DOWNLOAD: Ryan Walsh, "Famous Last Words (Faces on Film cover)" [mp3]

DOWNLOAD: Mike Fiore, "Nurses 5 Float Past (Hallelujah the Hills cover)" [mp3]

We couldn't have been more surprised, or delighted, when this ultra-exclusive two-fer landed in our email a couple of days ago: a matched pair in which the respective frontmen of Hallelujah the Hills and Faces on Film, longtime friends, perform solo covers of each others’ songs, perfectly timed to coincide their show together (on a bill with Dear Leader) at the Paradise this Friday.

We'll spare you the long history of the effort, by the awesome folks who own the Middle East, to turn the old Somerville Armory into an even awesomer community arts center called the Center for the Arts at the Armory: if you want to follow along at home, read some of these articles. Suffice it to say that the process is ramping up, with a full-blown benefit for the center being staged just down Highland Avenue from the Armory at the Somerville Theater.

If we had a Best Music Poll category for most-improved, Mike Fiore's FACES ON FILM would've had another notch in their belt, not to mention a pretty-much unimpeded cakewalk to the victory. As it is, he's up for best local singer-songwriter, for which we apologize because we didn't know quite where else to put 'em.