One that got away

I’ve got to be honest, I know very little about Harvey Danger, but the American band did produce one of the great lost singles of the last ten years.

OK, by ‘lost’ I mean that it wasn’t a huge hit, it reached no.57 in the UK chart. It got played a lot on XFM in London that summer, where I was working during university holidays, going to gigs and spending far too much money in Rough Trade.

I feel a bit bad, I’ve not really followed the band since (they’re still going, as their website tells you), but this is a real gem of a song. Trying to sum it up earlier, this thought occured to me:

‘The Wonderstuff forged a distinctive sound that was a mix of folk and punk, yet owed nothing (to these ears at any rate) to the likes of The Men They Couldn’t Hang or the Pogues. Whatever it was, Harvey Danger took a similar blueprint and mixed it with Pavement, then produced a fantastic song.’

I’m sure a lot of people won’t hear the Wonderstuff connection. Then again, I always thought the New Radicals’ ‘You Get What You Give’ sounded like The Waterboys, so what do I know…

Harvey Danger -‘Flagpole Sitta.’ mp3

Harvey Danger website/Harvey Danger myspace

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