Friday, April 13, 2012

HARLEQUIN - Tape - 2006

   This tape has been sitting untouched on my shelf for years; sad, lonely and dusty. It had a case of mistaken identity and was banished to a dark corner with all of the other tapes that have been unloved for varying amounts of time. You see, I saw HARLEQUIN years ago in Indiana at a little art gallery and I thought they were great. The band had a moody, dark atmosphere about them and they reminded me of some of the arty punk that I had so desperately been missing while living in that little town. Also, I wasn't sure if I had ever seen a band that consisted of just two violas and drums that made me wanna freak out this hard....or if I'd ever seen a band like that, period. Needless to say, I bought their tape and was excited to listen to it. I'm not sure what happened in my brain when I pressed "play" all those years ago, but it must have said something close to "No! Turn this off now! This is terrible and nothing like the band sounded live! Don't ever listen to this again!!"
    Fast forward to the present. I decided to take this tape down off the shelf and I was taken back to their dark, angular moodiness all over again. My 2006 brain was completely wrong and this tape has not enjoyed the full life that it deserves. Through ten songs, HARLEQUIN weaves in and out of hardcore, punk, wild times, somber reflections and weird artiness....and all without vocals. I love it. Maybe you will too.

2 comments:

veganboyjosh said...

i wrote up a long comment about how i only download bands i'm familiar with, but blogger/chrome ate it.

suffice it to say, you rule, Greg, and i'm downloading this now.

thank you.

Anonymous said...

this tape is sooo sick, thank you for uploading it!