Bryan Harvey, the singer/guitarist for the early 90's duo House of Freaks, was found murdered along with his wife and two young daughters in their Richmond, Virginia house over New Year's weekend. The 48 year old had just played a gig with his latest band.
House of Freaks were never huge, but their music was definitely good. Unfortunately on the web I have been able to find very little background on them. This page has some reviews of their work, but mp3s are impossible to find. To sample some of their music, this Rhino page has 30-second snippets. You can also order a very limited release of their best album, Tantilla. My favorite song was the very atmospheric "When the Hammer Came Down", which made one of those mix tapes I was always distributing back in that era. House of Freaks managed to make a lot of music out of just two people, and some current duos like the White Stripes certainly trace some lineage to what House of Freaks did years before. Here's a good story relating to that.
Harvey was also part of the college-radio supergroup Gutterball. It's kind of funny, but I had just downloaded one of their old CDs from eMusic just a few days ago. The whole thing is very sad. My heart goes out to the entire family.
1/04/2006
House of Freaks Singer, Family Murdered
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 Comment:
Very sad story indeed. It's weird that I was putting together a mix CD the other day, and one of the tunes was "Black Cat Bone" off their debut "Monkey On A Chain Gang." Your are correct when you make the link between them and the White Stripes, but I'm sure they won't get the credit they deserve.
Post a Comment