Harlem - Hippies

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4...according to our Business Lady on Thu 22 Apr, 2010.

Harlem began life as a duo of duel vocalists Michael Coomers and Curtis O'Mara who switch between guitar and drums according to who wants to sing, they've recently employed the assistance of bassist Jose Boyer for there sixteen track debut on Matador. Having honed their skills in various dive bars and shoe box venues in their home state of Texas, Harlem exude a confident songwriting approach that touches on garage rock, indie pop and new wave in equal measures. Having a sound that is very much en vogue will no doubt help these folks garner attention in pitchfork circles and such so that gives you an impression of what to expect. Sorta like The Soft Pack or Lovvers but with that stripped down two piece approach. Certainly worth a listen.

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Pitchfork and Gorilla Vs Bear favourites Harlem make their Matador debut with the
sixteen track pop meisterwerk ‘Hippies’.

Led by dual vocalists Michael Coomers and Curtis O’Mara (the duo
switch between guitar and drums, both onstage and off) and
recently joined by bassist Jose Boyer, Harlem have already
generated a mountain of attention Stateside, both with their
fantastic live shows and their recorded output.

Relocating from Tucson, AZ to Austin, TX, Harlem first came to
people’s attention with their self-issued 2008 LP/CD, ‘Free
Drugs’.
· Pitchfork’s Roque Strew hailed it “a marvel of cartoonishly
masculine, crudely analog brevity”, Gorilla Vs. Bear considered it
to be “super infectious, instantly endearing”, and kindly supplying a
quote that we’ll gladly take out of context, the Austin Chronicle’s
Audra Schroeder has fallen prey to the album’s “anxious,
stuttering charm”.

It might all sound highly suspicious, but anyone who’s heard ‘Free
Drugs’ or witnessed Harlem laying waste to any number of shoebox
sized venues (some of which were, in fact, shoeboxes) can attest,
the band’s casual virtuosity is only eclipsed by their
otherworldly songwriting skills.

Harlem now make their Matador debut with ‘Hippies’, a sixteen
track pop meisterwerk, recorded with the assistance of Mike
McHugh, revealing the triumvirate to still be in fine fettle.

Tracklisting:

Someday Soon * Friendly Ghost * Spray Paint * Number One *
Be Your Baby * Gay Human Bones * Torture Me * Cloud
Pleaser * Faces * Tila & I * Three Legged Dog * Prairie My
Heart * Scare You * Stripper Sunset * Pissed * Poolside