Record Reviews
By Steve Hoyt
Beat Happening
“Jamboree “
Rough Trade
It seems to be a well kept
secret that nestled in the Pacific
Northwest are some of the most
way hip bands in the land. While
such expressions of pop medioc
rity as Nu Shooz, Heart and
Quarterflash (remember Seafood
Mama?) have all put our soggy
region on the musical map, the
best in the west unfortunately go
nearly unnoticed, even by locals.
In an effort to thwart this ongoing
neglect of our geographic neigh
bors, we have taken a slice of
music from our own backyard.
Beat Happening is one of
those bands who you don’t have
listen to 15 times before you gain
any sort of atheistic pleasure
from ingesting their music.
“Jamboree” is the band’s second
album and first release on Rough
Trade. Hailing from Olympia,
Washington, this trio’s second
album disproves the myth that
the state capitol up north is void
of any redeeming quality.
“Bewitched”, the lead
song, is quintessential Beat
Happening. Starting out with
moderate dose of guitar feedback,
the song steams into a powerful
distortion guitar riff, then comes
the light chest pounding drum
beat. Band front person Calvin
sings through a man-boy per
sona, “I see you hangin’ there
crouched/staring me down/with
ice cream cones/till I’m all alone.”
I never thought such coolness
could be heard in less than three
minutes.
Calvin’s voice is some
thing to be heard. He seems defi
nitely partial to singing pseudo
dork lines through a rather
stodgy voice. The best example of
this is on “The This Many Boy
friends Club,” recorded live.
“Laurie Laurie what’s the story/
let’s go do some apple coring,” is
juxtaposed against the most
absolutely harsh guitar whine
one can imagine. Audience
members heard screaming with
painful ecstasy in the back
ground complete the sacrificial
quality of the song.
What really makes this
band cool is the music itself. All
the songs have a very skeletal
musical structure, many with
only rhythm guitar and drums.
IJeat Happening has the ability of
building a song around one
catchy guitar riff without
emitting music that is neither
banal or repetitive. It’s the es
sence of simplicity instead of
boredom.
The best song on the
album, “In Between” is sung by
Heather, who plays both bass and
guitar The music is really not
that much different from the
other songs, it’s just a tad better.
Her voice has the unique quality
of sweetness without being pas
sive or submissive. One of the
few disappointments of this
album is that Heather sings
fewer songs, than on their debut
LP.
While these folks are far
from mainstream, their music
(except for such gems as the
above “Many Boyfriends Club”) is
quite accessible. This is the kind
of stuff which is great to do dishes
to, dance to in the living room, or
to exorcise out the anguish of
flunked midterm. Some day
these folks are gonna be major
label dudes, following in the foot
steps of The Replacements,
Camper Van Beethoven and
Soundgarden. I doubt you’ll ever
hear these guys at Guido’s, which
on second thought further attests
to how cool this trio is. Even
though this vinyl was released in
1988, it still sounds as fresh and
sweet as corn right off the stalk.
Buy this record.
Beef Steak Projector
“Beefsteak Projector"
Gas Station Inflatables
(available in tape only)
When I first heard the
name Beefsteak Projector, I was
sure the that the cover of their
tape would exceedingly obscene.
Instead, it’s a fairly literal depic
tion of their name: a rather juve
nile illustration of their name
being cast on the screen through
a movie projector with a cow
standing underneath with its tail
connected to the bottom reel of
the movie machine. This seems
to reflect the not so serious mood
of this tape, which is has a mix of
good and o.k. tunes.
Beef Steak Projector is
from the booming metropolis of
the valley: Corvallis, Oregon.
Two of the members, guitarist
Bert Schoenfeld and bassist Kris
McElwee, also write for a no-frills
underground rock and roll maga
zine called “Flaccid.” It is avail
able at House of Records for a
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