Hunger & Thirst (11th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

All those years fold up like an accordion. We released Hunger and Thirst over a decade ago, and when I listen back to it now I am filled with the mixed emotions one always feels when contemplating a younger self: embarrassment, nostalgia, the tenderness specific to hindsight - the full knowledge of the intervening joys and sorrows that will carry the little fool all the way into this moment. This record, for all intents and purposes, is where it started. It was in recording and playing these songs that our loose, feral, house-show collective congealed into something like a band; sprawling, yes, but durable enough to pack into an ‘85 Dodge Ram and take on the road. Listening back, are there things we would do differently now? Oh, definitely. But then, I guess that’s the point: this is the record that made the other ones possible. On the occasion of its eleventh anniversary (eleventh because, well, 2020, etc) we’re releasing a special edition of Hunger and Thirst, newly mixed and mastered. The digital release includes two bonus tracks written in the H&T era and recorded in 2021: an acoustic version of “CPR” (after so many years of playing it, I think this is how the song is meant to sound), and a previously unreleased track called “Never Be Your Lover” (which longtime fans may remember from live shows back in the day under the working title “Pain, Love”). The new edition also features reimagined album artwork by the original artist, Rick DeLucco. Special thanks to Paul Laxer for mixing our record twice and to Tender Loving Empire for putting this baby out, then and now. Mastered by Adam Gonsalves.