Harvey Pekar - "Milk Tooth Monarchy" (Song Premiere)

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For the sake of edification, before I introduce this insane new track by Harvey Pekar the band, let’s chop down to the roots of Harvey Pekar the person. As someone unaware of who Pekar was, I understood he must’ve been someone of note to have a band named after him. Right? There’s already Harvey Milk the man and the band. Notable he was indeed. For those who don’t know, Pekar was most famously an underground comic book writer whose work included the autobiographical American Splendour, originally published in the 70s. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, Pekar the man and Pekar the band both hail from Cleveland, Ohio. There’s a legacy being honored here across two various but equally loud artforms, from one Clevelander to another(s). I’ll get to that in a second.

With that brief history, I have the privilege of introducing Harvey Pekar’s new track, “Milk Tooth Monarchy.” At its center this is Cleveland hardcore, though not the deliciously obscure confrontation that is Integrity or the snarling pack of wolves that is Ringworm, though Harvey Pekar does intersect their melodic swiftness with the latter. This is punk that defies physics in its wholly weightless feel that is made meteoric with its robust delivery. There’s hope here that is shredded and ground throughout the track’s three-odd minutes. That hopeful tone is never brought down by the affecting gravity that this band flaunts.

In some of my combing of Pekar the man’s Wikipedia page, there is quote that describe life as “a war of attrition.” To further riff on that quote with respect to the band, here we have hardcore akin to the boisterous and equally downtrodden acts such as Killing the Dream and The Carrier. In this attritional combat, we find their sound railing against chaos, actively fighting a world that will quit but that you can’t quit yourself. In reading that quote (look it up) you can connect the dots from one Pekar to another.

Pekar the man had his time, I’ll place my bets on Pekar the band

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Harvey Pekar’s new album, The Astral We will be available this summer via Little Heart Records. Follow Harvey Pekar (the band, duh) on Facebook and Tumblr.

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