Defend the Indefensible: Calvin Johnson

tell stories please.

Beat Happening = complete poo. Proof the indie canon is flawed.

One of the best albuns ever.

Dud:
* Beat Happening _You Turn Me On_
* _What Was Me_ other than "Love Will Come Back Again" (not terrible, but disappointing)
* most Dub Narcotic Sound System
* people misinterpreting K as a "twee" label or accusing Calvin of "ruining music for an entire generation"

i have a few of the early dub narcotic 7"s but the joke wore a bit thin (not that i think it was a joke to him, but irony as a lifestyle gets a bit old)

in general:
while i love some beat happening just for historical/personal reasons, i feel calvin is largely a detriment to songs rather than an asset to them.

Halo Benders = ehh, though charming in spots thanks to classic technique of having two different guys singing two different songs at the same time; if you don't like one version, just listen to the other; plus DON'T TOUCH MY BIKINI

Dub Narcotic = release a whole lot of records for a band that's only really pulled off three or four successful funky runs

Solo and Other Projects = life is currently too short for me to have really spend much time looking into these

Whaddaya expect? How much more "twee" can you get?

DNSS has always seemed sorta pointless, even on the good songs. I dug the solo record.

"Love Is The Heavenly Option" (or whatever it was called) = best Calvin appearance ever.

that said calvin's musical "revue", "the moon is up there" (seen by this poster at coolidge corner, brookline mass.) was horrendous. i guess it "demystified" putting on a show by, uh, not really putting on much of a show at all (n.a.'s story abt him taking questions does not surprise me), but it was def. more fun to discuss afterwards than to sit through (he went on until 1:30 AM and for some reason we stayed).

just like Michael Jackson.

as for him personally, i had the extreme displeasure of him tagging along with a friend of mine in town when they were touring together and he was one of the most annoying and immature people i've ever met. my friend was constantly rolling his eyes and apologizing for him and it made the afternoon interminable and i couldn't wait to go back to work (!!!). at the show later that night, during the intermission between calvin's first 2 songs, he attempted to insult me from the stage. it was a pretty depressing display of character for a 40 something year old manchild.

there is an ILX poster on here who has a really good story which sums up calvin's character.

also, he met my ex-girlfriend through some makeoutclub.com stupid thing and they
chatted a couple times... he asked for her address... she thought it was creepy but
for some reason gave it to him anyway... a couple days later the ENTIRE available K
catalog shows up.... weird...

was this on some website 2 or 3 years ago? some site fucked up and had it on sale for a low, low price, notice of which made the rounds of my college radio station's listserv. I ordered it, having only ever heard the song Indian Summer (and that only b/c it had been covered by Sonic Boom), but the site eventually canceled all the orders for the box set. to this day I've still only heard Indian Summer, but my disappointment at not receiving the box set was tempered later when I read the BH chapter in Our Band Could Be Your Life. there's no way I would like that shit

I did see dub narcotic play once and can honestly say I don't get what the big deal is about that group. it just seemed like a purposely bad fratboy band somehow.

OK! OK.
you like to suck big dicks...
OWOOWOWWWWWWw
alright, alright,
i like to suck big dicks...mmmmmmmmm...can't get enough of em...
there, HAPPY?

these are cruel words

The bass player in particularly blew me away and Johnson's solos were sublime in a way I'd never thought possible. He plays guitar solos like a 7 year old that knows how to hold down the strings but doesn't know the notes. I know that sounds like a dis but it isn't; it was ridiculous and transcendent.

I heard he was in a rather bad car accident recently and he hasn't been the same person since. This is from my friends who know him personally, so it could be true..

his "influence" is pernicious to say the least

jesus. it sucks this guy is lionized as a bastion of indie integrity or some bullshit.

And anyway, the women probably wasn't a total victim.

d00d, the woman's always the victim! You need to listen to more Le Tigre!

The man may have shortcomings (allegedly.. i've never met anyone directly involved in those shortcomings), but he's also not a "bad guy" on the flip. He had and always knows exactly "why he is doing" in regards to Beat Happening... he's also very much a music geek and great DJ, and had turned on folks like Steve Fisk and others onto stuff like early ON-U Sound type material in the mid 80s, amongst a lot of other stuff. And he's been a friend and supporter of many worthy folks and causes in Seattle, Olympia, and Ellensburg (the latter of which where he grew up.. which is certainly penance for anything he's done after.)

(Slight digression, speaking of Ellensburg, possibly the best record store in Washington state is in Ellensburg and is run/owned by Mark Pickerel (Screaming Trees, Truly, Steve Fisk, Pell Mell, etc.). The store is Rodeo Records. Mark is a super super nice guy, and the store is certainly worth a day's worth of browsing. Anyway, sorry for the digression.)

In all fairness, I did wait a year to start this thread.

And anyway, the women [sic] probably wasn't a total victim.

eh, Trever? what are you suggesting here? in any case she took it in stride, probably either because of or in spite of the "underground celebrity" status involved.

If you knew Calvin had gone through the accident, you could have started the thread at any time and just made a slight acknowledgement of the tragedy in the subject, if you really did feel bad about doing so.

http://www.thestranger.com/music/feature/2016/02/24/23611835/is-k-records-a-broken-sinking-ship

this is a bummer!

lol man I wouldn't want to have Jared mad at me

not good

I can't say I'm all that surprised - constricted income understandably puts all kinds of pressure on these sort of unconventional arrangement/handshake deals/sloppy accounting sort of operations.

but yeah, it's a bummer. My cousin worked distro for K for a long time and I met a bunch of Oly scene folks over the years, sad to see things devolve this way.

sometimes the business end of this shit can turn your friends against you

http://pitchfork.com/news/66305-k-records-selling-headquarters-to-pay-phil-elverum-kimya-dawson-others/

Pitchfork June 2016 article -K Records owner Calvin Johnson (of Beat Happening) said the label didn’t “have any money,” and that they were “selling everything [they] can to make money to pay the people [they] owe.” Now, in a continued effort to raise money, they are selling their label headquarters, according to The Olympian (via Spin). The building, which is a former synagogue, is currently listed for $399,000. Johnson told the paper, “We’re hoping that with selling the building and some of the equipment that we’ll be able to get back to break even.”

So did he sell the house and pay off (some or all) of money owed?

Johnson is touring Europe this month (November 2016) as Selector Dub Narcotic

please allow me to shed a single tear.

geez maybe if you'd run accounting quarterly instead of pocketing other people's money for years it wouldn't have come to this

there's so many small and mid level indies who're pulling this shit year in and year out I can't even tell you and it's fucking gross

Yup calvin is hardly unusual in that respect