Motherfish #9- I'm so Damn Hungry I Can't Come Up with a Title

Album of the Week

Left 4 Dead is an insanely awesome game. Being able to just kick back and shoot the shit out of hordes of zombies is exactly what I’ve wanted out of a videogame for a long time, and finally the gods of gaming delivered. Thank you. And thanks to the people who have emailed me some ideas for the site logo, I’ve gotten some good ones. I think the way it’s going to work out is that I’m going to choose one for the website and another is going to be on the stickers that I’m planning on printing up. Pretty cool, huh? In other news, my bed has becoming exponentially more creaky, and it drives me insane. I haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep in a week and a half because every time I blink my eyes I can hear the squealing of tortured metal coming from the springs. It remains a mystery to me as to why my roommate hasn’t gotten up in the middle of the night and furiously beaten my bed (and, by default, me) to a pile of rubble with a sledgehammer. Hey, I’ll knock on wood. Here we go.

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Act II by The Dear Hunter.
For starters, that’s not a typo. I’m talking about The Dear Hunter, not Deer Hunter. Deer hunter is a very good band, but I think The Dear Hunter is better.(movie reference anyone?) Pitchfork, lick my nuts. The Dear Hunter, on the other hand, is a fucking awesome band. Last week I mentioned how this week we would be seeing a familiar face, metaphorically. The star of The Dear Hunter is a one Casey Crescenzo of former The Receiving End of Sirens fame. Quick disclaimer, The Dear Hunter is nothing like TREOS. If you listen to Act II and Between the Heart and the Synapse (TREOS’ first major label release) side by side, you can hear Casey’s influence stylistically, but the two bands are fundamentally different. The Dear Hunter is more experimental, Casey plays around with instrumentation and uses a lot of varied song structures. Act II is, as the name implies, the second album in a series TDH is doing following a central plot.
I’m Anthony, Tony’s friend. He asked me to do this part because he figured I knew more about it. I don’t really know if I do, but I love this album and I know some random assorted facts about the band. Anyway, Casey Crescenzo is THE man, having seen him play several times in TREOS and the Dear Hunter I have walked away from every performance astounded by how godly his voice sounds and how each song is flawless. That being said, Act II provides even more evidence of this man’s greatness. The album introduces it self with a 30 second overture then comes in hard with a heavy hitting intro riff in The Procession. Nearly every song on the album features an assortment of instruments including the xylophone, violin and assorted horns. Act II flows together very nicely, yet each song brings a different flavor to the album. Personally, my favorite sing-along song is Red Hands, the song is about the main character confessing his love to a prostitute (Miss Leading). Now that doesn’t sound all that touching but the lyrics and Casey’s voice makes this song just stand out from all the others. Barring the ridiculous notes Casey starts to belt at the end, you just want to get everyone in the room to sing it with you. Interesting fact, the last song in Act II ends with the same piano from the end of the last song in Act I. In all honesty, I can’t say I did the album justice. Go get the album, listen to it and bask in its greatness.

I asked my friend Anthony to help contribute to today’s post because he’s been listening to TDH for a lot longer than I have and I trust his opinion. Everything he said is spot on. The album has great flow from song to song, which is something I value in an album. If you’re going to take anything out of this review its that The Dear Hunter (which I just typed as “Hunger” because I’m fucking starving and I’m going to Wendy’s for the first time in close to 6 months) is breaking a lot of boundaries and trying a lot of new things. Keep your eye on them because Casey has a lot up his sleeve for 2009.

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Ok kids I’m really hungry now so let’s keep this short. Act II is awesome. Casey is God. The Dear Hunter is fantastic. Email me if you’d like the album. Next week will be a lot of fun. Until then, keep breathing.