Of course, by “finished” we mean “finished recording”; there's still mixing and mastering and pressing and so on. But the sounds have been captured! The end is in sight!
" 2,no-more-desperate-grasping-feelings-difficult-put-,1,2008-08-13 01:07:51,No more desperate grasping for feelings difficult to put into words.,"We are so thankful to get to play some shows with the Silver Jews.
We are relieved to finally get back to play another show in New York with our good friends Ford & Fitzroy.
We are enjoying the process of working on these 15 new songs in the studio. We hope to get it out early 2009 on the unstoppable Misra Record label.
" 3,here-we-are-where-we-thought-we-began,1,2008-07-10 22:44:57,Here we are where we thought we began,"2nd album recording commences this weekend. You know the old story: we'll slave over expertly recording the new songs on rich, analog tape only to wait to hear it quickly dismissed 6 months later by kids in America who listen to half a song on their iPhone.
Don't get upset at me, I know there's a lot of you who want to hear it. It's just so hot that it's terribly easy to drift into pessimistic humor. Pull me back! We're very lucky. I've never recorded an album knowing it will come out on a great label (Misra Records) and so I don't have to worry about what will happen to it once we're finished. We'll craft it, they'll catapult it, and we hope you'll listen.
The songs are related, the album is about something...just not sure exactly what yet. I might leave the deciphering job up to Patrick Stickles.
Happy Summer friends. Buy popsicles, not gas.
" 4,are-you-preparified,1,2008-04-08 22:48:50,Are You Preparified?,"Today we are proud to unveil the Prepare To Qualify EP for free download for all who wish to hear it. You may have heard some of these songs before when they first trickled out online but we strongly suggest you trash those MP3's and grab this today. Since then we've had them properly mastered by Jeff Lipton over at Peerless Mastering, added two never-before-heard tracks, and lovingly sequenced it into this pocket-sized challenger. We'll also have hard copies for sale at shows. Please enjoy it as we spend the summer playing some shows and recording album #2.
" 5,im-one-disintegrate-your-dreamscape,1,2008-02-28 23:05:22,I'm The One To Disintegrate Into Your Dreamscape,"Two new songs! Both recorded in a real studio! “Nurses 5 Float Past” on Stereogum! “Don't Take The Law Into Your Own Hands But Take Mine In Yours” on The Boston Phoenix! Enjoy!
" 6,i-am-writing-under-duress-all-my-lies-will-be-pres,1,2008-02-18 23:07:47,"I Am Writing This Under Duress, All Of My Lies Will Be Presented As Truths","Dear Country, we are touring inside of you for most of March. Please let us seamlessly graft ourselves to your innards in each city. Thank you country.
The Unifying Monsters Tour will shake your feet directly down into the silt forever and always. We mean that in the best possible way. SXSW, Daytrotter, shows with Evangelicals, and a plethora of other highlights: Come see it!
Thanks to everyone who watched us perform Collective Psychosis Begone in its entirety last month at The Middle East Upstairs. It was one of our favorite nights of playing music (like, ever). It's been summed up quite nicely here and here (scroll down); for maximum effect, read those slowly or repeatedly while listening to the recording of the set.
" 7,do-i-have-come-right-flat-out-and-tell-you-everyth,1,2007-11-03 23:14:29,Do I have to come right flat out and tell you everything?,"We've been back from tour for two weeks, and that's how long it seems to take before we've entirely acclimated to real life. In place of a tour summary or photo-journal, Ryan has put together an audio collage of actual sounds heard during our trek. If you must feed your hungry eyes, you can head over to Flickr to see not one, but two photo sets of our CMJ show. Ten days is really too short a time to be traveling amongst the all fascinating cities and clubs and bands and people in this country. Discussions are already underway for a spring adventure.
" 8,you-cant-bring-it-and-it-cant-go-out,1,2007-08-26 23:21:36,"You can't bring it in, and it can't go out","We're approaching Fall which is the season that Hallelujah The Hills thrives best within. You can expect far less sloth-like behavior from us as soon as those leaves start dying. Hell, we may even get a new song online for you all. Here's what's happening now though: the Boston Globe has an article about the band. Crawdaddy Magazine put out one too. And SoundCheck reviewed the album.
We're definitely touring in October. A small one but I think we'll make it down to Georgia finally. At the end of the tour we'll play the Misra/Absolutely Kosher CMJ Showcase in NYC. Details forthcoming. Hope to see you soon.
Finally, we have a belated Christmas-In-July gift for you. At the end of our tour in June, we stopped by UMass Amherst to record a few songs for WMUA. Those folks were kind enough to send the session our way, so now everyone can listen to stripped-down renditions of two of our songs.
" 9,thought-broadcasting-tour-shakedown,1,2007-07-17 23:28:42,Thought broadcasting the tour shakedown,"It took a little while to put together, but Ryan has written a tour summary (with photos!) on our MySpace blog. Thanks to all the wonderful, enthusiastic people we met along the way. We can't wait to do it again!
" 10,song-sings-singer-back-home,1,2007-06-30 23:29:30,The song sings the singer back home,"We only have a few days left on our tour, and for our first time out, it's been going exceedingly well. The crowds haven't been gigantic, but they have been exuberant, with a healthy dose of old friends that were kind enough to put us up for a night. We've played with some great bands like Ford & Fitzroy, our labelmates Southeast Engine, Southerly, White, Wrench, Conservatory, Titus Andronicus, and Machine Go Boom. The folks at The Rudyard Kipling in Louisville, Canal Street Tavern in Dayton, and The Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis were very kind to us. We even had the honor of having Thax Douglas read a poem before our set at The Note in Chicago. In short, there has been no lack of awesome things to make this tour a success. We'll have more to say after we've slept in our own beds, along with a bunch of photos.
" 11,release-day-1,1,2007-06-06 23:31:27,Release day +1,"The album has been out in the world for a day now, and the good vibes are flowing all around. We would be remiss if we didn't scream a gigantic “Thank You!” to everyone that has been a part of this. We feel so fortunate that there are so many people that have shared our enthusiasm for this music, going all the way back to first show. The idea that this is only the beginning is incredibly exciting.
We've got a whole batch of stuff for you to read. First, our new friend Jami Attenberg did an interview with Ryan that can be read on Largehearted Boy. Our old friend Steve Gisselbrecht did an interview with the band that's in this month's issue of The Noise. Finally, there are album reviews from The Northeast Performer, The Onion AV Club, and Prefix Magazine.
If you're into all of that, check back here periodically over the next couple weeks, because you can be assured that we'll be giddily posting all the kind words that people write about us.
" 12,every-number-has-potency,1,2009-07-07 21:18:36,Every Number Has A Potency,"Friends, Enemies, Barristers, & Solicitors:
The 2nd full length album from Hallelujah The Hills is hitting the street on September 22nd courtesy of all the hard working mavens at Misra Records. It's called Colonial Drones and in the time building up to its release we'll be telling you more about these specialized drones with some informational podcasts, music videos, and a few door to door knock-and-talks. The album is available for a pre-order super low price from Misra.
