Description

Music Blues is Stephen Tanner of Harvey Milk. Things Havent Gone Well is Tanners debut as a solo artist and the first album under the name Music Blues. The album was completely written and recorded by Tanner in both Georgia at Harvey Milks vocalist and guitarist Creston Spiers house and in his Brooklyn apartment.

Tanner continues on with the musical touchstones of Harvey Milk (Melvins, Gore, Earth, ZZ Top, Kiss and Judas Priest) while forging ahead into a strange and, at times, harrowing, unknown.

Tanners life, from birth until now, is the theme of the album. The first song, 91771, is his birthdate and the second one, Premature Caesarean Removal Delivery is about being cut out of his mother three weeks prematurely, an act he attributes to most of his problems. He takes to heart the words his father told him at a young age: You think life sucks now, just wait.

Its a dirgey sludge with solid boogie moments and Fade To Black melancholy. Tanner calls it depressing but the album hits far more notes than that. Its slow and heavy but it moves, and theres an expansiveness that picks up steam, a vastness akin to soundtracks. It has a cinematic quality that reveals the influences of John Carpenter and Ennio Morricone, albeit different in musicality.

Things Havent Gone Well features drumming from Kyle Spence (Harvey Milk, Kurt Vile band).

Deluxe double LP pressed on virgin vinyl and packaged in an uncoated stock gatefold jacket with free download coupon. Initial vinyl copies are pressed on sh*t brown coloured vinyl, with the remaining copies on black.

Stephen Tanner is a true Renaissance man The Village Voice

Its a bummed-out coherence: 40 minutes of slow, thick miasma, with recurring, descending melodic phrases tying it all together. New York Times (on Harvey Milk)

Its a grim journey, and often creepy as hell, but its by no means depressing. Mediocre music is depressing. This stuff is exhilarating. PopMatters (on Harvey Milk)