(Jose, Coomers and Curtis dealing with the elements at Fun Fun Fun last November. pic taken from Pooneh Ghana’s Flickr page)
In addition to a mid February trio of shows in New York City and a Feb. 6 appearance as part of Matador’s Casual Victim Pile revue at Austin’s Beerland, Harlem are pointing their compass in a western direction at the end of the month, previewing selections from their forthcoming ‘Hippies’ LP/CD/digital album. Or so we hope. We’re not really in the business of dictating repertoire, mostly because it’s embarrassing when we get the song titles wrong (admittedly, this doesn’t happen so often with Harlem, but keep in mind, they’re pretty new on the label). A video for “Friendly Ghost” will be unveiled pretty soon, once we’ve received a thumbs-up from the extremely powerful Ghost Lobby that tends to control most of the entertainment business.
Thu, 2/18 – Phoenix AZ – Trunk Space (tickets)
Fri, 2/19 – Los Angeles CA – L’KEG Gallery
Sat, 2/20 – Los Angeles CA – Spaceland (tickets)
Sun, 2/21 – San Diego CA – Casbah (tickets)
Tue, 2/23 – San Jose CA – Blank Club (tickets)
Wed, 2/24 – San Francisco CA – Cafe Du Nord – Noise Pop (tickets)
Fri, 2/26 – Portland OR – Dantes (tickets)
Sat, 2/27 – Seattle WA – Funhouse (tickets)
Wed, 3/3 – Santa Cruz CA – The Crepe Place (tickets)
Thu, 3/4 – Costa Mesa CA – Detroit Bar
Fri., 3/5 – Tucson, AZ – Club Congress (tickets)
(Preorder ‘Hippies’ on LP or CD for 15% before April 6 from The Matador Store – poster included)
In addition to their previously mentioned February 6 show at Beerland as part of the Casual Victim Pile festivities, Harlem are heading to the greater NYC area for what our pal Cronos might call “a promo tour” in mid February. Other activities that week may or may not include radio sessions, meetings with foreign dignitaries and a visit to one of those “Fame” high schools (but only if we can obtain permission first).
Wed, 2/10 – Mercury Lounge (early show) (tickets)
Fri, 2/12 – Monster Island (with Frankie + The Outs, The Siberians)
Sat, 2/13 – Union Pool -(with Jemina Pearl)
‘Hippies’ (LP/CD/digital album) is in stores and/or available via popular download services April 6.
As mentioned some months ago, the Austin, TX based trio Harlem had their summer vacation canceled by Matador Records and they ended being forced to work long hours at Costa Mesa’s Distillery in an effort to produce a worthy followup to 2008’s ‘Free Drugs’. Apparently, there are laws against this kind of thing and eventually, the band had to return to their glamorous lifestyle of making club gigs seem like living room shows (and living room shows feel like club shows with better furniture and cheaper drinks).
Now that the dust has cleared, however, the resulting 16-song pop meisterwerk, recorded with the assistance of Mike McHugh, reveals the triumvirate of Coomers, Curtis and Jose in fine fettle. The gents really “knocked it out of the park” as ice hockey fans are so fond of saying, but we remain hopeful, if not confident this album will have great appeal even for those of you who’ve never laced ‘em up. Harlem’s 2nd album, ‘Hippies’ hits North American record shops, farmers markets and digital storefronts on April 6 on the always popular LP, CD and MP3/FLAC configurations. Here’s a taste ;
Though Harlem’s early 2010 dates will be announced soon, we’d be remiss in not mentioning they’re playing Austin’s Emo’s tonight in support of labelmate Jay Reatard, and again on December 17 at the Mohawk with Crystal Antlers. There’s more news to follow very soon (pre-album 7″, videos to make, travel plans to book, tire pressures to check, etc.)
(l-r : Curtis, Coomers, Jose. Pics taken from Poptartgirl’s Flickr page)
OK, we’ve listed some of the dates below previously, but now we’ve got extensive CMJ activity for Harlem as well. If you’d like to argue that CMJ is part of America, well, that’s going to be a very long discussion between you and I.
While you’re mulling it over, Harlem have recently completed recording and mixing of their 2nd album at Costa Mesa, CA’s Distillery. For a while there was some suspicion we’d sent them to a real distillery, but all of the invoices checked out (and Chris Lombardi even swung by the place) and hopefully that’s the last of our label paranoia for a while. More details surrounding said album will be forthcoming soon.
Fri 10/2/09 Emo’s Austin TX with !!!
Sat 10/3/09 Saturn Bar New Orleans LA
Sun 10/4/09 Alabama Music Box Mobile AL
Mon 10/5/09 Sluggo’s Pensacola FL
Tue 10/6/09 Will’s Pub Orlando FL
Thu 10/8/09 Sweat Records Miami FL
Fri 10/9/09 New World Brewery Ybor City/Tampa FL
Tue 10/13/09 Nightlight Chapel Hill NC
Wed 10/14/09 Talking Head Baltimore MD
Thu 10/15/09 Johnny Brenda’s Philadelphia PA
Sat 10/17/09 Scion Garage Rock Festival Satyricon Portland OR
Tue 10/20/09 Santos Party House New York NY
Wed 10/21/09 Maxwells Hoboken NJ
Fri 10/23/09 Vice Party @ Public Assembly Brooklyn NY
Sat 10/24/09 After The Jump Party @Brooklyn Bowl Brooklyn NY
Tue 10/27/09 DC 9 Washington DC
Wed 10/28/09 JJ’s Bohemia Chattanooga TN
Thu 10/29/09 Hal & Mals Jackson MS
Fri 11/6/09 Fun Fun Fun Fest Austin TX (with Shearwater, Times New Viking, Fucked Up, Mission Of Burma, DRI)
Careful, there’s a rather large kick drum at the top of that ramp. “South Of France” from ‘Free Drugs’, as performed on the Snickers-tastic Daily Habit (thanks to Gabe for the link)
If you’re looking for a weekend fest roughly three weeks after Goner 6 and a week before Budget Rock 8, you could do worse than the above event. It could the greatest car-company sponsored event of all-time (though admittedly, I would struggle to name the 2nd and 3rd place finishers).
Austin, TX trio Harlem spent much of August hard at work on their forthcoming 2nd album (and Matador debut) at Costa Mesa, CA’s Distillery. Though they’ve returned to said studio for additional work, Coomers, Curtis and Jose will be hitting the road again very shortly. Despite how we’re prevented from sharing any of the new Harlem songs with you at this early stage, the band have carefully documented the recording process and their recent travels thru a series of explicit snapshots at their MySpace page.
Sep 4 La Cave, Costa Mesa, California
Sep 24 Rubber Gloves ,Denton, Texas (with Monotonix)
Sep 26 Super Happy Funland, Houston, Texas (with Monotonix)
Oct 2 Emo’s (Outside) Austin, Texas (with !!!)
Oct 3 Saturn Bar, New Orleans, Louisiana
Oct 4 Alabama Music Box, Mobile, Alabama
Oct 5 Sluggo’s, Pensacola Florida, Florida
Oct 6 Will’s Pub, Orlando, Florida
Oct 9 New World Brewery, ybor city, Florida
Oct 13 Nightlight, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (with Spider Bags and Pinche Gringo)
Oct 14 Talking Head Club, Baltimore, Maryland
Oct 15 Johnny Brenda’s Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Oct 17 garage fest ’99 , Satyricon, Portland, Oregon
Oct 20 Santo’s Party House, New York, New York
Oct 29 121 Studios Jackson, Mississippi
