The Three E.P.'s

I finally gave this album a well-deserved listen while actually paying attention. Surprising, since I got it about four weeks ago after watching High Fidelity. Cusak mentions the album and the band during a great scene in the film. Anyways, I was very pleasantly surprised.

Released in 1998, The Beta Band's The Three E.P.'s is a compilation of three E.P.'s (Champion Versions, The Patty Patty Sound, and Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos) that had been previously released. Creative title eh? The album plays all three E.P.s in succession, seamlessly. It doesn't sound like three albums smashed together into one at all, so don't worry. I have bascially had it on repeat for the past two days, trying to imagine why the fuck I hadn't heard this before. Maybe all of you had heard this previously, and are currently pointing at the computer screen cursing my lack of knowledge concerning lesser-known bands. Maybe not.

I honestly cannot recommend this album enough. I am not a music reviewer, so I'm not going make an attempt at explaining the 'sound' with strange terminology that when read slowly actually turns out to be non-sense. That's what Pitchfork.com is for. Listen to these two tracks and decide for yourself if you want to download/buy it. If you like Beck even in the slightest, this one should be for you.