They've reigned as Boston's scrappiest pop band for much of recent memory — the band that could go from a hoppity We Are Scientists attack, to a Pixies noise swarm, to a Detroit rock city anthem, to just dropping the bottom out into some flighty, nearly Ram-era McCartney shenanigans — and this month brings us what could be the SHILLS' shining moment. Ganymede is a 40-minute concept disc (complete with radio play-style dramatic segues) about a shipwrecked misanthrope who slowly goes crazy without anyone around to hate on. We're expecting a kind of Home Alone-meets-Apocalypse Now vibe. The Shills have been secretly working on it for a year and a half, since even before their last record came out. They're putting out the disc in triumphant self-released fashion at Middle East Upstairs on January 30 with Kid:Nap:Kin, Supervolcano, and Justin Shorey.
The future has been kept under lock and key by HALLELUJAH THE HILLS, who've been laboring for months over their follow-up to 2007's Collective Psychosis Begone at Medford's Soul Shop studio in between gigs opening for the Silver Jews and flubbing rim shots for Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. The end is in sight though — the reels of tape, presumably packed to the brim with obscure film references and big non sequitur anthems that sound like what John Lennon might be writing if he became drinking buddies with Robert Pollard, are currently heading to the mastering compound for final audio tweakage. Expect an early spring release called Colonial Drones on Misra Records. In the meantime, catch them opening for a once-in-forever Dear Leader show at the Paradise on January 16, with Faces on Film.
Well, if 2008 gave us the Ice Cube/BONE ZONE video mash-up and the giant papier mâché cop head, what could the new year bring? A triple release, says guitarist Dan O'Neil. Details are still sketchy, but the band are hard at work with go-to engineer Brad Wallace (of Transistor Transistor) and resident post-production samples and beats artist Kevin Driscoll ("Who fucks all our songs up," according to O'Neil). Expect earfuls of Ritalin-gobbling shards of rock in the form of two CDs — Candy Clown for Prez 2048 and Get On Top of Me You Big Baby — and a DVD compilation called Brainmania with footage from 30 live shows and home video projects. "Everything we've done since we existed," says O'Neil. "And a lot of other stuff besides." Is that even possible?
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