You can expect a fall national tour, you can expect us to dispense more information about future projects in a cryptic yet charming way, but you can't expect everything to remain the same. Or as a certain Irishmen once wrote, “Here in Moicane we flop on the seamy side, but up n'ent, prospector, you sprout all your worth and you woof your wings, so if you want to be Phoenixed, come and be parked.”
" 13,do-i-really-feel-way-i-feel,1,2009-12-04 17:22:28,Do I Really Feel The Way I Feel?,"We're back from tour, we're alive, and we now have a place to put all that leftover hatred from adolescence (Texas). You can dig through the band's Twitter and Facebook pages for photos and play-by-plays but some highlights off the top of our heads go like so: being unexpectedly blown away by Drink Up Buttercup and The Wooden Birds, rigging a college lecture hall to function as a rock club, Thax Douglas showing up in Austin to write and read HtH #2, Tim Armstrong (from Rancid) grabbing our first album at the Los Angeles show, meteor watching in Charlottesville, VA, and inviting Patrick Stickles up to sing with us in Manhattan and hearing someone in the audience yell “this isn't happening!”
" 14,our-summer-vacation,1,2010-05-05 00:10:37,Our Summer Vacation,"" 15,summer-fall-almanac,1,2010-08-16 22:20:47,Summer/Fall Almanac,"When [Titus Andronicus] returns from Europe to tour North America in June, they'll expand into an eight-piece, complete with cello, keyboards, and horn players borrowed from tour openers Hallelujah the Hills. Considering that they already did a pretty amazing job conveying the heft and majesty of The Monitor onstage as a quintet, this should be pretty awesome.
If you didn't get to see one of the Titus Andronicus shows featuring the Jah Hills Mini Orchestra you missed something special. We'll have some audio proof available for you eventually but for now we hope you enjoy some photos from the tour.
We'd be fools not to squeeze some short bouts of touring into our favorite season. Two long weekends in September and October culminating with a night-before-Halloween party/show in Boston. We'll also solve several mail fraud cases & teach a curmudgeonly teen how to rekindle her school spirit.
Ryan is asking for bands and musicians to send him recordings of songs without any vocals for an experiment in songwriting/overdubs. He'll make up a melody, lyrics, and record vocals on top of the track. Submitters need to either own the copyright or have not copyrighted the song at all. A free downloadable album is the planned endgame. Email MP3s to band@hallelujahthehills.com.
And finally, Hallelujah The Hills original artwork and more is now available for sale on Etsy.
" 16,album-iii-reprise-revisited,1,2010-11-04 17:59:16.624000,Album III Reprise Revisited,"I turn a lot in my sleep. This morning it was suggested to me that I ceaselessly shift like a rotisserie chicken during slumber. I replied that I wanted my dreams to be properly cooked before consuming.
It is in that spirit that we bring up the subject of Album III before it is even recorded, titled, or fully written. Our wonderful times with Misra Records are on pause and we're trying an experiment. Can our studio costs for Album III be covered by fans pre-ordering a record they'd purchase upon release anyway? Check out the experiment right here.
Our drummer quit on stage the other night. We'll file this one in the department of regrettable fuck-ups. Video explanation here.
What else? Don't try to be cool. Don't hate for fun. Just keep looking for ideas, put them out in the world, and try to be a decent tipper.
" 17,why-there-was-no-vinyl,1,2011-03-29 00:07:29,"Why There Was No Vinyl At Our 7"" Release Show","Summer 2010 – A mysterious person contacts us via email asking if we’d like to participate in the first of a series of limited edition short run lathe cut 7” he or she was planning on putting out. Being fond of vinyl and shady, groundless business propositions we said yes.
Early Fall 2010 – We record the two songs for the 7” in 24 hours at the Soul Shop recording studio in Medford, MA. During this session Elio and Ryan place stamp #7/10 on their Asian eatery frequent customer card. They dream of their impending free entrée. Joe brings a Johnny Cash record that no of us had ever, ever heard of and insisted we sample it on the B side.
Our mysterious vinyl backer becomes even more elusive when we flat out ask for his/her name because they were omitting it from their emails. The omission, shockingly, is purposeful and the backer asks for us to refer to him or her merely as, ‘F’.
However, this anonymous entrepreneur proves to be fairly worth his or her salt when they promptly pay for the mastering of the two 7” songs. Fears which had previously run rampant in the band are somewhat quelled. Lady Gaga wows a nation with second rate David Cronenberg imagery clumsily stapled to average pop music.
F tells us that the people cutting the vinyl will be done by late January. We book our release show safe in the knowledge that all will work out despite the nutty, non-traditional methods employed.
Late Winter 2011 – The vinyl purveyors stop returning F’s emails and phone calls. They post “no more orders!” on their Facebook and Twitter. No vinyl arrives. Hallelujah The Hills stand side by side on the edge of a road, just about sunset, look off into the distance, and all mutter to themselves, “now this? My god, now this?”
Ryan & Brian begin to attempt to contact the vinyl purveyors by every conceivable method. In a last ditch effort Brian calls an Athens, GA record store and says, “Hey, do you know anyone from _______ vinyl?” The record store employee surprisingly says, “Yes, they’re actually browsing the racks here right now!”
Brian talks to the vinyl purveyor for a brief 5 minutes. She spins tales of broken machinery, backed up orders, and a harrowing move from Seattle to Athens. She promises to call with another update that very night. She is never heard from again and a communication black out is once again instituted.
Ryan calls daily begging for an update whether it’s good or bad news. No calls, no vinyl. We’re so sorry, friends. The songs can be downloaded on Bandcamp. What have I learned from all this? Songs and ideas routinely overcome their format. And a shop name that rhymes with ‘Shingle Fleece Plate’ vinyl can take a walk until their hat floats. They are no friends of ours. Enjoy the songs. All the best, Hallelujah The Hills.
Good evening! Can you feel it? It's time to put a new news update up on the Hallelujah The Hills website. Do you want it concise and link-laden? Or do you want it rambling and metaphorical? Look, I know how to do both so I want you to feel comfortable regardless of your preference. The sessions for the 3rd album have definitely concluded. The artwork has been drafted. The title is decided. But guess what? You gotta mix and master the actual songs which we have yet to do. We're working on it. For this album we started on tape and we're ending digitally and there's some technical alchemy involved that you can't just jump into all willy-nilly. Some more patience never killed anyone. We had a hurricane, we had an earthquake. Summer is awful.
Want to hear acoustic versions of two new songs, a vague back story for Introductory Saints, and see the band performing in front of a wall of wine? All these things happened at our Sleepover Shows session. A little later on Ryan was asked to be a guest lecturer on the web-comic Surviving The World. Head lecturer Dante found the spiel acceptable so we promise another installment of the chalk variety of around album release time. Hey, if you haven't discovered it yet we'd like to encourage you to check out the live-interview-show/podcast that Ryan and author Steve Almond host entitled This Has Been A Disaster - Thanks For Having Us. I bet you wouldn't believe that more stuff happened. Well, it did. Before Hallelujah The Hills there was a band called The Stairs and their entire discography was newly digitized and re-released online. Lastly, if you enjoy extremely-specific-niche-awards you need to look at this, as well.
