Tag Archives: heavenly

Arts & Entertainment, Music, News, Sports

Can the K Records Catalog Save the Mariners Season?

You know the music that comes on to inspire every Mariner batter as they walk to the plate? It hasn’t been working. Mariner hitters have been dreadful at Safeco Field, saddening Mariner fans like me, you, and music journalist Mark Baumgarten. When not suffering through low-scoring Mariner games, Mark has spent the past year-plus writing the story of Calvin Johnson’s K Records, the galvanizing force behind Beck, Modest Mouse, the grunge scene, and the riot grrrl movement. With his book Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music coming out today, I gave Mark this challenge: Pick the K Records songs that will galvanize Mariners hitters and get Safeco rocking. Here are his indisputable picks.

Ichiro
“Bewitched” by Beat Happening, from Jamboree (1988)
[:00 – :10]
I know that Ichiro likes the club hits. For a while he was bumping that Flo Rida song. More recently he has been grinding his spikes into the dirt to LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It.” “Bewitched” is the ultimate K party jam from the label’s cornerstone band. It’s a little grittier than those slick pop tracks, and its beat is much more primitive, but maybe a little d.i.y. can help the the M’s “first-ballot Hall-of-Famer” manufacture a few RBI’s.

Michael Saunders
“Birds vs. Worms” by Modest Mouse, from Sad Sappy Sucker (2001)
[:07 – :17]
On this moderately upbeat track, songwriter Isaac Brock contemplates self-pity as a catchy guitar line whiles away. Like Brock, Michael Saunders has always seemed burdened by a great existential weight. Unlike Brock, Saunders tends to keep his emotions bottled up, only sometimes exploding by violently throwing his batting helmet to the ground, post-strikeout. Deep within his intensity there is a sadness. So let’s play him on with the music of a kindred spirit. You are not alone, Michael.

Jesus Montero
“C is the Heavenly Option” by Heavenly (featuring Calvin Johnson), from De Jardin de Heavenly (1992)
[2:35-2:45]
The subject matter of this song–lead singer Amelia Fletcher and Calvin contemplating what to do with their disappointing significant others–has nothing to do with baseball. But its titular chorus might help motivate Montero to get in front of those passed balls and ward off recent draft pick Mike Zunino on his way to becoming the power-hitting franchise catcher the Mariners had hoped he would become when they acquired him from the Yankees in the offseason. Plus, I hear manager Eric Wedge loves a little shimmying twee pop and it would be nice to see him smile every once in a while.

Dustin Ackley
“#1 USA” by Love as Laughter, from #1 USA (1998)
[3:26-3:36]
I have long been a proponent of Ackley dropping Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ode-to-humility “Simple Man” as his warm-up music. Yes, you are a simple man, Dustin, and we love you for it. But you are a professional ballplayer, sir, and that requires a little swagger. This track from K’s best-ever melodic garage rock group is dripping with infectious riffs, hand-claps and tons of slump-busting attitude. I mean, look at the title, man!
(there’s no full version of this song online; there is a sample here.)

Justin Smoak
“It’s All In Your Mind” by Beck, from the One Foot in the Grave outtakes (1995)
[:20-:30]
Yeah, this song is super depressing, but honestly so is Justin Smoak. He was supposed to be a great steal from our division rival Rangers. But every time he comes up to bat, I just know that he’s going to pop up to shallow left. I don’t know what his current walk-up song is, but it’s not working. Why not give a lo-fi indie rock gem a try? There could be worse things to hear, as you’re preparing to hit that damned ball, than Beck’s languid voice repeating, “It’s all in your mind.”
(this version is a rerecording from Beck’s 2002 album Sea Change)

Kyle Seager
“Virginia Reel Around the Fountain” by Halo Benders
[:00-:10]
This is my favorite song in the K catalog, a performance of epic proportions filled with guitarist Doug Martch’s meandering guitar parts and pinched tenor, contrasted with Calvin Johnson’s sonorous, monotone baritone. I am bestowing it upon Seager, currently my favorite player on my fantasy baseball team, in hopes that it will inspire him as it has inspired me. If it doesn’t, I’m going to have to start Pedro Alvarez in his place.

Franklin Gutierrez
“Free Again” by Teenage Fanclub, from “Free Again”/”Bad Seeds” 7” (1992)
[:07-:17]
A boisterous cover of Alex Chilton’s classic pop track from 1970, “Free Again” returns over and over to the joyful refrain: “I’m free again, to do what I want.” I have to imagine that that is exactly how Guti feels every time the injury-prone center fielder is fortunate enough to step into the batter’s box. Sure, he will eventually be stabbed in the shoulder by an errant broken bat and locked up in rehab, but for now, he’s free!

