Calvin Johnson is not an easy man to talk to.
In a drawn-out, deep voice he answers every question like he's answered it too many times before. He slowly hobbles through answering questions in single sentences. He pauses mid-phrase and misses a joke, though that may be because I'm not funny. He never sounds this withdrawn on a record.
The introvert Calvin Johnson isn't the same man that he is behind a microphone. Stages and recording studios must change him into a more outgoing person. Gone is the lighthearted spontaneity that the funk-rock Dub Narcotic Sound System always overflowed with and that wink-and-nod humor which he used to sing onto Beat Happening records.
It takes a running start to ask conversational Calvin Johnson about what happened this October.
\We were driving on I-94 heading towards North Dakota, and [Bassist] Chris [Sutton] was driving. And he swerved to miss an animal. We went off the road and rolled over a few times, and [Drummer] Heather [Dunn] and I were both thrown out of the van. And the van was destroyed.""
And he says it in a flat voice, no irony or pain or memory. He recites his car accident list-like and matter of fact.
""Chris broke his jaw and also pulled a ligament in his knee and broke some teeth. Heather wrenched her back. I broke some ribs and got a concussion. And I also separated my shoulders.""
Johnson was the only one with health insurance.
On the K Records homepage, amid frequent updates on Dub Narcotic band members' health, the Web site offers ""If you would like to help we have set up the 'Dub Narcotic Sound System Fund.' Please make checks/money orders payable to Dub Narcotic Sound System and send them to: Box 7154 Olympia, Wash. 98507."" Even their accident has indie credibility, relying on the community that the Johnson-managed label and his band had built to be selfless.
And it has. Fans and well-wishers eagerly got involved. Bands set up benefit concerts, fans sent in checks and credit cards and, rumor has it, one bass amp. Said Johnson, ""Other people have been kind enough to organize benefits. They have been very helpful.""
It's what small tribute fans can give to Dub Narcotic whose rap-, reggae- and funk-flavored songs seem to uniquely capture all the fun which groove-laden rock can provide. Dub Narcotic has been making punk rocker's party music for almost a decade. Their upcoming release , which fans discussed with the working title , will be their sixth full-length album.
Calvin Johnson himself represents more to rock than infusing dance-floor beats. The K Records label he created launched the careers of Beck, The Gossip and All Girl Summer Fun Band. His croaking voice has been on records for over 20 years now. During the first indie rock explosion in the '80s, Beat Happening fronted a giddy lyrics-over-loops rock that would be the spine of Beck and Imperial Teen a decade after Johnson recorded it.
Dub Narcotic never lost the gleeful spirit of Beat Happening. The songs sound unrestrained and smartly unprofessional, with the feel of a one-take recording. Oftentimes they were.
""'Fuck Me Up,' which Heather sings, was completely improvised on all parts. It was instantly improvised by all four of us. It was spontaneous. Completely spontaneous. Obviously you can't plan for it, but the lyrics and the bassline and the beat were made up right at that moment. We put it on tape-what you hear on that album was the first time that song was ever played.""
But that instantaneousness fails as often as it succeeds. The past five years of recording have produced only one album and an EP.
""We've been recording for five years, but we just haven't felt comfortable making any of it into an album. We just tried different things. We made a record called that was from various different sessions, put together. We just wanted to feel totally confident in what we doing. We tried different songs, and had different outtakes, and experimented with different things, and this is what we ended up with.""
Degenerate Introduction marks the first time that Dub Narcotic has been packaged as a single unit. Their first album, sported mixtures of nine musicians, and '98's had five. Some releases have been made into showcases of other people-1998's saw Dub Narcotic members team up with alternative icons like Beck and Built to Spill, and 1999's was the combination of Dub Narcotic with Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. But aside from producer Adam Forkner's organ guest appearing on one song, is the product of a trio, Johnson, Dunn and Sutton.
""We've been working more as a band,"" says Johnson.
And it shows. The album features a more cohesive sound than prior outings with more constancy from track to track. But for the most part, Dub Narcotic picked up where they left off five years ago. The same funk, the same fun. Dub Narcotic was one of the best bands in the hospital all of last year, an experience the band is still paying for out of pocket.
