PMA | Pretty Much Amazing

Their Matador debut comes out next week, but Austin’s Harlem has already released a music video for current single “Gay Human Bones”. Enjoy. (more…)

HIGHLY REC’D is an unofficial monthly newsletter/mixtape that comes to my inbox on the first of every month full of great tunes that come, well, highly recommended. April 2010′s HIGHLY REC’D mixtape is quite good, featuring new songs from The Morning Benders, Rogue Wave, Free Energy, She & Him, and many more. Here is the tracklist:

1. Fang Island – Welcome Wagon
2. Kiss Kiss Kiss – Miss Meredith
3. The Silver – The Signs
4. The Royal Chains – Wolf
5. Kids and Animals – Dirty City
6. It’s a King Thing – Baby Tantrum
7. The Submarines – Waiting for a War (The Morning Benders cover)
8. The Morning Benders – All Day Daylight
9. Rogue Wave – Right With You
10. Rogue Wave – Miami, Miami
11. Free Energy – Young Hearts
12. Harlem – Someday Soon
13. Suffering Fools – Crossing of Us
14. Mono Puff – Unsupervised, I Hit My Head (1996) (TMBG side project)
15. She & Him – Don’t Look Back
16. Matt Pond PA – Starting
17. Arms – Heat & Hot Water (free band-approved EP!)
18. Zoey Van Goey – The Best Treasure Stays Buried
19. Frightened Rabbit – The Wrestle
20. Wolf Gang – Back To Back
21. Tokyo Police Club – Breakneck Speed
22. The Temper Trap – Down River

Want to download it? (more…)

Here is the second single from the increasingly rewarding new album from Austin’s Harlem. Said album, Hippies is out April 6th on Matador Records. You can pre-order the album at a 15% discount at the Matador Store. Download “Gay Human Bones” below:

 

 Harlem "Gay Human Bones": Play Now | Download

On the first track on their second album (first on the wonderful Matador Records) Harlem insist that they won’t help you out if you’ve done them wrong. They won’t even put you out if you’re on fire. They don’t say they’d be the ones to set you on fire, but I think they would – it’s in that simple punk energy, classic rock structure, uncomplicated harmony, like an angrier, punkier Born Ruffians.

I thought about other bands with lineups like Harlem’s – No Age, Wavves, Japandroids – all brash lo-fi, a deliberate attempt to sound recorded in a garage. Harlem, working with the old guitarist / drummer standard, play with that lo-fi sound, like they’ve set up the drum set next to the snowblower, but nevertheless manage to do something new and reasonably exciting. “Someday Soon” is clean, bright, more pop than grunge, more driving in the sunlight than head-banging in a sweaty room. And it works, marvelously.

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Harlem’s Hippies is out April 6th on Matador. Make sure to download the free MP3 single “Friendly Ghost” which is also quite good.

You can say that I’m a bit late to the Harlem party. Actually, I’m still not there at all. I just happen to like the song the DJ is playing at the moment, so I’m secretly hiding outside the window. Yeah, you can say that. That sounds about right.

Harlem hail from ATX, where all the cool bands come from, and they sound like your typical fuzzy garage indie-rock band still in love with Nirvana. They’re just probably better at it than your band, and they happen to play shows with TV on the Radio. Go figure.

“Friendly Ghost” comes from Harlem’s Matador debut, Hippies, which comes with highly diggable (and again, totally typical) artwork.

MP3: Harlem – Friendly Ghost

Harlem’s Hippies is due out April 6th.