Mark’s Pick of the Week Jamboree by Beat Happening

           

           When I heard “In Between” for the first time I almost cried.  I remember it vividly.  The song is perfect.  The whole guitar part is one chord. The lyrics are almost spoken into the microphone without much if any inflection.  It is almost frustrating how exact everything seemed to fall in place.  It was all so perfect…and I knew from the first note no one else I ever came in contact with would also like the album. 

            Beat Happening is lo-fi pop in the best way.  This three piece was a flagship for the Olympia music scene. I would like to try and explain the scene, but since I was born about 20 years after it began, and have never been to Washington I feel like it would be hearsay.  Basically the bands were more about being fun then being good, having a good time instead of being talented and well practiced.  I’m not saying that’s a good way of going about it (actually 99 out of 100 times I’d bet that’s a bad way of going about it) but at the same time it’s not necessarily a bad way of going about it. 

            Music is a medium that can really exist in the moment.  I pick up a guitar, sitar, or kazoo (or all three) and play.  The notes ring out and are gone.  The feelings I get in that moment are what’s important.   If me or my audience got something from that then I’m an artist, and if they get a lot out of it I’m a great one.  I was told about one show where an artist got on stage played one note on the guitar, placed it by the guitar, and let the guitar feedback play itself.  He sat down in the audience, and they all listened to that for God knows how long.  If they got something from that moment then that’s music, that’s their music.  This is my music.

            I mentioned before that when I heard “In Between” for the first time I almost cried.  I still don’t know what the lyrics mean, if they mean anything.  I learned how to play it before I heard it since it’s so technically easy, but I could never write a song like that.  It sounds like she is singing that song right there for me.  It’s so unrehearsed and unpolished that only a human could make it.  Gods wrote songs like “Hey Jude,” “Stairway to Heaven,” “All Along the Watchtower,” etc.  The songs are awesome, but not relatable in the way these songs are. 

            Maybe someone will listen to these songs and like them.  If not then oh well, I really love this album, not for the music or lyrics or attitude or production, but for how all those things shamelessly combine into something so real and loveable.  There's a reason I put these guys on my list.  

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