Ears Wide Open: Harry the Nightgown

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Harry the Nightgown (Photo by Courtney Melahn)

Sami Perez (The She’s, Cherry Glazerr) and Spencer Hartling are the new L.A./San Francisco duo Harry the Nightgown. Their self-titled debut album, to be released in August this year, is the fruitful creative outpouring from their immediate post-relationship turmoil in 2018. Tracked at John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone studios up north, where they were both engineers (they’re also co-founders and co-engineers currently in Vanderslice’s new Grandma’s Couch studio in L.A.), it makes for some sweet listening that they’re finally ready to begin sharing.

The album weaves through yarns of lush pop, No Wave indie rock, synth-pop and even ventures into game music. Their sophomore single, “Pill Poppin’ Therapist,” is of the No-Wave variety with the best use of dissonance in indie rock since They Might Be Giants’ “Ana Ng.” Perez’s sweet vocals surf above a bed of fuzzy guitars and high-pitched woozy synths before demanding a “remedy” at the chorus.

“‘Pill Poppin Therapist’ is a playful tune that draws parallels between joyous mania and depression,” the duo says. “In a way, this juxtaposition represents our songwriting process. We wrote and recorded this song in one day, which felt equal parts spontaneous and vulnerable.”

||| Stream: “Pill Poppin’ Therapist”

||| Also: watch the video for “Ping Pong”