House Of Freaks - Bryan Harvey And Family Murdered

I'm sorry that this blog is reading like an obit lately. However I just read of the untimely and absolutely brutal murder of Bryan Harvey, his wife, and two daughters on New Year's Day. It appears that two men have been arrested and are the suspected assailants. Here's the news link.

Bryan Harvey was the singer and guitarist for late Eighties, early Nineties band House Of Freaks. In the early Nineties, I worked at Turtles Music on Nolensville Rd. I was lucky to work with some true music fans with big ears. There were three employees specifically who always seemed to be going on about the Next Big Thing.

These early twenty-something girls also tended to be right on the money about predicting that bands I had never heard of would soon be hot sellers in our bright yellow CD racks. Elena, Tina, and Melissa would rave about bands like Nirvana months before MTV told the world about "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

One of the many bands I might never had heard of if not for these excellently cool friends and coworkers was House Of Freaks. I think I have bought one of their CDs five or six times over the years. I had a habit of giving it away to friends who didn't know who they were. Right this minute, I can't quite remember that CD too well (time to buy it once again, maybe?), but as I recall, it was a kind of blues based, alternative sound with a touch of power pop. Not a world away from the sound of the Foo Fighters. They had a surprisingly full sound for a band of two. Bryan Harvey sang and played guitar and Johnny Hott played the drums. That's it. No bass.

Whatever. They had broken up in the mid-Nineties and I don't know what they were doing professionally. But Bryan Harvey and his family were residents of Richmond, Virginia and were fatal victims of what police believe was a robbery. The suspected murderers are also believed to be responsible for the recent murder of another family.

I've always known that life is fleeting. It's the brutality which ends it that one struggles to understand. Thanks to Elena, Tina, and Melissa for making me hip to their music and thanks to Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott for the music you made. My thoughts and prayers are with all of the affected friends and families.


Stella Harvey, 9, left, and Ruby
Harvey, 4, in an undated family
photo.