This review was originally on Goodreads
Beat Happening are my all time favourite band so I was eagerly awaiting this volume and it does not disappoint.
Parker tackles this album in an interesting way – he structures the book in an abecedarian way, that is each chapter is devoted to a letter of the alphabet and then the chapter topic starts with that letter i.e. chapter 3 is C and the topic is Calvin.
Now this may seem random but Parker does an excellent job and links all the chapters so the end is result is a cohesive picture of the backgrounds, influences and the events that shaped Beat Happenings debut. The reader also gets a snapshot of the DIY label scene and how Beat Happening managed to record an album that redefines both punk, from a musical point of view and a gender one as well.
As a mega fan I had a lot of fun reading this but I didn’t learn anything new so probably a Beat Happening newbie will get a bit more out of it but still since there’s a small amount written about this wonderful band that this volume in the 33 1/3 series is a welcome addition for the Beat Happening crowd
The Bobsphere 