But, now, let us bury the lead and talk about the most exciting news. We're playing shows in Boston and New York this fall and we'd love to see you there. Details over on the Shows page. Please join us.
Now it's time for bed. I gotta help a friend move tomorrow.
" 19,be-next-hth-video,1,2012-02-16 13:54:34,"Be in next HTH video, read about The OTC, avoid all IOU's","I know some of you live in Boston. Would you care to be in a video and hear one of of our new songs before everyone else? Are you around Sunday February 26th around 4 PM? Yes to all? Please email ryan@hallelujahthehills.com to RSVP! This will be fun and we'll be so grateful.
In 2008 members of Hallelujah The Hills & Ho-Ag invented a hoax. This week Ryan comes clean and tells all the sordid details of the weird online happenings that surrounded The Overdub Tampering Committee. You can read the piece over at The Phoenix.
Album Release & Tour News coming really soon! This is Hallelujah The Hills in 2012.
" 20,ballad-of-the-nearby-finish-line,1,2012-03-25 08:11:29,Ballad Of The Nearby Finish Line,"Oh friends! The album is called No One Knows What Happens Next and is out May 22nd on Discrete Pageantry Records. I can't believe it, either. Thank you so, so much for your support. The first song will likely come out next week. You can hear little samples of every song over at the Amazon pre-order page. If you want to pass a long the best pre-order link to friends that would be this. If you know of a record store who might want to carry the album click here.
What else. We stayed home and performed at CXCW. We have a bunch of shows planned and more on the way. Check here. Ryan became interested in John William Dunne. Ryan's month old article on illegal music downloading, fandom, and hoaxes reemerged as a scintillating footnote in a national art vs journalism scandal. Joe got a new amp head in an effort for the banjo to be heard at live shows. He WILL be heard, ladies & gentlemen! And so shall we!
We bid you bye bye with an old Irish blessing. ""May You Be Alive At The End Of The World.""
" 21,just-peacock-feathers,1,2012-05-16 23:36:52,It's Just Peacock Feathers,"Even though I recently bought this brand new shovel and I am dying to try it, I just can't bury the lead here. In a matter of days the third Hallelujah The Hills album will be out. No One Knows What Happens Next. Yes! We are shaking with anticipation to fully set it loose in the world. On May 22nd it will be available in record stores, Bandcamp, Amazon, iTunes, eMusic and whole slew of places I can't take the time to type here. I hope you find it, or it finds you, and that you and these songs have some kind of friendship that lasts a long time.
Did you hear the first song we released? How about the 2nd? Did you see the video for Get Me In A Room? These are like the first, small pieces of the spelunking gear you'll need to wear in order to sink down into the depths of NOKWHN.
We'll be on tour in June and July. Watch this site for details. Watch for more posters like this, too:
Other things! 'The Czar Of Whatever It Takes' hats are in! The 'HtH Casually Smiling & Eating With Chopsticks' website is complete. Our complete discography is a steal on Etsy. We provided the plugs theme for an episode of the 'Comedy Bang Bang' podcast. The latest episode of the 'This Has Been A Disaster' podcast is a mini-dispatch from the most recent tour: members of HtH sit around in a venue/crime scene wondering if their show is canceled.
That's it for now. Thank you!
" 22,science-non-repeatable-events,1,2012-08-17 15:54:54.522000,The Science of Non-Repeatable Events,"Friends, we had a terrific summer touring the right half of the U.S. It was so good to see your smiling faces again. Thanks for all the kind words about the new album. We're so glad you like it.
Let's take a look at the weather:
This is the 8th year of this band existing. Please proceed to what's going on by continuing to cast your eyes below.
The singles, b-sides, and unreleased material from our storied “career”, placed all together in an order that plays out like the double album we never released. Available on Bandcamp, Amazon, and iTunes.
" 25,do-you-have-romantic-courage,1,2013-10-01 21:14:48,Do You Have Romantic Courage?,"Do you have a powerful way? The 4th Hallelujah The Hills album does and, as of this very moment (in a way) it exists. Pre-order the album between now and October 31st at Kickstarter and help the gentlemen record it the very best way. It'll be out in May, you'll get early access, and the band will tour California and other parts of the US all summer long!
Please make sure to check out the video crafted especially for this occasion complete with meltdowns, histories, and a special glimpse into HtH IV.
" 26,no-time-prose,1,2014-01-26 21:02:51,"No time for prose, let's list this shit!","UPDATE 5/5: Now you can stream the whole album, over at PopMatters!
UPDATE 5/1: New video! Spin has premiered ""Do You Have Romantic Courage?""
UPDATE 4/23: Yet another new song! It's called ""We Are What We Say We Are"", and it's on Vice's Noisey blog.
UPDATE 4/16: Hear another new song, ""Do You Have Romantic Courage?"", on Guestlisted from The Boston Herald!
UPDATE 4/3: See the first video, for ""I Stand Corrected"", at The Line of Best Fit!
UPDATE 3/25: Hear the first single from our new album. It's called ""Pick Up An Old Phone"" and it just premiered on Stereogum!
Here we go! Today we announced the title of the album (as seen in the frightening subject line of this update), revealed the track listing, and showed off the album cover. That wasn't enough, though. We released the album's video trailer too, which marks the first bit of audio from the LP that we're leaking. Between now and May 13 when the album comes out, there will be a lot of fun stuff coming out to prepare you all for our catchiest, weirdest, and we think, best album.
We'll hit CA for the 2nd time ever this May. Some of those dates, along with our local CD release show, can be found on our calendar. Lots more soon. THANKS!
" 28,have-you-ever-bounced-off-a-rainbow,1,2014-06-08 20:34:29,Have You Ever Bounced Off A Rainbow Into An Ocean And Decided Not To Drown?,"On May 13th we released our 4th full length album Have You Ever Done Something Evil?. Reactions have been incredible. A sincere thank you for listening! It's out in all the usual online outlets but the only place to get the CD, and the best way to get digital (especially if you like FLAC files) is Bandcamp. But hey, if you're on iTunes or Amazon anyway, think about leaving a review. It helps spread the word on the record.
Our California tour has wrapped, and it was phenomenal. Thank you for coming out! If you're a fan of comedy podcasts, you should really check out our episode of Impov4Humans which we recorded in Los Angeles at the Earwolf studios.
