Like any good adrenaline-pumping shoot-’em-up flick, “The Losers” requires a handful of excellent tunes to get you into the mindset of an elite squadron of soldiers running from the American government. Hence the video playlist below, which has plenty of homages to things that go boom (Uh Huh Her‘s “Explode,” P.O.D.‘s “Boom,” Damageplan‘s “Explode”), some salutes to action itself (Poison‘s “I Want Action,” Toby Keith‘s “A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action”) and a few nods to going rogue ((hed) pe‘s “Renegade,” Halford’s “Betrayal”).

But the most important tracks on this week’s playlist are the paeans to loserdom itself. There’s “Loser” by 3 Doors Down, two tracks called “Creep” (one by Radiohead, the other by Stone Temple Pilots) and a new video from Meat Loaf called “Los Angeloser.” Of course, you can’t have a playlist about “The Losers” without Beck‘s “Loser,” which kicks things off with a bang.

Beck’s Record Club — his running series of quickly made cover albums featuring a rotating cast of collaborators — has returned with a satisfyingly surprising choice: INXS’ 1987 hit album Kick. This time around, the Modern Guilt singer recruited Liars, St. Vincent and Os Mutantes’ Sergio Dias to join him in the studio.

Kick was suggested by Liars’ Angus Andrews, a native of Australia and the first one to step up to the microphone for the album’s opener, “Guns in the Sky.” (Keeping with tradition, Beck will post Kick songs once a week in the order of the album’s track list.) The Record Club’s “Guns in the Sky” features some pretty great guitar work from Dias, one of Beck’s musical heroes. “It was recorded in a little over 12 hours on March 3rd, 2010. It was an intense, hilarious, daunting and completely fun undertaking,” Beck writes on his official site. “Many classic moments, inspired performances and occasional anarchy.” Kick tracks on the way include the hits “New Sensation,” “Devil Inside,” “Need You Tonight” and the track we’re most looking forward to, “Never Tear Us Apart.”

As Rolling Stone previously reported, Beck has rerecorded The Velvet Underground & Nico with producer Nigel Godrich and singer Thorunn Magnusdottir, Songs of Leonard Cohen with MGMT, Devendra Banhart and Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale and most recently, Skip Spence’s Oar with help from Wilco and Feist. When Beck first launched the Club, he noted that he wanted to take on Ace of Base’s The Sign with his all-star cohorts — we’re still anxiously waiting for that one to arrive.

Related Stories:

• Beck Announces Plans to Redo Classic Albums for Record Club
• Beck Recruits MGMT, Wolfmother, Banhart For “Leonard Cohen” Redo
• Beck’s Record Club Tackles Skip Spence’s “Oar” with Wilco, Feist

Recorded at his home outside Pittsburgh, Fec’s latest record features more super-psychedelic synth-pop with titles like “Mexican Icecream,” “Lick the Witch” and “New Juices for the Hottub Freaks.” (If you aren’t familiar with either band, start with BMSR’s epic “Forever Heavy” and Tobacco’s freaky “Hawker Boat.”) Beck guests on two of the new tracks: the lo-fi, hip-hop-inspired “Fresh Hex” and the haunting, mid-tempo jam “Grape Aerosmith.”

Tobacco’s collaboration with Beck was a spontaneous one. “I was writing some of these songs and I could hear Beck’s voice on them,” says Fec. “It was shaping the way they were coming out.” When Fec informed his label, Anticon, about his creative process, he got some unexpected good news. “Shaun, who runs the label, was like ‘Guess what? I’m taking a class with Beck’s music director and they actually know who you are!’ ” Fec sent the audio files “long-distance like” to Beck, who came up with the vocal treatments, lyrics and melodies.

Fec, who is normally averse to performing live, will hit the road on March 12th for a string of live dates that wrap up April 24th in New York City.

March 12 – Toledo, Ohio @ Mickey Finn’s Pub
March 13 – Cincinnati, Ohio @ Northside Tavern
March 14 – Nashville, Tennessee @ Exit In
March 17 – Austin, Texas @ Emo’s Annex (SXSW)
March 18 – Austin, Texas @ SXSW
March 19 – Austin, Texas @ Barbarella (Anticon Showcase SXSW)
March 20 – Austin, Texas @ Vice (Noise Problem Party SXSW)
March 20 – Austin, Texas @ Longbranch Inn (Impose’s Austin Imposition Party SXSW)
March 24 – San Diego, California @ Casbah
March 25 – Los Angeles, California @ Echo
March 26 – Costa Mesa, California @ Detroit Bar
March 27 – San Francisco, California @ Bottom Of The Hill
March 28 – Eugene, Oregon @ WOW Hall
March 29 – Portland, Oregon @ Holocene
March 30 – Seattle, Washington @ Chop Suey
April 2 – Minneapolis, Minnesota @ Triple Rock Social Club
April 3 – Chicago, Illinois @ Empty Bottle
April 23 – Annandale, New York @ Bard College
April 24 – Brooklyn, New York @ Knitting Factory

Incidentally, more than a few people here in the Newsroom have a deep history with the original Beck, as James Montgomery’s IM name is built around the man and Rya Backer had a Beck-themed bat mitzvah. Here’s to them, and here’s to the original “Loser.”