Kevin Bronson on October 11th, 2010

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Before Beck was a platinum record-selling superstar, he was a DIY folk singer, whose sense of whimsy and experimentation shone through on indie albums he released both before and after he signed his major-label contract. This is the Beck to whom fledgling songwriter Joel Morales was drawn.

“He was so insouciant and carefree, and, maybe I’m wrong, but it seemed at the time he wasn’t so self-aware,” says Morales, frontman of the L.A. indie-rock quartet Dios, who was attracted to the music by its low-fi charm and memorable melodies.

||| Stream: “When Beck Was Cool”

A decade and a half after he was first smitten, Morales (recording under the name Joel Jerome) has recorded a covers album that revisits that material. “When Beck Was Cool” – 10 tracks from early Beck works including “Stereopathic Soulmanure” and “One Foot in the Grave” – will be out later this fall on Future Farmer Recordings, and it’s a gorgeous take on a lot of smile-inducing songs.

“I remember hearing ‘Cyanide Breath Mint’ on KXLU – here was a guy with an acoustic guitar, sounding like the pitch was slowed down on the vocals, doing really interesting songs. The rest of that summer was my Beck summer. All I listened to driving around in the car was ‘One Foot in the Grave,'” Morales says.

“It spoke to the way we were making music at the time. It sounded like a guy messing around in his room on a four-track.”

The more Morales learned about Beck, the deeper his admiration grew. Beck’s first major-label deal included a provision that allowed him to concurrently release indie albums while putting out records on Geffen. (“Stereopathic Soulmanure” came out a week prior to “Mellow Gold” in 1994.) And there was a memorable turn on the late, great MTV program “120 Minutes” in which Thurston Moore interviewed Beck. “It seemed like he was in his own world, and I dug that about his personality,” Morales says. “I liked it that he didn’t take himself too seriously.”

Morales recorded the album in his home studio – with substantially less fussiness than he and his band exhibited with Dios’ most recent album “We Are Dios,” which was three years in the making. Dios’ Ed Kampwirth, and Morales’ brother, Kevin, contributed to the recordings. “I’ve been covering Beck for 10 years plus,” Morales says. “This gave me a fun project to do with no weird pressure.”

But about the album’s title … Does Morales think Beck is no longer cool?

“The people who will get offended by the title won’t know the stuff I’m covering anyway,” he says. “The thing I liked about Beck back in the day was his attitude. I don’t know him, but it seems like it’s changed. It’s what I feel, so … that’s the title. It’s still my homage to Beck’s music of the time. And I think it’s something the 1994 Beck would laugh at.”

Photos by Laurie Scavo