If you think we look a little beleaguered in these Earwolf studio pictures, there's a good reason. The night before that recording our van was smashed into while we played and they grabbed all of our personal belongings and a box of our CDs. We drove overnight to LA, halfway in a smashed in a van, the other half in a new rental, and I'm pretty sure I can't tell if I drove a leg of the trip or just dreamed I drove a leg of the trip, and that's not good. We arrived just in time to record the Improv4Humans episode. Thieves can't stop HtH (I've always said this, and I'll say it again, it will be an inside job that destroys this band)! We were very thankful that they didn't get our instruments, but we did have to improvise to find some respectable clothes to play the wedding of two lovely fans, scheduled for two days later. In a fevered, rushed trip to the Glendale Galleria, we all bought new clothes to last us the week. Walking into a Target and buying everything you need to be clothed and clean for the near future feels a little bit like entering the witness protection program. It's not ideal, but in the right circumstances, I highly recommend it. In the end, I think we ended up looking pretty sharp at that wedding.
More California stories and exciting band news soon!
" 29,destroy-this-poem,1,2014-10-21 19:55:44,Destroy This Poem,"Hi, it's HTH, all of us typing this together. Each of us covering 6 - 12 keys on the keyboard, knowing when to depress the button instinctively, writing this letter to you smoothly without hesitation. Do you feel that?
We'll end our ""No More New York Shows"" protest and play CMJ on October 25th at Bowery Electric. It'll be our first NY show in about two years and it's being curated/hosted by Ryan's Smashing Life blog and Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows fame. That's free and you should RSVP now!
The vinyl release got pushed back til around November 20th, but pre-orders now get immediate download of the bonus EP Juvenile Oratorios! Here's a track from that EP we accidentally spilled all over a music blog earlier today. But anyways, the release is 180 gram vinly, only 500 being pressed, you won't wanna miss owning this musical platter.
This is especially true in light of the fact that we have been charged with the crime of being the best in three separate ways. You can vote for us (and Joe's band Creaturos, and Marissa Nadler too) over at the BMA site, but only if you'd enjoy doing so. As you know, we have a strict ""art is not a contest"" policy here and cannot directly implore fans to do anything but bliss out to our sweet, sweet, sweet jams.
Some other things you may have missed: collected podcast appearances & radio interviews can be found here, the ""Try This Instead"" video starring James Adomian (Comedy Bang Bang, Childrens Hospital, Last Comic Standing), 3 live videos from our Redstar Union ""Behind The Album"" event are over on our YouTube channel, and the complete story of staying the night at Boston's ONLY rock and roll hotel was chronicled by RW here.
Thank you for visiting our website, friends. We will be delivering news about the band Hallelujah The Hills until our superiors give us the signal and we roll this thing over into a straight-up conspiracy theory meet-up hot spot.
" 30,there-are-few-records-better-than-this-one,1,2014-12-15 21:02:49,"""There are few records, of any kind, better than this one in 2014.""","2014 Boston Music Awards
Hallelujah The Hills: Rock Artist of the Year, Video of the Year
Last week PopMatters named Have You Ever Done Something Evil? the #1 Overlooked Album of the year. I know what you're thinking. You're wondering, ""Why are you psyched about being overlooked?""
HTH doesn’t have the money to hire PR people or do big marketing campaigns, so this does mean a whole lot to us. We love the record we made and hoped people would discover it on its own merits, which this writer so eloquently suggests you do. Thank you PopMatters and Captains Dead for calling out what they heard, as they heard it. And thank all of you for the best year this band has ever had. I know we've said it before, but we literally couldn't have done it with you.
Also, for the 3rd year in a row, I've stacked up all the stuff I karate kicked into the world in one place. That includes Music, Videos, Writing & more. All here.
" 31,do-you-have-moment-for-me,1,2015-04-06 21:41:35.981000,Do you have a moment for me to talk to you about reverse mortgages?,"Hey friends. We have lots going on!
Oh, and as always, check to see if we’re coming to your town any time soon!
" 32,ten-years,1,2015-09-08 19:39:58,Ten Years of Hallelujah The Hills,"The following features a rich harvest of information, but here’s your TL;DR: We’ve been a band for ten years, new album this spring, pre-orders are heavily rewarded, there is a book being written about the band making this album, the author wants to talk to fans at November live shows.
OK? Let’s break that down.
We’re recording a new album this fall. It’s called Deluxer Mandatory. You can check out the track listing and the album cover below. I could describe what it sounds like, but has a band ever done that in a way that you found satisfying? Is it different from other albums but still somehow classically Hallelujah-The-Hills-esque? Yes, but music is ear stuff! You’ll need to understand it with your ears!
For the past two albums we’ve covered recording and production costs with Kickstarters, and it’s been a small miracle for a band like us. But we also noticed that people who had more to spend got the more exclusive items, which is just the way things sometimes work, but not for this album, we’ve decided. We believe we can cover all recording/production costs just via regular ol' pre-sales. Until November 4th, anyone who pre-orders the album in any format will be entered into a raffle with individual prizes that have been valued up to $500. We’ll host a live-streamed raffle drawing in the spring where we’ll draw the winners and your prize will accompany your brand new HTH album. If just a fraction of fans who have bought an HTH album in the past decide to pre-order, this gamble will pay off. Let’s try it out! PRE-ORDER NOW!
All pre-orders automatically get:
Raffle Prizes:
Deluxer Mandatory by Hallelujah The Hills:
To be recorded at 1809 Studios, Macedon, NY. Vinyl to be pressed by Re-Vinyl Records.
When we go to record the album this fall, we’re giving UK author M. Jonathan Lee complete access to the band and the recording process. Since we feel like we’re not a band who is “winding down their career,” which is when you might normally see a book like this come out, we found Mr. Lee’s idea of a book that captures us making this album and how we got here to be an interesting premise. Think of it like a documentary on paper. Here’s the author in his own words:
A year or so into becoming a fan of Hallelujah The Hills, I got into dialogue with Ryan Walsh over using some of the band’s lyrics in my second novel. From there we had numerous conversations and the idea came about to write a non-fiction piece about the new album they were planning on recording in November 2015, tentatively titled Deluxer Mandatory. I am really interested in how it is that five people work together in a room recording music on that particular day, at that moment in time. Thus, the book begins with the opening of the sessions but ultimately leads backward through time analyzing the choices each member made to ultimately lead to them writing, playing and recording Deluxer Mandatory. As much a biography as a journey, I want it to appeal to any music fan whether they are aware of HTH or not. The title? TBA. Get Me In A Room.
Mr. Lee will be at both of the shows listed below, and he is interested in talking to fans (and enemies) of the band. We hope you’ll get a chance to speak with him! The book will be published by Solopreneur Publishing based in West Yorkshire, UK. Lastly, yes, we told him multiple times we are not famous.
On sale now!
Friday November 13 @ Cuisine en Locale, Somerville, MA w/ Landlady, Eternals. TIX
Saturday November 14 @ Bowery Electric, New York, NY w/ Wilder Maker, Jason Heath & The Greedy Souls. TIX
Our album release show in the spring will take place in Boston, likely a two night celebration with several former band members joining us on stage to salute the discography.
To make a long story short: we’re in a great mood, we love making music, and we’re about to make more of it. Thank you for listening and doing this with us, friends!
