Perhaps a stark sonic divergence from the musical rancor of Ninety Pound Wuss and Raft of Dead Monkeys, but definitely songs from the same 'suffering' soul. Jeff Bettger told me about this project about a year ago, while it was being recorded independently, and I saw him perform a couple of the songs from it a couple weeks later at the Paradox in Seattle. The song that touched me then, even amidst forgotten verses and botched chord changes, resonates even more now in recorded form. "All My Friends Are On Prozac" is a sad, delicate song with a careful, pluckish melody that slowly rises for its agonizing chorus, an anthem of the lonely, despondent, and Serotonin deficient, "All my friends are on Prozac / And all my friends are alone."
While Bettger is not a gifted singer, his voice is so saturated with honesty, natural emotion, and spirituality that the ear is quickly trumped by the heart that demands to ingest the words, the stories, the characters, the allegories, and the often stripped but always intricate instrumentation present in all these songs. While this is at its core a singer/songwriter record, the Hideous Thieves are several musicians backing Bettger, with wonderful harmonies aided by Rose Thomas. Besides "All My Friends Are On Prozac," Bettger's other deeply affectual, haunting storytelling songs are "The Other Side of the Moon," "Cure Violence with Violence," and "Sex is Dead."
Similar sounding releases
2005Static FilmsLove of Light
2002HalleyForget The Leaves, Autumn Will Change Us
2002LowTrust
2004CastanetsCathedral
2005Summer LawnsFirst We Waited... Then It Started
1999Bright EyesEvery Day and Every Night
