Minus The Bear

Minus the Bear is a product of the first two tumultuous decades of this century. From their first show in 2001 to their impending dissolution at the end of 2018, theSeattle band thrived on the musical awakening in the era of the mp3, the internet,poptimism, and the endless crosspollinations generated from an expandedconsciousness of new music forms. With the aim of sounding like “classic rock fromthe future,” they initially forged their music from the dichotomous blend of DavidKnudson’s prodigious finger-tapped guitar lines and Jake Snider’s cool-temperednarratives set against a backdrop of souped-up dance beats. Throughout theircareer, they’ve carried on the trailblazing traditions of ‘70s prog rockers and guitar-centric indie rock pioneers of the ‘80s and ‘90s, but they’ve also always been a bandof new sounds. Synths, drum machine break beats, omnichords, and pedalboardgadgetry all contribute to the band’s electronic flourishes. You can hear thepoptimist appreciation for a club banger, a new wave hook, or a solid hip-hop beatin any number of their songs. And with their final EP, Fair Enough, Minus the Bearcloses the book on their inimitable hybrid of scholarly art-rock, breezy indie pop,and warehouse party appeal. One of the first tracks written for their last album VOIDS was “Fair Enough”, areserved track that went through a variety of permutations before winding up onthe backburner. Like most Minus the Bear songs, it began as a loose framework ofinterlocking guitar parts created by Knudson that quickly changed shape as theother members contributed their parts. “It’s interesting because we tried re-doing ittwice in the studio,” says keyboardist/vocalist Alex Rose. “I was really into the firstnew direction as it was very pop, but collectively it didn't seem to fit. Then we trieda more ambient one… it just ended up being one of those songs that didn't beat theothers.” But as the band was digging through their archives earlier this year, theystumbled upon an early version of the song. “It jumped out as sounding done,” Roserecalls. “I touched up the mix, fixed a few edits and sent it to everyone while wewere on the recent Planet of Ice anniversary tour. The other guys all listenedtogether and by all accounts had ‘a moment.’ I think the song had taken on newmeaning after we decided to end the band.” Given Snider’s prescient lyrical lamentof lost passions and finding “the exact moment we turned it off,” it’s hardlysurprising to hear that the song resonates strongly within the group. Snider insists itwas written to eulogize a failed romantic relationship, but it’s hard to not hear thelyrics as foreshadowing the band’s break-up. The other three songs of Fair Enough are both a continuation and a culmination ofMinus the Bear’s diverse sounds. The adrenalized up-tempo drumbeats, lushelectronics, and nimble guitar work that initially set them apart from their peersback in 2001 are on full display during “Viaduct”. It certainly sounds like the sameband that wrote “Monkey!!!Knife!!!Fight!!!”, but with a whole new arsenal of tricks,techniques, and toys to embellish the sound. “Dinosaur” has the punctuated grooveof early hits of “Fine + 2 PTS ”, but crafted with the understated Steely Dan-esquedelivery of their more current slow jams. In keeping with their “classic rock from thefuture” approach, the opening keyboard line of “Dinosaur” is a ham-fisted hookoriginally conceived on a cheap iPhone piano app. The EP closes with a nod to their ongoing remix collaborations, this time with a vibrant rave-up reinvention of “Invisible” by Sombear. The EP album art comes courtesy of bassist Cory Murchy. “The picture on our firstEP—This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic—was a blurry photo of the bandwalking through the forest,” Murchy explains. “The cover to Fair Enough is a nod tothat almost 20 years on. The figures are much more defined, coming into their owncolors, a little less unified but still working within each other’s orbit. The wonder ofthe woods has been replaced with a milled piece of working lumber as the canvas. Ithink it reflects the music in a lot of the same ways—distilled by time and purpose.”Minus the Bear are a band born in the new millennium, when the gateways to cultartists were blown open by the internet, rock’s purist aesthetic rules werechallenged, and technological advancements completely altered the way we createand consume music. If there was some middle ground to be found between KingCrimson’s fretboard gymnastics, Midwest indie rock’s cerebral songcraft, WarpRecords’ glitchy compositions, and FM radio’s current bump-and-grind staples,Minus the Bear staked it out first. Suicide Squeeze is proud to release Fair Enoughon October 19, 2018. Fair Enough will be available on CD, digital formats, and as a12” cut at 45rpm. The initial vinyl run consists of 2000 copies on coke bottle greenand 1000 copies on black.