Harsh Vibes: Mind-Numbing Fuzz, East Coast-Style.

Text by Brian Wilensky. Images by Ryan Treitel.

Harsh Vibes were playing out around Philly, drenching basements and bars in driving acid rock, when suddenly it came time to rethink their name. Not because they started to mellow out, giving up the dense stoner riffs, but because someone else tried to steal it.

“We searched the Internet so hard to make sure there was no other band called Harsh Vibes,” says guitarist and singer Chris Ragnar Bergen. “After we’d been playing out for about a year, a band in California popped up with the same name. We found them because they signed up for all the same social media outlets, like Bandcamp.”

Synth player Evan Raab recalls the time they had to correct a promoter after he accidentally put a picture of the West Coast Harsh Vibes on a flyer for one of their shows in Philly. The joke is really on those Pacific Coast kids because our local guys’ shows have been listed on the West Coast Vibes’ social media thanks to the algorithm Bandcamp uses.

Bergen, drummer John Paul Titlow and guitarist Kyle Reiff graduated from Upper Merion High School in 2001. Bergen and Titlow have been playing together on and off since they were 15. Reiff joined in 2010, followed by bassist Peter Sabatino and Raab. Over the past two years, the five of them have recorded every practice, creating a backlog of what they estimate to be hundreds of hours.

“There are two different modes of us playing,” Bergen says. “There are rehearsed parts that I mostly wrote. And we have just jam outs all together.”

Bergen had been releasing solo electronic music on European labels for years under the name Moblin. As the music he was writing became more rock oriented, he realized he needed a band because he didn’t want it to be just him directing everything anymore. He says that a lot of the songs he’d recorded as demos are now pretty different after having the rest of the band work on them.

The reason Harsh Vibes have all this material but haven’t put out a full-length or even a 7-inch after gigging around the city since 2010 is because of trying to expose their name through playing live. However, they feel they aren’t always put in the right lineup.

“We’ve been put on a lot of inappropriate bills, which I guess is normal when you’re first starting,” Bergen says. “At first it seemed like people weren’t sure where to place us. We’d either be the heaviest band or it’d be a real heavy death metal show and we’d be by far the lightest.”

Recently they adjusted their focus to putting out a cassette of their improv psych jams from their recordings. With so much content to choose from, they plan to make it a series of cassettes, putting out several over a steady period, starting with Psychedelic Gin Blossoms  in December. But they’re still set on putting out a full length eventually.

“There are usually three or four parts of each jam that are worthy of being turned into actual songs,” says Titlow.

Since they’re having a hard time getting funds together for recording, they’re hoping to find someone who might help send their jams around to different labels.

Until then, Harsh Vibes will keep a steady dose of mind-numbing fuzz in your ears on their own.

Harsh Vibes will have a cassette release party on Saturday at the El Bar. See here for details.