Minus the Bear
"Menos el Oso"
Suicide Squeeze Records
www.minusthebear.com
"Menos el Oso" is an album of great movement and energy, it is catchy and smart, and
beautiful.It is a subtle rock record, filled with electronic and jazz tendencies, and intelligent and touching lyrics.
A Seattle-based band, with ex-members of Botch, Kill Sadie and Sharks Keep Moving, the five guys in Minus the Bear have previously released 2 full-length albums and a few EPs, as well as appearing on some compilations. Their sound has always been a mixture of bands like Tortoise, Red Stars Theory and Archers of Loaf, a mixture of dark cold afternoons and brand new toys, a perfect melding of powerful, graceful rock and sparse, singer/songwriter songs - with a dash of experimentalism.
Of their previous bands, Minus the Bear probably sounds most like Sharks Keep Moving, but they are more fully developed, able to dive in and out of small dark places, but also completely fill grand ballrooms.
The 11 tracks on "Menos el Oso" - which simply means Minus the Bear in Spanish - begin with gentle, George Benson like, guitar chords and vocalist Jake Snider sings in his matter-of-fact way
"We don't have money/so we can't lose it/ but you touching me like piano keys/you can't buy that movement."The song titled - wonderfully, like all Minus the Bear songs - "The Game Needed Me" is a smooth rock song with an arsenal of background sounds, some sounding like the backwash of a Space Ship. Snider asks "What does it cost for/this life of excess?/Would you ever miss your desk's caress?"
The next song, "Memphis and 53rd" opens with a muddy drum beat and some lean guitar
pickings, then it riles up a bit, the guitar picking becomes happy and catchy, and Snider reveals the song's story of a couple on the road, in love. The other guitars whip out some power chords and the bassline dances a jig, and the song bows at the end, very politely.
Track 3 - "Drilling" - starts of with a bit of an electronic feel, then the guitars jangle happily as Snider spouts "Is this a dream/you ask and I don't say anything/because it may be a dream."
The lyrics tell a story of a couple madly in love, who only live to be alone with each other. The powerful guitars and drums lay out a bed of mellow rock, decorated wonderfully with bending notes and winding rhythms, as Snider says "You know tomorrow comes like disease to us."
The upbeat sway of your hips continues with "The Fix" as Snider reminds "The distance between our bodies/is a problem that we can fix." A couple dueling guitar solos guide us through a breakdown and then combine - like the two people in the song - from "we to them/."
Action slows down though, as "El Torrente" begins. A lazy rhythm, like a faucet dripping, and a strong marching band like drum beat, guide us through this song of a police detective who is investigating the murder of a young girl. The investigation reminds him of his own daughter and he pleads "Please let my girl go/without knowing what I know/don't let her read this day/on my face when I come home."
With a slightly eerie echo, the next song "Pachuca Sunrise" creeps up and starts dancing, with more jangling and bending guitars, as Snider says "Don't cry I'll bring this home to you/if I can make this night light enough to move." The amazing powers of Snider's character's continue in the next song - "Michio's Death Drive" - espouts his ability to "drive too fast at night/because accidents happen to other men/and not me"
".. Death Drive" is the most relentless song on "Menos el Oso." It burst out of the CD player and keeps moving along at a blistering pace, it certainly changes up tempo - like all Minus the Bear songs do, to keep fresh and move properly with the story - but it is the most consistently driving song on the disc.
The only song that rivals its continued determination is the next track- track 8 - "Hooray" - a tale of returning home. The driving force does continue to keep your head rocking with the next song "Fulfill the Dream," although the themes return to relationships. Snider spins a tale of reminiscing on a beautiful woman he had a chance to talk to, but once. "She was alone in a back room," he says. "Smoking like she was waiting for someone/me stealing glances as she stole my breath."
The 10th track - "The Pig War" - is another that begins with an electronic garble of sounds - similar to a Four Tet song - and dissolves into a sweet-tempered guitar driven tune. A keyboard pushes out some wailing in the back, and the drums continue to an intricate heartbeat, but the song is relatively quiet - except for the 2 or three breakdowns and mood changes you always here in a Minus the Bear song - as Snider says "Its been so long/that it seems like I've never/danced with anyone."
The album ends with "This ain't a surfin' movie." The guitars sparkle like stars, the bass twinklessoftly as Snider again weaves a tale of lovers living to be with each other. "I hope the weather holds/but you don't need the sun to make you shine" he says.It ends the album perfectly, dwindling into a single guitar note.
The entire album is like a nice day with a musical breeze. It's a disc of interesting, well-played,beautifully told, excellently engineered and comfortable songs. An extraordinary album of life and movement that will never get old, no matter how many times you listen to it.
Visit www.minusthebear.com for more information on the band and to download the new Hold Me Down ep from the band for free.
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