The members of Austin band Harlem doesn’t take themselves too seriously. A quick peek at their Matador band biography will give you that as the first line is “jack the ripper was sitting in his kitchen idly fingering through recipes when the idea of naming a rock and roll band harlem first came to him.” A sentence so stripped down you’d think it was coming onto you if you’d had a few beers. Harlem don’t have time for capital letters, facts, or a concern for their own history and would rather make entertain you than inform you.
This disregard for history does not carry over to their second album, Hippies, but their need to entertain you does. Harlem has crafted a fine forty minute set of garage rock done just the way you like it, even if you don’t like garage rock. Every song has fun, bouncy melodies a slightly fuzzed out guitar tone, and production pushes most of the work to the treble.
As an album, Hippies eases people into the world of Harlem with two songs that just dip a toe into the genre trappings letting listeners test the waters before diving in. “Someday Soon” and “Friendly Ghost” are both clear, upbeat mid-tempo bouncers with typical “dirty clean” production interchanging puppy dog love lyrics with a sort of imagery that could easily be found in psychobilly contemporaries done with a smile rather than a menacing rictus.
Though the band is not adverse getting muddy with a handful of strong songs that expand the sound and structure of other album tracks. “Torture Me” with its barely perceptible shouted back-up lyrics, xylophone accompaniment and brown acid freak out ending makes it probably my favorite song on the album. Other songs such as “Cloud Pleaser” and “Pissed” move along with the same rhythmic intensity found in proto rock-n-roll pulling more from country and western tradition rather than The Stooges. “Three Legged Dog” which has a temperate sound that sounds like a west coast post-surf outtake.
If you changed the chords and production by a hair, you’d the kind of pop punk album that wouldn’t be lost on 1990s Fat Wreck Chords, and if you changed the hint of menace from playful to actual, you’d end up with something you would probably find on Ken Rock Records, which should give you an idea of how well the band manages the balancing act of providing accessible garage rock without pushing away people who are already fans of the genre.
Harlem’s Hippies displays a versatile band with a strong musical vocabulary having fun making music. Like the best of entertainers you can’t help but be swept up in that joy of expression. This is a very enjoyable album. Fun without being twee. Diverse without being unfocused. Get this because you’ll want to have a great go to album for this summer and you probably won’t find something more crowd pleasing than this.