Beck Helps White Stripes With Their Conquest

The White Stripes collaborated with Beck on three B-sides for their new "Conquest" single, which will be issued on a trio of individually packaged red, white and black seven-inch vinyl releases through Third Man/Warner Bros. on Dec. 18.

Beck co-produced the songs — "It's My Fault For Being Famous," "Honey, We Can't Afford To Look This Cheap" and "Cash Grab Complications On The Matter" — which were recorded in his living room. The "Loser" sang and played piano on the first tune and added some slide guitar to the second one. The red vinyl release features an acoustic mariachi interpretation of "Conquest," while the other two stick with the album version of Icky Thump's third single.

The singles will also come with trading cards featuring photos of matadors, as well as posters.

The video for "Conquest" was shot over two days in Artesia, Calif. with director Diane Martel, and the Stripes' website has this to say about the clip: "Filmed with a visual urgency that brings the song's Spanish themes, frantic horns and compulsive pounding rhythm to life, the video follows an explosive — if unconventional — love story that pits man against bull in the ultimate conquest. To make his performance as authentic as possible, Jack White trained extensively with famed bullfighter Dennis Borba," whose name coincidentally rhymes with "Hotel Yorba."

There's a place about an hour north of Toronto that stages bullfights in the summer, but the Stripes somehow left it off their itinerary of surprise guerilla performance locations during this year's extensive Canadian tour.