Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Tim Cushing - Hunting Songs (2013)

Today I'm gonna share how I got to experience the reviewed album in an somewhat unique light of desperation and frustration, neither of which were caused by the music but rather of my own folly. I got to spend some vaguely enforced time that has made me an absolute fan of these songs and I'll tell the tale in a short version for you all to suitably mildly commiserate and rejoice with me.

I'm a fan of world cup soccer, to the degree that the thought of quitting my job so I might have days open to watch the games seriously crossed my mind until I recalled my eating and drinking habits. So I have to race home to watch the later matches, always missing the first ten minutes and praying the best of the plays aren't over by then. Well, this afternoon my forgetfulness caught up to me and I left my keys at my place of work, which is a virtual fortress after closing time so I was without access to my own home. While waiting for my roommates to let me in whenever they get home, I settle in with the beers I picked up to watch the game with in the backyard and hit play on my iPod only to find it is on Tim Cushing's "Waking Up To Out Of Doors."

The next two and half hours when spent in the oppressive sun, pacing around drinking cheap and ever warmer beer while I heard the folk songs of Cushing, with his quirky, charming delivery of offbeat lyrics and simple, impressive songcraft. Shifting between the melancholy I was feeling at my missing the game and the pleasantness of the sunshine and beer after a hard winter full of snow and ice, I was moving about with the tracks like a rag doll in need of imposed emoting. Hunting Songs provided this exceptionally well. The songs are beautifully done, and they lured me into a sense of cheerfulness with the fine instrumentation just to lift me into a state of mind where I can hear the somber and morbid songs toward the end of the album that are utterly captivating with a true experience of pleasure. By the time I got to "Goodnight To Your Sorry Kill" I was ready to hear something so bizarrely soothing to my over existential mind. Although, perhaps the stand out track to try first is "Treehouse" yet I recommend the sitting down with something strong to drink and a warm sun to hear the whole album. So thanks for accompanying me on what could have been a miserable evening, Tim Cushing the Mainer living in Korea doing lord knows what.

It is available for streaming through one of the most well designed sites for a musician I have seen since starting this blog, or it is can be gotten on the bandcamp page released via Laughable Records.

To be had here:

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