Customer Reviews

Crashing Through

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

i haven't experienced a band like this so deeply and so enthusiastically since pavement. and that's saying tons. i had one beat happening album, the last one, but then they came out with this ass-kicking box set last month which ate away at my brain everytime i saw it in my favorite record store until eventually i took the plunge and bought it. oh holy god, that is the best 60 bucks i ever spent (and i only had to spend about 30, cause i traded in some old cds). if you like any band that is even remotely outside of the mainstream, then you owe beat happening your appreciation. kurt cobain often cited the olympia, washington trio as an influence. hell, they basically created the seattle scene. the frontman, calvin johnson (known for his deeper-than-hell baritone voice) also created K records, which released early nirvana and early beck, as well as countless other groundbreaking bands. look his name up at allmusic.com, and gawk at his credits. they go on and on. but he'll never top beat happening, man. all of their albums went straight to my heart. i've listened to very little else besides those six discs in the past two weeks. and it's been wonderful.

let's see, the first, s/t album gets a 4, really rough stuff, but irresistable... jamboree gets an easy 5, black candy a 5, dreamy a 4, you turn me on a 4.5, and the odds and ends compilation, music to climb the apple tree by_ is a 4 or so. but all together with the great booklet and video disc, the set is a wonderful treasure. thank you, K records.

All there really is to say about this band is that they are by far one of the most important bands in indie rock history. They started K records and they basically built themselves up from Cramps copiers to fun twee-pop geniuses. Are they musically geniuses? No, but for there genre they are at the top, and I think that anyone who actually knows this music and knows this band will agree. This band simply put out great music. Even though the first record and Black Candy aren't as strong as the rest Jamboree and You Turn Me On make up for all of that. You Turn Me On is simply one of the greatest indie pop/rock records of all time. This box set is worth all the money you pay for it, but to just get You Turn Me On would be worth it. All the songs are really killer and Calvin is at his best lyrically. Oh and the box set comes with some live videos that also make the box set essential along with a collection of non-lp singles and eps. Trust me, all you indie poppers and rockers need this just as badly as you need Slanted and Enchanted.

When I originally ordered this thru an Amazon vendor, I used a credit card and never received my order ever. I could only e-mail them and it became apparent they didn't even have the box set in stock (It had been sold out for 5 years). Amazon was able to recoup my payment. I found it on eBay a few months later.

So why would anyone buy a Beat Happening box set. If you've never heard them, you will either LOVE them or hate them. The fact that they didn't know how to play their instruments at the beginning should be a clue and Calvin's baritone fits right in there. But the songs are fun & raw. I bought Jamboree, Black Candy and the screaming Trees combo when they first came out and loved them. Art school friends quickly fell in love as well. Then I moved far away from campus and never got back to that record store.

I read on an old GeoCity site that Johnson and Cobain never quite hit it off when Curt visited Olympia. I guess Calvin had a whole set of rules that people around him had to obey (Cult?) and Cobain couldn't stand him. He liked the music but when all the people around you are not allowed to date anyone...

Crashing Through is a treasure for me. I hadn't heard the band in years.

I am everything but disappointed. Nothing could make this box set better :)

It is sort of crazy that only two people, including myself, have reviewed this set of enormously influential and important music. Beat Happening have been cited by everyone from Fugazi to Nirvana as makers of seminal American music, and to say the least they're one of the most original and endearing rock bands to ever be conceived in America. Calvin Johnson's voice--his deep, droning baritone, matched with his child-like honesty, is an absolute brilliant pairing. And let's not forget Bret or Heather either; Heather is even a modern-day Moe Tucker, the voice, the drum set and all.

Their music is often silly, always engaging, always so bright with honesty and affection that it should make any cynical musical snob bow his head in shame: music isn't about snobbery, it's about celebrating life, and that's exactly what Beat Happening represent to me: a celebration of music, of youth, of freedom, and of each other. Buy this collection. You won't regret it. It's the stuff you play in the morning and have bouncing in your head throughout the day.

Calvin Johnson has always captured the essence of music. Do yourself a favour - buy all the Beat Happening records, and then his solo records. Then check out the Halo Benders and Dub Narcotic SS. Calvin's is the most romantic music I have ever heard (and I've listened to a *lot* of stuff). Oh and he can also rock out and has MAD dancing skillz.

Great box set and a true testament to the power of independent music. For the most part the band is a very lo-fi sort of new wave band. Very comparable to the Vaselines. The liner notes are very interesting and documents the rise of this very unique band and record label. Don't miss out on this important part of indie rock history.

I'm totally for indie rock, and I gave this a chance, but it just plain isn't good. I had an inkling that it wouldn't when I realized one day that the songs (even by bands I love) produced by Calvin Johnson just end up sounding like crap. There's a Steve Albini kinda of raw, which I love; and his kind of raw, which is just not well thought out, lazy, unimaginiative, pretentious, technically inept, and basically without merit.

The Beat Happening vocals are horrible, off key, the guitars are minisucle in the mix, the lyrics are just plain bad. Only good for pretentious white-bred suburban kids who pray that enjoying something "different" (nonlistenable) will make them different from the other kids at school. If you are one of these people, enjoy this music made by one of your own.