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Saturday, April 20, 2013

The Case for Harvey Danger

[First, a brief message: Yesterday I posted a blog that I had to take down for personal reasons.  If anyone read it during the hour or so it was up, I'd ask you to please email me at logicombat@gmail.com so I can explain]

Most of you probably have a vague recollection of a band called Harvey Danger.  They were a one-hit-wonder from the grunge era, and they had their fifteen minutes of fame with the song "Flagpole Sitta" (paranoia, paranoia, everybody's coming to get me...)
At some point in high school, before I got serious about collecting music, I signed up for one of those CD buying "clubs" that you used to see little cardboard tear-out ads for in magazines.  Anyone remember what I'm talking about?  Anyway, I got 10 CD for like a buck, I think, and one of the ones I got was the album Where Have All The Marrymakers Gone? by Harvey Danger.  I had heard "Flagpole Sitta" on the radio and in the preview for some I Know What You Did Last Summer-esque high school slasher flick and liked it, so I was glad to hear the rest of what the band had to offer.
Even at that tender age, I had an affinity for words that exceeded that of my peers.  And I was pleased to discover that Harvey Danger was a word-lover's band.  Their lyrics are clever, witty, observant and occasionally very funny, yet always though-provoking.  I devoured their first album, and for years it was an unusual cornerstone in a collection that was otherwise comprised solely of punk and metal.
Years went by and I never lost my love of this album.  It's another one of those records that's just great from start to finish, full of memorable hooks and lyrics.  Some of my favorite moments come in the songs "Private Helicopter" (I'm on a hovercraft to Paris with my former best friend/ we have to get to the cinimateque/we're not alone, but no one speaks English so we're free/to look into each other's minds and see what we're thinking like we always used to) and "Wooly Muffler" (All I ever thought we might come to was second dates and flirting eyebrows/or maybe even psychic friends/and we could share a secret language/ and almost definitely make more of it/than it was).  The whole album is packed with wordy, approachably cerebral lyrics like this, making them a band that any writer can appreciate.
Much later in life, I found out that the band had released two more albums and then unceremoniously broke up after wallowing in obscurity too long.  For the life of me, I can't figure out why this band didn't make it.  They may have been a bit more literate than the average band, but they delivered it all with such great melodies and pop-sensibility that I can't figure out why they didn't ever have another hit.  Talking Heads and The Smiths pulled off the library-punk ethos and had strings of hits and successful solo careers come out of their respective demises.  Harvery Danger's sound was rooted in grunge, but they eventually expanded to include more piano leads that remind me occasionally of Ben Folds, and their songs never lost their hook-laden appeal.  But possibly from a lack of proper management, possibly by the winds of chance, they never built up much of a national following and after a 10 year career they broke up as quietly as any band I've ever seen.
But I still go back and listen to King James Version to hear the rapid fire wit of "Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo" (not another existential cowboy/and no more California champagne/ not another saddle tramp, sick sore lonely and out of place/cryin' in his coffee ice cream)  and their final album Little By Little contains some major gems like "Cream and Bastards Rise" (you don't have to be a genius but it helps to/fools and charlatans thay may get wise/but only cream and bastards rise)  and "Little Round Mirrors" (there you are and now you're coming to stay until/you can find someone who will love you as much/as you love all your little round mirrors/murdering your time in cold blood/there's a hole in the middle you can't seem to fill).
Its a shame when a band this good passes so far below the radar.  Go out and find their albums, they're worth you time.

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