Harvey Milk - Life... The Best Game in Town (2008)

Some people like to say "expect the unexpected." Those people are cliche-mongers and you shouldn't listen to them anymore. With this album, it's safe to say "don't expect anything," because the less you expect from it, the more you get out of it.

Let me explain: Harvey Milk is a fucking incredible band. When you were down in Athens checking out R.E.M these guys were rocking fucking faces with their down-tuned, "slow n' weird" sideshow doom. Forget sludge, these guys are more like goo; you don't know exactly what it is but it's ugly, moves slow, and you don't want it in your house.

The reason you can't expect anything from them is because you'll always get confused halfway through the album. Maybe you heard The Pleaser and you want some southern cock rock. Well there's a few of those on here, sure (Barnburner). Or maybe you heard Joe Preston played bass for them this time around and you were expecting some Melvins-inspired noise or sludge. Yeah, there's that too (Death Goes to the Winner, Decades) but you're really missing the point here...

Namely you're missing the math rock sludge ala Keelhaul in "After All I've Done, This is How You Repay Me?" Or the just plain bizarre slow rock of "Motown."

Don't put them down as a "genre-hopper" band though, there's always a "Harvey Milk" quality to all the music they put out that sounds uniquely them. This shit's not even really that challenging to listen to, so I don't wanna hear any complaining. Anyway, give it a shot, I think it's the best thing they've done since Courtesy

Harvey Milk - Life... The Best Game in Town (2008)

taken down by request

--fred