Why do people hate on K Records?

plus, I think a lot of people just think K= Calvin Johnson, and if you're not a fan (and I'm definitely not), it's enough of a connotation to make one skeptical

Tweezlenufkin the Fairy Rabbit, who lives in Dumblingdill Forest and listens to Heavenly.

I think you might be right, though, about the mistaken equation of K with Calvin, especially since the release of books like Charles Cross's shitty sexist Nirvana biography and Azerrad's well-intentioned chapter in OBCBYL...they focus a lot on Beat Happening's primitivism and childlike aesthetic, and never mention the rest of the terrain covered by the label.

Satisfact were great, by the way.

i just mean that satisfact (occasionally) had a disco beat.

now, !!! on the other hand, have always sounded like they were doing versions of "magnificent seven". but that's just me.

I suppose we shouldn't expect too much in terms of accuracy and background research from writers who speculate about the "celibacy" of a married man.

I feel sad whenever i hear about K now, because I think of Calvin, and his horrible (but thankfully temporary) stuttering speech impediment that resulted from that east Montana van accident when Dub Narcotic toured last year.

Did anyone ever see/hear the band post-Satisfact with the robot drummer or whatever? Should I try and track that stuff down?

anyway who cares what he thinks, i am right.

The only K record I've bought since then was one of the early Glass Candy singles.

The first Love As Laughter tape was pretty good, but somewhere along the line, Sam became an extreme stoner, and LAL hasn't been the same ever since (granted, his in-between song banter was always worth seeing).

Red Stars Theory on the hand took the Lync torch to new heights, I thought, and were grossly underrated... mainly due to Jason Talley's co-writing/arrangement talents. (who at one point featured Jeremiah, ex-Modest Mouse drummer, who did a wonderful singing cameo on one of the songs on their second record, and really showcased his talents.) Then they let Andy from Sientific American take over on the final self-titled EP, as he pretty much remixed and "produced" the new songs on it, which were super ambient and great. Now James is pretty much out of music making and running his own label (whose name I forget now dammit). Jason Talley has now formed his own instrumental band called Odessa, who I've seen around town, and they're very nice. They pretty much take all the good elements of Godspeed You Black Emporer, do some proper editing, and make it very palatable and remove the tedious *ahem* ambition and extreme epicness. (which may be blasphemy to you GYBE! fans, but neener neener)

Karp Ruled, Roger OTM!!

x-post

By the way, one doesn't hate on K records, one merely hates them.

GENIUS. I must investigate.

lync > love as laughter

to me, both of those bands were greatly overshadowed by bands like van pelt and the lapse.

the satisfact robot drummer band... octant ... "shock no par" is decent, but.... if you find it used or cheap, check it out.

k records was a mark of good taste for many years. sure, not everything was great, but plenty of chances were taken.

calvin's infatuation with the simpler 50s stuff is no more innocent than the ramones. i never thought that was a bad thing. at times there were boring records, but there were also total swoon-inducing heartbreakers.

i remember seeing lois play an instore at shaft records in gainesville... there was nothing mocking in what she was doing. just like teenbeat, there's 50s teenie bopper inspiration, but that's veneration, not mocking.

somebody's missing the point,
m.

That is honestly pretty funny, but again, invokes the lazy twee trope. So weird. Since 2000, K has released about 6 albums that could arguably be labeled twee, out of about 50.

But this record is great:

http://www.krecs.com/miva/graphics/K_Albums/IntlHipSwing_KLP016.gif

I have one of 'em on cassette, with a song called "Me Big Mouth" on it. Heavy and great.

I'm on K's mailing list so I get it all (since early 2002 or so) but only about 1/3 of what they release is worth going nuts over.

If that's an accurrate measure, then K's got a pretty good track record, right?

Also, after reading this whole thread, am I the only one who likes Yume Bitsu? Cause they were pretty K but also kinda not.

lol Whiney

haha, well, yeah

kind of amazing the people that put together the polished and professional Beat Happening would run a sloppy record label

yeah this isn't really a surprise to anybody, is it? It's odd that there's this flood of hostility at this particular moment, when I'm sure the label is floundering economically, but the combo of Calvin's bizarreness + lax DIY label shenanigans - like, everyone knew this already yeah?

next you'll be telling me that SST and Rough Trade weren't run efficiently

I've been uncomfortable with the whole idea of K and Calvin's persona since the 90s, but yeah that blog diary thing is terrible (as in it made me dislike the writer more than Calvin, which presumably wasn't the intent).

