Read The Label #5: K Records “The regional nature of music has always fascinated me. Dividing the ‘Northwest’ region into several smaller regions also fascinates me.”

It was predicted record labels would become a thing of the past, but they’ve arguably become more important than ever to the dissemination of audio. Read The Label aims to uncover and document the circumstances of these prime movers, big and small.

As I mention further down in this interview, I wasn’t much of a K Records kid… as a kid. I had to grow into it like hand-me-downs after going through teenagehood convinced of major-label sovereignty. But that’s not really the point, because K Records existed before I was aware of it and will exist long after I, and even its mercurial founder Calvin Johnson, have ceased to exist. It’s an institution in the outlying rainbucket that is Olympia, nestled nondescriptly in Washington state, and even if you’ve never heard of it, chances are you’ve heard a few of its graduates (whose ranks include Beck, Kimya Dawson, and Modest Mouse).

I sat down, via email of course (c’mon, no one actually meets over dinner at fancy Italian eateries anymore), with Johnson and Hayes Waring (also head honcho over at Perennial Records, a label that on its own would be worth an RTL feature) to talk about the K Essentials series and its mission, whatever that might be beyond stuffing your ears full of lo-fi audio.


I wanted to start by talking about the first wave of K Essentials reissues and how they were chosen. Can you tell me about the process? Looking through the K discography is intimidating enough as a fan…

Calvin Johnson: Only the finest music was considered for this series. You rightly point out that only the finest music was considered to be released on K in the first place. The K Essentials represent the finest of the finest.

I’m guessing there were some heartbreaking choices to make, seeing as K has released so much. How did you make final decisions on which bands to include?

CJ: Once we narrowed the list down to the finest of the finest it was then left to fate, a random throw of the dart if you will. Quite out of my hands at that point.

Hayes Waring: We had a meeting and talked over tea and cookies

If I knew the answer to this question, every record we release would be as elliptical.

I see K releases like Pell Mell’s For Years We Stood Clearly as One Thing cassette and wonder, might that be an Essential one day? And of course Lync, The Microphones, Beat Happening, and dozens of others come to mind… But then again tons of listeners probably have their idea as to which releases should be revisited. How do you balance fans’ expectations with the opinions of those behind the label?

HW: Ha. that is the trick isn’t it? I think one of the blessing and curses of Olympia and the scene(s) it encompasses is that it’s hard to see both in and out of the bubble. This project came about because more and more we were faced with the fact that for the new teens, K wasn’t more than a tattoo on someone’s arm… that a lot of the stories of the American and International Pop Underground were going untold. There was a disconnect, that behooved us to address. But it was difficult to know where to start. For all intents and purposes here at K we’re sitting in the library with the keys to the family tree wondering what the problem is… Which is why it’s been essential for us to start this by reaching out and asking (and listening) to what people feel was important for them personally about K…. As Ezra Pound said ‘memory is the greatest critic.’

CJ: “For years we stood clearly as one thing” often passes through my mind, like a mantra, then I realize it is the title of the Pell Mell cassette released so long ago (1986). Then immediately the image of Bruce Pavitt raising his fist in the air and shouting “Estacada!” at a Pell Mell show in early 1983 appears. Bruce had toured the U.S. With Pell Mell in Aug. of 1982 and knew their songs from this era intimately. From then on, I view the map of Oregon in a different light. If Pell Mell could extract such beauty and passion from a long forgotten town in the foothills of Mt. Hood, what else lies hidden in the forest?

Seeing the Kicking Giant Alien ID cassette reissue got me thinking about the tape resurgence and how things have sort of come full circle (a lot of the early K releases were tapes limited to 150; today, there’s an explosion of tapes limited to everything from 17-250) for the format. Are cassettes a concrete part of the Essentials series?

CJ: Kicking Giant released several cassettes and two compact discs on their own. They are an excellent example of artists doing “it” themselves, the rest of the world standing by in wonder, or ignoring them completely; either way we benefit from their industriousness with the opportunity to hear this grand body of work.

