In Today's Harvey Danger news...

Some notable news from the world of Fong Songs fave, Harvey Danger:

If Rock Band 2 is your thing, Harvey Danger's Cream and Bastards Rise was released today as a downloadable track. That's pretty awesome. Last month on the HD forums, Harvey Danger guitarist/pianist/Microsoft employee Jeff Lin mentioned they had to provide seven different versions of the song to make up the final Rock Band track. I don't have the game nor envision getting it in the foreseeable future, but on a lark I downloaded demos of Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero Aerosmith just to see if it was possible to play with no guitar controller... though obviously not that satisfying in the rock star sense (imagine Keytar Hero), it's bizarrely entertaining and challenging, not to mention surprisingly intuitive. I was able to muddle 75% through Walk This Way (feat. Run DMC) on hard before getting slaughtered at the guitar solo.

Harvey Danger - Cream and Bastards Rise Reprise
The original Cream and Bastards Rise was from Harvey Danger's 3rd album Little by Little..., which has been available as a free download from their site since its release in 2005. This radically different version of the song appears on the bonus disc, which you got if you purchased the physical album. I'd love to hear more songs like this in Rock Band. Someone needs to make an Indie Rock Band or something.

Last week, it was also announced that Barsuk Records would be re-issuing Death Cab for Cutie's debut album Something About Airplanes as a deluxe 10th anniversary edition CD, which will feature "extensive liner notes" by Harvey Danger vocalist Sean Nelson. The set will also include a bonus disc with a "recently-unearthed" recording of DCfC's first ever show in Seattle. Harvey Danger happened to be the headlining act at that February 1998 gig at the Crocodile Café and Sean Nelson joined DCfC to sing lead vocals on a cover of The Smiths' Sweet and Tender Hooligan. That whole shaboodle is due out November 25th. Mark your calendars.

Finally, last Friday a stripped down Harvey Danger played a live show at Neumo's in Seattle that was recorded by Seattle radio station KEXP. It was just Jeff on piano and Sean on vocals, plus a couple special guests. Fortunately for our purposes, they also performed a couple covers including this one that surprised me:

Harvey Danger - Bone Machine (feat. Ryann Donnelly) [originally by the Pixies]
Sean Nelson is joined by Ryann Donnelly, lead singer of the Schoolyard Heroes on this piano & vocals Pixies cover. She sings the Kim Deal bits.