Harry the Nightgown and the art rock delirium of "The Painter" (Official Video)

"he paints the obscene, the absurd and is praised for it..."

I have said often here on American Pancake that songs are sonic Rorschach tests. That we imprint our own visions, meanings, feelings onto them. Well, if this is true then the more experimental, the more askew (whether odd or sideways or upside down) the sound is then the more varied impressions, thoughts, beliefs or even nightmares may arise. I think I will have a doosey of a dream, disturbing or not, after hearing "The Painter" by Harry the Nightgown, the sort of art rock, experimental deconstructing project of Sami Perez and Spencer Hartling. Besides being the only person I know of who at the age of five befriended a tree that sat below her bedroom and named the tree "Harry the Nightgown" (due to it's ever growing drapes of ivy) Sami Perez seems destined to be the kind of artist who gives people things to dream about. I have featured this artistic duo on AP before and the sounds they create reach out and tap on your temple, stir you imagination. "The Painter" is no exception.

From the beginning there is a collision of opposing tones, absolutely pretty guitar picking against caustic static laden beats that make your teeth hurt. Sami's vox come in, which are really beautiful with melodies full of whimsy but dark piano slowly invades too and squeals of sounds, dark orchestrations dancing against a full bodied bass line. When bells come in mirroring piano keys and Sami's "baa baaa dah daaahs" it is exquisitely entrancing and as synths pound in double time and distortions of sounds layer in like overlapping tape edits it feels like you are watching the entire length of 'The Wizard of Oz' in a dark theater in 30 seconds while the film burns. 

Yeah, tonight, I will have a doosey of a dream for sure. 

There is also a wonderful accompanying Official Video directed by Noah Gavrich.

-Robb Donker Curtius 

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THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:


https://www.instagram.com/harrythenightgown/


https://harrythenightgown.bandcamp.com/



At the age of five, Sami Perez was lonely enough to befriend a tree that sat kidi-corner to San Francisco’s Alamo Square Park and directly below her bedroom window. Due to its ever growing ivy, she named the tree “Harry the Nightgown”. Six years later, Perez began playing shows in San Francisco with her band, The She’s. The quartet formed in middle school with hopes of becoming the next ‘Donnas’. The She’s recorded their debut LP at Women’s Audio Mission (WAM), an SF based non-profit that trains women/gender non-conforming (GNC) audio engineers. From there, Perez continued to hone her engineering skills at WAM, which eventually landed her a job at John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone Studios, where she delved deep into abstract styles of music production in Tiny Telephone’s exclusively analog environment.

In 2014, Perez met Spencer Hartling at a dive bar in Ventura when their respective bands played to a small audience of balding drunks. Impressed with each others’ performances, they forged a long distance friendship and began to collaborate on their music. In 2017, Hartling moved from Los Angeles to a farm on an off-grid plot of land in the mountains of Guerneville. Hartling set up a minimal recording space in a shipping container, and it was there, against the farm’s backdrop of manzanita trees and natural springs that Perez and Hartling began writing and demoing what would eventually become Harry the Nightgown.

In late 2018, Hartling and Perez began to record their debut self-titled album, Harry the Nightgown at Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco. The album is a showcase of their experimental engineering and production styles, as well as their shared love of playful sonic deconstruction. The songs are a meditation on the struggle of continuing a creative collaboration with an ex-partner.

Harry the Nightgown’s influences range from The Raincoats and XTC to Rosalía and Kate Bush. Their sound has been compared to bands such as Dirty Projectors and Deerhoof. The product is defined by improv “Toast and Punch” recording techniques.

Harry the Nightgown is the pursuit of Hartling and Perez’s artistic partnership as they begin a new chapter in Los Angeles, where they have established their new recording studio, Grandma’s Couch.

Harry the Nightgown, indie rock, alternative rock, Art Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Indie Rock, “Toast and Punch” recording techniques, experimental music, post punk, "The Painter", Sami Perez, Spencer Hartling,