Saturday 10 May 2008
Harlan condenses Appalachian folk and classic rock into three-minute
Brit-pop explosions. Harlan’s lyrics tell fractured stories wrapped
around synth hooks and AM radio guitar solos; a collision of styles
that is strikingly modern but with genuine feeling that reaches back
to a time when that sort of thing still mattered.
Harlan began when John Harlan Norris left his job at a Sotheby’s
warehouse in Spanish Harlem, NYC to spend time writing music and
painting in a mountain cabin in his native Kentucky. The cardboard
box of resulting four-track demos eventually became the Headphone Park
EP. Norris then moved to Louisiana to pursue an MFA in painting.
When he wasn’t in the painting studio, he was in the recording studio
putting together The Still Beat — an entirely self-produced debut LP
filled with lush guitars, keyboards, and Harlan’s distinctive voice; a
lazy vibrato that delivers razor sharp lyrics that are sometimes
heartfelt and sometimes cruel.
Now, Norris has assembled a band that injects the songs from The Still
Beat with a new sense of energy and urgency. Harlan now includes
Scott Campbell, Casey McAllister, John Bossier, and Britt King.