I’m in a Harvey Milk kind of mood. A few days ago I ordered the newest Chunklet releases (a 300-copy limited re-issue of Courtesy And Good Will Toward Men and the first-ever vinyl edition of My Love Is Higher Than Your Assessment Of What My Love Could Be), and I’m anxiously awaiting their arrival. To tide me over, I’ve been listening to this live recording from the band’s recent summer tour. Remember when I saw them in LA? It was fucking amazing. An instant addition to my small list of best concerts ever. I’ve also been clicking through this Flickr album of photographs from the production process surrounding Courtesy. It looks like a true labor of love, and I guarantee the finished product is going to look amazing.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Harvey Milk, they are an experimental rock band that formed in Athens, Georgia in the early 1990s. Sadly, the band never received much attention outside of their local fanbase. They released a bunch of albums and singles. The band called it a day. It took many years, but people (like myself) eventually learned of the group and how amazing they were thanks to re-issues of their recordings. Now the band is back together, they recently released a new (epic!) album called Life… The Best Game In Town, and they’ve been touring a bunch. Their sound is often compared to the Melvins and Swans and slow, heavy shit like that, but they’ve also recorded two amazing Leonard Cohen covers (“One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong” and “The Old Revolution”) and performed a live show consisting of nothing but Hank Williams covers. It’s not “post-rock” and it’s not doom/sludge/drone…I just call it experimental rock or heavy rock. They’re amazing. Give ’em a chance. You’ll see.
Harvey Milk
June 27th, 2008
40 Watt Club; Athens, GA
Megaupload Download Link
Tracklist:
01. Crush Them All
02. Plastic Eggs
03. War
04. Shame
05. Probolkoc
06. A Maelstrom Of Bad Decisions
07. Death Goes To The Winner
08. The Anvil Will Fall
09. F.S.T.P.
10. I’ve Got A Love
11. Lay My Head Down
12. What I Want
13. Good Bye Blues
