Bad History Month

Sean Sprecher's tempestuous songcraft anchors Boston-area indie outfit Bad History Month, whose visceral and philosophically anguished pieces often cohere through a sardonic wit. Even with the ensemble's penchant for self-aware levity, the numbers Sprecher wrote for releases such as 2017's Dead and Loving It remained ominous and turbulent.

The project first operated as Fat History Month, issuing assorted recordings from 2011 to 2013 until Sprecher formally rechristened it. Embedded in a Boston D.I.Y. milieu alongside acts like Pile and Ovlov, Bad History Month's initial official outing under the revised name was the 2014 split Famous Cigarettes with fellow local outfit Dust From 1000 Years. Slow, brooding instrumentals and bleak, self-reflective lyrics defined the full-length Dead and Loving It, and three years afterward Sprecher elongated that approach across the more expansive tracks of sophomore album Old Blues.