Reviews
Me Climb Mountain in The
Rocket
“Ba
na na na na” sing the members of Harvester on their album closer, “Pequod.”
It’s a big sing-along number, so they sing it again.
And again. They sing
it until you think you’ll go insane, then they stop.
Then they start up again. In
concert, they jump up and down, stick out their tongues and generally
act like the most ridiculous rock parody this side of Spinal Tap.
What’s so weird about this is that Harvester aren’t a Dead
Milkmen-like joke band. On
the rest of Me Climb Mountain, their major label debut, Harvester are a
laidback, folk-rockin’, rural soundin’, occasional fiddle usin’,
low-tech ensemble. Northern
Californian-turned-Portlander Sean Harrasser writes catchy melodies
(even that “Ba na na” thing would be catchy and not preposterous if
they sang it four times instead of four dozen) and sets them to some
weird but evocative lyrics: “My skin feels like a fruit roll pasted to
the vinyl seat.” The
elements of a great album are here, but you might not notice if you’re
stuck on the “Ba na na.”
- William Crain
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