Devendra Banhart photo by Lauren Dukoff

Last year, we reported that space-case buddies Beck and Devendra Banhart had teamed up to record a song for Life During Wartime, the new movie from ooky auteur Todd Solondz. (It's a sequel to Solondz's deeply disturbing 1998 black comedy Happiness.) The song, also called "Life During Wartime", has now made its way to the internet, and you can stream it above, via Spin. It's not a Talking Heads cover.

According to Spin, Solondz himself, along with Beck, wrote the song's lyrics, and composer Marc Shaiman wrote the music. The wispy, delicate track marks the first time we've ever heard Devendra sing the word "iPhone".

hello! i did a song with Beck for Todd Solondz' AMAZING new movie "Life During Wartime"!!! Todd Solondz wrote the lyrics and Marc Shaiman wrote the music. if ya haven't seen Todd's films check them al...

Photo by Drew Brown

Between his Record Club covers project and his increasingly impressive production work for famous friends, Beck has recently put in studio time with what seems like everybody recently: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Wilco, Feist, Jamie Lidell, Thurston Moore, Tortoise, Bat for Lashes, St. Vincent, Liars, Devendra Banhart, MGMT, Tobacco, and Stephen Malkmus. These creative partnerships have helped to revitalize the alt-rock originator, who just turned 40 last month.

He's also contributed songs to several recent soundtracks, including Twilight: Eclipse, "True Blood", and Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, which found him writing garage rock songs for the lead character's fictional band, Sex Bob-Omb. He's a busy guy. And, during a recent phone interview, he jumped from project to project and thought to thought in a casually random way that shouldn't be surprising considering his penchant for genre-hopping.

Beck talks in a spacey California drawl. He takes long pauses in between sentences; over a windy phone line, it was tough to tell whether he had completed a thought or was taking a break only to get deeper into it. In the following interview, he touched on all the topics above and hinted at new Beck material that may come out sooner than you'd expect:

Hey everyone!!! Please help support a great cause and a great charity Trekstock. I designed a little tshirt for them as did alot of other great artists. Here's the link with more info. Thank you!!!!!h...

Influential British singer-songwriter John Martyn passed away at the age of 60 in January 2009, and now a tribute album is well in the works, according to his official site. (Via Twenty Four Bit.) So far, the lineup of artists covering Martyn tunes is impressive indeed: Beck, Robert Smith, Devendra Banhart, Vashti Bunyan, the Swell Season, and more. There's no release date for the comp yet, but a list of artists and the songs they're tackling is below.

A two-disc reissue of Martyn's Live at Leeds album is due September 6 via Universal-- more info on that here.

John Martin Tribute LP:

Beck: "Stormbringer"
Snow Patrol: "May You Never"
Robert Smith: "Small Hours"
Blackships (Nick McCabe and Simon Jones, formerly of the Verve): "Rope Soul'd or Sapphire"
Beth Orton: "Go Down Easy"
David Gray: "Let The Good Things Come"
Lisa Hannigan: "Couldn't Love You More"
The Swell Season: "I Don't Want to Know"
Paolo Nutini: "One World"
Devendra Banhart: "Sweet Little Mystery"
Vetiver: "Go Easy"
Vashti Bunyan: "Head & Heart"
Skye Edwards (Morcheeba): "Solid Air"
Ted Barnes [ft. Gavin Clark]: "Over The Hill"
The Blind Boys of Alabama: "Glorious Fool"
Brendan Campbell: "Anna"
Sonia Dada: "Dancing"
Sabrina Dinan: "Certain Surprise"
Oh My God: "John Wayne"
Foley (Miles Davis bass player): "Clutches"
Nicholas Barron: "Angeline"
Cheryl Wilson: "You Can Discover"

Former members of The Verve, David Gray and Lisa Hannigan also contribute

Singer-songwriter will hit the road in October

Last week was all about the bossanova backbeat, this week we're stalking robbers, moustache-twiddlers and the truly evil

I think Pairubu had it right. The South American topic was limiting and we did end up heading down a road where the signposts largely read "bossanova â€' next exit". But do I think this was a bad thing? Why, quite the opposite m'lud. It's a good thing now and again to go headlong into one or two styles, particularly those which one (I say "one", I mean "me") might be less familiar with. Particular thanks to ejaydee and Sao Paolo-ite farofa for their contributions â€' muy rico.

A list (and column in which I attempt to claim the spirit of tropicalia for the list):

MC Junior and Leonardo â€' Rap das Armas

Sepultura â€' Ratamahatta

Big Audio Dynamite â€' Sambadrome

Burt Bacharach â€' South American Getaway

Joao Gilberto/Stan Getz â€' Corcovado

Tom Ze â€' A Brigo do Edificio Italio Como Hilton Hotel

The War On Drugs â€' Buenos Aires Beach

Roxy Music â€' Amazona

Caetano Veloso â€' Tropicalia

Roberto Carlos Lange â€' Amazonian Pacific

Here, also, is your B list. I'm afraid that my imminent departure for Glastonbury (join us here throughout the weekend for peerless coverage!) means I'm going to skip my explanations this week. Hope you can forgive me. Suffice to say a lot of this list had similar qualities to those I enjoyed in the A list.

Cristo Redentor â€' Donald Byrd

Seu Jorge â€' En Sou Favela

Frank Sinatra - There's an Awful Lot...

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