Beat Happening & Calvin Johnson

[linus]

nobody (slight exaggeration) ever mentions calvin's lyrics and they're genius

I'll send you some stuff later, it's ok I know who you are

[round bits of plastic]

i don't really get Beat Happening, or Dub Narcotic either. I mean, Big up Massive 'spec and that. but i simpl don't enjoy it. I feel left out.

[linus]

well, don't force it... it's not a crime not to 'get it'

[round bits of plastic]

i just can't help but think that i'm looking from the wrong angle or something. don't get me wrong, it doesn't keep me up at night.

[darvé]

I didn't really get them for years either, my first brush with Calvin came with the duet on Heavenly's Operation Heavenly which i found intriguing and nothing more.

I took a chance after that with a used copy of Beat Happening's Jamboree for (i think) 4 pounds in Camden, listened to it once and regretted not spending the money on hippy clothes or something equally as useless

Somewhere along the line though their genius shone through, they started to appear all over the place, the odd mention here, the odd cover version there, i went back to them, bought the back catalogue and realised just how completely wonderful they are.

Fuck it, i'm going to listen to them now.

[RITH]

My favourite listen I think is Dreamy. Such a nice album! It's got all the good about Beat Happening, without getting too twee, lo-fi or unmelodic.

I do like Jamboree and the debut a lot as well. Haven't tried Black Candy yet, and not really gotten into You Turn Me On. I've only been really listening for about a year now, so I'm probably not the best one to go to for advice.

Calvin Johnson's What Was Me is very lovely. As is the Halo Benders' Don't Tell Me Now. But I guess this is not quite the thread to talk about that, perhaps.

[aorta]

I bought the boxset a couple of years ago. Great stuff.

[miss deepfreeze]

yah, its a shame that boxset is OOP now, it's a winner.

i freakin' love beat happening, halo benders, dub narcotic, all of it.

i remember hearing 'catwalk' for the first time in high school 'cause a friend of mine who also liked the wipers and screaming trees made me a mix tape with it on, and wondering how any song could be so perfectly right about things and sound the way it sounded (which to my untrained ears was like nothing i'd heard except the odd velvet underground track). it's still one of my all-time favourite songs from one of my all-time favourite albums, at least thirteen years later.

[jayen_aitch]

Beat happening and the Halo Benders both feature very early on in my driving playlist. Depending on who is in the car the response is always along the lines of "this is interesting! *uncomfortable shuffling* or "beat happening? argh!"

The only exception to this was Mike... who starting singing along to Reel Around the Fountain (which I love), so I joined in.

More people should react like that.

[alongwaltz]

Beat Happening are my favorite pop group, one of my favorite bands of all time, and of the main reasons I'm even posting on a board like this today. They embody all my favorite parts of twee pop and I'm always a sucker for interesting vocals (i.e. Calvin, Daniel Johnston, Joanna Newsom, The Shaggs, etc.)

Last year I finally managed to track down the box set online for only $80 or so. But they were asking for $30-40 to ship it from California to Ontario so I managed to convince my online friend to have it shipped to her for $12 instead and then she would reship it to me and I'd pay the total costs. She got it and was getting around to mailing it to me when she stopped talking to me, responding to me on facebook or msn or through e-mail, and dropped all contact with me. I can't explain how frustrated, betrayed, and pissed off I was and still am.

[RITH]

Beat happening and the Halo Benders both feature very early on in my driving playlist.

In Calvin/car-related music, Dub Narcotic Sound System is my absolute favourite. Try playing 'Monkey hips and rice' or 'Shake-A-Puddin'' without hand-drumming on the wheel, tapping your feet and singing along.

[schlump]

ahh, this is a nice thread, what with the massive enthusiasm and all.

i think you turn me on's the best record. i was reading about it on wikipedia a while ago and apparently there was uproar, dylan-goes-electric-style-furore, when everyone heard the multi-tracked vocals on godsend. it's an amazing record though. like the cramps and the velvets but, you know, different.

[alexie]

Beat Happening are one of my favourite bands ever. I think the main reason I like them is because of their simplicity and the sheer fact they made music regardless of whether they were any good or not. And Calvin is more punk rock than anyone. I love the story in "Our Band Could Be Your Life" about when Henry Rollins heckled Calvin all the way through a show, then put his hand on Calvin's crotch. Calvin stopped, and said to Rollins, "Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners?" Best ever!

