Harvey Milk - My Love is Higher Than Your Assessment of What My Love Could Be

I won't deny that although this review started out as a one of a whole LP, it has unquestionably turned into an absolute gushing eulogy to one of the most beautifully heart rendering pieces of music that has been written. Harvey Milk, to the untrained ear, are a band who may not be too dissimilar to you; they've released countless oop genre-defining records. Although I think I first heard them around 2005 or 2006, I, for some unknown reason, haven't given them much of a look in 'til recently.

The song in question is The Anvil Will Fall. I managed to stumble across this track like a clumsy schoolchild searching for some dubious punk rock track, maybe.

The Anvil Will Fall absolutely shreds me to bits; it turns me into an emotional wreck, renders me useless, and then spits me back out waiting and wanting more. It's a song which pieces together all of those moments of extreme love, pain, loss and sorrow in your life. Together, its sheer beauty breaks my heart. I sit and pine for any given moment with those I've lost; everything else seems so completely meaningless. It's the anthem to anyone whose life was once filled with beauty and love but since been spun over with magnitudes of pain and devastation. You'll reflect on friendship, family, and love, you'll remember those safe places from your youth where you were once invincible, the faces, the smells, the sights, the familiarity, and you'll wonder how you ended up here. It's the soundtrack to anyone who has ever felt before. You'll feel exasperated as you watch all your memories shimmer in the light and then crumble underneath the sheer desolation that unfolds.

Harvey Milk website
Harvey Milk live set on the wonderful WFMU.org

Vivian Girls S/T LP

Hearing this LP for the first time made me stop in my tracks and actually stand still before I could work out what the hell was happening in my stereo. I don't know how exactly they've done it, but listening to Vivian Girls makes me feel like I've just rolled out of a 48 hour drug and booze fuelled session where they've kinda saved me and let me bask in the moment. You know, like you've been waiting for something to hit you and say "this is real, and this shit will actually destroy all", well finally you can say something does and it's like the wake-up call you've been longing for. This album does things that other won't. It makes me think of Jesus and The Mary Chain having sex with The Wipers. It's like pure garage punk having a thrash out with maybe even Kevin Shields, where both actually come out winning, high and proud. It's basically, without any 2D cliché unfolding, the ultimate shoe gazing, garage punk anthem. There's not one ounce of pretentiousness to be seen in the slightest; instead, it kicks ass.

This album is without a doubt one of the best things I've heard in a long, long time. In The Red records have been producing some of my favourite LPs of late; it's a label that's consistently been knocking out bands that actually get me excited -that feeling of when a record lands on my doorstep/on my turntable I genuinely get stoked to put the needle on the wax. The kind of shit that makes me feel like I'm sixteen again, hearing something truly breathtaking, its kinda akin to that feeling when I heard Daydream Nation for the first time. Holy Shit.

Vivian Girls
In The Red Records