"Gamma Ray" is a song by Beck

Beck

Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...

. It is seemingly inspired by the surf-rock songs of the 1960s, but with ghostly moans and lyrics on the state of the world. It was released as the second single from his album Modern Guilt

Modern Guilt

Modern Guilt is the eleventh studio album by American alternative musician Beck. It was released on July 8, 2008. The album fulfills Beck's recording contract with Interscope Records...

on August 11, 2008. The single peaked at #19 on the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks

Modern Rock Tracks

Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...

 chart. This song was #6 on Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2008. The single releases of the song feature a cover of the song by garage punk

Garage punk

Garage punk is a fusion of garage rock and punk rock. It is fast-paced lo-fi music characterized by a dirty, choppy guitar sound—usually played by bands who are on independent record labels or who are unsigned...

 musician Jay Reatard

Jay Reatard

Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr. , better known by the stage name Jay Reatard, was an American musician from Memphis, Tennessee. Lindsey was signed to Matador Records...

 and a non-album song entitled "Bonfire Blondes" as B-sides, both of which are available on iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

.

The song is included as a playable track in the video game Guitar Hero 5

Guitar Hero 5

Guitar Hero 5 is a music video game and the fifth main entry in the Guitar Hero series. The game was developed by Neversoft and published by RedOctane and Activision, and released internationally in September 2009 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, 3 and Wii consoles...

.
Both the A side and B side album covers make use of a Houndstooth

Houndstooth

Houndstooth, houndstooth check or hound's tooth , also known as dogstooth, dogtooth or dog's tooth, is a duotone textile pattern characterized by broken checks or abstract four-pointed shapes, often in black and white, although other colours are used...

 pattern.

Track listings

(A)

1. "Gamma Ray" (2:58)
2. "Gamma Ray" (2:59) (cover by Jay Reatard
   Jay Reatard
   Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr. , better known by the stage name Jay Reatard, was an American musician from Memphis, Tennessee. Lindsey was signed to Matador Records...
   
   )

(B)

1. "Gamma Ray" (2:58)
2. "Bonfire Blondes" (2:25)

Music video

The music video involves scenes of abstract imagery (most in black and white). There is film of Beck standing amidst many people dressed in white with white boxes on the heads. There is also film of mouths and eyes, and a woman with an afro. The 2nd music video, directed by Jess Holzworth, features actress and style icon Chloe Sevigny

Chloë Sevigny

Chloë Stevens Sevigny is an American film actress, fashion designer and former model. Sevigny gained reputation for her eclectic fashion sense and developed a broad career in the fashion industry in the mid 1990s, both for modeling and for her work at New York's Sassy magazine, which labeled her...

.