00-minus_the_bear-planet_of_ice-(advance)-2007.nfo
ARTiST: Minus The Bear
TiTLE: Planet Of Ice
LABEL: Undergroove Recordings
GENRE: Indie
TiME: 48:06 min
SiZE: 69,3 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: Aug-02-2007
RELEASE DATE: Sep-10-2007
WEBSiTE: n/a
Track List:
01. Burying Luck 04:54
02. Ice Monster 04:04
03. Knights 03:40
04. White Mystery 04:39
05. Dr. L'ling 06:48
06. Part 2 03:51
07. Throwing Shapes 02:47
08. When We Escape 04:04
09. Double Vision 04:30
10. Lotus 08:49
Release Notes:
The more distant you get in our solar system, the
more the planets tend to be covered with ice; from
the lunar South Pole to the rings of Saturn, the
substance seems to coat the outer reaches of our
universe like a snowy blanket. Alternately, for the
past six years, Seattle's Minus the Bear have
orbited the music world like a distant meteor,
fine-tuning their unique brand of indie rock and
discovering how technology can help enhance the
band's unique pop vision - all of which is about to
culminate with their latest full-length Planet of
Ice, an album showing the band not so much
transforming their sound as transcending it.
Formed in Seattle, Washington in 2001, Minus the
Bear was initially formed by guitarist David
Knudson, bassist Cory Murchy, and drummer Erin Tate
who eventually recruited keyboardist/sequencer, Matt
Bayles and vocalist/guitarist Jake Snider. Once in
the same room they realized they were on to
something special - and the band quickly earned a
rabid and rapidly growing fan base ranging from
teenagers to middle-aged parents. "I know every band
says they can't explain their music, but I really
can't say that we sound like one specific thing,"
Murchy explains. "We don't follow a particular scene
or genre and hopefully that shows."
Although the band has released a handful of EPs and
two full-lengths in their prolific career (most
recently 2005's Menos El Oso and the sister remix CD
Interpretaciones Del Oso), with Planet of Ice the
band - which now features new keyboardist Alex Rose
- have taken their brand of idiosyncratic indie rock
to new heights. "I feel like this is the most
cohesive record we've done," Murchy says. "I hate
the term 'organic,' but that's kind of the one term
I can think of when comparing this to our other
records because there's a lot of weird electronic
stuff going on there, but there's some really raw
riffage as well."
Recorded at Robert Lang Studios and Red Room with
former keyboardist Matt Bayles - who has produced
albums by Mastodon, Fall of Troy and The Blood
Brothers - and Chris Common (These Arms Are Snakes,
Mouth Of The Architect), Planet of Ice shows the
band allowing negative space and an airy openness to
permeate their music; from the distinctively
danceable opener "Burying Luck" to the syncopated
sample-driven "Knights" to the album's epic 9 minute
closer "Lotus," which evokes acts like Yes and Pink
Floyd, minus the self-indulgent tendencies. Although
all the musicians in Minus the Bear are technically
talented - as anyone who's seen Knudson's unique
approach to the guitar which features two-handed
tapping and live looping already knows - Planet of
Ice shows the band focusing on songwriting instead
of showiness.
This was really the first album where we were all
writing together as a team and Alex was definitely
instrumental in that," Murchy explains. "Alex is an
amazing keyboard player and it was great to have
another musical force in the band." With former
keyboardist Bayles behind the boards, the entire
extended Minus the Bear family was present in the
creation of the record - and all these distinctive
musical personalities make for an album that could
never be fully realized by one or two songwriters.
Lyrically, the album focuses on human interactions,
but in a detached way that Snider explains as more
like a one-night stand than a long-term
relationship. "The songs are different in terms of
theme, but the ones that do connect to relationships
are of the fleeting kind," he explains. However,
despite the occasional personal references on the
album, the central theme of Planet of Ice involves
nightmarish, nearly apocalyptic imagery. A perfect
example is the aforementioned "Lotus," a song Snider
describes as being "about the influence religion has
on our secular government and how the combination of
God and guns leads to wars of false righteousness."
While this may sound like pretty heavy content, the
lack of preaching or posturing prevents Planet of
Ice's lyrical content from weighing down the group's
music.
Minus the Bear's globally conscious outlook has in
no doubt been influenced by the amount of time the
band spend on the road, seamlessly pulling off their
song's sonic intricacies live on festivals like
Coachella and Bamboozle, as well as alongside
seemingly disparate acts such as Cursive, Russian
Circles, Criteria, P.O.S. and The Velvet Teen. "It's
an interesting contrast," Snider explains, about the
dichotomy between the band's dark lyricism and
upbeat music, which is ever more prevalent on Planet
of Ice. "I think that duality often makes for a
better song because it gives it so much tension," he
continues. "Subconsciously, that was even more
exaggerated on this record due to being on the road
so much and seeing the reality of this country
firsthand."
In true Minus the Bear fashion, the band plan to
stay on the road for the next year-and-a-half
promoting Planet of Ice and continuing to write and
push the limits of their sound. "There's kind of a
joke that if there was a part that we would play and
it made you laugh, it must be good," Murchy explains
about the band's well-known sense of humor. "As far
as the music goes, we do take it seriously but we
also like to have a good time - and hopefully the
attention to detail, especially at our live
performances, shows through to people," he adds. "We
want it to sound right, but on the same token we do
like to have a laugh and fuck around," he
summarizes. "It's a nice balance."
Enjoy!
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