Fingertips have memories....

This morning my copy of the new The Vines album Vision Valley arrived. I'm having my first listen as I write this, but so far I'm pretty impressed. I've always thought that The Vines were a great singles band, but the albums were always lacking. They've put out some great power pop; Ride With Me, Highly Evolved, Get Free - short spikey anthems one and all. However, the rest of the album was always cluttered up with jangly ballads, the stuff of alternative club DJ nightmares. I think this album follows form - some really strong sounding potential singles, backed with a few jangly ballads. I can definitely see me playing a couple of them out, but at the moment it's in no danger of toppling The Yeah Yeah Yeahs from my album of 2006 so far.

So, on with todays post. As the pair of you who read this blog will no doubt remember, this week is Forgotten Bands Of The Nineties Who Are Really Only Known For One Song But Are Much Better Than That Week. Yesterday also set the tone for what may well turn out to be nerd-rock week with Nada Surf. Continuing the theme I present to you Harvey Danger.

About eight years ago, I made my first of several visits to California. I love that place; all the superficiality and shallowness that people complain about suits me just fine. For the two weeks that I stayed, there were three songs that you couldn't escape - Sex & Candy by Marcy Playground, which is another great song, Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls which isn't, and Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta. Both Harvey Danger and Marcy Playground were playing grungy powerpop in the style of Everclear or The Presidents Of The United States Of America.

A couple of years later I found the Harvey Danger album Whatever Happened To The Merrymakers, and found it to be pretty good considering I didn't know they'd even run to a whole LP. They've recently released a new album, but I haven't managed to track it down, so I can't tell you what it's like.

As it's a great slice of rock pop, and because it is also the theme tune to the equally amazing Channel 4 comedy Peep Show, I'm going to post their big single, and something new as well.

Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta



Harvey Danger - Sad Sweetheart Of The Rodeo