New album, out May 18. The songs flow together? Can't wait.

Holy shiiiiiiit. I'm in the "fucking pumped" category. Been listening to a lot of Harvey Milk's rich catalog lately.

This being a Harvey Milk album and all, it will most certainly be one of the best things I've ever heard.

Perfect, perfect fucking band.

that really hits the nail on the head. perfect.

they're the only band that sounds like Harvey Milk.

They're just everything that a rock band should be. Every fuckin' thing.

Oh man

I'll be all over this sucker.

cool news indeed, but i definitely voted for i'm gay. because its funnier.

During the first couple months of this year I have been just obsessed with Special Wishes. One of those albums where I knew I would love it but still couldn't really fathom what that love would actually feel like until I truly experienced it. Fan-fucking-tastic LP.

Yeah, I've enjoyed the greatness that is Life...The Best Game in Town since 2008. But for some reason I didn't take the initiative to assess the Harvey Milk back catalog until recently. I've been playing Special Wishes a bit lately and it is indeed quite excellent! They are actually a much more consistent band than I would have guessed based on the seemingly out-of-left field adulation for Life...TBGIT.

very excited (and gay) for this new album.

but quite bummed that i am going to miss their SubT show.

tracklist, btw;

1. *
2. I Just Want To Go Home
3. I Am Sick of All This Too
4. I Know This Is No Place For You
5. I Alone Got Up and Left
6. I Know This Is All My Fault
7. I Did Not Call Out

Awesome, had no idea this was coming. Love those song titles.

This should be amazing.

Every song title begins with "I". Clearly an homage to The Magnetic Fields' i. Will Harvey Milk's cover of "The Luckiest Guy On the Lower East Side" be available as a Best Buy EXCLUSIVE?

But seriously, I'm fucking pumped and I feel I have enough information to declare this "AOTY".

^________^

Paves' post in the now playing thread inspired me to crank "Special Wishes" out again. It's fucking good, let me tell you.

pretty sure my wife took my headphones when she went to Berkeley this morning. gone for two days. pretty pissed, because I'd really like to give SPECIAL WISHES a good listen.

seeing them live tomorrow. all i know is life. what should i expect?

I don't know how much they'll be relying on the songs from the upcoming record at this point, but they did play "Motown" second last time (July) and closed with "Death Goes To The Winner."

And the performance was fucking phenomenal. Heavy as shit and the dudes themselves are just awesome. I don't know. Hope you have a good time.

Bought my ticket last night!

I really like Harvey Milk because they nail the John Bonham drum sound--almost to perfection. Like...way better than most other bands who try to rip off the John Bonham drum sound. The drums are just as heavy and in your face as the guitars and bass. Which is exactly how it should be mixed. Life... is one of the better sounding hard rock recordings I've ever heard.

These guys are definitely in the top tier of my "need to see live" list.

Seeing these guys and Coalesce at the same show should be something from another planet. Stoked.

Absolutely.

It's like fuck, man, throughout my life I grew so used to bands who try to appropriate classic rock influences just being middle school wieners in oversized Jimi Hendrix t-shirts playing this sort of pseudo Phish garbage so when I hear a band like Harvey Milk pull out one of their more tuneful less brutally pounding songs or see Earthless perform live (definitely had thoughts similar to your post swimming around my head during this) it just blows my fucking mind at how well dudes like that are able to legitimately channel what made Zeppelin so powerful in ways so many musicians indebted to those groups will never ever be able to grasp. Not just Zeppelin, but all the classic hard rock greats and of course the blues itself.

Special Wishes has been a real revelation in that regard. The southern rock elements that creep up during "Once In A While" and "The End" are just so spot on and natural. The fact that they can do all that and then turn around and completely pulverize the listener is so damn awesome.

Have any of you guys heard the remastered Weston Tapes yet? I think it trounces My Love...

Yeah, that release is awesome. I heard an even muddier copy before the CD came out so that stuff gets to be a revelation all over again.

"Anthem" might just have one of my favorite guitar solos ever. The musicianship shared between these guys makes me so jealous.

amped for this one...got my tea bag ready to swallow...

Yeah, these guys are special. And Spiers is a monstrous player. Tanner's liner notes are no joke - he could play all this shit in his sleep.

