Where is the LOVE for HARVEY MILK?

finally picked up *the pleaser* reissue and the *my love is higher than your assessment of what my love could be* reissue. loving the milk. the pleaser being their approximation of a cock rock album. they just rule every which way.

hey i almost forgot that i actually wrote about the last album for a lovely southern news weekly:

http://www.knoxvoice.com/arts-amp-entertainment/rotations/harvey-milk-31.html

worth seeing live?

amazon says this is the cover for the new one lol

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NZzc0AFNL._SS500_.jpg

New album is terrific as usual. Never seen live but I think theyre playing uk in july?

I would kill to see them live, live bonus tracks i've heard sound wonderfully brutal. so so great

ha they cover a fear song

them live circa '96 was a total mind fuck.

I love this band so much. here's a little exchange on the new album taken from the rolling metal thread (I may be full of beans):

new harvey milk is cool but I have to admit that I was hoping for a little more. I mean, it's a really solid, sludgy hard rock record with lots of neat little touches and I'm sure I'll like it more and more each listen...

BUT. nothing on the new record really comes close to the last two tracks on special wishes. I really liked the sequencing on special wishes - the songs all fit together in a way that made them seem of a piece, and of course, in a way that set you up to be floored by the last two. the new one is a fine, FINE collection of songs but I'm not getting the emotional oomph out of it that I was hoping for.

all the classic rockin' guitar leads are cool, though. really looking forward to seeing them live in a few weeks.

-- Alan N, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 13:53 (2 days ago) Link

"BUT. nothing on the new record really comes close to the last two tracks on special wishes."

how could anything anywhere come close to those songs though. it would be almost impossible and i wouldn't ask that of any band. i'll be happy with the new album even if it's not as great as special wishes. i kinda became obsessed and in love with special wishes in a way that would be hard to duplicate. so i won't try.

-- scott seward, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 18:53 (2 days ago) Link

true dat. my own fault for building this thing up in my head, really. but I still can't shake the feeling that the record lacks some the emotional heft I was hopping for. like a song or two that just leaves me reeling. and, even if it is my fave and just monumental all around, it isn't only special wishes that has this effect on me! I mean, 'anvil will fall' and the cover of 'the old revolution' are just beautiful songs, for instance. on two listens, nothing hits me that way yet.

I should stop whining, tho. it happens. and I don't hold that against the pleaser, for instance.

-- Alan N, Thursday, 5 June 2008 02:06 (Yesterday) Link

anyway, I should really listen to this thing some more. that was just my GUT talking.

special wishes has got to be my fave "band reunion" album ever. not that there's realy all that much competition!

Anyone else going to the Supersonic festival in Birmingham in July? I'll be seeing them there and they were one of the biggest draws for me; I'm not a huge fan as yet, but I'm very very interested to see them live.

Pretty into this, special mention for 'Skull Socks And Rope Shoes' if only cos it's the track where, instead of sounding like they're standing on the sidelines laughing at others' folly (I mean this in a complimentary way), they just fucking DIVE IN to a big sea of sludge and sewage. In answer to the above question, I'm going to Supersonic and I will bang a head to this I think

Singer dude has a new single out

They brought it last night in Athens. I was amused beforehand to see Kyle Spence nail his bass drum to the stage, but it made sense when they started playing.

I never saw the 90's incarnation of the band, but this didn't feel anything like a reunion act running through the motions. Joe Preston of the Melvins is with them now on guitar.

About the new album and the line-up changes:
The Best Game in Town

Impossible to categorize. UK folks, go see them in July.

two weeks till the milk. two weeks till the milk...cannot fucking wait. especially with joe preston on board.

the new album is a funny one though. first track is awesome beyond belief, and the rest certainly pushes all my brutal buttons, but it has less of the awkwardness, gentleness and sheer sense of oddness that set them apart from other sludgy doom-type people.

I feel like I understood this album straight away, 'cause it's pretty obviously METAL. whereas I've never really gotten my head around what 'special wishes', 'my love...', and 'courtesy...' really are - and that's what I love about them.

Just playing the new album at home for the first time and it sounds awesome on the stereo here. Really powerful. I wish that I'd put it on earlier though, so that I could crank it some more.

Less than a week to go till Supersonic, I'm extra psyched now.

new album rules. not as much as special wishes, but hey, I'm over it.

anyone else see them a few weeks ago at the knitting factory (the ny one)? they were so weird. seemed like they were totally wasted and they were taking a RIDICULOUS amount of time between songs! they kept tuning and chatting amongst themselves for what seemed like 2-4mins at the end of every freakin song! it was really weird.

they were pretty tight when they were actually playing, tho.

