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| Since their inception in 1983, Beat Happening, the legendary underground pop rockin' combo from Olympia, Washington, 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 courting coyly the tradition of honest pop. Ultimately, they encouraged a movement of people to just pick up their instrument and play. The bulk of Beat Happening's classic catalog 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. K announces the retrospective compendium of their entire oeuvre: a seven CD box set entitled Crashing Through. |
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Beat Happening is Bret Lunsford, Heather Lewis and Calvin Johnson. Crashing Through includes all five of the Beat Happening albums (Beat Happening, Jamboree, Black Candy, Dreamy, You Turn Me On) and a sixth album (Music to Climb Apple the Apple Tree by) of songs from singles and compilations, including the long out of print Beat Happening/Screaming Trees collaborative 12" and last year's "Angel Gone" 45 (IPU98). 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, including the Live in London cassette-only release (originally a split with 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 a video produced for the song "Pine Box Derby". Also included is footage of Heather Lewis' entry in the Cake Walk at the seminal International Pop Underground Convention held in Olympia, August, 1991. The seven CDs are accompanied by a deluxe 96 page book written by Lois Maffeo that tells the story of Beat Happening through the words of the band members and their contemporaries, along with obscure poster art, 45 sleeves and dozens of rare photographs. This box is a limited edition of 5,000. |
