Ten years ago, Boston’s Black Helicopter released one of the finer local albums of the decade in Invisible Jet, issued via Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label. Moore said at the time that the Boston rock quartet were “the real deal, a classic sense of rock heaviness and infectious melody in league with Satan, but they are their own thing, deep and distinctive.”
The years that followed provided the usual minefields and distractions for a band beyond their care-free 20s: battles with major labels over censorship, lineup changes, commitments to families and careers. But that all seem like footnotes for what’s next: a recharged Black Helicopter with some new components and a new EP due May 20 via Midriff Records.
The first track off the EP, the upbeat, garage rock-ish “Deadlines For Deadbeats”, can be heard below via Vanyaland premiere.
“With Zack [Lazar] leaving the band, Tim and I went into recording mode and finished up material we had in the works,” says drummer Matt Nicholas, “producing ‘Deadlines for Deadbeats’ and our follow up EP, set for a fall release. Getting our good friends Mike Davis [Blacktail, 13 Billion Years] and Can Keskin [Green Magnet School] to join the band allowed us to get back on track quickly, reinvigorating our ability to play live and get new material written with a renewed sense of excitement and productivity.”
Nicholas adds: “We’re super excited about how much we’ve accomplished recently and look forward to being more prolific than ever.”
That begins today with this new track, and continues May 20 with the arrival of the new EP, and then June 18, when Black Helicopter play Great Scott in Allston alongside Shatner, Vic Firecracker, and Eldridge Rodriguez.