Loving The Dead
What’s this I hear?!? The band of my dreams is breaking up?!? Is there no greater injustice in this world than finding out a band only to discover that they have just broken up? Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Portland, Oregon’s The Hunches…Too fast, too fine, perhaps too fun for this world…What hooked me was their 2009 long player Exit Dreams from Garage Rock Record Kings In The Red.
What can I say - the band comes off as a reckless blend of Kim Salmon’s Scientists and Iggy’s Stooges filtered through a recording process that sounds not unlike a mic shoved into a rusty Maxwell House Coffee can full of loose gravel. Part of the sheer joy The Hunches have to offer is a clear disrespect for the rules of rock - and at times, one could argue their music is all its musicians playing four different songs at the same time - inevitably through a cloud of hiss, a melody emerges.
“Not Invented” is the dark sister to the Stones’ “I Got The Blues”. This slow burner works counter to some of the more chaotic numbers (”Your Sick Blooms”, “Pinwheel Spins”) - but the most perfect revelation is that everything this band does works beautifully.
The Hunches, to me, are a smattering of nasty hangover memories from glorious nights of irresponsibility.