonioni.” The lone original is “Ramona” from the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World soundtrack.
** Influential underground rock band Don Caballero has unearthed previously unreleased recordings for a deluxe vinyl edition of its indescribable, Steve Albini-recorded album American Don, which will be released March 27 by Touch & Go. The three-LP set boasts live-in-studio versions of seven songs from the 2000 project recorded with Chicago producer Greg Norman during a break in American Don touring activity.
“It was an enormous gesture that could’ve never worked, but miraculously everyone agreed to do it and we gave it a try,” bassist Eric Emm recalls. “Greg captured us at our most fiery hot personally and professionally. The tempos are faster and no one is holding back with anything to lose. These true live tapes show the songs exactly as we played them on the road where they were developed between June of 1999 and July of 2000. Now, 25 years later, the Greg Norman tapes have been dusted off, baked and transferred to digital. With the aid of modern restoration tools, and the expertise of [engineer] Bob Weston, we were able to re-mix and master these recordings for the first time.”
Emm and guitarist Ian Williams left Don Caballero following American Don, with drummer Damon Che remaining as the lone original member until the band dissolved for good in 2009. Williams went on to form the experimental group Battles, which has since released four studio albums.
** Melanie Martinez is back with “POSSESSION,” her first single in three years and a taste of the follow-up to 2023’s Portals, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Per Warner, the song “peels back the ways power can masquerade as love” and is “spotlights Melanie’s trademark blend of charm, mischief and bite.” Sample it below.
Thursday, January 29 (Los Angeles, CA) Melanie Martinez returns with “POSSESSION,” a candy-coated gut punch from the multi-platinum, multi-hyphenate global alt-pop phenomenon. With razor sharp lyricism tucked inside glossy melodies, the track peels back the ways power can masquerade as love. The song is haunting, satirical and spotlights Melanie’s trademark blend of charm, mischief and bite. Welcome to Melanie Martinez’s new world order – Cry Baby is dead.
