Record Review: Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth: Remixed

Joining the ranks of bands I've written about too many times but can't help myself is Brooklyn's Bear In Heaven. I was able to talk up their re-release of 2009's Beast Rest Forth Mouth (with a remix record) for Tiny Mix Tapes' Delorean blog.

Here it goes:

2009: Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth: Remixed

Although I recognize the necessity of re-releasing previously self-released records when artists get signed or get big, as someone who’s job it is to give a crap about when exactly an album came out, it can be a little annoying to deal with these discrepancies. Bear In Heaven’s move to re-release their breakthrough record Beast Rest Forth Mouth (like the cardinal directions “East West North South,” geddit?) a little under a year after its original road to acclaim, is an understandable one; the Hometapes label can rake in more cash while the Brooklyn-via-Georgia-and-Alabama band gets to up the quality of the LP they’re selling at merch tables and record stores across the world...[Read more]


Read up on all the other FOA Bear In Heaven content here!

Live Review: Cymbals Eat Guitars, Bear In Heaven @ The Earl, 3/11/10

For Stomp and Stammer's Tales From The Moshpit:

Cymbals Eat Guitars, Bear In Heaven @ The Earl 3/11/10

At first, I thought Joseph D'Agostino might be crying. The Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman is recently famous for his profuse sweating, but during the New Jersey band's second song, the first drop of water running down his cheek seemed to drip sorrowfully from the corner of his eye. By the end of the next number, though, it became clear that it wasn't so much misery he exuded as it was sheer force of will – perspiration from concentration and leaving it all on the stage. Nothing to grieve about there...[Read more]

...And The Hazy Sea - Cymbals ...

CL Feature: Bear In Heaven comes to fruition outside the South

Hey! It's my first music feature for Atlanta's Creative Loafing!

Bear In Heaven comes to fruition outside the South
The Brooklyn band experiences a homecoming of sorts in Atlanta

When the four members who would eventually form Bear in Heaven individually left the Southeast for Brooklyn nearly a decade ago, not one of them did it for music.

"I moved up here in 2001 for no real reason other than it wasn't Atlanta where I grew up," says bassist Adam Wills. "I'd never been outside of Marietta, Ga., really." One by one, his future bandmates – who had all been in other musical projects in Atlanta or Savannah – coincidentally relocated with the intention of putting music on the backburner...[Read more]

Beast In Peace - Bear In Heave...

Bear In Heaven will be at The Earl March 11 with Cymbals Eat Guitars and Freelance Whales. Can't wait!

Flagpole: 25 of Our Favorite National Releases of 2009

I had the privilege of contributing to Flagpole's best-of list this year! Other fantastic writers (who also happen to be friends of mine) weighed in, so check it out!

One of my blurbs:

ATLAS SOUND
Logos

Deerhunter's Bradford Cox took a break from all his Internet micro-releases to record his second full-length for solo project Atlas Sound. Logos, according to Cox, was made up significantly of first-takes, a fact that only proves how fantastic he is at retro song structure; for him, it has become almost effortless. Joined by other indie luminaries like Animal Collective's Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) and Stereolab's Leititia Sadier, Cox explores all his facets as a songwriter and puts forward an almost stream-of-consciousness statement on his place in the musical world. [JR]

I also wrote short summaries about the awesomeness of albums by Here We Go Magic, Animal Collective, Bear In Heaven and Grizzly Bear. Read the whole thing here.

All of Flagpole's best-of coverage is definitely worth a read. They touch on content from just this year and the whole decade, and they do it on both a local and national scale.

Flagpole: The Five Local Bands of the Decade

Flagpole: Cream of the Local Crop (2009)

Flagpole: The Decade You Listened To Too Much Music: The Rise of Digital Distribution in the '00s

Flagpole: Decade Trends: Ups and Downs in the Local Music Scene

Oh, and that last one uses this picture of Lazer/Wulf at the Morton Theatre, which is awesome....

Record Review: Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth

Beast Rest Forth Mouth is one of the best records of the year! Do yourself a favor and give it a listen.


For Flagpole:

Bear In Heaven
Beast Rest Forth Mouth
Hometapes

Blessed with one of the best leadoff tracks in recent history, replete with driving percussion and reverberating keys, Bear In Heaven’s sophomore full-length barrels into existence from a silence that never knew what it was missing. Sounding like the love child of Tears For Fears and Yeasayer (just listen to single “Lovesick Teenagers”), Beast Rest Forth Mouth stretches out wagging fingers in all the cardinal directions its name would obliquely suggest.

Led by Georgia native and Brooklyn resident Jon Philpot, Bear In Heaven recently congealed into a full-fledged four-piece after years of lineup changes and members’ relocations. The result is an album with hips, high heels tapping at 100 bpm, a throwback that, like recent luminaries such as M83, references new wave without keeling over into it...[Read more]

Beast In Peace - Bear In Heave...

Lovesick Teenagers - Bear In H...