What's really here is a record of the flourishing of DIY culture in America. It's that simple. Simple like the tunes from this trio. We Are Beat Happening, the epic box set collecting the albums of Beat Happening, hits this Friday via Domino, and it is one of the more enjoyable sets of any length you're going to find in 2019. That the music within is also essential for an understanding of indie-pop on these shores in the last few decades is also a given.
Bret Lunsford, Calvin Johnson, and Heather Lewis formed the band decades ago, and Calvin formed K Records, and we're here now, in 2019, on the cusp of another decade's end wrapping our heads again around the legacy of this seemingly-unassuming trio. For all their rudimentary skills early on, the band somehow found a way to craft alternative pop that charmed and inspired. The template was laid down, of course, with the self-titled debut in 1985. Beat Happening is primitive, but it's also heartfelt stuff. "Run Down The Stairs" and "Foggy Eyes" are simple, and when heard then in the context of New Wave and hair metal, they seemed extraordinarily revolutionary. Beat Happening found a way to craft indie-pop (before that term even existed) using the DIY methodology of harDCore, but without the anger, angst, or machismo.
Jamboree from 1988 is even better. The players sound more confident on this second studio album, with Lewis really commanding "In Between", one of the highlights here, along with "Bewitched", a rough Calvin Johnson-fronted number. Still, this is the record that gave us "Indian Summer" and there is simply no denying what a marvel that song remains. With bare-bones instrumentation that echoes, however faintly, "Venus in Furs", "Indian Summer" is poignant and affecting, and it remains the sort of thing that can reduce me to tears if I'm in the right mood. Beat Happening were subtle musicians, and perhaps that was the result of their lack of training early on. Still, whatever the reason, their very reticent style as players ensured that songs like this one were never overdone. "Crashing Through" heard now in 2019 seems similar to lots of what makes up what we think of when we say "American indie", but in 1988, it was unlike 99% of what we were hearing on either side of the Atlantic. And, of course, Jamboree has "The This Many Boyfriends Club" on it, and the number remains an abrasive ditty that pricks the side in the way that "Indian Summer" warmed the heart.
Black Candy from 1989 is one of the best things this trio ever recorded as far as I'm concerned. There's more variety on this one than I might have remembered, from the Cramps-ish "Pajama Party in a Haunted Hive", a retro bit of silliness, to the twee "Knick Knack", one of Heather Lewis's best performances in the band's career. Still, it's "Cast a Shadow", with its hooks that echo riffs from The Wedding Present (but made more American), that still remains a gem. It's a breezy bit of business, and a reminder of just how enjoyable this band's stuff could be. Similarly, "Ponytail", a clear inspiration on Unrest, is a ramble like lots of the tracks on this one, Johnson's voice seemingly at odds with the woozy riffs behind it, with the fun "Other Side" earning similar results.
"Fortune Cookie Prize" from 1991's Dreamy still eases the heart, even as "Collide" ushers in more feedback, and a rougher edge. This album is a mixed bag, but "Revolution Come and Gone", one of Calvin Johnson's best and funniest (in spots) songs makes this record a classic. There's still real interplay between the players here, but it feels, more than on earlier records, as if the songs are more distinctly a Heather number or a Calvin number, for example.
You Turn Me On from 1992 goes from the epic "Tiger Trap" and on to more rollicking numbers ("Teenage Caveman", "Pinebox Derby"), but it remains famous as the most musically-varied of the Beat Happening albums. There's the sweet-as-honey "Sleepy Head", an absolute classic, as well as the rough-edged title cut. Still, "Godsend", at 9 minutes, remains the most revolutionary thing this lot ever offered up. A simple hook taken as far as it can go, the number echoes things like Velvet Underground and Galaxie 500, but, for Beat Happening, this is the biggest risk they ever took seeing as how utterly unlike their own other tunes it was. While Lewis's vocals soothe, the delicately-grinding riff indicates that Beat Happening were setting the scene for the rise in popularity of Stereolab and bands like that. Decidedly not shoegaze, this wonderfully indulgent selection burrows its way into your ear and stays there. In 1992, not a lot of American bands outside those on Slumberland Records were making music like this, or making tunes so in debt to the post-punk of a generation earlier, and so in thrall to the genuinely transgressive strain of American underground rock then being replaced on a daily basis by a radio-friendly strain of grunge.
In addition to the studio albums, We are Beat Happening contains rarities and what made up 2003's Music to Climb The Apple Tree By collection. That set, with numbers as rich as "Sea Hunt" and as ramshackle as "Zombie Limbo Time", offers up loads of gems that weren't on the earlier studio albums. As it sits here, it's the fitting closer to this excellent box set. From the pining "Not a Care in the World", and on the perennial "Tales of Brave Aphrodite", this compilation distills the appeal of Beat Happening perfectly. In that sense, it's the fitting book-end for We Are Beat Happening.
Never easy to pin down, the music of Beat Happening not only nearly invented American indie, it also seemed the product of a few movements, both here and overseas, that had come before. Fittingly, Calvin Johnson's K Records rose to some level of prominence in an era when grunge was all the rage here, and the cooler kids were buying import singles from Creation Records and Sarah Records. That DIY vibe anchors this firmly to American underground music, especially the aesthetic, if not the sound, of labels like Dischord, Teen-Beat, and Simple Machines here in the D.C. area. And while what Calvin, Bret, and Heather were doing then fit nicely next to that U.S.-based stuff, their music also bore noticeable echoes of U.K. acts like Young Marble Giants and Everything But The Girl. Still, for all my attempts to place this material in a context that's easy to understand, it remains a nearly impossible task. The music of Beat Happening collected here on We Are Beat Happening is so distinctive, and so affecting in spots, that a listener can only marvel at how good this stuff still seems. The rarest of acts, like The Ramones before then, who could make simple, not stupid, music, and still touch the heart or earn a grin, Beat Happening were legendary. This is the legend of Heather, Bret, and Calvin.
We Are Beat Happening is out today via Domino.
More details on Beat Happening and the continuing adventures of Calvin Johnson via K Records.
[Photos: Anne Culbertson (top); Bret Lunsford (middle & bottom)]