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Harlem is a band that almost dares you to take them seriously. Their live shows are riddled with a stoned and unruly disaffection, hilarious insults leveraged at the audience and themselves, and an at times chaotic ravaging of the stage. And while their music is rock solid, loaded with infectious hooks and an impressive retro garage-pop bounce, it’s as if the Austin trio wants to draw you in only to frustrate any of those expectations. It may be a well-crafted and calculated approach, designed to loosen the audience from hipster stoicism and revel in their abandon. Yet no matter how great Harlem’s songs are (and Hippies is indeed packed with fantastic songs), the band seems determined to undermine any essential timelessness of their sound. Harlem is incredibly talented, tight, and smart, but damned if they’re going to let you think that they care about any of those things.
The opening shot of “Someday Soon” sets up the 16 songs of their sophomore effort almost perfectly, kicking off with Michael Coomers crooning in utmost sincerity: “Someday soon you’ll be on fire, And you’ll ask me for a glass of water. I’ll say ‘no, You can just let that shit burn.’” The elongated “no-oooo” digs its heels into a perfect garage R&B, which is of course immediately undercut with verse’s closing line. Swooning into the harmony surged chorus, swelling with “Please, please, please put me out” against a hard drum beat and bass thrum, the song induces an unavoidable head-bopping catchiness almost in spite of itself. For all of Harlem’s tongue-in-cheek antics, it’s delicious stuff.
Likewise, the rolling jangle of “Friendly Ghost,” with Curtis O’Mara’s straining yelp and howl, is instantly undeniable, while the slacker fuck-off “Spray Paint” curves into more jagged territory. Yet the songs also don’t rest on their simple frameworks, either; the former shifts its almost jungle rhythm into a few quick bars of odd, warped guitar licks two-thirds through, while the latter muddies the shouted vocals and launches into a rough rush of a guitar solo.
There’s a lot of Black Lips kicks to Harlem’s sound, as well as the Violent Femmes, and both bands could serve as touchstones for the throwback style and irreverent tone. “Be Your Baby” dances around the edges of the Femmes’ “American Music,” while backhandedly pitching woo by advising “If I could be your darlin’, You just gotta stop fallin’, For all the bullshit I give you.” “Gay Human Bones” is nearly indecipherable in its vocals and meaning, but delivers a minimally licked guitar line, upbeat pulse and handclaps that can’t help but capture your attention.
Hippies laps in a kind of proto-punk, pop reverie, slapping typical angst and heartbreak with a winking acknowledgement of knowing better, or not really caring in the end anyway. The hilariously Shins-ian “ooh-ooh-oohs” that opens “Tila and I” is practically mocking, especially as they jump into the punctured rhythm and teenage malaised, bored refrain of “I just don’t know what I’m gonna do.” The closing double bill of “Pissed” and “Poolside” seems to balance the band’s two sides; “Pissed” growls out the bitter “Tell your mama, tell your pa, Tell everybody that you ever saw, I’m coming home and I’m gonna be kinda pissed,” against “Poolside’s” janglier overtures at half-assed love.
If there’s one drawback to Hippies it is that although the album clocks in at a healthy 40 minutes, unloaded across 16 quick shot bursts some of the songs aren’t as able to stand out as well as they could and should on a more concentrated effort. Harlem keeps the arrangements diverse enough to not exactly blend together - alternating between roiling percussive waves like “Torture Me”, deceptively sweet Sixties pop rehashings like “Cloud Pleaser”, and exuberant contorted explosions like “Faces” that could rival White Denim. Yet there is so much to work through on the album that it’s difficult to digest everything that Harlem is doing throughout, especially as the trio has a knack for presenting themselves as careless and ambivalent.
Yet don’t be fooled. Hippies is easily one of this year’s best releases out of Austin, with the band far surpassing their solid debut, Free Drugs, and stepping up their effort to match the quality of their new label – all while impressively acting as if they put in no effort at all.
Mp3 from Hippies:
Friendly Ghost
Website:
Myspace