Best,
Brian, Joe, Nick, Ryan, and Ryan
What are you doing this New Year’s Eve? If you’re within 100 miles of Boston, MA, why not spend it with America’s Favorite Functional Confuse-Core band, Hallelujah The Hills?
Dec 31: A Very Distorted New Year’s Eve
@ Great Scott, Allston MA
Hallelujah The Hills, The Barbazons, and Milk
Tickets!
What else is going on? I’ll tell you if give me a moment.
Ryan met legendary experimental filmmaker Jonas Mekas! David Crosby from The Byrds offered studio advice! The band received two Boston Music Award Nominations!
We made a record! You helped us make it! Thanks! Our time up at 1809 Studios was, again, really special. We knocked everything out in five days. UK Author Jonathan Lee was there for the whole thing. Then we played two 10th birthday shows. You can’t ask for a better HTH-autumn than that! We are mixing currently and the album is due out this spring. Pre-orders are live.
10th Anniversary Interview/Show Review Round Up
The 5th Hallelujah The Hills album is titled A Band Is Something To Figure Out and will be released April 12, 2016. You can hear the first single from the album right now by proceeding to WoodyGuthriePredictedPunk.com.
UPDATE 3/31/16: FBI MANDATED DECLARATION. Last month we forged a declassified FBI document in the spirit of fun to give our new song an extra sense of historical context. We wrote the lyrics about Woody Guthrie dreaming about a punk band first, sometime last year, and then we decided it would be fun to create a document and story that made it seem like he actually had done so a few months ago. When we launched this song and the WoodyGuthriePredictedPunk.com website, we were surprised to see many people sharing the news on social media as if it was real. We thought nothing of it until last week we were visited by two Boston office FBI agents who were curious why we had declassified documents that they had no knowledge of. It wasn't a matter of censoring the news that Woody predicted punk, you see, but more of an issue of access. We immediately came clean and confessed that we had fabricated the document and the story, never believing anyone would take it all that seriously. We are being allowed to keep this website up and running only upon posting this corrective note. We apologize for wasting the Federal Bureau of Investigation's time and apologize to anyone we fooled with our promotional effort.
" 35,a-band-is-something-to-figure-out,1,2016-04-12 00:00:00,A Band Is Something To Figure Out,"Our fifth album is available, starting today, on Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and a bunch of other strange platforms I'm not sure anyone listens to. CD copies of the album ship immediately and can be ordered on Bandcamp. The limited edition Re-Vinyl Records vinyl pressing is in the works, and will ship as soon as its available. If you want to support the band further, leave us a review on iTunes and Amazon, ask a free-form radio station to play us, or tell one of the arms of the music-coverage-industrial-complex to cast their unwavering gaze over HTH's way sometime this year.
Tonight, that is if you're reading this on April 12, 2016, you can listen to us perform the entire album album LIVE on the radio at 9PM EST. Tune into 88.1 FM WMBR in Boston or worldwide on wmbr.org. We'll play album release shows next month in Boston (5/12) and New York (5/14), then look for some tour dates this summer. And if you like a nice band t-shirt, we have two new shirts that tie-in to the new album, but they're only on sale for the next 24 hours.
Here's an excerpt from one early review that we like: “Massachusetts indie rock institution Hallelujah The Hills' [fifth record] is called A Band Is Something To Figure Out, but it could just as easily be called This Is What It Sounds Like When A Rock Band Has It All Figured Out…Rock frameworks that reliably stretch to accommodate subversive, irreverent impulses…The band's best outing to date.” —Clicky Clicky Music
We hope you feel similarly!
XO, HTH
" 36,movement-scorekeepers,1,2016-05-24 00:03:58,Movement Scorekeepers,"Are you enjoying our new album, A Band Is Something To Figure Out? That’s good, because we’ve built a side patio for it. Movement Scorekeepers, out July 8, 2016, is a lo-fi companion to the album The Metro described like so: “These 11 songs, loaded with gritty determination, dramatic dynamic swells and gang vocal shouts, might just make you believe again in whatever it was you stopped believing in.” Why did you stop believing? WHY. I know why.
The band employed a new method of songwriting to arrive at this short, psychedelic, lyrically-bananas new gem of an entry in our ever-growing discography. Last month we hit record and forced ourselves to improv new instrumental music together, changing it completely every minute or two without discussion. Then the vocal melodies were overdubbed on top of the tracks, arriving at this bizarre, delightful result.
“Are We Failing?”, the first song on the EP, is available for any online sharing starting today. The EP will be out digitally and on a limited-edition blue 7"" but not on CD.
Meanwhile, the full-length A Band Is Something To Figure Out vinyl is gorgeous, shipping SOON, and we’ll have plenty of these at live shows. But why wait? Get it from Re-Vinyl Records.
" 37,two-record-summer,1,2016-06-19 21:41:39,It's a Two Record Summer!,"On July 8th, we’re releasing two new pieces of vinyl.
Our new LP A Band Is Something To Figure Out from Re-Vinyl Records, limited to 500 copies. You can order it now, and it’ll ship right away. All LP vinyl purchasers will ALSO receive a digital bonus song sometime this summer! We’ll also have this at the merch table at all summer tour dates, PLUS it’s on the normal digital channels as well.
A brand new EP titled Movement Scorekeepers! This is a limited-edition (250 copies), blue vinyl 7"" from Jealous Butcher Records. You can pre-order it now, and we’ll have copies at the summer shows. It’ll be available on the digital channels, too. This strange collection of six 1-minute songs are like popsicles on a hot day, aka essential pre-Labor-Day weirdo-hymns for humans everywhere.
Also, for the completists, we have a few copies left of the Misra Records HTH 10th Birthday 7"". Clear vinyl, lathe cut, two classic songs from the Hills-a-verse that have never been on vinyl before. Sweet!
" 38,very-special-video-message,1,2016-11-26 17:16:10,A very special video message about some boxes left on my porch,"Hit play to learn about the kooky, ever-changing, fantabulous, upside-down world of the music biz and why HTH vinyl is now available at depression-era prices. When will this expire? I guess when I tire of boxing up records, so get to it.
Full-Length Vinyl: $8.50 on Bandcamp, no shipping in U.S.
A Band Is Something To Figure Out
Have You Ever Done Something Evil?
Here's two news items:
LIVE BOOTLEG - July 29th, 2016 @ The Cake Shop: The Cake Shop, a favorite NYC venue of ours, has closed. In honor of the club, we've put our entire concert from July 2016 up for free on Bandcamp.
Please enjoy this new hastily written & recorded country song entitled “Punk Rock's Gonna Be Great Now That Trump's In Charge”, which is a response to the titular sentiment which keeps popping up on social media. Assess artistic movements in hindsight, never in advance. Thanks, -The Management.
The 4-minute song that concludes our 2016 album A Band Is Something To Figure Out is now a 25-minute epic including audio contributions from fans.
LIVE inside The Charles Hayden Planetarium, with visuals created specifically for the performance.
