Overview

This is the album that sent a shockwave of empowerment through the nation’s cultural underground. In 1985, Olympia, Washington band Beat Happening released their eponymous debut of lo-fi pop songs on K Records and challenged every conception held about music. At the center of the group was the enigmatic Calvin Johnson and his revolutionary vision of artistic creation. His foresight and industriousness allowed him to recruit to the K Records roster other free-spirited artists like Beck, Modest Mouse, and Built to Spill long before they gained widespread acclaim. This book, structured in abecedarian fashion, breaks down the fundamental components that defined Beat Happening’s self-titled album. With a foreword by Phil Elverum, it's organized in a light-hearted yet incisive format, each of the book’s chapters details a particular facet of the record—band members, historic shows, recording sessions, songs, and ideologies—parts reflecting the album as a whole. These alphabetic ingredients constitute a recipe book for feeding your creative spirit. Here is the story of a band that popularized do-it-yourself projects and home recording with four-track tape machines decades before the digital revolution would extend an open hand to garage bands everywhere. This is the story of musical pioneers. This is Beat Happening.

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9781628929270

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Reviews

I actually saw their first performance. It was in somebody's kitchen, and Calvin jumped up and started performing on somebody's kitchen top. I thought from the first moment I heard their stuff that he had a very unique take on punk ... It was really quirky and really affected, but they were the ultimate DIY band. They had two instruments, which they borrowed - they didn't even own the instruments - and they never rehearsed ... So here's this band who don't own instruments, don't rehearse, they didn't even pay for their own records, and yet their first album is being honoured in the book series 33 1/3. You've got the Ramones, Michael Jackson, the Beatles ... oh, and Beat Happening ... I think that Beat Happening got the respect they deserved ... It was them going: 'We are punk. This is who we are. We're not going to conform or change what we do based on peer pressure.' -- Gwilym Mumford The Guardian

I actually saw their first performance. It was in somebody's kitchen, and Calvin jumped up and started performing on somebody's kitchen top. I thought from the first moment I heard their stuff that he had a very unique take on punk ... It was really quirky and really affected, but they were the ultimate DIY band. They had two instruments, which they borrowed - they didn't even own the instruments - and they never rehearsed ... So here's this band who don't own instruments, don't rehearse, they didn't even pay for their own records, and yet their first album is being honoured in the book series 33 1/3. You've got the Ramones, Michael Jackson, the Beatles ... oh, and Beat Happening ... I think that Beat Happening got the respect they deserved ... It was them going: 'We are punk. This is who we are. We're not going to conform or change what we do based on peer pressure.' -- Gwilym Mumford * The Guardian * 'A' is for action, `B' is for Bret, `C' is for Calvin...and so on ... Parker does admirable work here in describing the origins of the band's sensibilities (improvisational theater and early exposure to feminism are both key), and how those sensibilities put them at odds with punk as the scene was getting more violent and exclusionary. As with all volumes of the 33 1/3 series, I'll judge Parker's work on how much it enhanced my understanding of the album and whether or not that enhanced perspective made me want to revisit it with fresh ears. He's successful on both fronts. * Midnight to Six *

I actually saw their first performance. It was in somebody's kitchen, and Calvin jumped up and started performing on somebody's kitchen top. I thought from the first moment I heard their stuff that he had a very unique take on punk ... It was really quirky and really affected, but they were the ultimate DIY band. They had two instruments, which they borrowed - they didn't even own the instruments - and they never rehearsed ... So here's this band who don't own instruments, don't rehearse, they didn't even pay for their own records, and yet their first album is being honoured in the book series 33 1/3. You've got the Ramones, Michael Jackson, the Beatles ... oh, and Beat Happening ... I think that Beat Happening got the respect they deserved ... It was them going: 'We are punk. This is who we are. We're not going to conform or change what we do based on peer pressure.' -- Gwilym Mumford The Guardian 'A' is for action, 'B' is for Bret, 'C' is for Calvin...and so on ... Parker does admirable work here in describing the origins of the band's sensibilities (improvisational theater and early exposure to feminism are both key), and how those sensibilities put them at odds with punk as the scene was getting more violent and exclusionary. As with all volumes of the 33 1/3 series, I'll judge Parker's work on how much it enhanced my understanding of the album and whether or not that enhanced perspective made me want to revisit it with fresh ears. He's successful on both fronts. Midnight to Six

Author Information

Bryan Parker is a writer and photographer living in Austin, TX, USA. He is editor-in-chief of the blog Pop Press International and creator of the quarterly print journal True Sincerity.

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