I love Cleveland and its half-cousin-of a-city Akron.  There are a ton of reasons that have kept me here for so long.  One of them is the good people who I have surrounded myself in.  I know some of the best people in this area and feel privlidged.  The other reason I dg Northeast Ohio so music is because of the music scene.

What?  Cleveland and Akron have a music scene?  You bet your damn ass they do.  Lately it has been picking up too.

Sure, it might be a week or two between a solid show, but the local bands in Cleveland and Akron are good, scratch that, they are amazing.  Well, at least to me and that is all that should matter.  Some of my favorite releases last year were local bands.

Case and point: Harvey Pekar (the band, not the legend)

I love this Cleveland hardcore band so much that I am going to pimp them out to anyone who happened to accidentally read this.  Last December this band opened up for my pals Worship This! and killed it.  I was an instant fan.  With no material released at the time of the show, I was almost bummed all I was able to do was hear them one time.  Luckily a few weeks later they uploaded their EP to Bandcamp.

Harvey Pekar mixes up punk rock and hardcore with intelligence if that makes any sense.  The lyrics are the kind that make me want to research and the music makes me want to go nuts.  Some people might think the breakdowns are a tad excessive on a couple of tracks, but honestly, I think it works.  I dig their Thirty Ghosts EP a whole lot, especially “Confronting Flag” and “Begotten of Ian Fleming” (I do like me some James Bond you know…).  I look forward to seeing this band play out more and more in 2012 and drop a full-length.

Check them out if you want.  Keep it local folks.