Of Old Lost Days

Over the last decade, singer-songwriter Hutch Harris has attracted the attention of those in search of the perfect pop song. And from his past bands (Hutch and Kathy, Haelah) and backing gigs (The Minders, Duster) to his current post as The Thermals’ frontman, Harris has been on that quest himself. The road he’s taken can best be witnessed through Urban Legends, the lo-fi project he started in his San Jose apartment in 1996. A string of seven-inches was punctuated by a split with Her Space Holiday, whose frontman Marc Bianchi released Urban Legends’ 1999 full-length on his own label, Audio Information Phenomena. Throughout this time, Harris and his revolving lineup recorded at home and in friends’ studios, leaving an embarrassment of unreleased riches. With even the official releases largely unavailable these days, Contraphonic campaigned to re-package and re-introduce some of the best Urban Legends material. Of Old Lost Days tracks the development of Harris’s songwriting, compiling seven-inch tracks and unreleased material from 1997 to 2002. Songs range from early lo-fi nuggets to acoustic songs that foretell both the Hutch and Kathy album and the four-track beginnings of The Thermals. Of Old Lost Days is full of songs that were meant for the top of the charts, but were made in the corner of the basement.