Marcelo Krasilcic The Magnetic Fields are back. But wait, you might argue, they never really went away. Sure, three albums in the past decade doesn't really match the rate of output that Stephin Merritt was maintaining in the '90s - particularly when you take into account his other projects - but it ain't nothing. And yet it's accurate on many levels that The Magnetic Fields are back: they're back on Merge , the label that released their greatest records including the risky and magnificent 69 Love Songs [...]
Name: Bear in Heaven Progress Report: Brooklyn's finest synth-rock dreamshapers put the finishing touches on their forthcoming spring release. Bear in Heaven's last album - Beast Rest Forth Mouth - was one of 2009's most pleasant surprises. For many, that album - and the ubiquitous single, "Lovesick Teenagers" - was their first introduction to the band, even though Bear in Heaven has been recording music in one incarnation or another since way back in 2003. The somewhat unexpected success of the last record not only sent them into what would become nearly [...]
New York just became the 6th largest state to approve same-sex marriage. Yes! The Senate bill passed 33-to-29, Governor Cuomo signed the measure shortly after, and the law goes into effect in 30 days. A historic night to be sure, one probably best not spent in front of a laptop. So in case you've been off Twitter this evening, here's how some well-known indie rockers took the news... Read More...
Expansive, aesthetically correct Norwegian producer Lindstrøm remixed Bear In Heaven's perennial Beast Rest Forth Mouth anthem " Lovesick Teenagers " for Record Store Day. It's now close to 10 minutes long and wraps itself easily around a dance floor. If you recall, Bear In Heaven covered "Lovesick" from Lindstrøm & Christabelle's Real Life Is No Cool this past Valentine's Day. It's, of course, included on the Record Store Day 123, an example of hearts coming full circle. Listen to both: Read More...
2011 is shaping up to be a big year for Montreal's Young Galaxy . Fresh off a massive Canadian tour, including dates with Stars and Arcade Fire, the band has already penciled in a Spring release for their newest full-length, Shapeshifting , on Paper Bag Records. Shapeshifting was helmed by producer Dan Lissvik, also known as half of the Swedish duo Studio, and perhaps best known best for his collaborations with Fever Ray and Bear in Heaven. Wondering [...]
Nick Helderman Who: Bear In Heaven What: Brooklyn-based crew who can be accurately and inaccurately described as psych/prog/electro/rock Why: They will be re-releasing last year's Beast Rest Fourth Mouth accompanied by a remix disc on September 14 When: July 15, 2010 Where: The El Mocambo Who else: Twin Sister support How: Courtesy of Collective Concerts , I've got two pairs of passes to give away [...]
Frank Yang Whenever I see reviews of Kate Nash's just-released sophomore effort My Best Friend Is You that put forward the tracks that represent her well-documented discovery of Riot Grrl as the standouts and bemoan the number of pure pop numbers on the record, I have to wonder if the writers of said pieces actually like Kate Nash. Because as commendable as it is that she's seeking to branch out beyond her precocious piano girl image and explore her interest in louder, rawer sounds, the inescapable fact is is [...]
MySpace Where do bands these days get their ridiculous names? If there were still a working marquee over the El Mocambo, this coming Tuesday night it would read like a litany of the absurd - Cymbals Eat Guitars ? Cymbals are inanimate objects and cannot eat anything, and even if we were to anthropomorphize them sufficiently that this isn't an issue, why would they feed on their musical brethren? Nonsense! Bear In Heaven ? Everyone knows there are no bears in heaven, bears never die. They just hibernate for really, [...]
Frank Yang If you were at The Garrison on Friday night and felt a sense of deja vu, it was with good reason. Though the occasion was the third anniversary party for Toronto label Out Of This Spark , you might have also been at the second anniversary party a year ago at The Tranzac which featured 3/4 of the same performers in The D'Urbervilles , Forest City Lovers and Jenny Omnichord , or maybe the Evening Hymns release show in December , or perhaps at the [...]
"Lovesick Teenagers" - Bear in Heaven Can a song be spacey and determined at the same time? "Lovesick Teenagers" seems to manage this unusual effect. Determination is heard through the relentless pulse of the snare-free beat along with front man Jon Philpot's purposeful tenor, which sounds like someone with a wavery voice trying not to waver. And the melody itself seems also to possess an endearing sort of tenaciousness in the way it keeps leaping up a fourth on every syllable it seeks to emphasize. But the spaciness [...]
