Eluding the Corporate 'Ogre'

By Joseph Pompeo, PopMatters. Posted May 3, 2005.

"Rock 'n' roll is a teenage sport, meant to be played by teenagers of all ages," said a young Calvin Johnson in 1979. As if to prove his own maxim, Johnson, now in his early 40s, still makes the team. To list his merits, which have been copiously documented by indie journalists and grunge documentarians alike, would be redundant.

But for those unfamiliar with punk rock's most beloved baritone, a brief history might be helpful: He established the legendary Olympia record label, K, in 1982 after collaborating on a fanzine with Sub Pop Records founder Bruce Pavitt. He went on to form the seminal pop trio Beat Happening, whose music would later influence a slew of famed artists such as Nirvana and Beck. He recorded, produced and released albums by indie-rock favorites from the Make Up and Modest Mouse to Mecca Normal and Heavenly, collaborating along the way with the likes of Jon Spencer and Built to Spill's Doug Martsch. He fronted Dub Narcotic Sound System and the Halo Benders while maintaining a hectic tour schedule including numerous solo stints. And he continues to seek out new and imaginative talent for the K roster, while still finding time to pen the occasional blurb on his web site and send care packages to his friends around the country.

In Our Band Could Be Your Life, Michael Azzerad writes, "Beat Happening and K were a major force in widening the idea of a punk rocker from a mohawked guy in a motorcycle jacket to a nerdy girl in a cardigan."

But Johnson remains modest. "That's for the critics to decide," he says. "It certainly wasn't an idea we came up with ourselves. You could say the same thing about Half Japanese or Talking Heads or the Smiths." But it is safe to say that since the '80s, K has been recognized as the do-it-yourself vanguard against what Johnson likes to call "the corporate ogre." The subversiveness of K's ideological platform is nowhere more apparent than in the eccentric manifestos Johnson and his cohorts have written over the years:

"Because the corporate ogre has infected the creative community with its black plague of indentured servitude ... . Because we are the gravediggers who have buried the gray spectre of rock star myth. ... Revolution is the end. Revolution is the beginning," reads the call to arms for K's infamous 1991 International Pop Underground Convention, a six-day celebration of sub-cultural dissent and D.I.Y. potentiality. For an entire week, Olympia was invaded by an army of "hangman hipsters, new mod rockers ... [and] plotters of the youth rebellion in every form." The festival spotlighted some of the most influential punk acts of the day, from D.C. favorites Nation of Ulysses and Fugazi to bastions of the Northwest scene like Unwound, the Melvins and of course Johnson's own Beat Happening.

Fourteen years later, K remains a powerful force in the underground community. But a lot has changed in the state of independent music. Let's face it, Modest Mouse has traveled a long way from home-produced cassette recordings to Grammy nominations, and the white-belt-clad congregation of former K acts like the Make Up has long since moved on to bigger and better fads. Indie rock, for better or for worse, has become more widely accessible than ever before. And today, whether Johnson Likes it or not, the indie gospel is spread through popular movie soundtracks and blurbs in Rolling Stone, a far cry from the intimate network of cut 'n' paste fanzines that once sustained it. Given these extenuating circumstances, it was inevitable that K's goals as a label changed as well.

"One big difference between now and 12 or 13 years ago is that we're not trying to put out as many records," says Johnson, who admits that even in Olympia there are many avenues for bands besides K. "We're just one of many labels in Olympia and there is much more going on here than any one label could hope to represent."

But whatever K might have forfeited in numbers, it has made up for in quality. Over the past several years, a new breed of talent has come to define K's lineup. Artists like Mirah, the Microphones, the Blow, Little Wings, and Wolf Colonel represent a new and revitalized era for K, and uphold the label's track record for turning out unique and revolutionary music.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from Media and Technology! Sign up now »