Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows Sign to Blues Funeral Recordings; Announce Covers LP Hail to the Underground
No doubt their signing with Blues Funeral will mean that their next outing will be the first exposure a lot of listeners have to Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows, so forgive me if I’m a little one-eyebrow-up at it being a covers record. Yeah, I have no doubt the Melbourne heavy desert-psych rockers can put their own spin on tunes from Bauhaus and Melvins, My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division, and so on — they prove it with God‘s “My Pal” as the first single — but it just seems like curious place to start.
I’m hopeful that the band’s first two albums, 2018’s Hymns and 2021’s The Magnetic Ridge (review here), will see international reissue or at very least a new push in distribution as a result of the signing, and if Hail to the Underground is a way for an expanded audience to get on board in the meantime, that hardly seems like something to complain about, perhaps least of all for it being a less-expected way to go. Okay, I think I just talked myself into being cool with it. That didn’t take long.
Here we go to the old PR wire:
Apocalyptic desert psych unit JACK HARLON & THE DEAD CROWS to release new album on Blues Funeral Recordings; first video and preorder up!
Melbourne’s psychedelic fuzz rockers JACK HARLON & THE DEAD CROWS share the first single and video taken from their forthcoming third album “Hail to the Underground”, to be issued on February 17th through Blues Funeral Recordings. Watch their fire-driven new video for “My Pal” right now!
As Australia began a series of flash pandemic lockdowns in early 2021, Melbourne psychedelic fuzz rock band Jack Harlon & the Dead Crows’ prolific frontman Tim Coutts-Smith began experimenting with home recording some of his favorite old songs. This rabbit-hole deep-dive eventually led him to bring the fans in on the project, with a social media post inviting suggestions of old underground songs they’d like to hear “Harlon-ified”.
The result is ‘Hail to the Underground,’ a collection of renditions by Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows selected for their musical importance and personal meaning, with the general throughline being that none of the original artists are household names. Filtered heavily through the spaced-out psychedelia of Jack Harlon’s inimitable style, this fuzz-drenched, genre-crossing love letter includes songs by under-the-radar icons like Bauhaus, God, Butthole Surfers, Joy Division, The Melvins, and more.
Watch Jack Harlon & The Crows new video “My Pal”
Listen to the song on all streaming platforms
https://lnk.to/jackharlonpal
About the cover, guitarist and vocalist Tim Coutts-Smith comments: “The debut cover is a tribute to the Australian band GOD, who formed in 1986 and released the song ‘My Pal’ in 1988. The song is seen as a national treasure by a lot of alternative Aussie bands with it being covered by artists such as Magic Dirt, Violent Soho and Peabody. Our band put a call out to our fans to ask which songs they would like performed in our sound. We received an overwhelming response requesting we cover ‘My Pal’. I’ve always loved this song, so the choice was a no-brainer. There is something so mysterious and strangely emotional about this song which, despite its simplicity, I can never fully put my finger on.”
“Hail to the Underground” will be released worldwide on February 17th, 2023 on various vinyl editions, digipack CD and digital, with preorder available now through Blues Funeral Recordings.
Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows “Hail to the Underground”
Out February 17th on Blues Funeral Recordings
Preorder the album on the website: https://www.bluesfuneral.com/search?q=jack+harlon
and Bandcamp: https://jackharlon-dawsonthedeadcrows.bandcamp.com/album/hail-to-the-underground
TRACKLIST:
1. My Pal (God)
2. Copache (Melvins)
3. You Made Me Realise (MBV)
4. Dust Devil (Butthole Surfers)
5. Day Of Lords (Joy Division)
6. Roll & Tumble (Hambone Willie Newbern)
7. Dark Entries (Bauhaus)
8. Eye Shaking King (Amon Duul II)
Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows is:
Josh McCombe – Drums
Tim Coutts-Smith – Vocals, Guitar
Jordan Richardson – Guitar
Liam Barry – Bass
https://www.facebook.com/jackharlondoom/
https://instagram.com/jack.harlon.and.the.dead.crows
https://jackharlon-dawsonthedeadcrows.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/bluesfuneral/
https://www.instagram.com/blues.funeral/
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
bluesfuneral.com
