I've got to be honest, I know very little about Harvey Danger, but the American band did produce one of the great lost singles of the last ten years.
OK, by 'lost' I mean that it wasn't a huge hit, it reached no.57 in the UK chart. It got played a lot on XFM in London that summer, where I was working during university holidays, going to gigs and spending far too much money in Rough Trade.
I feel a bit bad, I've not really followed the band since (they're still going, as their website tells you), but this is a real gem of a song. Trying to sum it up earlier, this thought occured to me:
'The Wonderstuff forged a distinctive sound that was a mix of folk and punk, yet owed nothing (to these ears at any rate) to the likes of The Men They Couldn't Hang or the Pogues. Whatever it was, Harvey Danger took a similar blueprint and mixed it with Pavement, then produced a fantastic song.'
I'm sure a lot of people won't hear the Wonderstuff connection. Then again, I always thought the New Radicals' 'You Get What You Give' sounded like The Waterboys, so what do I know...
Harvey Danger -'Flagpole Sitta.' mp3
Harvey Danger website/Harvey Danger myspace
7 comments:
ed ya fanyon, it's the theme tune from peepshow. also, the guy from the new radicals also wrote "rollercoaster", a hit for ronan keating. don't you know anything???
hope you enjoyed the fall show/gig/concert
yes, I knew about the Ronan Keating connection, but don;t think that had anything to do with the comment I made!
the gig was great, thank you!
Hello Ed, I had bought this album at the time. It was the next big thing on the college radio in the state. But it wasn't.
The New Radicals sounding like The Waterboys? I thought that too! Still one of my favourite songs from that time - Xfm played it for months before it got released over here...
Love the Harvey Danger song too although that's only over time, wasn't keen on it originally...
Great blog as ever!
Andrew
I was living in the States when this came out and it was really a case of 'thank God there's something astounding to listen to'.
Still sounds as great as it did 10 years ago. Thanks for reminding me.. it will appear on a forthcoming 'Entrailicus remembers...' themed podcast.
This is one of those songs that gets me into trouble, as I find myself merrily singing along to it in public places, when no one should be inflicted with such a thing.
Funny, like the Laptop one, this seems to have struck a chord with people.
Always good!
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