Last Piano’s Show/Padma

We need to talk. Our last show of the Piano’s residency in New York City is this Tuesday (Jan. 30th). If you haven’t come yet, this is your last chance to see what all the hullabaloo is about. That’s right, hullabaloo.

If that’s not compelling enough, let me tell you a little story about last weeks show. It involves the most beautiful woman in all of reality television. Padma Lakshmi was at Piano’s after our show. I had the following conversation with her:

Adam: “I have a shirt that says ‘I Padma” (this is true)
Padma: “I have a shirt that says ‘I Adam Abrutyn”
Adam: “Word”
Padma: “Take me home with you”

That may be revisionism, and I can’t promise that my story is verbatim, but I can tell you this; I was charming and I think we’re getting married. Moral of the story, come to Piano’s to see Ezra Furman and the Harpoons play and get the chance to embarrass yourself in front of your celebrity crush. It worked for me.

Love,
Adam

ANDREW LANGER JOINS THE BAND

Ladies and Gents,

The Harpoons have been without an “official” guitarist for some time now. Jahn Sood departed about a year ago now, and we’ve been making do with temporary guitarists, all of whom have been great. A nod to our lovely replacements: Kevin Verni, Aaron Ratoff, Jonah Furman and Jorgen Jorgenson, thank you. We are eternally grateful and our band would have probably broken up without you. You were great.

BUT NOW…

Now like a phoenix rising from the ashes comes the rocknroll genius of our time Andrew Langer. He’s joining the band, baby! He’s joining! He’s already found a place to live with his girl and his pup! This is a joyful moment indeed.

Some facts about Andrew:

Height: 4′9″
Weight: 280 lbs.
Favorite color: Sepia
Favorite singer: Cyndi Lauper
Favorite instrument: double-neck neon pink guitar
Heritage: Polish Jewish
Favorite movie: Sex & the City

Yes, you can all rejoice and update the Ezra Furman & the Harpoons section of your address books. Come to a show and witness the majesty of a foursome, finally whole again, trading licks and laughs like a litter of beautiful puppies. I’m pretty excited.

Come see us at Piano’s in New York, the last 4 Tuesdays in June! YEAH BABY

luv
the boys in the band

We are playing at Lollapalooza! HOLY CARP

Yes it’s true ladies and gents. The great festival in August is putting on an Ezra Furman & the Harpoons show. I don’t quite know how it happened that our weird little songs became popular enough that the Lollapalooza people would want to have a stage for them, but I guess some dreams are intense enough that they become real. I feel so honored to have this recognition. I always believed and doubted it could happen with equal violence. August 9th, my dears. Grant Park. You’re all invited.

In more current events, the MYSTERIOUS DELIRIOUS tour marches on and is almost finished. It’s State College PA on Weds. and then Asbury Park NJ on Fri., and that’s it. It’s been wild and weird, a crazy adventure that has been incredibly gratifying. I’m not sick of this at all. I love being in this band.

I’ve been reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. That says it all. I guess I’ll see you soon… lots of wonderful things are happening this summer, and I will try to write more on this blog and tell you all about them. There is really a lot of joy in our job, the job of minstrels, and I’m happy I can share all of this with the world in my own way.

Love Ezra

MTV2 Premiere

Listen up. Our video for “Take Off Your Sunglasses” has it’s debut on MTV2. The show is called Subterranean, which you can check out at http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/subterranean/series.jhtml. You have to be super cool and stay up past midnight on Thursday to see it at 1:00 am EST. Or, if you aren’t cool, you could use Tivo, DVR, or some other crazy modern recording device. A VCR even! Then, you could watch it over a TV dinner the next day at your convienence.

In other news, we are on the way to Cleveland, OH to play some raucous rock. Job is singing to the Libertines, and confessing his love for the lovely French Plastiscines. Ezra is drooling on my pillow. Jorgen is listening to an iPod and smiling. I am typing. That is all,

Love,
Adam

What a way to start a tour[./!]

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen. Glad you could make it out to the blog. I’m in a dark hotel room in Georgetown, TX wondering how I lost my phone charger, as well as all other connection to reality, over the course of south-by-southwest.

South-by-Southwest is a time when everybody rushes around in the blistering sun going to rock shows and receiving free drinks. If you are given a wristband, you have seen so many shows by the end of it that you don’t know what a rock show means anymore. It mirrors the modern music scene in that you have seemingly-unlimited access to music recordings and people get so overstimulated by it all that they start feeling like they’ve seen everything possible to see, and there are a lot of people who have heard a thousand bands but aren’t really invested in any of them.

So I try to stay unjaded and treat all music with respect and attention. Ours especially. And we gave a great couple of shows, one on Wednesday afternoon and one last night. I think we connected and delivered the goods. The shows were called “Emotional Wilderness” and “Sweat for the Sweetness,” and those were very honest titles about what’s been going on.

On the way to South-by-Southwest, in Tennessee, Eleanor the minivan broke down and we had to rent a car to go to Texas while she got fixed. We’re getting her back tomorrow and I am glad. We are out of money and then some, but morale and inspiration are quite high. We’re gonna see you soon on the Mysterious Delirious Tour.

Love,
Ezra (and Adam and Job and Jorgen)

How Do You Spell “MTV”?

We just answered our own question . . . ANYWAY, this post does have to do with the Harpoons and MTV.