Thursday August 17, 2017 at 7:30 PM
$20 advance, $25 day-of-show
Only 200 seats available! This experience will NOT be repeated!
BUY TICKETS
Join Hallelujah The Hills as they perform ten songs from their decade plus exploration of inner and outer universes underneath the stunning dome-screen at the Charles Hayden Planetarium. HTH and Museum of Science animators are working together to tailor a visual journey that will take the audience through the most unique presentation of these songs ever performed. For this show only, the band will expand to a ten piece unit including a choir and strings. Whether you've seen the band dozens of times, once, or never: THIS is the show to make sure not to miss.
We recorded the drums with Eric Penna at his home studio in Allston, MA. I laid the rest on top of those tracks on my BR8 Digital 8-Track Recorder which recorded onto, get this, zip discs. We sent it out to dozens of labels and heard back from three: Spin Art, Fat Possum, and Misra Records. I was excited about all three of those prospects; frankly, I couldn't believe we heard back from anyone. But it was late 2006, in the thick of the era when nascent music blogs seemed to hold as much weight as Rolling Stone Magazine, and we were getting a small amount of what they call buzz. The Boston Phoenix and the Dig were writing about us almost every week, and I can't overstate how much that helped us get going. I remember seeing one article in the Phoenix about Boston bicycle safety and noting that the illustrator had drawn the bicyclist as wearing a Hallelujah The Hills t-shirt. We hadn't even made t-shirts yet.
Cory Brown at Misra was particularly excited about releasing the album. He asked what we needed to become “a real, functioning band.” I told him a van. He told me that the album advance would likely make it so we could buy a van. We signed with Misra. We took the recording contract to an entertainment lawyer who explained what all the legalese meant and suggested changes. He kept referring to possible slight changes, noting we could frame the alteration to the label as “giving us a little taste” of this or that revenue. To be honest, even if the contract contained a clause that indicated we'd never be paid more than the advance, I would've taken it. Our album was going to be released on a real label that had put out bands I loved. This was a dream come true.
The original title for the record was Let's All Plug In To The Telepathic Disco but we opted for Collective Psychosis Begone instead. I was worried that the Psychosis title would be interpreted as too political; when I expressed that fear to others, they were like, “Uhhhh, what's political about that?” Inside the Bush Jr. regime with the Iraq War being protested safely within something terrifying called “Free Speech Zones”, I felt like a kind of communicable madness had infected the entire country. I had imagined a late night infomercial offering some kind of spray you could dose a whole population with that would snap them out of a off-kilter mindset. The tagline for this product could be “Collective Psychosis Begone!”
It was Eric Meyer on drums, Joseph Marrett on bass, Brian Rutledge on trumpet, David Bentley on cello and guitar, and Matt Brown on Moog, samples, melodica, and guitar. I strummed and sang. That's a fairly complicated set up to bring into a dive bar, and I remember priding ourselves on being able to set up and break it down quickly. After telling one aging sound-man what instruments we had and the mix we needed, he dryly told us, “great, I'll just go out back now and shoot up”, as if the technical demands of our rock band had caused him to relapse into a heroin habit.
The album received some exciting, positive reviews, and I remember I was a-ok with most of the criticisms some writers did have. I find that stuff interesting. One guy, though, opened his review by bitching about the length—I repeat the length—of our song titles, and how they made him “yearn for the simplicity of ‘Yeah’” His review made me yearn for his typewriter to fall off a cliff. Did he not hear all those moments in those songs with the long titles when were all literally yelling “Yeah” over and over again? To my delight, most other folks seemed to really understand what we were going for:
A child reading a poem, a throat clearing, a voice altering microphone treatment, all these things are slipped in without much explanation, but also without pretense. The whole record is beautifully odd, more than a little off even when it’s just one person with a guitar…so how could a few real world sounds make it any stranger? – Dusted
We embarked on the first tour knowing the Pitchfork review would come out while we were on the road. We had been told a great review would change the tour completely, a terrible review would tank it, and a middling review would add 10 people to each show and make us feel kinda nice. The latter type of review arrived as we drove to North Carolina. We were having a great time on that first tour, though I was having trouble connecting to any of the bands we were paired with on the bills. Finally, in Chicago, we played with another band also on their first tour, Titus Andronicus. Their super energetic live show in an abandoned church was just the kick in the pants I needed. I was enamored. HTH and Titus camped out that night; we stayed up all night drinking beers and I tried to figure out just exactly when Patrick Stickles was joking and when he was being serious (note: still trying). We'd both appear on each others second albums.
People made it clear to me that they enjoyed my lyrics but found them wildly abstract and sometimes hard to pin down. This was genuinely confusing to me. I felt like each song, at the very least, followed the insular logic of a dream. And we all dream. I remembered poet John Ashbery claiming that all of his poems were about “the experience of experience” and that seems more than enough context for anything you might read or listen to, right? I remember trying to end long runs of what might seem like non-sequitors with unifying, common phrases like “I'm so in love with you” or “everything will probably be alright” or “somebody please shake me awake.” It seemed to me that if I could initially place the listener somewhere unfamiliar, that when these common, universal phrases came around, they would resonate even more powerfully. People expect those kind of sentiments in songs; I thought it was my job to get them to a place where they no longer expected it. I have no idea if that worked or not.
There's three of us that have been in the band since the beginning: Brian, Joseph and myself. Along with David, Eric, and Matt, I really think we made a unique debut album in the little strange world we were building at the time. I listened to Collective Psychosis Begone for the first time in many years earlier this week, and I was proud of the eccentric mess we made. If you've ever listened to it, we'd like to thank you for meeting us there.
Ryan H. Walsh
June 20th, 2017
Collective Psychosis Begone was released on Misra Records on June 22, 2007.
We just posted a live performance of the entire album from 2008 on Bandcamp.
Join Hallelujah The Hills as they perform ten songs from their decade-plus exploration of inner and outer universes underneath the stunning dome-screen at the Charles Hayden Planetarium.
Due to high demand for the 7:30PM show, a second show has been added at 9PM; tickets on sale today.
The five-piece band, once described by The Boston Globe as “the sound of music without limits,” will expand to a full-orchestra-version for these performances only. Special guests include Josh Kantor (Red Sox organist, Jim’s Big Ego), internationally lauded singer/songwriter Marissa Nadler, seven-time Boston Music Award winner Will Dailey, Dave Curry (Thalia Zedek Band, Willard Grant Conspiracy) on viola, and a choir including members of Boston Cream, Long Gone, Headband, and Land of Enchantment.
Museum of Science, Boston
Thursday August 17, 2017 at 7:30PM & 9PM
$20 advance, $25 day-of-show
Tickets
Fenway Park organist Josh Kantor covers our song ""To All My Scientist Colleagues I Bid You Farewell"" at a Red Sox game this summer:
" 45,i-wrote-book-cover,1,2017-09-30 00:42:30,I wrote a book. This is the cover.,"In 2015 I wrote an article for Boston Magazine about how Van Morrison lived in Cambridge, MA in the months leading up to recording his masterpiece LP, Astral Weeks. People seemed to really enjoy the piece, including a man named Ed Park at Penguin Books.
