The Curious Case of Beck and Cauthen

Beck and Cauthen…we hardly knew ye.  A promising Americana/Texas duo with excellent bloodlines turned band out of San Marcos has found themselves in the crosshairs of national publicity this week due to 90′s alternative maven Beck ( legal name Beck Hansen, birth name Bek David Campbell).  Ol’ Beck called up his attorneys and had them send a tidy bit of legalese to Dave and Paul, previously known as  Beck and Cauthen.  Seemed that the name Beck and Cauthen was infringing on Beck’s hipness somehow.

Not really sure what the big deal is.  I wonder if Beck can retroactively go after Hansen due to his last name and have them removed from our memory banks.  Lord knows the earworm that we call “Mmmbop” would be best served in a glass called forgotten.  To their credit, Beck and Cauthen have taken it all in stride and released the following statement:

Hello Beck & Cauthen fans – We are changing our name from Beck & Cauthen to Sons of Fathers. To our surprise, we got a letter last week from representatives of Beck, who asked us to change it. We don’t want to create confusion with Beck, or for that matter Jeff Beck, Glenn Beck, Beck’s beer, or any other Beck. We hope he listened to some tunes from the new album, also called ‘Sons of Fathers!’ It was a sign for us to change the name to something that included the whole band, not just a duo. We are all in this together and we all play a role. We used the phrase “Sons of Fathers” long before we wrote the song and changed the band name.

The national spotlight has been kind to the San Marcos crew now known as Sons of Fathers. A cool nod to their genetic, musical gifts and a very crafty, synergistic album tie-in.  Many folks have taken their side in the whole dust-up with the “Loser” and they’ve certainly attracted more publicity than they would’ve ever garnered otherwise.  So, kudos to Beck and Caut…err Sons of Fathers.  Cool band, check them out!  They’re where it’s at, sometimes even with 2 turntables and a microphone (not really).