TO DO · 08/06/2014
We Had a Listening Party with Beck
In case you didn’t hear (<music joke!), we recently teamed up with Beck and music producer Randall Poster to create the Song Reader album—the first officially recorded embodiment of Beck’s book of sheet music.
Like a proud mother, we eagerly invited our friends and family to come listen to the new album at Whitebox Art Center. There was one tiny concern beforehand, though: Will a gallery filled with 200 people provide the best listening experience? Answer: no. So to give the music the respect it deserved, we mounted 20 iPods to the ceiling—each playing one song from the album—and hung headphones from them. And it worked! No one had to be shushed, and everyone experienced the songs in their best form: uninterrupted.
Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Jared Samuel, and Sean Lennon
For eye candy, we displayed the song’s artwork (taken from the recently published Song Reader book) on the wall, which gave the partygoers something to bliss out on while hearing the music.
There was also a masterful ice carver from people’s pops serving up shaved ice in summery flavors like lemon mint rhubarb. (This man was very popular.)
Loudon Wainwright III and David Johansen
Beck even got involved in the action and listened to versions of his own songs sung by different artists—so meta!
Party people!
Our fearless co-founder and co-CEO Dave Gilboa, Beck, our equally fearless co-founder and co-CEO Neil Blumenthal, and Randall Poster.