Harvey Milk on why their records suck and why Leonard Cohen doesn’t

18May10

I did a little reading beyond the recent/surprising NPR story on one of my favorite bands, Harvey Milk.  I won’t bore you by waxing poetic about their merits.  Here’s a couple of articles where they speak for themselves.  They’re funnier than I am.

First is their hysterical review of their own back-catalog.  Even if you’re not familiar with their records, this is pretty amusing.  For example, their one sentence review of 1996′s “My Love is Higher Than Your Assessment of What It Could Be”:

This record is pretty great except for the performances and the sound of all the instruments.

Second is this Decibel Magazine interview with frontman Creston Spiers.

Decibel: You’re a big fan of (Canadian icon) Leonard Cohen. How does his music translate into the musical spire of Harvey Milk?
Creston Spiers: We’ve covered Leonard Cohen and it isn’t a secret to anyone who knows about our band that I am a big fan of Leonard Cohen. I just think that he is the greatest; you’re talking about people that write odes to music, he is the man. He is the one who can make you cry every time, and there aren’t a lot of song writers who can really do that… I just like the fact that his words are very direct and simple yet filled with complicated imagery and allusions. He is really writing about himself, he is really putting himself in there. Every time I write words to music, he is the standard I try to hold myself up to.

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Tags: creston spiers, decibel magazine, harvey milk, leonard cohen, npr