Miguel Olivo
“The Glow pt. 2” by the Microphones, from The Glow, Pt. 2 (2001)*
[:00-:10]
This song is a masterpiece of indie rock. It is discordant, melodic, hard-hitting and nuanced; the most sophisticated piece of music ever to appear on K. It is also fraught with trepidation and hope, somewhat unpredictable but always engaged, and never taking itself too seriously while delivering till the end. These are the attributes the team need in its leadership. Olivo is the closest thing the Mariners have to a veteran leader (in the field), so he will be the one walking out as the rattles, rumbles, and buzzes that kick off the song fill Safeco with electricity.

Brendan Ryan
“Connect 5” by KARP, from Suplex (1995)*
[:00-:10]
One of the few actual sports songs in the K catalog, “Connect 5” is about a roller derby great named Bobby Fever, “the master blaster from the past” who is a lot like our spunky shortstop. “A pirouette to please his fans,” sings Chris “Slayer” Smith. “He’s pumpin those adrenal glands.” Ryan will step into the batters box just as the song’s plaintive guitar line gives way to a bombastic beat and a grungy guitar riff worthy of whatever creative facial hair is festooning his mug at the time.

Felix Hernandez (National League parks only)
“What Was Me” by Calvin Johnson, from What Was Me (2002)*
[:30-:40]
On the face of it, this song—a strummy acoustic number—is a bit of a downer. But it is a perfect fit for Felix, a ballad for the king of K’s from the king of K. “When I’m done you’ll find an Illiad, believed in every heart and known in every head,” Calvin sings. “And that will be me.”

*These songs are available on Love Rock Revolution: A Book Soundtrack, available for free from K Records until July 17.

Arts & Entertainment, Dance

Dance Goes Dutch with Introdans at Meany

Introdans HEAVENLY / HEMELS (Photo: Erwin Olaf)

In their U.S. debut—the only other stop their trip was the Joyce Theater in New York—Introdans made a terrific impression with its dancers Thursday night at UW’s Meany Theater (performances through May 12; tickets).

The Dutch company was founded in 1971 by Hans Focking and Tom Wiggers. Wiggers is still there and since 2005 has been general director, the same year another longtime  company member, Roel Voorenholt, took over the role of artistic director. Since then there has been a huge turnover in the dancers. Only two were in the company before the directorships changed over, and the rest joined in 2008 or later. Their extraordinary caliber as a company seems all the more astonishing, given their current youth, relatively, as a group.

The company describes its programs as “thematically designed modern ballet,” and the balletic background is clear in performance, the training of the very best.

The program at Meany, titled Heavenly, included works of three choreographers: Nils Christe’s Fuenf Gedichte (Five Poems), Gisela Rocha’s Paradise?, and Ed Wubbe’s Messiah.

The highlight of the performance, Christe’s Fuenf Gedichte, presented a seamless connection between the music (Wagner’s Wesendonk Lieder with the ravishing voice of Jard van Nes), the projected backdrop (roiling clouds in a blue sky), the costumes (simple body-hugging leotards or tights in dark or jewel colors and, for one dancer, brief nude-colored shorts) and of course the movement.

The choreography celebrated the beautiful fluidity of the bodies.The five sections each flowed as poems should, across the stage and in each individual, while Christe created unexpected and unusual moves within a balletic language. These required enormous strength and stamina from all the dancers, in order to keep the fluid forward motion continuing.

The other two works were less successful choreographically, though both have had success in the Netherlands. Paradise?, which appeared at first glance to be a bunch of aimless kids showing off on a foggy night in the ‘hood, under rows of glare lights, continued too long without adequate structure, though there were moments of interest. One dancer sang her way through the group with a microphone before handing it over and dancing with the rest, and a fine tap dancer arrived toward the end. The music seemed as fragmented and aimless as the kids. Certainly not paradise, but perhaps that was the interrogative point.

Wubbe’s Messiah, from 1988, felt a bit dated. The choreography, beautiful as the moves were, seemed conventional in comparison to Christe’s Gedichte, and the use of billowing, brilliant white skirts being swirled in huge figure-eights across the back gave one a distinct feel of Martha Graham. The rest danced in severe black. Somehow, the music from Messiah felt like a disconnect. There seemed no relevance in the dance to either words of great joy or great sorrow.

Yet, throughout the performance, the pleasure derived simply in watching these superb dancers overcame shortcomings in the choreography. I hope to see them return.