The Hilken Mancini Band
I wasn’t expecting to have drinks with Hilken Mancini two days before Thanksgiving, but there we were. I’m not name-dropping, it happens. We were there because she insisted on meeting me in person to give me a copy of her excellent new record by the Hilken Mancini Band. She’s still looking for a better name, by the way, if you happen to have one. And she was giving me a copy because I needed to review it, because I had fallen in love with it. “I’ve seen you around at shows, right?” she says. Mancini is a mainstay of Boston music. She was in Fuzzy way back when, but now plays in Boston’s hardest-hitting garage band The Monsieurs. She also heads Punk Rock Aerobics (you might have seen her on that Green Day video) and runs the coolest vintage clothing store in Boston 40th South Street Vintage. She’s seen it all and doing it all.
Of course I had a million questions, but mostly I wanted to tell her how great the record is. It’s so great that I was streaming it every day on Bandcamp. Soundwise-it sounds like a fuzzier, catchier Pavement. Yes, I said catchier. The songs on this album are filled with harmonies, hooks, energy, and joy. I found Mancini to have similar properties. “We recorded the album in Cambridge after hours so we could do it for free.” We talk a little about the sound of the record, how to get the drums to sounds right on a record, and how songs are written. Mancini is like a beaver building a dam. She doesn’t know why she does something, she just knows she has to do it. She had a lot of these songs already finished and it just made sense to put a band together with friends and put out a record. The results are simply fantastic. The more I hear it the more pumped I get, but it also makes me a bit sad. In any other scenario, all the songs on this record would be a hit. Can’t you hear “Set My Sights” playing over and over on the radio? Why isn’t it? What’s wrong with people? Why isn’t this record selling millions of copies? ‘That’s sweet of you to say” when I ask her the same questions. “It DID go into a second pressing, though.” That’s something, I guess, but not nearly enough.
If it came out earlier in the year, the Hilken Manini Band record might be my favorite record of the year. It’s just cool as hell. But it didn’t. It’s competing with records I went back to over and over again and still hit the way they did. I strongly urge you to check out this album. It’s just waiting to be your new favorite record. Once it does, it’s gonna be your job to spread the word.
