Idolator

Part of Beck's appeal is that no matter how many personas he takes on from album to album (listless folky, horny robot, etc.), he still maintains that off-stage beach-bum boho personality; you figure he'd rather be at a vintage-maraca lawn-sale in Los Feliz than at a new-media marketing meeting. Yet he's been smart about hyping up October's The Information, taking great pains to fake-leak songs and videos like this one for"Motorcade" (another clip, "We Dance Alone," has already been pulled off YouTube).

It's a good, slow-tease strategy, and one that's particularly fan-friendly—especially in light of recent heavy-handed big-label tactics. His MySpace page (and his official page; apparently those still exist) have two new songs up this week, which will probably be ripped to MP3, posted to the blogs, and cease-and-desisted out of existence by the time you finishing reading this. But even if the songs aren't portable, they're still worth clicking "refresh" over and over again: "Nausea" is a tensely strummed acoustic ditty, and "Strange Apparition," which tweaks Janis a bit with its opening line of "Lord, don't forsake me/In my Mercedes-Benz."

Beck, "Motorcade" [YouTube]
Beck [Official site]
Beck [MySpace]