Evolve

Jun 04

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[video]

Jun 03

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May 31

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It was only after listening to Bear Cub’s B-side EP  Shades of Cub: Volume 1  that the full dimensions of my hatred for country music became readily apparent. Touted as a musical form to help simple folk appreciate the simple things in life during hard times, country comes off like a full fucking dose of false sanctimony. The grandstanding, the huge hair and cowboy hats, the histrionics “I love you, I need you, oh baby, oh baby” bull shit: they all paint a portrait of a contemporary American music form that appeals to a musical sensibility that can best be described as the lowest common denominator. I say fuck that. Surely the American heartland can produce an authentic statement of sonic reason that captures the plight of the average man with roots instrumentation that harkens to a musical tradition centuries old. Yes. Yes they can. Bear Cub would you please take a step forward? Thank you. Alt folk, indie country or Nashville progressive…whatever you want to call these guys, they get it. If the essence of country music is to draw you in with warmth and prop you up, Bear Cub does it with a style and authenticity that is visionary. Crooning, slide guitar, whiskey references, lovers laments—all the tropes are here, but they’re wrapped in a refreshing ideological standpoint. What if simple ain’t so simple anymore? What if the simplest way to move forward in a strange world is to simply accept that everything is complex? In four B-side tracks, Bear Cub plots a course that is both warm and ponderous, welcoming but meditative. From downtempo country traditional “Patsy Cline” to spooky “I Just Don’t Think I’ll Get Over You” Bear Cub harnesses a remarkable breadth of influences. Neither insular nor loose, their EP belies a wealth of perspective largely lacking in modern peripheral country. Maybe the secret is that these boys are from up north. Based out of Pittsburgh until 2010, Bear Cub’s initiation into the Nashville scene runs counter to the dominant myths of country music. For every Alan Jackson out there clinging to country as if it were some promised land of morality and virtue to be defended at all costs, we deserve a Bear Cub who had to find the heart of American music and cherishes it not as a birthright, but as a found truth that is profoundly useful and soothing. Download the EP here.

It was only after listening to Bear Cub’s B-side EP  Shades of Cub: Volume 1  that the full dimensions of my hatred for country music became readily apparent. Touted as a musical form to help simple folk appreciate the simple things in life during hard times, country comes off like a full fucking dose of false sanctimony. The grandstanding, the huge hair and cowboy hats, the histrionics “I love you, I need you, oh baby, oh baby” bull shit: they all paint a portrait of a contemporary American music form that appeals to a musical sensibility that can best be described as the lowest common denominator.

I say fuck that. Surely the American heartland can produce an authentic statement of sonic reason that captures the plight of the average man with roots instrumentation that harkens to a musical tradition centuries old.

Yes. Yes they can. Bear Cub would you please take a step forward? Thank you.

Alt folk, indie country or Nashville progressive…whatever you want to call these guys, they get it. If the essence of country music is to draw you in with warmth and prop you up, Bear Cub does it with a style and authenticity that is visionary. Crooning, slide guitar, whiskey references, lovers laments—all the tropes are here, but they’re wrapped in a refreshing ideological standpoint. What if simple ain’t so simple anymore? What if the simplest way to move forward in a strange world is to simply accept that everything is complex?

In four B-side tracks, Bear Cub plots a course that is both warm and ponderous, welcoming but meditative. From downtempo country traditional “Patsy Cline” to spooky “I Just Don’t Think I’ll Get Over You” Bear Cub harnesses a remarkable breadth of influences. Neither insular nor loose, their EP belies a wealth of perspective largely lacking in modern peripheral country.

Maybe the secret is that these boys are from up north. Based out of Pittsburgh until 2010, Bear Cub’s initiation into the Nashville scene runs counter to the dominant myths of country music. For every Alan Jackson out there clinging to country as if it were some promised land of morality and virtue to be defended at all costs, we deserve a Bear Cub who had to find the heart of American music and cherishes it not as a birthright, but as a found truth that is profoundly useful and soothing.

Download the EP here.

May 30

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May 29

(Source: jamjars, via jeannettenguyen)

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