Harlem ▼ Hippies

Since creepin' out on 2008 with their album Free Drugs ;-) and the huge splash they made with Hippies, it became clear I couldn't very well keep putting off listening to the trash-punk duo from Austin any longer. So this week we have Harlem.

In all out honesty, when Harlem kicked it off with Free Drugs, I didn't really lionize them. It seemed like the type of music which you'd dance along to, only to be forgotten when the new week starts. Sure there were tracks like 'Beautiful & Very Smart' whose bass reminded me of Joy Division's Atmosphere, with more tempo and jumpyness. Other tracks include 'South of France', trashy yet not overdone, mainly due to the emphasis placed on vocals. The result is an enjoyable album with a couple of noteworthy tracks, but it felt more like they had to get thier shit together and 2 years (and a mexican drumman) later, we have Hippies.

Oh they got their shit together alright. My attention was encased in concrete with their very first downstroke guitar hook; Someday Soon continues on a very smooth and simplistic but takes a drastic turn as the track progresses, much like a roller coaster ride. The drums dole out constant rythms then yet again, they simmer the volume low, and picks it up till they live to their trash-punk name. Friendly Ghosts opens up a throbbing migrane of a drumline in the very best sense. Lyricwise they're a little eccentric, its hard not to be eccentric when you're devoting a punk song to Casper the friendly ghost.

I can't stand it, I'm so possessive ~ (oh i see what you did there @_@)
I wanna disappear all the time
Help me disappear, Tonight!

Transport us to the middle of the album, track 06 we have... Gay Human Bones! Does modern medicine be able to tell whether one was gay in their lives simply by judging the bones?! Hmm. Maybe i should get opt for cremation. Gay Human Bones, has a sweet hook going and when added with euphorically vocals makes for a catchy song. I can't, for the life of me figure out what exactly they're singing about but from the snippets i can make out, it's something about being alone, and a basketball team or so they tell me. Not sure what the relation is, too busy enjoying the track to care.




'My basketball teams name is gay human bones, we win most of the games we play at home.'

There's much other tracks I barely even touched upon, but I think they'd rather speak for themselves. The 16-track, is vaguely long for me, granted it they had a respite of 2 years to come up with new material but I'd rather they seperated it into medium sized bits, and toss a little more variety in it. All in all, Hippies was one of the albums I enjoyed out of 2010.



Time to get Hippies!
Try it here.
Buy it here.