Happy Just To See You by Brittany Rose Queen

While we are obviously partial to our native city, our local pride and expertise extends to the greater New England area, and so it brings great pleasure to introduce Manchester, NH combo Happy Just To See You to these hallowed digital pages. Positioned somewhere between the stone-y transcendentalism of classic PNW indie, the bracing immediacy of heartland rock, and the latent twang of alt country, Happy Just To See You bring a downright alchemical combo of sounds to the table. As lead by fronter Evan Benoit, the group also has hooks for days and a beautifully understated sensibility. For all those big signifiers and even bigger lyrical themes, a Happy Just To See You song often feels a warm conversation over a beer with old friends.

The band is self-releasing their sophomore album Ways to Cope tomorrow (February 16th) following a strong run of singles, and we have it streaming for you a day early here at Allston Pudding. A sterling collection of indie rock that slots real well in the twang-ier canon of late, jangly-yet-incisive tracks like “Punchline” and the positively bouncy “Jelly Spine (Pop Song)” will be among several we revisit throughout the year. Happy Just To See You is taking these songs on the road later this month (including Friday, March 1st at Medford’s Deep Cuts), so peruse those dates on the flyer to the right and hit play on the stream below.

And most importantly, go Celtics.