City Arts magazine has made available on their website an excerpt culled from two chapters of Mark Baumgarten’s forthcoming book about K Records, Love Rock Revolution: The Rise of K Records and Independent Music. Baumgarten is an editor-at-large for City Arts and also hosts The Song Show, a talk show style program dedicated to showcasing the musical talents of some of the Northwest’s most prominent artists. Baumgarten has written for numerous music publications and continues to play an important role in chronicling the music of the Northwest and music in general as a prolific and stalwart journalist.
Baumgarten’s angle in Love Rock Revolution takes the form of a narrative, employing K Records founder and Beat Happening member Calvin Johnson as a character in the story Baumgarten artfully weaves. The chapter contains nonchalant encounters between Johnson and future band mates Bret Lunsford and Heather Lewis. The innocuous nature of these meetings delicately builds excitement in the narrative, especially for those who know more of the story. By the end of the first couple of paragraphs, you’re already eager for the paths of these characters to develop and coincide, as Baumgarten writes with casual, nuanced humor.
Alongside the narrative structure, Baumgarten incorporates historical and geographic elements as well as music commentary. A fantastic tale about Johnson crossing the Canadian border to see The Wrecks takes on mythic proportions. Baumgarten also methodically recounts the first performance Johnson ever saw by Heather Lewis’ band The Supreme Cool Beings, who would create the first K release ever, an event that serves as the cliffhanger to the end of the selection.
Baumgarten is not just a great writer and astute music critic; he is an impeccable storyteller, and exhibits this skill in this selection from his book. Love Rock Revolution will undoubtedly be a treasure for K Records fans and music lovers in general. We can’t wait to read the rest of the book when it is released in July.
Read the excerpt over at City Arts by clicking right here.
Pre-order the book through Powell’s by clicking here.
