Hewn from the Wilderness

Fans who have long missed the sweetly primitive sounds of Calvin Johnson’s Beat Happening may find comfort in The Hive Dwellers, one of Johnson’s many projects. The Hive Dwellers often include members of other Olympia or K Records groups, like Saturday Looks Good to Me, The Make-Up, and Chain & The Gang. Unlike many of Johnson's other projects, this group shares a fondness for the simpler, quirky pop style that informed Beat Happening: sparse, clunking percussion, simple acoustic guitar, and naked bass line weave irresistible rhythms with Johnson’s baritone rumble as pure as it ever was. His lyrics are also sweetly primitive: “Somebody’s Phone Is Ringing” recalls not only tin cans with string but also answering machines; he celebrates bike riding on the Modern Lovers–flavored “Ride with Me.” Johnson also appears to be musing on the end of the road, evidenced by the delightfully funky “Nothin’ but the Buryin’” and the instructional “Pine Shaped Box.” After hearing the cool, slinky “Tell Tale Heart” and the ragged blues of “Messed Up and Ramblin’,” one hopes Johnston sticks around for a long while more.