“Hawkish”
Give Me Trail Mix!!
Harvee
Original Release Date: 12/30/3021
Harvee was mad. Eight feet tall, covered in feathers, cawing like a mad-bird, he had already trashed the green room and was intent on finding a stagehand to berate, and possibly eviscerate. What he found was a live television camera and a stunned audience. He was huffing, his wings spread, his eyes bloodshot and wavering. This was not the Harvee that the Universe knew. In fact, not even Harvee knew this iteration of himself. He had been addicted to Trail Mix, a designer drug sold in spice applicators that could be sprinkled across any food to significant effect. The withdrawals were brutal, but the highs were magnetic and responsible for Harvee's first two albums (Isn't This Great? and Fair-Feathered Friends). But the Universe had never seen him like this, sweating, bloated, out of control, and looking to cause a scene. The audience buckled in horror, some leaving for the exits. Then, the effects of the Trail Mix subsided, and he was face-to-face with a choice: slink back into the darkness and hope the next high would eliminate the memory or seize the opportunity he had and turn back the clock. Already scheduled to perform on Late Night with Burbbeez Verbatim, Harvee queued his somewhat stunned band and launched into what might be the most extraordinary public television performance in history. While most of us remember the torrid affair that ripped through the stage that night, the almost seven minutes of silence that preceded it was indeed the most remarkable part. Not only did the producers not cut to commercial, but not a word was uttered (though there was undoubtedly a cough or a sigh which escaped accidentally). Harvee bared all, not, in that gap, his mind racing, fighting the comedown of the drug. When the drums kicked in, and he smoothly slid up to the synthesizer, the genius of the giant Aviant came through. This live performance became the best-selling single of 3021. The B-Side's Anguish in Six Minutes was the ode to the stunned silence. Literally six-and-a-half minutes of silence, it played on radios across the Universe for two decades as a testament to the power of Trail Mix and the resiliency of Harvee. While his follow-up album Late Night / Early Morning featured a studio performance of what became known as Hawkish, it did not capture the moment's essence. Luckily, we have Give Me Trail Mix!! to relive the awkwardness of his transformation, the ultimate reminder that drugs can fuel our minds to great success but can sometimes leave us with that awful feeling of being on late-night television.
Side A
Hawkish
Side B
Anguish in Six Minutes