What a medium-in-length and somewhat unusual trip it's been

The Harvey Danger Story

(as told by a lazy researcher)

As almost 100% of the information that is contained in this post was gleaned from Wikipedia, citations will be omitted and you can judge for yourself the likelihood that apocryphal information is included herein. But if it makes you feel better, Harvey Danger's official website itself links to their Wikipedia article, so it can't be too far off, right? Furthermore, even in the ever-expanding universe of the interweb, information on this band is frightfully scarce. But if you need to know the whereabouts of Amy Winehouse right this second, we can get that for ya.

Anyway, Harvey Danger banded together in Seattle in 1992, although singer Sean Nelson and longtime drummer Evan Sult didn't join until the next year. Their first drum kit employed in the early live shows consisted of a bucket, some hubcaps, and a pickle jar (that is according to Wikipedia, but I've long heard that it was a mayonaisse jar). The University of Washington students played some local gigs for awhile, and when they were unsuccessful in gaining actual employment, they did what we all do - band practice!

The band released a seven inch sometime in 1996 which contained the song you probably know them for - "Flagpole Sitta". On the strength of that release, they recorded their debut full-length, Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? Released in July 1997 to relatively little fanfare, the album would surge into the Top 40 in early 1998, weeks after the band had contemplated a break-up. Although the record was rumored to contain other tracks, the commercial success was directly attributable to the omnipresence of "Flagpole Sitta".

This would have been a pretty straightforward account of a one-hit wonder except that Harvey Danger (and I'm guessing here that Sean Nelson is responsible) really had a lot to say, and they decided to use simple but elegant rock n roll to say it. The album that their fans will remember them for, King James Version, was released in 2000. Although it was an artistic triumph, the group had been pegged as a one-hit wonder and forgotten by a nation torn apart by the "red state - blue state" debate of the day, Limp Bizkit versus Creed. Furthermore, the album was mishandled by the band's label, Slash/London. Fueled by driving beats, a diversified set of instruments to accompany their rather straightforward guitar sound, and of course Nelson's sneering-then-sweet vocals, the band addressed everything from loneliness and idol worship to organized religion and art house theater-going hipsters. This was a record that really made you feel a little smarter after listening.

Then they disappeared, like for real. They played their last show in April 2001, seven years to the day after their first real show, leaving a nation of disinterested people interspersed with some seriously bummed out superfans. The break turned into a three year hiatus, and then they returned in April 2004 (yep, on the exact same day - ten years after their first show). Still, very few people cared until they released a freely downloadable album (perhaps because they had been burned by the usual label bullshit earlier in their career, although their articulated reason can be found here) in 2006. Little by Little... was fairly well-received and was actually downloaded 100,000 times in two months. However, it lacked the sharpness, both of riffs and lyrical content, that made their second album so special. A few gems, most notably "Cream and Bastards Rise" stood out in a record that is best described as uneven. Since it's free, it's highly recommended. But King James Version is probably available on the cheap too, and it's a wonderful record. The band still plays shows, mostly in their native Seattle. They've experienced the gamut of the experiences the recording industry has to offer, and they still seem to enjoy making and playing music. They probably have little to complain about. Fuck Fred Durst anyway.