Biography

After 15 years in the rock & roll trenches, The Harlequins have emerged as bonafide scene veterans—enduring anti-heroes of the American garage-psych underground. Founded in 2007, the intrepid Cincinnati power trio—Michael Oliva on guitar & vocals, Alex Stenard on bass and Robert Stamler on drums—made its bones alongside contemporaries such as the Black Lips, Gringo Star, La Luz and Thee Oh Sees. They’ve since been celebrated by publications including Vice, The AV Club, Exclaim! and Performer, and have also shared bills with Ty Segall, Cherry Glazzer, Kurt Vile, Deerhoof, Ride and Kikagaku Moyo. The Harlequins’ aptly named new record, TIME—their seventh full-length—is a diligently honed yet effortlessly flowing sonic journey recorded across the span of five years. Listening, you can envision the record sprouting from a single seed, green shoots bolting skyward in time lapse, a vibrant bouquet of flowers blossoming brilliantly, then wilting and drying up, their crumbling petals scattered on the breeze - The process repeats in reverse, and then forward again in an infinite loop, time slipping back and forth against the blackness of space to a soundtrack of shimmering tremolo guitars, spring-loaded bass and frenetic drums, all shot through with quivering acid-drenched harmonies. Though for once, their psychedelia has ventured outside the echo chamber, the reverb has been wrung out so the sound reflects the clarity of the comedown more than the chaos of the trip’s peak.