^^^

are there long-running indie labels that have a clean rep in this regard? maybe just the big ones like Merge/Matador/Drag City? I imagine even they have had some shaky moments when it came to balancing the books.

Thrill Jockey, Domino, 4AD

Sub Pop?

sub pop definitely had a shaky rep in the early 90s, right?
yeah, never heard a bad word about thrill jockey ...

xp Well, like the piece in the Stranger mentions, Sub Pop sort of made their shitty accounting part of their image, but I imagine that's changed a lot since the mid-90's. They have a lot of really successful bands now like Beach House, Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty, Washed Out. Not to mention Nirvana money.

xps Dischord has a good rep too

Touch & Go for everyone except the Butthole Surfers, apparently

Load? Southern Lord?

I ask whether Johnson would be willing to sell the catalog to an outside company. "I don't see that that question is relevant," he says, peeved. "Are you offering to buy the K catalog? Do you have a buyer in mind?"

I’d consider this … But I don’t know Calvin and it’s unclear whether we’re talking about tens-of-thousands or hundreds-of-thousands in liabilities. Does anybody know?

are there long-running indie labels that have a clean rep in this regard? maybe just the big ones like Merge/Matador/Drag City? I imagine even they have had some shaky moments when it came to balancing the books.

Ghostly, Kompakt, and Warp too.

I’d consider this … But I don’t know Calvin and it’s unclear whether we’re talking about tens-of-thousands or hundreds-of-thousands in liabilities. Does anybody know?

― Allen (etaeoe), Wednesday, February 24, 2016 4:55 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Kimye Dawson said she's owed at least six figures.

If I was more of a hard-ass I'd defend all attacks on Kimya but it's a losing battle since haters are everywhere; also, I hate arguing on the internet.

xpost

And K owing people $$$ goes back years and years, it's just bubbling up now.

"yeah this isn't really a surprise to anybody"

Just because it "isn't really a surprise" doesn't make it any less shitty.

Cosby was "common knowledge" too but people still ignored it until it blew up

I didn't know about Cosby til Hannibal made that joke tbh

And K owing people $$$ goes back years and years, it's just bubbling up now.

^^^this. I would guess that it's bursting into the open now because money's no longer really coming in, so that whole whack-a-mole style of business mgmt where you pay off whatever debt is most pressing with whatever income is immediately available is unraveling.

or do people think Calvin has been hording cash all these years and is secretly a millionaire

i cannot fathom how this

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8d/Alphabutt.jpeg

made anyone six figures

Agree with that but then three songs from her earlier album on K were on the Juno soundtrack. Would that be it?

yeah but Whines in fairness you can't imagine how anything you don't love sells more than zero copies

Kimya Dawson seems like a really good person.

Agree with that but then three songs from her earlier album on K were on the Juno soundtrack. Would that be it?

― everything, Wednesday, February 24, 2016 7:51 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ahh, there we go

don't make me ask what the hipster pupdogs sales were, senor alphabutt

i can tell you no one owes me six figures

i owe you a battle damage he man, so that's one figure

sure though: moldy peaches had a definite moment (lol, 2004) and i like kimya as much as anyone who came outta the antifolk scene but that juno soundtrack must've been the only opportunity she had to score that kinda cash unless there's a sprite commercial i'm unfamiliar with

or do people think Calvin has been hording cash all these years and is secretly a millionaire

Heard he's a trust fund baby, also heard that he owns a nice house in Olympia, plus the studio which he maybe just had to sell? And I think K owns the building they're in.

I don't like Calvin because he doesn't like Raspberry Beret

I had a joke in the H1pster Pupp1es book about Calvin Johnson and my editor was like "the football player?" so I changed it to Zach Galifiniakis

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, February 24, 2016 12:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

As a follower of the tumblr and proud ebook purchaser, I was wondering about this.