The Mary Onettes - DareThe Mary Onettes - PuzzlesIf you are a fan of British alternative pop of the '80s, then Sweden's Mary Onettes will no doubt resonate. I really dug their self titled debut from a couple of years ago - very moody, very New Order-ish. You will hear elements of a lot of the era's other key players - The Cure, The Smiths and Echo & the Bunnymen - in their songs. Their new album
Brooklyn's psychedelic Bear In Heaven are sexy post-rockers, maybe even indie-krautrockers with a Tears For Fears crush in disguise. In a strange way, this record reminds me of a cross between the Head's '77 & Fear of Music. Their new album Beast Rest Forth Mouth out on Home Tapes Records is filled with big melodies, percussion, surging electronics and songs that sound like nothing else out now. Lovesick Teenagers - Bear In Heaven [...]
The first track we posted by Brooklyn quartet Bear In Heaven was their zeitgeist-locked " Lovesick Teenager ." The warping "Dusted," another song from the band's excellent second full-length Beast Rest Forth Mouth , basically sounds like a couple of swooning lovesick teenagers falling in and out of phase. (Or teenagers huffing on something other than love.) Like Bear In Heaven's other tracks -- see also " Wholehearted Mess " and attendant remixes -- there's something immediately familiar about these six minutes. "Soft As Snow" melting at the wrong speed? Continue reading New [...]
Bear In Heaven - "Lovesick Teenagers" . Bear In Heaven - "Dust Cloud" . Beast Rest Forth Mouth is an album of bled bytes, vomitted pixels, tears of pure #@&am(p;*xE%. Synths stream like paint from a spraygun, stars from Zeus's cock, the mantra from a monk's mouth. Drums like immutable physical laws; the facts which dictate everything else. Just songs, but when you turn them up loud - from wide speakers, big headphones - these songs occupy space . You can rest your head against them, feel them flutter against your eyes. And in the [...]
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Bear in Heaven : "Lovesick Teenagers" [mp3] from A Wholehearted Mess other Bear in Heaven posts at Largehearted Boy Excene Cervenka : "Trojan Horse" [mp3] from Somewhere Gone (out October 6th) Excene Cervenka : "Surface of the Sun" [mp3] from Somewhere Gone [...]
After the recent deaths of '80s musical movie icons John Hughes and Patrick Swayze , an ebulliently downcast and darkly triumphant song that reminds us lovesick teenagers "don't ever die / they will live forever" sounds like the anthem of '09. It's meant metaphorically -- you have that teenager in you "even when you're too old / and you think you know more" -- but that doesn't take away the track's power. It's the work of the Jon Philpot-fronted Brooklyn (via Georgia and Alabama) quartet Bear In Heaven and feels instantly familiar, not just because you might [...]
Bear In Heaven "Lovesick Teenagers" The keyboard plunges downward, pulling you in like a gravitational force, but the voice resists, pushing against the grim, unrelenting tone until it rises up on the chorus. I imagine this as a conflict, or a struggle against this encroaching doom and gloom, but in the context of the lyrics, it's probably more of a meditation on our susceptibility to dark emotions. We may think that we're better than the "lovesick teenagers," that we have outgrown an overblown adolescent despair, but those impulses are still within us as we age. The [...]
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Bear in Heaven : "Wholehearted Mess" [mp3] from Beast Rest Forth Mouth (out October 13th) other Bear in Heaven posts at Largehearted Boy Choir of Young Believers : "Next Summer" [mp3] from This Is for the White in Your Eyes other Choir of Young Believers posts at [...]
You don't need us to tell you that if you want to see R.E.M. tonight you should have started lining up at Stubb's two days ago. Also you know how big these SXSW crowds are getting every year. The best bet for the sake of your legs -- and for the sake of not standing in line all night -- is to pick your showcase wisely. Besides, there are too many stacked bills to even worry about hopping around all night. Rather than sprain your fingers scrolling through tonight's master list , we've made you a list of eight [...]
Chromewaves
Stereogum
My Old Kentucky Blog
Said the Gramophone
Fingertips
silence is a rhythm two
Some Velvet Blog
largehearted boy
Fluxblog Is So Hot Right Now
Mega Round Up Time
Jodeci - Freek n You (TOKiMONSTA Frickinyoo remix)
RAC ft Penguin Prison – Hollywood (The Magician Remix)