If you click on this link . . .

http://www.mtvu.com/music/the-freshmen/the-freshmen-battle-royal-you-pick-the-video-031609/

. . . you can vote for the video for our song “Take Off Your Sunglasses”. If we garner more votes than the other musical contestants, we will be rotated regularly on The Freshmen, a show on MTVU.

So, the bottom line: If you want to see more of us, vote! Vote vote vote vote vote . . .

Also, the MYSTERIOUS DELIRIOUS tour is starting in a few days! To check if we’re visiting your town, stop by the ol’ MySpace (www.myspace.com/ezrafurman) and look at our tour dates.

Our love is undying for you,
Ezra & the Harpoons

Daytrotter.com and new shows

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls,

We went to the Illinois studios of Daytrotter.com and recorded four songs there live, just me, Job and Adam. Now they’re up on the website!

Go to www.daytrotter.com to hear some of what we’ve been working on– a band is, after all, always making music (hopefully). It’s goog stuff. YOU HEARD ME, GOOG.

In other news, we have begun to plan our massive attack on American soil. After we go to South-by-Southwest in Austin, Texas in mid-March, we’re going to play a mess of other shows all around the Eastern half of the United States. It’s going to be really goog. We hope you and all your friends and pets and household objects will attend. Go to myspace.com/ezrafurman to see when and where they are… maybe we will come to your town…

See you soon gumshoes!!!

Love Ezra and the rest

Best. Review. Ever.

So, after Ezra’s solo show we got this email in our Harpoons Gmail account. We chose to make his name anonymous. Here are some highlights, although we strongly suggest reading the whole thing:

“… we spent the first hour and a half waiting in the bar for Furman to call it quits.” – Cranky McFakename / Oak Lawn

“Good money down the tube, a date who is wondering if she is out
with a complete moron for picking such a venue/show, a splitting head
ache from both the vulgarity and the feedback humm, Oh what a night!!!” – Cranky McFakename / Oak Lawn

“In fact I am so shocked by his nervy insouciance, and that I almost didn’t notice that he only plays 8 chords” – Cranky McFakename / Oak Lawn

Good Morning -

Last night I spent some of my hard earned entertainment dollars to attend SPACE. I believe that I deserve a full refund.

I had hoped to impress a woman friend from Evanston,by choosing a fun venue close to her home on a snowy night.

But I wound up being genuinely shocked that SPACE
or anybody would book Ezra Furman for anything other than a college
house party with a bunch of rugby players who become giddy about
hearing the word “F#$%” so oft repeated.

Furman shows real talent when it comes to using this word so creatively.

Verb, noun, adjective, adverb, whatever, he’s a real maestro when it comes to swearing in front of a paying audience.

It must be comforting for him to know that when his songs? fail to
impress, he can reach deep into his trick bag and WOW the crowd with
the showstopper of showstoppers, the old reliable F-Bomb.

Wow didn’t expect that!

In fact I am so shocked by his nervy insouciance, and that I almost didn’t notice that he only plays 8 chords.

Obviously musical talent is subjective. So I will not argue that point.

But to actually sell tickets to see this foul mouthed drivel is ridiculous.

To pay to hear it is even worse.

I resent that SPACE
sponsored an act that ruined what was to be a fun night on the town and
did not include any information whatsoever on their webiste about the
vulgar nature of this show.

So we spent the first hour and a half waiting in the bar for Furman to call it quits.

Bring on Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra. Thank God, an actual group of musicians with that little pre-requistite called talent.

How do you ruin a good act like NTO?

Turn them up deafening loud and then make sure that there is a constant
humming buzz feed back loop in their sound system. Voila!!, you have
the perfect evening. I have seen NTO around town and heard them on WXRT
for years and I have NEVER been disappointed by any of their shows.

Good money down the tube, a date who is wondering if she is out with a
complete moron for picking such a venue/show, a splitting head ache
from both the vulgarity and the feedback humm, Oh what a night!!!

Because SPACE failed to mention the vulgar nature of Furman’s act? and because SPACE doesn’t bother to insist upon sound checks and eliminate little things like MAJOR FEED BACK LOOPS, I request that SPACE refund the money I spent for the show. As menitoned we entirely skipped the warm up act and them left NTO after 5 songs.

I have never requested my money back from any venue in my life. This is an actual first for me.

I have been to hundreds of concerts of all variety over the years, so I do not feel unjustified in this request.

If you are kind enough to honor this request and send me a refund, I
can use it to offset the cost for the chocolates that I will buy when I
beg forgiveness from the decent lady who was good enough to attend this
concert with me.

Thank you for considering my request.

Cranky McCrankster
Oak Lawn, IL 60453

New Music Video

Hey Everyone,

Ezra Furman & the Harpoons, with the help of the Great Antoine Wagner, have made a music video for your favorite toe-tapper, “Take Off Your Sunglasses” Shot in Central Park on a cold day last month, it will warm your heart in this February of our discontent.

Watch it at this address:

You can also go to the great director’s website, with lots of amazing things he has made, here:
www.antoinewagner.com

Stand up and take notice! Good music still exists! It moves, it walks, it thrives!

Love,
Harpooooooooons.

RIP Indie 103.1

We are very sorry to say that Indie 103.1 is no longer on the FM airwaves. Boo.  Read about it from Stereogum.

They were so nice to play “Take Off Your Sunglasses” quite regularly, and have us in the studio…its definitely why they aren’t on the air anymore, because they were TOO awesome. Moral of the story: Be mediocre.