Beat Happening "Beat Happening"

Description:

The 1996 compilation of material originally released from 1983-1987 on the first Beat Happening album (1985), the first two 45s, the Three Tea Breakfast cassette, the Let´s Together, Let´s Kiss and Let´s Sea compilation cassettes, combined with a few previously unavailable recordings.  Although not the original ten song album, this veritable treasure chest of material could be seen as an even more essential piece of vinyl considering it's contains all the cassette material along with the original album tracks, along with a cool fold-out poster insert (see picture above).  Basically, it's all the early material of Beat Happening in one shot and I'm very sad to have to give this one up.  Good luck and thanks for bidding:

"Beat Happening . . . would be one of the first American bands to turn punk music back on itself; to stage a rebellion against the rebellion.  [They] took inspiration from punk-music's decentralized, do-it-yourself ethos. The trio —Calvin Johnson, Heather Lewis, Bret Lunsford— swapped between guitar, drums, and vocals, and were veritable masters-of-none when it came to musical proficiency. But, more than any punk pioneers, who had disguised their rudimentary musicianship with distortion, volume, swagger, and speed, Beat Happening owned it: they were happily crappy. . . . They are, these days, the godfathers of twee, a veritable classic-rock touchstone for those who like their music meek, jangly, and not-at-all rocking.

On its initial release in 1985 —as the first LP for Johnson's legendary indie imprint K Records— Beat Happening's self-titled debut was but 12 songs and 23 minutes long (ed. note - the Rough Trade version includes the Our Secret / What's Important single, but the K Records version is 10 songs in under 20 minutes). True to its running time, this is pop-music stripped down to its element: a couple of chords, a drumbeat, and simple, sing-song choruses.

And it really is pop-music; 'Bad Seeds' simple boast ('we're bad seeds') sounds like a simple rock cliché, even if its loaded with irony; Lewis's 'Down At the Sea' is, like Marine Girls before it, a song steeped in the childhood-centric imagery of the seaside; and 'Fourteen' is possibly the ultimate twee landmark, marrying complete musical primitivism with simple sweetness.

These songs persist because of the melodies at their core, and the quality of their delivery. It's almost absurd to suggest, but Beat Happening —this band of ordinary folk deliberately playing up their ordinariness via their questionable musicianship— had their own kind of star quality. Johnson, even if his foghorn baritone was tin-eared and tough-to-love wasn't so ordinary, really, possessing abundant charisma, stage presence, and unwavering belief in what his band were doing. Even when Beat Happening sounds like it's falling apart, it bristles with confidence: the trio having the cockiness to kick against the pricks, be they corporate ogres or macho punks." - Anthony Carew from About.com