Cut to this moment, right now: I’ve written an entire book about Astral Weeks and other connected stories from Boston 1968. It’s out March 6, 2018 via Penguin Press and you can pre-order it now, which I hope you do. Fandom of Van Morrison or a fondness for Boston are not required to enjoy this book– it’s a strange story, almost like a dream, that is worth telling way beyond the premise of hearing the origin of a classic album. As you’ll see on the cover, and read in the book description, all kinds of luminaries are involved, as well as folks I’m fairly certain you’ve never heard of. When we decided that the phrase “secret history” would be in the title early on, I set out to ensure that the book would make good on that titular promise. I think that’s the case. You, the reader, will have to decide for yourself.
It’ll be available in hardcover and ebook on 3/6/18 and audiobook too at some point (630 minutes – my longest audio concoction, by a large margin). If you plan on reading it, consider pre-ordering it now. If you’ve enjoyed the stories I’ve sang inside Hallelujah The Hills songs, I can almost guarantee you’ll feel the same way flipping the pages of this true story, told fifty years later.
Thanks. Ryan H. Walsh
Amazon pre-order: http://amzn.to/2wmEuKd
Penguin page: http://bit.ly/2h0x9dk
" 46,after-brief-end-winter-nap,1,2018-04-27 00:44:02,After a brief end-of-winter nap...,"…we’re back! And we’re announcing two new shows! Join us 5/17 in Providence, RI and 7/20 in Jamaica Plain, Boston.
And while we’re hard at work at on writing our sixth HTH LP, here’s two little tidbits to put on your next mix tape. These are original, instrumental tracks we created for the audiobook version of Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968. We had the pleasure of working with great musicians we grew up with in our headphones, like Tanya Donelly from Belly and Dana Colley from Morphine on this project. Parts of the hour-plus of music we recorded can be heard through out the audio version of the book, but here’s two tracks in full for streaming or downloading. For more information on the project, Vanyaland has the scoop.
For the Brooklyn AW68 book event, Craig Finn from The Hold Steady interviewed Ryan for a great crowd that included Rob Sheffield, who recently wrote a comprehensive piece about the book for Rolling Stone. Besides being one of HTH’s favorite songwriters, Craig’s deep familiarity with Boston made him an obvious choice for the job. If you haven’t heard Craig’s last two solo albums, drop everything and fix that. These records are true gems of melody and storytelling, some of the most stand-out lyrics of the last few years if you ask me.
Other things to check out:
Ryan appearing on Never Not Funny. Jimmy Pardo pronounces the band name correctly and Ryan performs “The 3 Minute Mark” solo.
Longtime HTH supporter Aquarium Drunkard interviews Ryan about Boston and the book on their Transmissions podcast.
Ryan interviews Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus to help unveil the band’s new LP A Productive Cough which is a surprising Stickles-Special® about the confusing times we live in, full of lifted spirits and real talk.
Hello friends! We’ve written a new album that we’re recording this winter titled I’m You, and we need your help to do it! No, this is not a Kickstarter; instead, we’re turning on pre-orders for the seventh HTH full-length LP as well as releasing our sixth album right this very instant. That means you can start enjoying our new instrumental album, Against Electricity, right now! All sales will go towards our recording budget for I’m You.
From now until December 14, 2018, anyone who pre-orders I’m You in any format will be entered into a raffle with individual prizes that have been valued up to $500. This way, we ensure that all fans of our band (not just the ones with the most disposable income) have an equal chance to get some of these premium extras we’ve cooked up. We’ll host a live-streamed raffle drawing in the spring where we’ll draw the winners. If you win, your prize will accompany your brand new HTH album.
All pre-orders for I’m You automatically get:
Raffle prizes:
We are so excited about the music we're sharing with you today and the music we're about to record. It's year 13 of this band's life (!), and your continued enthusiasm not only means a lot to all of us, it's literally how we get it all done. We haven't taken an advance from a record label since 2009. The fans of Hallelujah The Hills have become an engine that keeps us six friends churning out the cosmic American hits year after year. A sincere thank you doesn't even begin to cut it, so hopefully the tunes can carry that weight for us.
“Don't Freak Out / I'm You”
Love, HTH
Ryan Connelly, Dave Curry, Joseph Marrett, Brian Rutledge, Nicholas Ward, Ryan H. Walsh
The song is called “Folk Music Is Insane.”
You can listen to it on Bandcamp, SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, etc.
The album is called I’m You.
We’ll tell you all about it very soon.
This song title seemed like the kind of thing I would enjoy seeing on a t-shirt. I see someone wearing that walking down the street, I’d think, “now what in the living hell does that mean?” So, we put it on a t-shirt. Two of ‘em actually. Check it out.
Here are the lyrics. Let us know if there’s any questions.
I’m You release date!
It exists! It's real! It's ten songs! It's out 11/15/19! Don't freak out.
Pre-order
Album release show!
Just announced! 12/19/19 at Great Scott in Allston, MA.
Get tickets
New single!
“Running Hot with Fate”
Bandcamp,
SoundCloud,
Spotify,
Apple Music,
Google Play
Also: t-shirts!
Wear them around the house or when you go out.
Lyrics
Listen on
Bandcamp,
SoundCloud,
Spotify,
Apple Music
Google Play
This is the third single from the forthcoming I’m You. It’s a sad, aching six minutes of longing, negotiating and an insistence that time travel is real. I got to know John Payne as a book subject first, recounting the story of his happenstance involvement with one of the greatest records ever made. But after the book was published and we did some press together, it occurred to me how unlikely it was that John’s playing didn’t appear on more records over the years, Boston or otherwise. The students at John’s school are lucky to have him as a teacher, and we were lucky to have him come down to Pawtucket, RI and play flute and soprano sax on our song here (btw, that’s the actual, literal same soprano sax that was played on “Slim Slow Slider”!). As John is forever a believer in the power of improvisation, he purposely only listened to the song once before his recording session. Even after months of recording, mixing and mastering this song, his playing here makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. You guessed it, it still floors me.
It’s Friday, November 15, 2019 and the record is finally let loose into the wild.
This is the part where it starts to have more to do with you than us. And that’s a beautiful thing.
There’s a video for “Folk Music Is Insane.” Check it out.
All of the earlier discography’s CDs and vinyl are on sale now to celebrate the release of I’m You.
See you all soon,
Ryan
Available on all digital platforms, including: Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon. CDs available via Bandcamp. No vinyl release planned yet.
The incredible warm welcome the record has received below. THANK YOU for listening and speading the word. We have no label, no PR team. Word of mouth is how this record will find everyone it needs to find.
REVIEWS
FOLKS ON SOCIAL
We hope to tour I’m You in the coming months.
