Anyone else all set with Winter? Frankly, I think bears have the right idea: just sleep right through that mutha. Sadly, unlike bears, we humans have the little annoyances of modern-day living like jobs, bills and reality TV to force us out of bed during this seemingly endless string of short days and long nights. That, I suppose, is why God invented whiskey. Thanks, big guy!

Anyway, surviving winter and the accompanying malaise clinically known as SAD — that's short for "Sucks Ass, Dammit" — requires a little creativity and, occasionally, an infusion of all-out pop-a-liciousness. Enter Plattsburgh's Hello Control.

I favorably reviewed the band's debut EP a couple of weeks ago. Although pop-punk ain't really my cup of Kool Aid, these kids are very good at what they do. If given the right combination of lucky breaks and a healthy degree of that all-important quality known as "stick-to-it-iveness," I could honestly see them appearing on the next American Pie soundtrack — American Pie: Cougar Hunt, I believe. And if that's not the next title in the bawdy teen-comedy franchise, it damn well should be.

So if Winter blues have got you down, get a load of this video from Hello Control, the latest by Jeff Howlett's Howlerman Productions.  And just think, Spring is technically only 56 days away. In Vermont, of course, it's really more like 80. But who's counting?