Hippies is a flat-out wonderful album.  Hats off to the gents in Harlem.  

But thumbs down to me.  Harlem has done interviews where they claim Nirvana as their only influence, they do a mean cover of Goodbye Horses, and their album art (two seemingly homeless dudes killing it in a practice room) rocks.  Yet somehow, despite these unquestionable indicators of awesomeness, I was unprepared for the genius of this LP. 

The key to Harlem is that they’re a straight-ahead rock band:  they don’t traffic in difficult production values, math-rock time signatures, or vocals that “need to grow on you.”  They aren’t a pop band, an art-rock band, a post-rock band, or a shoegaze band.  Instead, Harlem tosses off what would be the very best hooks for bands like The Strange Boys or Ty Segall (or various other In The Red neo-garage groups), leaving behind the southern-fried, neo-hilbilly backwash that’s so popular these days as a symbol of authenticity.  Considering that Harlem is from Austin, it really makes the collard greens and black-eyed-peas schtick even harder for those other rock-and-rollers to justify. 

But, to paraphrase Reading Rainbow, the hell with what I have to say.  There are 3 great tracks for you below, listed roughly in order of my preference. Gay Human Bones in particular is an absolute monster of a track; there’s a solid crunch at the base of every guitar jangle, and the vocal harmonies (dare I say this in a post-incest world?) have shades of the Mamas and the Poppas.  

New Yorkers, I’ll see you next Wednesday at Mercury Lounge. 

• Gay Human BonesGay Human Bones
• Tila And ITila and I
• Friendly GhostFriendly Ghost