So yeah, the new book isn’t called The Evolution of Tape Hiss, even though that is totally what I would call it. However, there is a new book, written by Mark Baumgarten, that documents the history of Olympia, Washington’s K Records.
Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music will be released by Sasquatch Books on July 10 and examines and elucidates on the history of K Records, which, if you don’t know, is a really cool, really influential record label that indie kids, nerds, lo-fi fanatics, art schoolers, and that cute girl in glasses that you always see at the record store totally love. It was co-founded by Beat Happening’s Calvin Johnson, is dedicated to “exploding the teenage underground into passionate revolt against the corporate ogre,” and has released records by Beck, Modest Mouse, The Microphones, Mirah, Built To Spill, The Gossip, Shonen Knife, and, of course, Beat Happening.
The book itself features interviews with “many players from the 1980s and 1990s indie underground,” both those directly involved in K Records and those who watched as fans, and comes (digitally) packaged with its own soundtrack. The (digitally) included album is not a “best of” but rather a sonic document attempting to “capture the story and spirit of K Records with a broad range of musical styles,” and will be available for download on the author’s website from July 10 through July 17; see the tracklist below.
Love Rock Revolution tracklist:
01. Beat Happening - “Foggy Eyes”
02. The Beakers - “Red Towel”
03. The Few - “Rollin’ Like the Tide”
04. Mecca Normal - “Smile Baby”
05. Beat Happening - “The This Many Boyfriends Club”
06. Some Velvet Sidewalk - “Loch Ness”
07. Girl Trouble - “Bring on the Dancing Girls”
08. Heavenly - “Starshy”
09. Rose Melberg - “My Day”
10. KARP - “Connect 5”
11. Tree People - “GRE”
12. Halo Benders - “Don’t Touch my Bikini”
13. Lois [ft. Dub Narcotic Sound System] - “Ship to Shore”
14. Black Anger - “NON- Fiction”
15. D+ - “Don’t Worry About Me”
16. The Microphones - “The Glow Pt 2”
17. IQU - “Yopparai”
18. Old Time Relijun - “Cold Water”
19. Calvin Johnson - “What Was Me”
20. Mirah - “The Garden”
21. LAKE - “Roger Miller”
• K: http://krecs.com
• Mark Baumgarten: http://markbaumgarten.typepad.com
• Sasquatch Books: http://www.sasquatchbooks.com