Urban Legends

"Of Old Lost Days" CD

Contraphonic Music

Genre: lo-fi, indie pop, twee

August 2007

Of Old Days collects unreleased and out-of-print material from Urban Legends, the old solo project of Thermals frontman Hutch Harris, circa 1997-2002. Now I'll admit I'm not all that acquainted with The Thermals' music, but this work seems to speak for itself more or less - lo-fi indie pop music in the vein of Boyracer and the Sarah Records clan. Over 19 songs, this record comes off as a little bit overly simplistic - it's not hard to see why some of these songs didn't garner an earlier release, as many are pure demo material. As such, this probably will appeal most to Thermals diehards and lo-fi fanatics. But that isn't to say this is all filler - despite the homogeneous sound on the record, a few tracks stick out; "You Don't Even Have to Try" is a lovely, 60s-ish nugget, and "I See The Mirror" is a nice, calmer piece. So Of Old Lost Days is a catchy though repetitive record that charts the beginnings of a band that's really been picking up steam lately; still, this is likely best suited to 4-track pop devotees.

mp3s (from nokarma.com): the world is strange

75%

Fun Fact: Contrary to popular belief, the concept that shaving makes hair grow back thicker is nothing more than urban legend (snopes).

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 19 tracks, distributed by No Karma, released Jan 2007]