Friday, March 2, 2012



The New Highway Hymnal

Blackened Hands b/w Hey Kid (Gotta Run)

Vanya Records [2012]


I wasn't super excited about the A side, "Blackened Hands" at first listen. Sounded like a poor quality recording of something I've already heard off of The Gun Club's Miami. My friend overheard the song while I was listening to it and initially disliked it as well, calling it an "INXS performance recorded with a single microphone in an abandoned warehouse". It grew on both of us on the very next listen, and in recent retrospect we remember it as "good". We also both agreed that the B side, "Hey Kid (Gotta Run)" is the prized side of this Boston dream pop rock outfit's two songer. The song has more dynamic changes and interesting guitar work (something of a psych 60's tube amp tone played through an extremely tasteful tangle of effect pedals).


-Jeff Ogiba

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