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Our favorite local music from June
As the temperatures soared, local musicians offered mind-bending music befitting a heat-induced hallucination. Our critics share their favorites from June: A punk rock concept album inspired by a deck of playing cards. A project full of hook-laden songs from a "post-genre" band that leans into irony. An Americana band that bring a banjo and violin tinged soundtrack to the Revolution.
Hallelujah the Hills, 'DECK'
If you find yourself in a game of poker with Boston-based punk rock band Hallelujah the Hills, be prepared for them to see your bet and raise you four concept albums. The band released the project “DECK,” a whopping 52 songs, one for each card in a deck, in mid-June. The tracks are organized by suit: “CLUBS,” “DIAMONDS,” “HEARTS” and “SPADES,” and each suit/album has 13 songs starting with aces and ending with kings.
The concept came from songwriter and lead vocalist Ryan H. Walsh, who had the idea a quarter of a century ago. He’s picked up some friends since then, and many lend their musical talents to this collection. Aside from the six core members of Hallelujah the Hills — Walsh, Ryan Connelly, David Michael Curry, Joseph Marrett, Brian Rutledge, and Nicholas Giadone Ward, the albums also feature no less than 50 guest musicians. In that sense, “DECK” can sometimes sound as if you’re listening to a party of performers where Hallelujah is the house band and guest stars take turns bringing their tender, raucous acts to the stage. You can hear Ezra Furman on "Rebuilding Year (4 of Diamonds)" and producer, musician and songwriter’s songwriter John Vanderslice "Animals in Love (4 of Hearts).”
Each album works well as either a start-to-finish listening experience or on shuffle. (Tee hee.) Consider playing the album alongside a physical deck and let the luck of the draw determine your track queue. And don’t toss out the “JOKERS.” The album has two tracks: “Untitled, Actual Title (Joker One)” and “Actual Title, Untitled (Joker Two).” — Solon Kelleher
Thalia Zedek Band, 'The Boat Outside Your Window'
One of the pillars of the Boston rock scene, guitarist and singer-songwriter Thalia Zedek was a member of Come before launching a solo recording career nearly 25 years ago, with much of that critically lauded output released on Chicago’s tastemaking Thrill Jockey label.
Zedek has long made music that rewards a close listen, but “The Boat Outside Your Window” is especially unsettling, full of songs that speak of natural and personal calamities. In “Circus,” Zedek paints a picture of an end-time where “All the operators have gone home/ And the dealers won’t pick up their phone.” “Aliyah” retells the story of the Tower of Babel through the lens of today’s fractured society.
Joining Zedek are longtime collaborators bassist Winston Braman and drummer Gavin McCarthy (who, along with Zedek, is also in the power trio E). New to the combo is pedal steel guitarist Karen Sarkisian, whose melancholy playing is the perfect contrast to the thunder created by the rest of the band. “The Boat Outside Your Window” may not be an easy listen, but it’s one that proves that Zedek still has a lot to say — and is always coming up with new musical ways to say it. — Noah Schaffer
The Favors, 'The Little Mess You Made'
Singer-songwriters Ashe and FINNEAS recently announced the formation of a new band, The Favors. The artists previously collaborated on the cinematic track “Till Forever Falls Apart.” FINNEAS also co-wrote Berklee alum Ashe’s popular single “Moral of the Story,” which was featured in the film adaptation of Jenny Han’s book “To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You.” As The Favors, the duo released their first single “The Little Mess You Made” in June. The track is on their upcoming debut album “The Dream,” due Sept. 19. The album art is an homage to Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours,” with a black and white portrait of the artists with moody, far-off gazes.
“The Little Mess You Made” feels like a third act ballad in a coming-of-age film. It begins with simple synths that build to a swinging rhythm signature of FINNEAS’ pop-rock solo work. The 1970s folk-inspired track is lush with warm harmonies and an aching emotional build. “Say when/ You’ll never see me again/ Just pretend/ She was just a friend,” they sing. The song explores how one mistake can wreck a relationship through a sticky, heartbreaking melody. — Maddie Browning
Intac, 'Money Love Music'
Shareholders! It’s time to invest in this post-irony, post-genre duo based in Somerville. A family business run by cousins Bill and Lucas Restivo, "Intac International, Inc. is the World's First Independent Music Corporation." So reads the paradoxical description of their Patreon page before asserting, "We Believe in the Value of Song, and We Love Our Shareholders!" The corporate speak and business guru memes might seem tongue-in-cheek, but there is a blunt truth behind Intac’s social media persona: If musicians want to make a living they’ve got to be good business people.
Their newest project is full of earworms and that same flavor of honesty delivered as a joke. In the country pastiche of “Gamblin’ Man,” for example, finding love becomes a metaphorical casino game that you can’t and won’t quit. Or take the hip-hop influenced “Dumb But True,” which opens with a line that rhymes Michigan with “piss again” before reminding us that it’s worth showing gratitude for the small things, even if you sound silly. The songs put you in a place where you’re not sure whether to laugh, cry, or some secret third thing, and if you get in on the ground floor, you might find out what that is. — Lukas Harnisch
Time and Place, 'Time and Place'
Self-proclaimed “leftist Americana” Boston band Time and Place released their eponymous album June 20 after over a decade of releasing music under the band’s name. Each track has the city in its veins — think more Revolutionary times than modern-day Seaport. The album was recorded at The Soul Shop in Medford and sounds like something that would play in the background of “The Departed.” With song titles like “Manifesto” and “There’s No War Like Class War,” you can guess where the music takes you lyrically. In “Above the Law,” a chorus of voices sing “You couldn’t even be bothered to read me my rights/ And now I’m being taken away/ In the back of your fear machine,” over a thumping banjo and violin riff. Songs such as “The Want Machine” expand beyond the band’s Irish American punk rock folk sound by bringing in the baritone saxophone, trumpet and trombone for a soupçon of ska.
It’s the kind of music that you could imagine hearing from buskers outside Faneuil Hall after hours — with no permit. But that would make sense for a band with an album cover featuring a musician strapped with a banjo, a bandana covering their face, a book in one hand, and a Molotov cocktail in the other. Time and Place will play on Sunday, Aug. 3 at The Jungle Community Music Club in Somerville. — Solon Kelleher