I'm just glad this band is back, and they have more resources and people behind them who really understand why they're so great. People love to hate hydrahead, but man, if nothing else for the chance to hear this new record and the last one and give them the packaging and distribution they deserve - they've done something great.

been listening to courtesy and goodwill and special wishes today as preparation for the show. i second whoever it was who mentioned their diverse back catalogue. this band is really something special. i love sludgy kind of metal, especially, but i love the little poppy moments that get through too. i guess i shouldn't have expected anything less based on life..., with the beatles nods and all. but still, damn, i slept on this band for way too long.

can't wait to smoke a huge joint and catch the bus down to this show now. coalesce, i'm still not sold on. but whatever. hope to enjoy their set too.

This is a pretty great article:

http://www.self-titledmag.com/home/2010/03...r-latest-album/

Alright, so I'm only familiar with this band's two "reunion" albums. Life... took me a couple listens to get a grasp on but quickly consumed my soul for weeks on end once I got into it. Special Wishes is also pretty damn good, but I'm pissed at myself for making the mistake of not listening beyond the first 3 tracks the first time I heard it, because that's when the album really opens up. Tricky bastards.

Anyway, someone recommend me their best album from the 90's. I need more music that sounds like this.

Courtesy and Goodwill Toward Men is a behemoth that I can't even begin to understand. It's a labyrinthine fucking record. That said, I've only listened to it on vinyl, so that could be part of the reason its so perplexing. Don't let that turn you off though because it's perplexing in the best of ways. I feel like I could listen to it for a year straight and not fully comprehend it or be able to anticipate what's going on. It's less straight forward than Life or Special Wishes, with a much more drawn-out type of sound.

I think My Love Is Higher Than Your Assessment of What My Love Could be is a bit easier than Courtesy, but it's still a dense, chewy record w/ all kinds of hidden pockets of excellence. On the whole, both of these records are darker and less humorous - if that makes sense - than Special Wishes & Life. You could ostensibly approach the latter two - although it might not be the best plan of attack - as song-based rock records; Courtesy & My Love don't offer the same ease of listening.


Which I hope doesn't turn you off in any way, because it's possible that I think of this band like this:

Courtesy
My Love
Special Wishes
Life

It's incredible that these guys are Harvey Milk

and tommy bahama on the left there is the singer!

This is hilarious.

"Put out by Hydra Head, who somehow managed to put their bongs down long enough to design a vinyl version that was so expensive to produce that we have to sell them for 30 bucks which barely covers the cost. Good thinking, guys."

Recommend checking out the Henry Owings write-up that they link to.

I had to play a show in Pilsen last night so I only made it to Subterranean for "Lay My Head Down," "A Maelstrom of Bad Decisions" (which felt way longer than the album version... a good thing), and the killer "I've Got A Love" encore. Elastico and I were drunkenly losing our shit in the back, maybe you saw us and were overcome with feelings of disgust.

It was still worth it just for that, though. Most definitely. Bummed as shit that I didn't get to 1) see the rest of the set, 2) stand up front, and 3) spend money on merch instead of a cab.

They'd better tour again soon. More than happy to give this band my money.

watching Harvey Milk with Elastic. Damn.

great night, no doubt

That was a great show, and I still can't hear very well. HM played a new song first-- that new album is going to be monstrous.

Also, that was the first time I saw Coalesce, and I've been listening to those dudes since middle school. To start off my night seeing Sean Ingram come out of Sultan's Market.. man, I knew they would be well fed for that set!

For weeks/months, I couldn't decide if I should go to the last night's SubT HM show or the Beat Kitchen Zola Jesus show. Then I wound up putting my decision off for such a long time that I kinda forgot either was happening. Then I remembered only upon seeing this thread, a few minutes ago. I spent last night alone, listening to records and watching The Exorcist. God fucking damn it.

Poor form, Rufio. You missed Harvey Milk accompanied by the collective smell of a mostly male crowd's testicles.

Here's a live set from a show in Cambridge, Mass last week. Excellent sound quality and they bust out a few new songs, which are of course incredible. Worth downloading for the first track alone. BRUTAL.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/bpnbsn

Fuck, I'm going to listen to that right now. After this Eyehategod CD ends.

Thanks man

Is that Drew Daniel? lol

Awesome recording.

The last 30 seconds are so goddamn hilarious and infuriating.

This is now streaming over at NPR of all places. This is some bleak brutal shit. Love it.

Also everyone should read this:
Harvey Milk Make an Album for One Angry Fan

Thanks for the alert. Yes, yes, yes.