(not enough to ask the actual author any time in the last 5 years though, obviously)

wait did Whiney really not know about Juno wtf

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/6d/57/fc/6d57fc88efdf5286ef844aca8578712e.jpg
Is there a deluxe criterion edition of Juno? Then I haven't seen it.

We're due for revised hipster puppy settings with manbuns and lumbersexual shirts and kombucha and strollers
call yr editor whiney strike while this puppy's still vaping

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/02/ef/0f/02ef0fb19896c65f3afd9ca632e3b988.jpg

i met Calvin a few times and played some shows opening for him at some long-gone venues (east ATL Eyedrum, Echo Lounge, Alphabet's House) and he always seemed cool. i mean he is a weirdo but he never did anything bad or creepy i don't think. he was definitely a space case but still a really great guy. my friend Kristin worked with him from her punk house, booking shows, organizing house parties, booking tours, etc. and she always had a good business relationship w him. the last K Records release i saw was at her boutique she opened in Atlanta, which sold Calvin Johnson hand-made mixtapes that he made, drawing the art himself, well into the mid-2000s, and Im sure he is still doing that. he is a weird and spacey guy and you can't tell if he is on acid or something -- but that is who he is, i think. his shows were the exact same, it would be nothing, a total vacuum, and him. seeing him live was funny, because you feel a part of his show and alienated from it at the same time. i thought his art was pretty brilliant.

it would be really weird to start a band that is trying to be an anti-band, breaking down barriers between audience and performer, and end up the superstar of this scene, this legend, glamorized in "Shield Around the K" and "This Band Could Be Your Life", and now you have responsibilities to this random indie movie and interns hired to clean up the office are spending all their time spying on you and calling you "old and creepy" on the internet. how do you act when you are a huge celebrity and a famous figure constantly being compared to your Wikipedia profile?

the Moldy Peaches were on Rough Trade, i thought the Juno songs were from that? i have not heard much Kimya but there was a really moving recent song she did on Black Lives Matter that was cool. Kimya is cool but it is very personal very confessional and i can't listen to that kind of thing too much, i need something more atmospheric and abstract, more detached. i did love the Moldy Peaches but missed out on the opportunity to see them back in theday cos when they came through with the Strokes the show had sold out. i had no idea either band was that big but i guess Strokes hype was huge back in the day. "Rainbows" is still kind of amazing.

the Moldy Peaches were on Rough Trade, i thought the Juno songs were from that?

There is one Moldy Peaches song on the Juno soundtrack. There are seven Kimya Dawson songs on the main soundtrack, and another three on the secondary soundtrack & deluxe edition.

stories like this K Records stuff or the SST saga just underline for me that, as inspiring or simply charming as it can be for musicians to run labels and kind of lead DIY movements and have a sizable cultural impact without ever going corporate, having people who are emphatically 'not businessmen' run a business with any amount of actual money can be really shitshow.

i assume the more 'professional' long-lasting indies like Sub Pop or Merge got serious about accounting and contracts pretty early on, and Dischord seems increasingly unique in how they never chased big profits but never seemed to put themselves or anyone else into debt. but at this point i almost assume that the more iconoclastic artist-run indie labels probably fucked up a lot of people's money with negligence or incompetence.

looking at what k records has been up to lately i'm unclear as to how they would be making, like, any money. who's buying this stuff?

Calvin Johnson @SlctrDubNarcot

Forkner is not the enemy, making him a scapegoat no solution to a serious societal problem. I love Adam and wont abandon him to the wolves.

(tweet now deleted)

Personally I won't be burning my Beat Happening albums because I assume all musicians I like are arseholes, but jesus Calvin stfu

Poor martyred Adam forkner, abandoned to the social justice wolves for his lovable violent misogynist antics

I get there are social influences on that behaviour, but forkner seems 100% responsible for his actions, Calvin plz stop being a huge dick

wtf calvin

I don't know much about Forkner nor anything about this situation, aside from the allegations. So in all innocence, is there doubt about the truth of the allegations? Has Forkner commented? Are Calvin's comments in support of Forkner *despite* what he (possibly allegedly) did, or is Calvin actually claiming that Forkner is innocent?

I like the one Yume Bitsu album I have. no idea what the allegations are.

ahem

C/D : White Rainbow