I'll keep listening, but so far this is what I think (will revise/add if/when nec.) Posed a couple weeks ago on
http://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com
Athens GA's "Dirge Lords" Harvey Milk's new Life...The Best Game In
Town is indeed movin' slow as Uncle Joe at the station. And too much
so. At times. It seems. But. Then. There. Is. This:

The infernal night wind of "Skull Sock And Rope Shoes" bumps hanging
gardens against the ziggaraut, as if demanding entrance to the sealed
heart of mercy; and the desert is so dry it comes walking like a man
into the city of storms, seeking a drop this golem can actually feel;
though chiromancers rain lightning, still he sways! Til falls through
the white light of Milk--and is reborn as "Motown," tip-toeing,
stomping wine from the decline of the mighty Mississip'--no lie, this
is Southern Rock 2008 A.D., the great Southern migration to and from
Motor Murder City and thus(bobbing up in the wake of "We Destroy The
Family") kinda sweet: "So I'm almost growwwn, and I mus' sleep
aloooone"--cast from thee bosom of thy family? Hold fast bwah, it's
only forever! And then...

these guys were awses last nite, esp this guy

http://www.kissfaq.com/albums/melvin_joe_poster.jpg

ANVIL!

Saw them at Supersonic on Saturday. Above dude was basically the first person I saw when I came in but I didn't really know what any of them looked like aside from Joe Preston so just thought to myself, heavens that gentleman looks like a serious acid casualty. Then I went to watch them play and there he was! In conjunction with his bandmates he absilutely rinsed it. What a fucking band.

I hosted Harvey Milk, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth (Tad's new band), Rabbits, and Iommi Stubbs in Portland last night.

Such an EPIC and HEAVY lineup.

You all need to hear Tad's new shit. He's wearing the YOB influence on his sleeve (literally).

why am i just getting around to listening to "life ... the best game in town"? so good

Been listening to Harvey Milk for the first time today, they're great, have to get a copy of "Life..."!

i'm loving these guysx so much right now. the singles comp is just gods honest truth amazing. i saw spiers i think doing an acoustic set at aquarius in san francisco a few moths ago, he covered leonard cohen and god knows what else, i t was pretty cool

The solo 7" sounds like "Cinderella Backstreet" - in other words, totally unexpectedly fuckin amazing.

rfi: harvey milk dvd doco - i was watching it on ebay and it got bid up to $71 while i was out. anyone know where i can find one? it seems hard to locate.

I wish i had bought that dvd when it came out

kerr:

http://www.insound.com/search/searchmain.jsp?query=harvey+milk

oh wait

http://www.insound.com/Harvey_Milk_Anthem_DVD/productmain/p/INS30487/

Thanks, but the dollar is killing the pound ATM and it's xmas time. I will bookmark it for after xmas though!

ok it's on backorder, so not really available

ahhh. It's probably OOP. If I see anywhere selling it I will let you know.

kerr, come to chatz

http://www.capsule.org.uk/shop/all_products/harvey-milk-live-at-supersonic-clear-vinyl

This performance destroyed - I really need to get this

that joe preston solo album is probably the worst thing to have the word Melvins written on it.

new album streaming on ... NPR?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126561366

From something for which I started this thread to the polar opposite -- sonic air freshener for
the so-called NPR-listening umc snob/intelligentsia demographic. In five long years of toil.

I really like this new one. I was concerned since the descriptions indicated they were going back to their old sound, and I loved "Life ... The Best Game in Town." The new one does have the sparser, less catchy sound of their old stuff but still has some striking melodic (even pretty) moments.

Harvey Milk is one of the best bands of any genre out there right now. So powerful, so amazingly gorgeous, brilliant musicians without ever sounding stiff or mechanical. Life... just completely blasted my mind out & the s/t recent release is perhaps just as good. Long may they melt face.

kinda bummed that life...the best game in town is generally acknowledged (hereabout) as weak sister to special wishes. i grant the greatness of the latter, but life... is an incredible album. love how it combines elements of everything they'd done prior - anguished sludge, classic rock & leftfield experimentation - without ever treading water or rehashing past glories. SW ends on an incredible high, but i prefer life... as a front-to-back listen.

