What happens when you take the offspring of famous cultural icons and have them produce an album together? IRM. That’s MRI backwards. Coincidentally, that’s exactly what came out of Beck, grandson of artist Al Hansen and son of Bibbe Hansen, a regular fixture at Warhol’s Factory, and Charlotte Gainsbourg, whose parents, Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, may have been the coolest people to ever roam Earth. No surprise then that IRM, which despite being billed as Charlotte’s second record, is really a collaboration on all fronts, a cultural assault of cool synths, minimalist rhythms and all sorts of post-modern swirls and glitches. Not to mention, Charlotte’s monotone chic, “looking through a glass onion.” While Charlotte has made the title track available for download, the album’s first single, “Heaven Can Wait,” co-written, produced, and mixed by Beck, as was the rest of the album, is set to hit your RSS reader and maybe even physical stores October 12th. Head over to Charlotte’s web site for a your first taste of the collaboration.

After covering The Velvet Underground & Nico with a group of musical collaborators including Devendra Banhart and members of MGMT for the first iteration of his Record Club, Beck has opted to focus his second effort on Songs of Leonard Cohen and has posted his cover of “Suzanne” on his Record Club’s website. Collaborators include Devendra and MGMT again, along with members of Wolfmother and Little Joy.

The website describes the Record Club project as “an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day.” Relying on spontaneity (nothing is rehearsed or arranged beforehand), the group selects an album “to be reinterpreted and used as a framework.” A track is posted to the Record Club website once every week, and the recordings tend to be rough renditions, especially since they are frequently the first takes of the day. “There is no intention to ‘add to’ the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens,” the site claims.

Check out the cover of “Suzanne” here, and be sure to check the Record Club’s website over the next few weeks for more covers from Songs of Leonard Cohen.

Beck has been spending a lot of time at his computer. We’ve already posted about his “Irrelevant Topics” series a couple of weeks ago. Since his debut interview with Tom Waits, Beck and funnyman Will Ferrell sat down and had a chat. The interview was nothing short of HI-larious, from Beck’s introduction (see below) to stories of Ferrell’s dreams to be in Cirque du Soleil. But interviewing Will Ferrell isn’t the only thing the internet-savvy Beck has been up to lately. His Record Club, Planned Obsolescence, and Videotheque sections are all being updated fairly regularly. Check em out.

I met Will in 1997 when he was a new cast member on SNL and I was a musical guest. Somehow during rehearsals I got asked to participate in a skit with him. Over the years I got to watch him work several more times during his tenure as a cast member, undeniably a comic genius. We got to perform together once again at a benefit for Tsunami Relief in 2005. Here we got to catch up and talk about unitards, cirque du soliel and local 70’s TV commercials.

On his website,Beck has launched a series entitled Irrelevant Topics which, as he states, “…features conversations between musicians, artists, writers, etc. on various subjects, without promotional pretext or editorial direction”. The first in the series is with legendary bard, Tom Waits. TW and BH have what looks like a long instant message conversation. Check out Part 1, where they talk about where they come from, lightning, Los Angeles, playing shows and of course, MUSICS.

Beck has begun to morph his wares even further, turning his site into a pool of covers he or guests have done as part of his recently founded Record Club. The Club is about to release it’s first collaboration, a re-imagining of The Velvet Underground & Nico. Weekly, Beck has been filling the DJ slot on his site himself so that fans can cop said covers, one being the hallowed “Waiting for the Man.” Check his site, get your cover jam on.

—Meryl Natow