– HTH
" 53,return-and-recap,1,2021-06-24 06:00:00,Return and Recap,"Hi, sorry for the 18 month gap between news posts, but a global pandemic really disrupted life as we know it in ways we don't even understand yet, and probably won't for awhile! We hope you've been safe and healthy and if you lost someone, like so many did, we'd like to offer our sincerest condolences.
We'll recap what we did during the down time, but first, here's the new news:
Kill Rock Stars asked us to cover any song from their catalog to celebrate their 30th Anniversary as a label. We chose Marnie Stern's ""Year of the Glad."" Take a listen.
After our longest break from performing ever, we wanted to return to live shows in the most interesting way possible. We settled on this:
Saturday, July 17, 2021 @ 6PM
HTH Live in front of the USS Constitution
Charlestown, MA
Free! RSVP for reminders.
And here's that promised re-cap of what happened in between:
We were right in the middle of getting going touring the I'm You record when COVID sent us all back home. Before the pandemic, we had never gone more than 3 or 4 weeks without a practice since late 2005, so we had to find new inventive ways to keep connected, working, and busy, like: a quarantine-tinged video for ""People Keep Dying"", a live album from the brief I'm You tour, a deconstruction of I'm You showing how demos become the finished record via an extended audio collage, a new song recorded remotely to raise money for the staff of Great Scott, an elaborate stop-motion animation video for ""The Memory Tree,"" Ryan solo songs, a duo live show recording, a Halloween mix-tape, and finally, an experimental EP we recorded remotely and ironically titled Songs for NPR Segues (because they were too noisy and weird for NPR to use, get it?!).
And what about what's next? Stay tuned.
" 54,im-you-vinyl,1,2021-09-21 06:00:00,I’m You on vinyl is up to you,"Since November of 2019, the question the band has been asked more than any other is “Will I’m You ever come out on vinyl?” We’d love that, of course, but without having been able to do a bunch of touring behind the album—because of the pandemic—it just didn’t make sense to press them ourselves or find an interested label at the time. But our dear, sweet Bandcamp has this program where if enough people order your record, they press the vinyl for you. It’s risk free and win win! We have the next 30 days to get 250 orders in.
If you’re reading this, you were probably one of the people who has been asking about it. So perhaps we can help each other here, and you can help us get to 250. cue sad violin music. For, you see, we have no label or PR team. We’re just a little band out of Boston. Therefore, word of mouth and personal recommendations are essential to making this happen.
Therefore, we ask you, CAN YOU CONVINCE ONE (JUST ONE!) OTHER PERSON TO GET INTO THIS RECORD AND SIGN ON FOR A VINYL COPY IN THE NEXT 30 DAYS? If you can, this campaign is a slam dunk. And if it fails? Well that’s just how one runs hot with fate sometimes.
WHAT IT IS:
We're back with two new singles entitled ""Superglued to You"" and ""God is So Lonely Tonight"". They're streaming everywhere, for download on Bandcamp, and both have shiny new videos to visually take you into each song's world.
""Superglued to You"" premiered on The Best Show with Tom Scharpling, and here's what Tom said about it: ""An amazing song by an amazing band...the song rules, if the new record sounds like that, we'll hear plenty more from it.""
Thank you, Tom!
So, what are these songs for? What are they a part of? We're not ready to say quite yet, but we will later this fall, and at that point we'll show you exactly which cards are up our sleeves and reveal our hand. For now, hope you all enjoy these summer bangers we recorded at Big Nice Studio in Rhode Island.
If you were a supporter of the Bandcamp campaign to get I'm You on vinyl, THANK YOU! You did it! It's such a beautiful thing! We're moved and happy about how it all worked out.
Missed the campaign? Well, good news, we've put a limited number of copies for sale on Bandcamp! Are you in Boston? It's for sale exclusively at Tres Gatos in Jamaica Plain. Tell Phil that Hills sent ya!
Up next, live, we're playing a special late show with Cassie Berman at the Lilypad in Cambridge, MA. It's been well over a decade since we shared a stage with Cassie. Here's a photo of us on-stage at the Middle East September 5, 2008 at the end of the week we spent opening for the Silver Jews.
Earlier that day, she recorded her classic vocals on ""Classic Tapes"". We cannot wait to hear the songs she'll bring from Nashville to Boston.
" 56,introducing-deck,1,2022-09-27 10:17:34,"Introducing DECK, a 52 song album!","Greetings! We are setting out to create a 52 song album entitled DECK with one song for every card in a deck of playing cards. The DECK Patreon, launched today, is how we're going to fund this huge project; the better it does, the more funds we have to make DECK over the next year and a half. It's going to be lots of fun; in fact it already is. Check out the debut episode of the Camper Can Calethoven podcast and the first Hills Cover Song Session available immediately to all subscribers!
Here's how DECK is going to work: 52 songs, one for each card. 4 thirteen song albums, one for each suit. Diamonds: a proper studio follow up to I’m You. Clubs: lo-fi faster, punkier, dirtier songs. Hearts: a sparser, mostly acoustic, yet carefully orchestrated, album full of weepers. Spades: a free-form, experimental record.
The final product will come with an original deck of card with artwork for each song. You’ll be able to pull 13 random cards, put their corresponding songs in the order you pulled the cards, and voila, you have your own unique version of the record that might function like an audio-tarot-card-reading, if you’re into that. (Did you know there are more different combinations of an ordered deck than there are atoms on Earth? Wow!)
The truth is: I’ve had this idea for about twenty years now. But I never had the guts to try and actually try to make it until now. Maybe I didn’t have the life experience to be able to effectively create something like DECK twenty years ago. That’s almost certainly true. During each ensuing year, I’ve nervously watched music news headlines to see if someone else would stumble upon the idea and get there first. No one ever did.
So sidle up to the table and get dealt in, it's time to make rock records unreasonably ambitious again. Ready?
" 57,half-a-deck,1,2023-12-08 00:43:11,Playing with Half a DECK,"Greetings, Hills website visitor!
They said it couldn't be done. They said we'd certainly fail. They said we weren't up to the task. And guess what? They may be right! No one knows what happens next, we already know that, but we ARE at the halfway point of creating DECK—a 52 song, 4 album project with a track for every card in a standard deck of cards. There will be no compulsory champagne popped until all 52 are securely tucked into the pack, and so for now, we toil onward.
Today, though, we are sharing a little sign of life from behind the walls of Hillz secrecy. Please meet “Alone, In Love”: our electric new 7-minute signal, AKA the 5 of Diamonds, available everywhere you get your music right now. It was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Machines with Magnets by Seth Manchester during the DIAMONDS sessions. We hope you like it!
It seems extremely reasonable, as of right now, to assure you that DECK will be out in late 2024. How are we supporting this gigantic project without playing an enormous pile of live shows? With the DECK Patreon, of course. We do a flat fee, one tier, and we overdo it every month over there with music, podcasts, and videos. It's amazing what we've been able to achieve with the support of our ride or dies. Join us there if you wanna!
"