Oh yeah - I can't imagine anyone thinking Life... is weak compared to ANYTHING. It doesn't mean anything's wrong with Special Wishes, but Life... just kills it. That intense Neil Young meets Melvins guitar solo in [I beleive] the 1st song completely plowed me under. I listened to that track 3 or 4 times before proceeding to the rest of the disc.

i was sort of under the impression that Life... was considered their masterpiece? it got great reviews when it came out and a lot of praise around here anyways. i have super high hopes for the new one

It wasn't well received by older (elitist) fans, although I did like it a lot. It wasn't quite as good as Special Wishes but it was still great. For some reason harvey milk got a lot of the anti nigel metal backlash from a lot of tossers.

Their masterpiece is Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men. I would feel weird recommending it outright because I have never experienced such gravity at a record's center. I was depressed for weeks.

ok i can see that, and me liking it only strengthening same tossers argument... i like courtesy a lot too though, it's just a more harrowing listen

xp!

Courtesy is a masterpiece,and my fave, but yeah not a place to start someone off at.

I should also add that there is no bad Harvey Milk record. I'm about to listen to the new one and I'm frightfully unprepared.

It's a tad more like older stuff, and those who didn't like life.... seem to like it more, but no doubt elitist tossers wont change their mind.

Compared to these guys, most doom metal is fun-filled fantasy. In the destructive element immerse.

I really cant be bothered with that whole "its our clubhouse we dont want that kind of listener liking our genre of music" which you seem to get in most genres of music now.

"how dare art infiltrate our music"

yeah, courtesy is generally held up as the masterpiece, and that's where i came in (bought a used copy about 10 years ago). while i respect its intensity and invention, i can't call it my favorite. it's just too unrelentingly harsh and despairing.

just notices that harvey milk occur in the metalest section of my tiny lp collection: hammers of misfortune, harvey milk, hawkwind, hellacopters, helloween, high on fire...bracketed by halo of flies and robyn hitchcock.

Speaking of Courtesy, I just found a limited to 1000 CD issue on Reproductive Records and I'm wondering how rare it is. Listening to it currently for the first time.

You answered your own question

Well I know technically 1000, but I didn't know if anyone knew how desired this issue is. I only know so much about the band.

is it the version tUMULt licensed in 2000?

It looks that way, yeah. Digipak.

nice score!

Thanks! I'm enjoying the album so far.

It's great. I should think that cd is worth a lot more than you paid for it.

Yeah. I was happy to learn it seems to be the favorite among many fans.

lately i find myself walking around the workplace whistling the intro to "death goes to the winner"

,e too

This fucking band.

...is no more.

They split(again)?

?

Yeah, looks like it, at least for now:

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2012/12/harvey-milk-calls-it-quits/

well shit. though it seems framed more as ambiguous time off than "breaking up"

also this is a terribly written sentence: "Like Melvins, to whom they owe a debt, Harvey Milk stood alone in a style full of sound-alikes."

Has anyone heard this?

http://www.thrilljockey.com/thrill/Music-Blues/Things-Havent-Gone-Well#.U7xJPUBiV8N

Haven't yet, but I am curious.

I am still so mad at myself for sleeping on Harvey Milk for so long, a great band.

I just remembered I own the ANTHEM DVD! I need to watch it again.

oh shit i need to order that

the HM show at the triple rock last year(? maybe 2 years ago?) was easily in my top 5 all time.

also i really envy owners of the anthem dvd

I did not go to the Triple Rock show cuz I had to go to an awful Thurston Moore show with my wife that was so boring we walked out of.

Kill me.

I saw them in Chicago, I'm guessing on that same tour, and it was so awesome.

I'm sad their official page is no longer up because they had the best t-shirts for sale.

http://www.grubstreet.com/2014/08/stephen-tanner-el-cortez-interview.html

Thanks for reminding me to listen to the Music Blues album.

Sounds unsurprisingly like an instrumental Harvey Milk album. Pretty good.

Music Blues is playing on WFMU this afternoon during Brian Turner's show (3-6 p.m.).

It's definitely not as good as Harvey Milk proper, but I like it. The punchline at the end of "The Price is Wrong" is the hardest I've genuinely lol'd at a song in years.

Christmas Eve with our tree smiles saving big for last our secret secret we shared I am Santa Claus. Warm blankets on knees on couch snow and The Simpsons surprised by a my so called life marathon when I think of all of the little moments in my life I have despised I am alive and it’s good to because life is the best game in town and death goes to the winner I am alive and it’s good to be alive

justice for a small turn of human kindness on decade lists

i miss harvey milk