Beck's a pretty tired guy these days, what with his just-wrapped West Coast tour and a scheduled headlining slot at this weekend's Fuji Rock Festival in Nigata, Japan, on the horizon. But there's one thing he's definitely not exhausting himself on: details.

Take, for example, his oft-rumored, full-scale U.S. tour, which looks to be on track for the fall, given that his only scheduled tour dates are Fuji Rock and three gigs opening for the Rolling Stones in late September and early October. But according to his management, no dates have been confirmed, and the man himself hasn't exactly been forthcoming when pressed for tour info.

"We were in Europe, we just finished the West Coast tour, and now we're heading to Japan. It's been us burrowed in the trenches, and we've come out a bit dirty and ragged," Beck said. "Other than that, life's been good. Very fruitful. Many fruits have been emerging in life."

OK then. How about shedding some light on his impromptu performances — complete with cameras — inside a San Francisco pizzeria and a taqueria this past week? Fans who caught the gigs were asked to sign a release form "for the DVD," according to one observer. Beck's label, Interscope, confirmed that the performances were filmed, as was Beck's regularly scheduled show at San Fran's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. And that the material is for a DVD release of some sort ... they're just not clear on what sort that is at the moment.

Equally unclear is the chorus to Beck's current single, "Girl," a lovely summertime jam which appears to be about killing a girl. In the Guero liner notes, the lyric is written as "Hey, my ... Girl," and Beck isn't about to fill in that ellipsis. In fact, in traditional Beck style, he's claiming that the whole thing is the result of a stream-of-consciousness, off-the-cuff ad lib. Which he decided to leave in, since it fit with the song's overall vibe.

(Click here for pictures of Beck on the set of the "Girl" video.)

"In the studio I was just vocalizing, 'cause I have the melody but hadn't written the lyrics. Sometimes when I have the microphone I just make up words and I try to go with what sounds good. So that was just me improvising, and we ended up leaving it like that. So what you hear is basically the first time I recorded it," Beck said. "It's kind of a love song, mixed in with some grit and some mystery. Using different words and images to describe the feeling. It's a raggedy love song."

The video for the song, directed by Motion Theory, is heavy on subtext (see "Beck Takes A Page Out Of Mad Magazine For 'Girl' Video"), which he hopes will be subtle jabs at the viewer's psyche. Turns out that while Beck might not be much for revealing info about tours, DVDs or lyrics, when it comes to subliminal messages, he's a man of many words.

"There's a whole lot of subtext running through the video. There's a scene when I go into the pharmacy where there's all the drugs and there's the undercurrent of the drugs being destructive," he said. "And I get handed various fliers and they have various messages. One's for a limousine company, it says 'Lester's Big Ass Limos' and when I fold it together it says 'Less Is More' so there's different commentaries on consumption different little messages like that. You know, subliminal stuff like that."