Public Servant Lifestyle

Olympia Washington’s Beat Happening come crashing through with a mammoth 7-CD box set retrospective.

Beat Happening - Crashing Through

Is this the final word on Beat Happening? To appease new and old fans alike the band release a mammoth compilation - including exclusive material to entice the old fans - and put everything in one place for those latecomers yet to experience the tangled delight that is Beat Happening.

A seven CD box-set accompanied by a 96 page book, Crashing Through is a retrospective compendium of the entire oeuvre of Beat Happening, the near legendary three-piece from Olympia, Washington. Since their inception in 1983 the band have influenced a wide range of acts, including such notables as Nirvana, Heavenly, Fugazi, Urusei Yatsura, The Pastels, Bikini Kill and Yo La Tengo. The CDs in this collection illustrate clearly why the band continue to influence such a wide range of different musicians.

DIY

Beat Happening main man – and K Records supremo – Calvin Johnson, explains the background to this great collection, in his own, inimitable, words: "Since their inception in 1983, the legendary underground pop rockin' combo from Olympia, Washington, called Beat Happening have been the inhabitants of an imperfect world, one that is stripped down and codified with personal politics and emotional trauma. Threaded through a one guitar and drum corps, they are the main proponents of the unembellished Do-It-Yourself movement.

"One of the truly seminal bands of the post-punk era, Beat Happening's influence on the world of minimal music, punk and pure pop has been massive, virtually establishing the International Pop Underground as its' pioneering passport holders. Rarely has a band fostered and festered such extremities of love/hate reactions; by walking precariously along the line of punk and pop with rudimentary innocence, they thrust the basic tenants of punk ethos firmly in the face of the hardcore movement while coyly courting the tradition of honest pop."

International Pop Underground

Crashing Through includes all five of the original Beat Happening albums (Beat Happening, Jamboree, Black Candy, Dreamy, You Turn Me On) and a sixth album (Music to Climb the Apple Tree by) of songs from singles and compilations, including the long out of print Beat Happening/Screaming Trees collaborative 12" and the Angel Gone 45.

Calvin explains the idea behind creating the compilation: "The bulk of Beat Happening's classic catalogue of albums have been under the jurisdiction of our pals at Sub Pop since 1991, but have criminally gone out of print and thus unavailable to the public since 1999. Never fear, for K's flagship trio is back home, and we've decided to celebrate."

The Pine Box Rocks

All of the packaging for the CDs has been redesigned as beautiful six-panel digipak foldouts to include additional photographs of the band, many of which have never been published previously. An exclusive seventh CD-Rom features live and video material: Live in London, a cassette-only release (originally a split with Glasgow’s The Vaselines), now on CD for the first time; rare clips of Beat Happening performing live in Olympia, in Memphis at the legendary Shangri-la record store, and on local cable access in 1988; and videos produced for the songs Pine Box Derby and Hot Chocolate Boy.

The Melody Maker said of the band: "Beat Happening are as numb, catatonic, blank and thrash-by-note as the early Velvets, in fact more so. They sing about crushes, new boys in town, listlessly reiterate all the iconography over the most rudimentary rock patterns and it works."

Velvets

Crashing Through is available now as a seven CD box set, accompanied by a deluxe 96 page book written by Lois Maffeo that tells the story of Beat Happening through the words of its members and their contemporaries. Also included in the book is obscure poster art, 45 sleeves and dozens of rare photographs.

You can also pick up the original individual Beat Happening albums – and on record as well as CD for all the vinyl junkies out there – and the last Calvin Johnson solo recording, the mighty minimalist folk-styled What Was Me.

Beat Happening - Crashing Through, the original Beat Happening recordings and What Was Me are all available from K Records. The boxed set is a limited edition of 5,000. With thanks to Calvin Johnson.

More information available in Arts & Culture, Music