The Harvey Girls new album "Sidereal Time" and album release show

Editor's note: Correction!  THG is playing October 13th, not the 23rd as I had reported.

Melissa und Hiram- aka The Harvey Girls

The Harvey Girls have been friends of the blog for a long time.  Back in April of '09 I toured with THG (in their solo-Hiram-looper configuration) as one half of Coeur Machant.  It was a whirlwind two-day blitz through Tacoma and Oly, and I was not only blow away by their amazing corpus of psych-pop songs, but also by how erudite and grounded their touring half- Hiram- was.

So it's with great pleasure that I can announce THG's latest- Sidereal Time, coming out October 9 on Circle Into Square.  Checking out albums like this- Portland act, Portland recorded, Portland label, unhipster- is exactly what Crappy Indie Music was made for.

If there is such a thing as the "Portland sound" as I understand it, Sidereal Time has it.  Sure, the songs are low-key pop with a wistful vocal sound- think Mark Oliver Everett- and prominent acoustic guitar elements, but we also hear harps, glockenspiel, banjo (provided by the legendary Josh Millard) and more.  Mind you, I realize this is not a new technique.  Everyone from half-assed garage acts to slick and soulless big label projects have a zither and a hurdy gurdy or whatever, but sometimes an album is more than the sum of its parts.  The lyrics are smart without being "clever" and cute without being "twee", but where Sidereal Time stands out is a ... darkness.  Sometimes it's obvious, in songs with deep drones or layered field recordings, but other times seemingly only implied.  Surely I don't have to tell you that for a work of art to possess a certain mystery is nothing but good.

So have a listen to Sidereal Time, and pick it up on the 9th.  The Harvey Girls will be playing a release show on October 13th at the Record Room, backed by Rllrbll (I can hear Goldie squeeing now!) and Wow/Flutter.  This is neither the full THG studio sound, or Hiram's lone shoegaze, but a sort of THG power prog trio.  Sounds like a spicy meatball to me!

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Musical Tourniquet: Meeting your bandmate for the first time after lengthy internet collaboration

Heh, sorry Eriq. A quick riff on the title of your excellent series was unavoidable.

As it turns out, the meeting of the minds went quite well. While of course Murphy's Law was in full effect for us (my wife got ill, baby needed watching, my bandmate Shreya lost her wallet and had to use public trans to find it), the only thing that really affected the rock was coffee. Our rehearsal was held in the well-esteemed space known as my mom's living room. I offered to make coffee, got mugs out and water boiling, then when I cracked open the container of Folger's Brazilian Roast on the counter, I discovered it was actually compost. Blargh! Probably for the best, it was Folger's after all, and the word 'Brazilian' has too strong of a butthole-related non-coffee connotation for me anyway.

The big B advises that all component things fall apart, and this is certainly true of music projects in the short term. A number of our s had their electronic parts tracked live, and once we tried them in person we moved them into a more guitar/bass/vocal friendly minimal format. Which is fine for these first upcoming shows, until I can work in the mindbending psychedelic audience participation bits and whatnot. All in all, a good feeling. I hope all the long-distance projects that come to fruition out there get to have positive bandmate experiences like I did. It's important, when you're a man of a certain age, that your band respect the boundaries of your family, but also must balance out on the other end with a healthy dose of sweet occult awesomeness.

Coeur Machant is playing Friday April 10th at Le Voyeur in Olympia, with The Harvey Girls, Cool Scool, Estocar, and Live Action Culturez. Show is free. We continue our short-ass tour with The Harveys at Bob's Java Jive in Tacoma, also with Tune-yards and Quinn. $5.

Simultaneously, so you don't think I only pimp myself, Salem has decided to try and neutralize my high school image of it ("Do you mind if I tax those Docs?" "Yes! NO. Wait... shit. What's the correct answer?") by staging the Cherry City Music Festival that weekend. There is a cubic ass-ton of bands, many of whom are quite good. Check out cherrycitymusic.com for more details.

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I love The Harvey Girls!

Here is a super cute new video from my new favorite pop/experimental/electronica band, The Harvey Girls. The song is called Hey, Little Sprout!. It's off of the album Nutate:


Hey, Little Sprout! from the harvey girls on Vimeo.

Long story short:

In mid-December/early January I had a major electronic music baptism. I discovered IDM, Warp Records, more trip-hop (remember when I heard Massive Attacks Mezzanine for the first time last spring?) and more ambient. Inspired by all things experimental and electronica I started brainstorming about putting some shows together. I started an email correspondence with Hiram Lucke of The Harvey Girls. The Harvey Girls and I have been Myspace friends since they moved to Portland in 2006 but I had not listened to one of their full albums. Hiram sent me a link to their latest album called Nutate and an earlier release The Wild Farewell. These albums were the culmination of all the crazy bands I had just started listening to and some old time favorites as well. I was SO PSYCHED. Not only did I find a new genres that I love, I found a Portland band that I love!

Here is a less cute and more gory video from The Harvey Girls. The song is Don't Go Stop also off of Nutate:


Don't Go Stop from the harvey girls on Vimeo.

If you know of any other bands that are in the same vein please let me know! Especially if they are from Portland. -- Ste. Goldie

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