"we'll sing a crooked path back to our home"

Well it's getting to the point where I can sort of remember the smells of changing seasons in Massachusetts. You get a lot of time to absorb that fall smell there and as a result it has always been my favorite season (we just skip the season here in rochester, I wasn't around when that decision was made). It's also close to the point where I maniacally check concert venues in Boston (rather, Allston and Cambridge really) to see what I can see! I usually can't see anything. And there's usually one show that I am really aggravated to miss.

This year it is definitely Hallelujah the Hills, for a variety of reasons.
1) Check out their show schedule. They are nearly constantly playing a show there. I think they have 82 shows in November. Of course, they are taking Thanksgiving and the weekend off. Take it on, guys, take it on! You're young!

2) They actually sing about Massachusetts. I sympathize with this and willingly admit I give to much credit for it. Local bands from back in the day would do it all the time, just inserting our ungainly moniker into the chorus as a line unto itself. let me try to mimic it:

"toyota corolla's busted, in the shop

i shot the tv for the sox game on fox

massachusetts

i'll never get bored with you"

Makes "Boston you're my home" look like Wallace Stevens, the way we used to fawn over our state (although it is the best one in the Union [runner-up Oregon, last place Florida]). Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers could pull it off well. The Cars didn't really try. The Pixies' "UMass" gets honorable mention.

3) This band is really good? I know, weird. My sporadic posting has been due to the fact that little has demanded the time out of my quasi-masochistic schedule. A merry band of Guided By Voices fans for sure, that carve their own little world of love for homeland with the four minutes of static they are given. Sure, their lo-fi resources pin them to at least a somewhat GBV sound, but the lyrics are even more reminiscent of Guided By Voices - "there is no context for this progress/ a village epidemic reaches Congress" - and a song title like "My Scientist Colleagues I Bid You Farewell" only reinforces it. But man. You can root this in Guided By Voices but I feel like this isn't throwback indie rock - it's undoubtedly a step forward. I love when great indie rock songs come 'round to remind me of how daring and creative and simply wonderful the Wrens, Sebadoh, Built To Spill, that 90-early 00s school truly was. They couldn't have done a better job of it even if they straight up covered GBV (ie, the sorta-cool Trail of Dead Cover of "Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory."

Over this break I am at least going to try to get my hands on a t-shirt.