One of my best friends has just become obsessed with Beat Happening - she's been borrowing all my records and dreaming of Calvin. My favourite album is "Dreamy", but I still love the first record to bits - I remember finding it in a record store in Sweden and being incredibly excited to listen to "Our Secret" on vinyl for the first time.

Dub Narcotic are great too! I have the record with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - "Sideways Soul". 'Banana Version' is one of the coolest songs ever - "the music ain't loud enough - BANANA!"

[the slow century]

you turn me on is still my favourite, even though people tell me it shouldn't be. i really really really love bury the hammer. one of my most favourite songs ever.

[Martijn]

Has anyone head this Beat Happening tribute of which someone posted mp3s here? I haven't heard it in ages, though I do own the cd, but some songs on it are pretty good. And I love that at least two bands have recorded a song about Beat Happening rather than do a cover of one of their songs.

[alongwaltz]

How many bands have named themselves after a BH song?

Pajama Party In A Haunted Hive
Tiger Trap
Catwalk (though that's debatable)

[mick]

How many bands have named themselves after a BH song?
...
Tiger Trap
...

For some reason I thought this was the other way around - the band came before the song. Or they both came along independently, inspired by a Calvin and Hobbes strip. I dunno - looking around, both the band and the song hail from the same year.

[linus]

How many bands have named themselves after a BH song?
...
Tiger Trap
...

For some reason I thought this was the other way around - the band came before the song. Or they both came along independently, inspired by a Calvin and Hobbes strip. I dunno - looking around, both the band and the song hail from the same year.

the story's related on the 'Shield around the K' documentary and, if my failing memory serves, the band name came first... Rose appeared at the International Pop Underground festival under the name Tiger Trap (and, I think, playing solo) and the song came after and Calvin remembered Tiger Trap from the IPU and dug the name enough to use it for the title of the song... Tiger Trap, the band, didn't come about until after but Rose had dibs on the name anyway

another great Calvin/Beat Happening story (following that Rollins one)- as told by Ian Mackaye- is when Beat Happening were supporting Fugazi in LA and the local hardcore kids were out in force who didn't take particularly well to Calvin's Tummy Hopping and as Bret and Heather stood aways at the back of the stage Calvin took a lot of flak at the front (both verbal and physical- in regards to missiles thrown)- but Calvin being Calvin just soaked it up and stared down the audience like the boyfoon he is, however the 'none more punk' (in their own minds) audience just got more and more pissed off and somebody threw an ashtray that split open Calvin's nose... not missing a beat Calvin growled 'Somebody broke my nose. Dump the whole balcony'

Now this may not seem the wittiest of retorts but Calvin was quoting a Darby Crash line from a hallowed Germs live bootleg and the Germs were sacrosanct amongst the true LA punks, so the effect- according to Mackaye- is that Calvin won instant respect from the true hardcore LA punks and bafflement from the jeering scenepiggybackers, the result being an important away win for Beat Happening

it's a minor point for indie poppers I'm sure and there's plenty of other reasons why Calvin is super punk (depending on your view of what is 'punk' and whether that's a worthwhile goal in life) but it seems to be Calvin's view that the best shows Beat Happening played were the ones they played to a hostile crowd

Anyone who's seen Calvin play solo may well have experienced his attempts to 'push the awkwardness'- an apparent means of testing the audience's reaction (just how much will they forgive him for as he rambles on with a seemingly pointless and unending anecdote?)

And Heather had her own way of dispelling hecklers when Beat Happening played by stepping off the stage and going up to the heckler and being supernice and charming... a tactic which threw them right off, how does one react when the band come off the stage and ask one to say what one clearly wants to say into the microphone to everybody else in attendance? how does one not look like a dick in that instance?

Anyway, I'm rambling now

'Fudgy The Whale' is always played at parties at my house

[alongwalkhome]

Fudgy The Whale'

I dunno if people outside the Eastern Seaboard of the US realize this, but this is an ice cream cake sold by Carvel--shaped, oddly enough, like a whale. This in and of itself is entirely not entertaining but the dude who did the voice overs for the commercials sounded like a 4-packs-a-dayer taking a shit. This voice saying "Fudgie da Whale" and "Cookie Puss" entertained us well into our teens (small town).

This had nothing to do with Beat Happening.

[squirrelboutique]

I personally prefer Cookie O'Puss, but don't tell that to gloom button.