Sometimes the side project eclipses the parent band; such is the case with Casey Crescenzo’s The Dear Hunter.
Crescenzo formed The Dear Hunter in 2005 when he began writing Alternative/Progressive Rock songs that didn’t fit the Post-Hardcore mold of his primary outfit, The Receiving End of Sirens.
In late 2005, he collected his initial demos on a self-recorded/self-burned release titled Dear Ms. Leading, distributing a mere 10 copies among friends. By the following spring, Crescenzo had left TREOS to concentrate on The Dear Hunter’s debut album, which was to be the first part of an elaborate story arc involving the early 20th century life and sudden death of a boy identified only as “The Dear Hunter.”
After the release of Act I: The Lake South, The River North, Crescenzo assembled a proper band to record Act II: The Meaning of, and All Things Regarding, Ms. Leading, which cracked the Top 40 of Billboard’s Heatseekers chart.
For the next two years, The Dear Hunter’s lineup fluctuated constantly. Act III: Life and Death was released in the summer of 2009. In 2010, Crescenzo stated he was setting aside Act IV in order to work on “The Color Spectrum,” a series of nine EPs relating to specific colors, all of which were released in June 2011. While he’s maintained that Acts IV-VI will eventually see the light of day (possibly recorded and distributed completely on his own), Crescenzo determined that his next album should be unencumbered by his conceptual story thread and came up with Migrant, his fifth album, released this week.
Although Migrant is a stand-alone Dear Hunter effort, it clearly continues Crescenzo’s triumphant pursuit of cinematic and quietly epic Indie-meets-Prog soundscapes.
THE DEAR HUNTER performs Sunday, April 7 at Madison Theater in Covington with guest Naïve Thieves. Buy tickets, check out performance times and get venue details here.