Polaris Mine “September”
Polaris Mine “[untitled]”

It’s raining buckets in Boston right now, and one thing I’ve been known to do in these situations is blast Polaris Mine.

In 2005, I took the 66 bus from campus to Allston so I could see the last show by Clickers, a band I had only heard a few weeks prior. The show wound up being a gateway to the local Boston music community, or at least the first one I fell in love with. I owe a lot of thanks to Polaris Mine, who opened the set with “September”, a song I would become very familiar with for the next few years at their shows. Singer/guitarist Jordyn Bonds finally delivers lyrics around the five-minute mark, but up until then the simple progression is a playground for Jonathan Sparks’ drumming, filling the space and complimenting the feedback. Call it Chimp Rock if you must, but Polaris Mine took the baton from Swirlies and ran with it.

When the band played their last show in 2008, I expected to never hear “September” again. Then a great thing happened and the band released their entire discography on their website. “[untitled]” is an even longer and slow-burning composition, but resolves with a beautiful coda, ending abruptly and all too soon.