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Published on 9/26/08
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The fact that Harvey Milk took its name from the slain, famously out-and-proud San Francisco city supervisor is only one reason it’s tough to get a clear reading on the group. In its original ’90s incarnation, the Athens, Georgia, trio released several seven-inches and three full-lengths, but failed to transcend its hometown notoriety prior to disbanding in 1998. Fortunately for fans of avant-heaviness, it re-formed in 2006 and now hits NYC behind Life…the Best Game in Town, the second effort of its second phase.
As with its recently revived experimental-metal contemporary Earth, Harvey Milk returned to a scene better equipped to dig its idiosyncrasies. The band’s early releases favored an oblique combination of anguished sloth rock and unguarded prettiness—frontman Creston Spiers pithily categorized the music as an attempt to “explore the listening experiences on the other side of boredom”—that seems tailor-made for fans of more recent acts such as Khanate, Isis, Torche and the reinvigorated Melvins, an original influence on Harvey Milk. Appropriately, Spiers, bassist Steven Tanner and drummer Kyle Spence have roped in ex-Melvins bassist Joe Preston, who has bailed out many a doomy underground metal act in a time of need, for their latest recording and tour. To judge from the dire, sublimely eccentric Life…, though, the four-stringer’s assistance only highlights the mind-blowing power of Harvey Milk’s very-much-intact core aesthetic.
