EXCUSE ME EXCUSE ME!

We have a new record for sale! It’s called MOON FACE. It is ten bootlegs plus a personal message from us. It’s available here: http://ezrafurman.bigcartel.com.

Let me explain. We have a lot of songs that don’t make it onto records. So here are some of them that we got down on tape along the road, in friends’ studios, radio performances, etc.

But the great thing about those kind of songs is how secret and personal and intimate they feel. Right? So we thought of a way to make it more personal. Literally personal. For everyone who orders a copy of Moon Face, we are recording an individual track just for you. You can tell us about yourself and we’ll tailor it more specifically to you and your little world. Or you can just see what we come up with.

Whatever happens, you will have a track from us that no one else will have. And there’s something really cool and nice about that. Plus I don’t know of any band that’s ever done that. We must really like you.

Other than that, we’ve got ten great songs that we want you to hear. Come to us, see what we’re working on, you’ll like it. Again: http://ezrafurman.bigcartel.com. See you there.

IN OTHER NEWS: Our tour, in which we go basically everywhere in the USA, starts on Tuesday. Come to a show! You’ll love it! For the tour dates: http://www.myspace.com/ezrafurman.

Love,

ezra furman & the harpoons

England has a long history of messing with Americans. From taxation without representation to Hugh Grant, they’ve given us a lot to be angry about. But it still came as a bit of a shock when they deported us.

We came to London from Amsterdam, ready to play a show at the Flowerpot that night. With a promoter with the reassuring name of Jay Sensible, we suspected no trouble on the horizon. But apparently you need a work permit to play music in England. Doesn’t matter if you’re getting paid. If you want to pick up a harmonica in the United Kingdom, if you want to drum out a rhythm on your laterally inverted automobile’s dashboard, you need a work permit. Now, the normal approach to this problem is supposed to be lying. You’re supposed to just say you’re a tourist with no sense of rhythm who never sings in the shower. But we weren’t told about this stuff. So, like founding American George Washington beside the felled cherry tree, we told the truth. They sent us back to Amsterdam and canceled the show.

We’re in the arduous process of trying to make it to London to play the show tonight. Not sure if it’s going to be possible; we may have to cancel tonight’s show also. This is not the ending to our European tour we were hoping for. So we urge you to write a letter to the Queen of England asking her to apologize to us in person on national TV.

In other news, soon we will be coming back to the USA. FINALLY. And we’re going to play a lot of shows all over the place, and not cancel any of them. Want to come? You should. Fuck the UK. We’ll see you on the american highway.

love,

the boys

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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