Beat Happening: Crashing Through : Box Set (CD on K Records)

Band: Beat Happening
Label: K Records
Title: Crashing Through : Box Set

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Band:Beat Happening
Title:Crashing Through : Box Set
Reviewed By:Tommy Gunnarsson
Date Published:05/06/2002

Label:K Records
Format:CD
Release Year:Label
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From time to time, you stumble upon band name a that you recognise, and think “hey, why haven’t I checked them out yet?”. Beat Happening is one of those bands, and maybe you think it’s outrageous that I, who writes about indiepop every month in this magazine, haven’t heard anything by this influential trio. Well, the fact is that I actually own a 7” by them, 'Nancy Sin', but as I didn’t like that very much, I decided to leave them aside for a while, and maybe to listen them some more later on. And now it is later on, and I sit here with a sampler CD of their brand new box set, 'Crashing Through'. This box set includes all five of their original studio albums, released from 1985 to 1992, a CD with singles and compilation tracks, and finally a CD-ROM with live performances and other nice stuff.

As I mentioned, I have only had the opportunity to listen to selected tracks off these 6 CDs of music, so I can’t write a review of each individual record, but I suppose that’s not the point either. Anyway, my first impression of this band is that their first years of recording are the most interesting ones. All the songs I like best on this 17-track CD, for example 'I Let Him Get To Me' and 'In Love With You Thing', are taken from their first, self titled album, released back in 1985. On that album, Beat Happening were very amateurish and the songs are very twee and very naïve, which is a good thing in my world. But already on these songs, you can hear the heavy influences of New York’s the Velvet Underground. The songs are quite monotonous and are often just one or two chords are used throughout the song, and even the deep vocals of Calvin Johnson (also a member of bands like the Halo Benders and Dub Narcotic Sound System, and founder of K Records) are quite similar to those of Lou Reed. And if this wasn’t enough, drummer Heather Dunn’s voice is quite similar to that of the Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker ( who also sang on a few of the Velvet Underground's latter songs). Of course, your singing voice is something you often can’t control, but it’s quite funny that it has turned out that way.

The songs dating from later albums are more varied in their appearance. Some are quite charming in the same way as the debut effort, but some are just ramshackle songs with no real melody or structure. I have said it before, and I say it again: a song must have a melody! If not, I’ll be happy to press the Skip-button on my remote.

The full box set apparently comes with a nice book too, and if you are a real Beat Happening fan I suppose this is a must! But I think that it’s a bit too much for a boy like me, who just wanted to hear what they sounded like, to buy a 7 CD box set for a large pile of dollar bills. But, hey, sometimes it’s nice to take a chance.

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Sprawling 7 CD box set and retrospective of influential Olympia based pop punk group, Beat Happening, which was fronted by K Records founder, Calvin Johnson

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Crashing Through : Box Set - CD
Sprawling 7 CD box set and retrospective of influential Olympia based pop punk group, Beat Happening, which was fronted by K Records founder, Calvin Johnson

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