Greg Hoy & The Boys’ new single/video combo “Green”

Rumbling out of the silence with a volatile edginess, the guitars in Greg Hoy & The Boys’ new single/video combo “Green” are the most important component in the track, bar none. As tends to be the case with most quality alternative rock, the string play forges the foundation for every verse, every beat and every drop of spillage from the bassline that we’ll hear in this three minute jam, but this isn’t to suggest that “Green” is somehow lacking in multidimensional substance. On the contrary, this is one of the better songs I’ve come across from an underground band lately without a doubt.

Beyond the riffing, there’s a lot of detail to the harmony that the vocal sews itself into right out of the gate in this single. The textural intensity on the bass parts is definitely something that adds to the physicality of the song in general, but I think it’s important to understand why it was important to emphasize this end of sonic spectrum over the other.

“Green” doesn’t sound bloated by its heavier components for one simple reason – even at its lushest, the band never allows for the hook to devolve into a base for a predictably sludgy alternative anthem, which is something that others in this genre just as soon would have done.

I wasn’t aware of Greg Hoy & The Boys before listening to this new single and its old school music video just this week, but I’m certainly excited to see what the future is going to hold for their music. There’s still plenty of room for this group to grow into the aesthetics they’re seemingly committed to in “Green,” but for the time being, I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch to say that they’re one of the more important rock bands in the underground to keep an eye on this year.

Mindy McCall