Re-Discovering Downtown Harvest.

I have been a big fan of Downtown Harvest for years now. They have an incredibly original sound. It’s like the guys took a little bit of funk, some hip-hop beats, a major case of the blues, and a pinch of rock-n-roll, threw it in a blender and poured themselves a large glass of success. The four young musicians are the talk of the town. They actually have been for a while. In this day and age of overnight Myspace-musicians, longevity is usually not what comes to mind when speaking of your local “hot band of the moment.” However, these four guys have been on the tongues of those in the scene for a while. Radio DJ’s, music writers and bar owners all sing their praise and have so for a couple years. Even though I was clued into their brilliance, I always kept my distance from them. The reason…high school! These guys went to my high school. They weren’t a band during the time I was rocking flannel shirts and listening to Hole and Nine Inch Nails. They were just guys at my school. In fact, Tom (Larry Thomas Moore) was the first person ever to speak to me at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.

Tom was in my homeroom. He sat directly in front of me for four years. On my very first day at my new school, without introducing himself, or any kind of small talk, he turned around in his seat and in the friendliest of voices handed me his open text book and said, “does this smell funny to you?”

I took the bait. It must have been my trusting private-school-girl-mentality. I went right in. I put my nose as close to the pages as I could get, and bam! He slammed the book in my face and sent the class rolling in laughter. This was my first memory of High School.

Bob Cahill (B.O.B) and I actually had the same group of friends. We were always in the same place with the same people but we never really hit it off. He was always kind of “too cool for school” and I was always kind of awkward and nervous.

High School in general was not a time or place I like to remember. So quite a few years after graduation when I heard that some class of ‘98rs had formed a pretty sweet band I ignored it, trying to stay away from anyone or anything that would remind me of my four years served.

But the power of Downtown Harvest compelled me. I ended up listening to their self-titled debut album over and over in the privacy of my car.  The sound was so different form anything around and I was shocked at the talent that had surrounded me a few years earlier.

A year later when they released Golden Dragon, I knew it was useless to try to fight it any longer. They were great. The album was fun. It had soul. It sounded like they were a ten-piece band. They were a band that actually knew how to play their instruments. I was hooked for good.

When Nataly and I decided to launch this Web site, I knew in the back of my mind that Downtown Harvest would have to make an appearance on our pages. They are Philadelphia local music. They are some of the best around.  So we went to their second residency show at World Café and spoke with the guys.

We caught up with Bob and Tom in the Green Room. They were pretty much as I remembered them. Both jokesters, both “cool kids.” Tom was quick to ask me if I recalled the time he got me to smell his textbook in 9^th and grade. He was kind enough to fill in the rest of the crowd as well. It was great catching up and all but I wanted to know about the band. I asked them to fill me in on how they had run into each other and decided to form the band.

“I was riding the R6 home from school, hung over,” says Tom.

“He was drunk.” Bob jumps in. “He smelled like Camel Lights and many, many, Pabts Blue Ribbons, in a white dress-shirt none the less. In fact I was like, this guy dresses so crazy these days, let’s start a band.”

Shortly after, the elusive Chris Woods (C-Dubbs) joined the band, bringing with him some seriously sick drumming action and a darker vocal sound. When they found Frank Ewing (Tyrannosaurus Frank) the formula was perfected.

“I didn’t know Frank in High School,” says Tom. “Frank would just show up at Penn Sate, never knew any of our songs, just show up with his saxophone and played right along. I was like this guy has his shit together.”

Frank is like a one-man-band all his own. He sings, plays guitar, saxophone, keyboards and a few instruments I don’t even know the names of. He seems like the type of guy, if you put an instrument in front of him he’s going to pick it up and figure it out on his own.

“I come from a musical family,” he says. “It’s just always been natural for me.”

Frank took it a step further on their new, soon to be released album, Discovering Dinosaurs. He produced and engineered the album entirely himself.

From what I have heard of the sampler to Discovering Dinosaurs, the sound is a bit more refined and cleaner than the previous albums. Bob say’s it’s more upbeat.

“You can tell they are upbeat, cause of titles such as ‘Captain I Hate My Life’,” explains Tom.

All though it’s hard to say, only having heard four songs, it sounds like this album may be a bit more cohesive in sound and tone than the two before it. Whether this is a good thing or not is yet to be seen. It is their immense collection of sounds, genres, instruments, and strong personalities that make listening to Downtown Harvest so unique and invigorating. I am anxious to hear if talent, humor and madness of the band makes it onto the Discovering Dinosaurs.

“Buy Discovering Dinosaurs this month,” says Bob, “and get a free Subway sandwich.”

You can catch Downtown Harvest at their Friday night residency shows at the World Café Live on the 30^th of this month.

Pre-order Discovering Dinosaurs here.

ALL PHOTOS BY GGM PRODUCTIONS