Wednesday, March 12   11:00 p.m.
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  Hallelujah The Hills - Hallelujah The Hills
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Hallelujah the Hills is one of the most admirably devoted, unconventional bands to have come out of Boston in recent years. The band's line-up of bass, drums, cello, Moog, trumpet, melodica, sampler and plenty of guitars grants them the space to expand and contract as their melodies and arrangements see fit, as showcased on their glittering and grimy debut, Collective Psychosis Begone.

Unlike some of their anthemic peers, Hallelujah the Hills find solace in the space between their crashing crescendos and choral peaks and that's a subtle strength of the band. It grants the songs a great diversity, from amped-up campfire sing-alongs to somber ballads. You'll hear notable traces of Spoon-style boogie, Thermals lo-fi fight songs, and Dylan's thick imagery dressed in dustbowl rags. One of Hallelujah the Hills' most distinct qualities is an unnameable chemistry and spontaneity that makes them sound like a band, a gang of men armed with a goulash of sounds that makes one wonder how there can only be six people on stage. Using this as an umbrella for the aforementioned marriage of influences (are they drunk on maple syrup, cough syrup or straight whiskey?), Hallelujah the Hills strike gold in an unmarked territory. As co-founder Ryan Walsh puts it, “if there’s any tug-of-war when I’m writing, it’s the one between pop song versus everything weirder than that."