HW: Cassettes at the time were what you call appropriate technology, and it seems they’ve become appropriate again. Are they a concrete part of the K essential series? I’d say they are where it is appropriate.

Any thoughts on the newfangled popularity of cassettes, in general, considering how important the format was to the early days of the label?

CJ: Loving it while it lasts.

This is hard to admit but I grew up in the Northwest and as a teenager was a major-label whore. I knew of K but didn’t realize its importance until I met a kid in Pullman who had seen Modest Mouse shows at house parties and worshiped Mirah like a god. His name is/was Scott Johnston a.k.a. Gigglebush, and he died tragically awhile back, and I guess my question is: How important were/are kids like Scott to the viability of K over the years? It seems like K was one of those labels that, if you were ‘down,’ it was almost a lifestyle of sorts to a lot of people like it was to Scott, particularly in the NW …

CJ: K may not be for everyone, but if one kid on the edge of tomorrow finds some solace in this crazy world via the music we have made available, it is worth it.

A bit off-topic (or maybe not?) but the Brief Weeds 7-inch really freaked me out, not just because of the nude preteens on the cover but because it’s Guy Piccotio and Brendan Canty, among others. And what I’m realizing is that there are TONS of bands like that in the K catalog, acts that either went on to become something else, or rose to fame, or switched careers and were successful that way … My question is what is it like to sign, say, an artist like Beck and watch him take off a few short years later? Was/is it ever frustrating?

CJ: Unfortunately, Brief Weeds had already ran their course by the time we released their two EPs through our International Pop Underground series, “A Very Generous Portrait” [IPU018] and “Songs of Innocence and Experience” [IPU035]. However, they were never designed for greater fame. It was a moment in time, distilled like amber, captured by a camera quite obscure. As it was meant to be. So many folks creating and expressing themselves into the ether. We have been fortunate to capture a few traces of lime in prisms of vinyl. Happy hunting!

This is a good example of the timeless nature of music. It does not matter when the Treepeople rocked the Earth, there is an element of their oeuvre that touches one whenever or where ever one hears the strains of their collective heartfelt plea. Treepeople were instrumental in the lives of so many Olympia artists: KARP, Unwound, Heavens to Betsy; all of them worshipped at their feet.

HW: Brief Weeds are one of my definite favorites. As for fame and frustration I don’t know how much I can speak to that but I do know fame is fleeting, and for an artist in the underground success is more about survival, and as long as we can survive and continue to make art, and reach people, we are a success untouched by the frustrations of fame.

I wanted to ask you about some of the Essentials bands individually and their place in the history of K. Tree People, to wit … This was a historic band obviously because of Doug’s future as Built To Spill, but there’s also more history, as members of Treepeople participated in Halo Benders with Calvin and Doug. What do you think a record like Guilt and Embarrassment can offer to a listener today?

CJ: This is a good example of the timeless nature of music. It does not matter when the Treepeople rocked the Earth, there is an element of their oeuvre that touches one whenever or where ever one hears the strains of their collective heartfelt plea. Treepeople were instrumental in the lives of so many Olympia artists: KARP, Unwound, Heavens to Betsy; all of them worshipped at their feet.

Pat Brown, founding member of Treepeople, committed suicide in 1999, two years after Guilt and Embarrassment was reissued by K. His brother Scott played in Treepeople as well, and I guess I’m just wondering how the tragedy built into it, even 15 years after the fact, affected this project, if at all.

CJ: When the Halo Benders toured the West Coast in 1994 we listened to a cassette of Pat’s “new band” Hive. It was gooder than the Treepeople, I was impressed. Wish Hive coulda done more, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Treepeople were part of a strange pipeline of bands that originated in Idaho. Having gone to WSU (a Wash. school 10 minutes from the Idaho border) I know how intertwined Idaho and Washington state can be, and I was wondering how important that was to K’s success, being able to identify bands with potential in relatively secluded areas?

