Even a cursory run-through of Harlem’s recordings makes plain the band’s love of playing—and listening to—music. The trio rolls through sixteen tracks on Hippies, their second full-length, with each cut a nugget of garage-y rock filled with allusions to 50s girl groups, 60s pop, psychedelia, punk, and just about everything in between.
Background check:
Harlem songs are stripped-down affairs, propelled by raw energy, chiming guitars and expressive vocals. The band traffics in driving rhythms and distorted chords, with most tunes barely pushing more than a couple minutes in length. Oftentimes the fellas sound like they’re in a hurry to run off a cliff, but on Hippies they manage to smartly throw in a few slower-tempo, lovesick numbers to balance things out.
Harlem——Coomers (nee Michael Coomer), Curtis O’Mara and Jose Boyer—started building their following one song at a time with their “Cover of the Month Club,” a long-running project in which the band produces their own loose versions of a wide array of songs from the likes of Devo, 60s girl group The Dixie Cups, Paul Revere and the Raiders—even Detroit techno group Drexciya. They subsequently self-release the 4-track bedroom recordings, offering them up for free on their Myspace page.
Hippies is both a welcome progression from and complement to their debut, Free Drugs . The album is due out April 6th on Matador Records.
One thing is clear about Bradford Cox: the man is a music obsessive. Whether promoting artists through his self-released mixes, churning out tracks of his own with bands Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, or playing countless shows each year, Cox’s life is one immersed in sound. His energy is abundant and infectious, resulting most recently in Logos, perhaps his most interesting artifact yet.
Background Check:
Athens-born Bradford Cox is a freak of a man, often eccentrically-costumed and always preternaturally thin (as the result of Marfan syndrome). He’s also a gifted and prolific songwriter, whose output cannot be contained by one band alone. Atlas Sound is his “solo gig”—a project born in the wake of a self-imposed hiatus from his experimental noise band, Deerhunter.
Atlas Sound’s second album, Logos, was almost abandoned after an unfinished version prematurely leaked from Cox’s MediaFire account. Now, Cox has been known to willfully release exclusive songs through his blog, but this was an accidental—and devastating—ooze. Luckily, he soldiered on to complete the work, buoyed by excellent vocal contributions from Stereolab’s Laetita Sadler and Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear).
Logos is full of lucid, joyful concoctions: a culmination of a lifetime spent culling LPs from dusty stacks. Its tracks gleefully pile up layers of electronics and guitars and hazy vocals, meandering from dreamy shoegaze to rock bliss. Standout cuts like “Walkabout” and “Sheila” marry 60s pop confection with Lilys-inspired indie psychedelia. With Logos, Cox has artfully constructed one of 2009’s best listens: a heart-felt tribute to the music he loves.
With a whispered rapport and a three chord catharsis, Say Hi can talk about anything, from doomed relationships to spaceships with wistful ease and head nodding persuasion. Frontman Eric Elbogen crafts impeccable indie pop with a sly smile and intimate wit appropriate for any situation.
Background Check:
Say Hi is Eric Elbogen, the energetic and pop culture obsessed songwriter who has helmed the project since 2002. Originally out of Brooklyn, NY and previously known as Say Hi to Your Mom, Elbogen began recording at home, self recording his lush and straightforward indie rock in the vein of the more accessible side of the Pixies. Elbogen’s albums are almost entirely self produced and played, with the multi-talented musician taking up nearly all the parts on any given track. Elbogen began his own recording label to release his homespun creations, Euphobia Records, in 2005 giving home to his ever revolving songs about vampires and Star Trek, most notably 2006’s Impeccable Blahs, which referenced Buffy and other Joss Whedon creatures.
With a moniker shortening (Your Mom just wasn’t that aesthetic anymore) and cross country relocation in 2008, Elbogen landed in Seattle and on Barsuk Records, a perfect fit in the indie rock label’s catalog. In March 2009, Say Hi released Oohs and Aahs, the most hook laden album of Elbogen’s career. Understated and enthusiastic, the record signals a culmination of Say Hi’s previous efforts into a rather flawless concoction of pop and indie rock. Melodic and moody at times, the album is one of Elbogen’s most charming and disarming works to date.
Artist: Harlem
. The album is due out April 6th on Matador Records.
