Harvey recorded his 12 Astrology Songs (samples on his website) in the mid-80s, and found it released on San Francisco's Amarillo Records (started by Gregg "Is He Neil Hamburger?" Turkington, who also put out the recorded work of Anton LaVey, by the way). In ensuing years it became an underground favorite, no small thanks to its accompanying video which was played at the beginning of every zodiac cycle on Comedy Central's Daily Show with Craig Kilborn.
Every damn public, non-stuffy, non-NPR station in America has probably worn out their copy of this album. (KAOS Olympia, in particular, practically bowed down to Astrology Songs for most of the mid-90's.) In the process, Harvey's become an unadulterated cult favorite who continues to tour the country. He's also become a big favorite at what's arguably the most successful indie-rock festival in the world, Austin's South X Southwest. Harvey's backup bands from his tours have included members of Superconducter, Cheer-Accident and the wonderful Paley Brothers. (Next month he's sharing a bill in Denver with none other than Daniel Johnston.)
There's a lot more to Harvey than just that, though. He was one of the original song peddlers hanging around the hot Brill Building in the early 60's, appeared on numerous situation comedies from that period from I Dream of Jeannie to M*A*S*H, had a role in Lethal Weapon 3, has been a tireless advocate for macrobiotic living, and was voted one of the 10,000 most beautiful people in Los Angeles. By whom, I don't know, but damned if they ain't right.
I've given you some research places to find out more about Harvey in case you need to know more. I've known Harvey personally for 6 years and have played several shows with him, and he's seriously a very generous and cool guy with his time -- he called up Shrug Fest one night and wound up staying on for half and hour -- and would probably answer any respectful question, and even a good number of the goofy ones. So have at it!
As usual, we'll e-mail the questions to Harvey (or, possibly, do a phone interview using the questions) and publish his responses here. Again, check out our links for more background info.
Yes, we're working on bringing Harvey back to the Northwest for some live shows -- so keep an eye out.
You can talk about macrobiotics with Harvey, you can talk about modeling, you can talk about Hollywood, you can talk about tour stories -- but most of all, of course, you can talk about the Taurus, talk about the bully-bull-bull!
Additional resources for info:
HotWired interview
InSound interview
Another interview.
You can also find more links at Harvey's home page, www.harveysidfisher.com.