CJ: The regional nature of music has always fascinated me. Dividing the “Northwest” region into several smaller regions also fascinates me. Look at Moscow and Pullman, eight miles apart, yet so very culturally different.

HW: I echo Calvin in thinking regionality is really important. You hear a lot of, “Ever since the internet it’s just one big internet, ya know?.”.. Hive mind is king now as it’s so easy to have intense disparate (faraway) connections that we all seem to do a matching dance and assimilate each other. But you don’t make great art by just a copy and follow of what’s new today and hoping you can do it better. You have to honor where you came from. K does that. As for how K is able to identify potential, like attracts like as a lot of those artist come to K, seeing it as an institution that has survived on its own terms. Also it doesn’t hurt that Calvin still relentlessly tours small towns. [He’s leaving on a bus at 7 today for Ellensburg.]

I think one of the blessing and curses of Olympia and the scene(s) it encompasses is that it’s hard to see both in and out of the bubble. This project came about because more and more we were faced with the fact that for the new teens, K wasn’t more than a tattoo on someone’s arm… that a lot of the stories of the American and International Pop Underground were going untold.

Halo Benders: This is an interesting band/record for so many reasons, from the unique situation of getting Doug and Calvin together to the wild material that resulted. First off, how did this project come about in the first place?

CJ: Doug was interested in experimenting with pop music. First he recorded what became the first Built To Spill album. Then he wrangled me into collaborating with him, which I was happy to do. I like his voice. It is weird. Then he wrote some incredible songs and recorded more Built To Spill albums. Then he did so much more, what a powerful artist.

This seems like a band that just never would have worked over the long-term, is that a correct assumption? Were there ever plans for Halo Bender beyond that first record?

CJ: It wasn’t thought about that far in advance. We just wanted to create some songs. After that, it seemed natural to create more songs.

God Don’t Make No Junk is a classic to a lot of people, but others, even fans of Built To Spill and Beat Happening, aren’t aware of it or the Halo Benders at all (from my experience). Was that part of the impetus for putting this record out again, perhaps a lack of awareness?

CJ: People love vinyl. And the cover has pretty shapes and colors. I wanted to see it on the record store shelves once again.

HW: Some of these releases have more complicated answers, but with Halo Benders we just really liked the record and wanted more of them in the world.

Mirah’s C’mon Miracle is a huge record personally for a lot of reasons, what is it about this record that is so Essential to K, considering how many other great records she released on K?

CJ: Golly, Mirah has so many wonderful songs, it’s hard to pick one batch out of the pile. See above answer to “random throw of the dart.”

The idea of the somewhat quirky female singer-songwriter seems almost cliche nowadays but when Mirah started it wasn’t as common. Is the rerelease of this record somewhat of an acknowledgement of all the current artists Mirah has inspired?

CJ: You are the rock critic, that is for you to decide.

The Make-Up’s Sound Verite to me is the most influential of the first wave of Essentials as far as pointing the way to a new breed of K bands like Old Tyme Relijun. Do you see this as the case or am I way off?

CJ: That is very perceptive of you. There has always been a strange undercurrent of electricity flowing beneath the surface between Arrington de Dionyso and Ian Svenonius.

Ian Svenonius has been in so many influential bands (Nation of Ulysses, Chain and the Gang, Scene Creamers, Weird War) and has also become a respected writer, among other things. I’m curious as to how his relationship with K began because Nation of Ulysses was strictly a Dischord band and it would seem to be logical that his next project would have been put out on Dischord as well … (of course I’m only speculating here)

In December, 1989 I witnessed Nation Of Ulysses play a show with Hazmat (members of which went on to form Autoclave and Scissors Girls); K co-released the first Nation Of Ulysses 45 with Dischord in 1990. That summer I helped to arrange their first U.S. Tour. We have always been “kindred spirits.”

Sound Verite is one of those records that has lost none of its freshness over the years. What is it about this LP that never goes out of style?

CJ: If I knew the answer to this question, every record we release would be as elliptical.

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