ALCHEMIST

11/24/2009 10:00 PM at Hilken Mancini ex Fuzzy & Tom Novotny ex The Mittens
435 South Huntington Avenue, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts 02130
Cost: Always Free

Indie Rocking Hilken Mancini of Fuzzy, showing Jamaica Plain what it is missing.Yeah, yeah, yeah, Boston’s Mittens say that their influences are Squeeze and such, but as I listen to the sway of “Leeway,” the opening track of their Fools on a Holiday album, I see Rhett Miller swinging his hips while doing his lazy windmill guitar while Murry Hammond plucks out the rockabilly bass line. Mittens isn’t AltCountry, and Tom Novotny doesn’t have Miller’s voice, but attitude is everything. That swaggering rhythm, which is a throwback to all things Kinks, Elvis, and Johnny Cash, is what catches my attention.