Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Day 54 - A Garage Grows in Harlem


There is a certain purity in songs that sound like Harlem's "Friendly Ghost" that make them almost unassailable. It's the old three chords and the truth - bang it out... and move on. Harlem was recommended to me by Jersey Bob with this pithy overview of the band's music - "garage band sounding, short songs". On the band's myspace page, they list their influences as: "the only band we like is Nirvana. the only album we like is nevermind. the only song we like is smells like teen spirit." Ok... I'm sold.

This Austin band marries the anything-goes shang-a-lang of the early Kinks with the yelping franticism of Richard Hell lost inside Lenny Kaye's Nuggets compilation, all wrapped in a goofball delivery that is more ingratiating than annoying. And god damn if they don't bash out 16 breakneck songs, with only three breaking the 3 minute barrier. And they've got an unreleased song called "Psychedelic Tits". They have to be good!

Harlem - "Friendly Ghost"
Harlem - "Gay Human Bones"

2 comments:

Sowa Mai's dog said...

Now we're talking. thanks

bob said...

Who's this Jersey Bob guy anyway?

I like his taste in music!