Jamboree (Beat Happening album)
Jamboree is the second album by American indie rock band Beat Happening, released in 1988 through K Records and Rough Trade Records. All songs were produced by Steve Fisk with assistance from Screaming Trees members Mark Lanegan and Gary Lee Conner (who plays a brief guitar solo on "Midnight a Go-Go"), except "Cat Walk," produced by Patrick Maley, and "The This Many Boyfriends Club," recorded live by Rich Jensen.
| Jamboree | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg.webp) | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | January 29, 1988 | |||
| Recorded | 1988 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock, twee pop | |||
| Length | 23:58 | |||
| Label | K, Rough Trade | |||
| Producer | Steve Fisk, Mark Lanegan, Gary Lee Conner | |||
| Beat Happening chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| The Village Voice | B−[2] |
Content
The album marks a darker approach to the twee pop for which the band is known, due largely to a thicker production than is present on the group's earlier recordings and the dominance of tracks written by Calvin Johnson, while Heather Lewis only provides vocals on two songs, the uncharacteristically brash "In Between" and the more typically understated "Ask Me." At the time of the album's release, Johnson described Jamboree's sound as "dark and sexy." Still, the band retained their emphasis on exuberance over musicianship, as Bret Lunsford stated in an interview that, while recording album opener "Bewitched," his guitar string got stuck on a protruding screw and he continued to play through the song, hitting the string a bit harder until it became unstuck.
Reception
Two tracks from Jamboree, "Bewitched" and "Indian Summer," were listed as essential listening in Pitchfork's 2005 article on twee pop entitled "Twee as Fuck."[3] "Indian Summer" is perhaps the group's best-known song, as it was famously covered by dream pop group Luna, whose lead singer, Dean Wareham, joked in The Shield Around the K: The Story of K Records, a documentary film on the history of Johnson's K Records, that the song was "indie's 'Knocking on Heaven's Door'-- everybody's done it." The song was also covered by Ben Gibbard for the soundtrack to the Kurt Cobain documentary About a Son; Jamboree was reportedly one of Cobain's favorite albums.[4][5][6] AllMusic said of the album: "...each cut is a marvel of innocence and ingenuity."[1]
Track listing
All tracks were written by Beat Happening.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Bewitched" | 3:06 |
| 2. | "In Between" | 2:21 |
| 3. | "Indian Summer" | 3:05 |
| 4. | "Hangman" | 2:31 |
| 5. | "Jamboree" | 0:58 |
| 6. | "Ask Me" | 1:16 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Crashing Through" | 1:16 |
| 2. | "Cat Walk" | 1:58 |
| 3. | "Drive Car Girl" | 2:00 |
| 4. | "Midnight a Go-Go" | 2:18 |
| 5. | "The This Many Boyfriends Club" | 3:18 |
| Total length: | 23:58 | |
Notes
- Ankeny, Jason. "Jamboree – Beat Happening". AllMusic. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
- Christgau, Robert (November 29, 1988). "Christgau's Consumer Guide: Turkey Shoot". The Village Voice. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
- "Twee as Fuck". Pitchfork. October 24, 2005. Archived from the original on February 24, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
- Journals, p. 257.
- "Top 50 by Nirvana [MIXTAPE]". Joyful Noise Recordings. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
- Cross, Gaar, Gendron, Martens, Yarm (2013). Nirvana: The Complete Illustrated History. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-7603-4521-4.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)