Mud Is My Ally, by Harvester

Mud Is My Ally

by Harvester

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Compact Disc in jewel case with 4-panel booklet that includes lyrics and campy photographs.

Includes unlimited streaming of Mud Is My Ally via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Slow 03:57	buy track
2.	GE Softlight Canon 01:40	buy track
3.	Pendleton 04:06	buy track
4.	Next Time, I'm Taking the Elevator 01:49	buy track
5.	Girl 03:49	buy track
6.	This Dirt Don't Hurt 03:54	buy track
7.	Mountains to the East 02:31	buy track
8.	Teenage Foot Soldier 03:52	buy track
9.	The Cooling Drain 04:12	buy track
10.	The River is Wider Than The View 03:12	buy track
11.	The Last Remake of Virginia Dare 03:02	buy track
12.	He Tripped Over Air 02:17	buy track
13.	My Soundtrack to Someone Else's Movie 03:43	buy track
14.	His Blessed Word (BONUS) 02:54	buy track
15.	Sports Bar Hallucination (BONUS) 02:09	buy track
16.	Reproduction by Spoors (BONUS) 01:44	buy track
17.	The Sounds We're Making (BONUS) 02:16	buy track
18.	Mountains to the East Acoustic (BONUS) 02:47	buy track

about

Released in 1998 on Lather (US) and Trocadero (Ger).

"On their third LP, Harvester steeps the listener in elemental imagery. “Older than mountains, higher than air.” “Swimming in fire.” One song is even called “He Tripped Over Air.” Terra firma is stressed above all: dirt, hills, valleys, leaves, the mud of the title. A natural world – fountains, flora, fauna – is woven throughout like a cinematic motif. Congruently, Mud Is My Ally is a more acoustic effort than before, with violins and recorders adding pleasant, pungent airs. It’s also their most consistent effort. The extended compositional strolls that made long stretches of Me Climb Mountain rather snoozy have been replaced by more concise gestures.

The creative wellsprings of the band remain loose and raffish as when they formed in ’93, with goofy geekdom intact. Meat Puppets and Camper Van Beethoven are their natural lineage: wry, smart-assed, brains fully baked by a Western sun. They remain full of country-shuffle backbeats and refried redwood melodies. Vocalist and guitarist Sean Harrasser remains a leading man of alt-rock lyricism, both on natural observation and interpersonal reflection. “In the faded years of youth our aged souls rejoice: (“Slow”); “Glacial cuts turn into sand” (“Pendleton”).

Some themes are lighter. “Taking the Elevator!” features an Arabia/Wild West buzz-riff, escalating in joy as Harrasser exclaims, “If you came here for quality, I think you’ll be disappointed” and “The song’s so catchy and the theme so sweet, you might forget that we cannot sing.” In a Westerbergian ecstasy he then screams, “LAY DOWN! PLEASE SHUT UP! I am trying to sleep! “This Dirt Don’t Hurt” is the group’s parting shot at ex-label Geffen: “Three years ago, they said we weren’t good enough, then yesterday, they said it again.”

Harvester haven’t forgotten how to plug in, as in the garbage grind of “Mountains to the East”; the loose-juiced mash of “Teenage Foot Soldier”; the hoedown ecstasy of “Taking the Elevator!” Their giddy teen rock makes the pastoral beauty of a track like “The Cooling Drain” even more effective. Sean sings of melting leaves, pods sticking to wool shirts, and “silhouettes of the desert’s lonely minarets.” The guitar line’s tinny 12-string beauty is creek water curling playfully over your back.

Mud is Harvester’s most focused, restrained album. In their adenoidal, rock-as-Shiva madness, they’re a cross between Buddy Holly and Neil Young…or the cross-eyed children of Hendrix and the Shaggs." - Bill Abelson, Puncture

credits

released December 18, 2019

Recorded/mixed by Larry Crane at Jackpot! in Portland
Mastered by Ryan Foster at Dead Aunt Thelma's in Portland

Sean Harrasser - voc/guitar
Jed Brewer - voc/guitar
Todd Steinberg - bass/voc
Jon Sebat - drums

Marilee Hord - violin
Paul Haynes - recorder
Mihyun Cho - whistle

Songs by Sean Harrasser, except 3, 6, 8, 12, & 15 by Jed Brewer.
Cover drawing by Sean Harrasser.
The bonus songs are on both the CD and download version. They were recorded at the same time as the proper album, but didn't really fit the flow of Mud.... But we slapped them on as unlisted songs at the end. A "gift."

latherrecords.com/harvester/
www.facebook.com/harvesternorcalpdx/

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about

Harvester Portland, Oregon

Formed in 1993 in Northern California. Scrappy, annoying band that released stealth album on DGC Records and almost everything else on Lather. Still occasionally active. County!

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