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 favourite 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.
The Everblack Podcast spoke to Tim Coutts-Smith from Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows about their latest album ‘Hail To The Underground’ and it’s fuzz-drenched, genre-crossing love letter to Bauhaus, God, Butthole Surfers, Joy Division, The Melvins, and more.
Watch/listen to the interview here:
Formed in 2016, Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows are a psychedelic fuzz rock band from Melbourne, Australia, who incorporate elements of blues, stoner rock, folk and doom metal into their distinctive sound. Much of their music follows the character of drug-addicted outlaw Jack Harlon, with songs that spin tales of desperation and survival in a fictitious western landscape.
In 2018, the band independently released their debut album ‘Hymns,’ which Outlaws of the Sun called “an exciting record that actually takes genuine creative risks and a psychedelic and spaced out journey packed full of inventive ideas and heavy riffs“. The album was highlighted as one of the best albums of 2018 by Doom Charts and was subsequently re-released by independent tastemaker labels Tuff Cuff Records and Copper Feast.
Their follow-up album ‘The Magnetic Ridge’ was released in 2021 via Psychedelic Salad Records, with Heavy Blog Is Heavy characterizing the massive LP as “enough to tickle your frontal lobe as much as it rattles your eardrums“. Skipping to the renaissance year of 2023, the band is now ready to unleash the power of their third full-length with ‘Hail to the Underground’ on Albuquerque, NM-based independent label Blues Funeral Recordings.
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)
“Hail to the Underground” will be released worldwide on February 17, 2023 on various vinyl editions, digipack CD and digital, with preorder available now through Blues Funeral Recordings.
Order the album on the website and Bandcamp
TOUR DATES
Sunday, March 5: Rosemount Hotel, Perth (Spliffs and Riffs Festival)
Saturday, March 17: The Cranker, Adelaide
Friday, March 31: Oxford Art Factory (Gallery Bar), Sydney
Saturday, April 1:The Tote, Melbourne