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GPOY: So much love for Doldrums!
I have been suffering from a very severe case of wanderlust. So, to temporarily relieve the travel bug, I drove from Columbus to Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee this past weekend. It just so happened that Bear in Heaven, Doldrums, and Blouse were performing in both cities, so I was thrilled to meet up with them again!
Doldrums played a lot of new tracks at the show at Hi-Tone in Memphis on Sunday. Check out my new fave, EGYPT, below, off of their upcoming 12” release. It’s fantastically funky and fresh! Pre-order through Souterrain Transmission before it drops on June 4 here!
The picture above is of Airrick Woodhead (Doldrums) and I outside of the Hi-Tone Cafe just after we danced our faces off, hence the huge smiles and glowing skin.
GPOY: Post Jury Room lunch photo with Bear in Heaven before they head out to Bloomington, IN tonight and then come back to Columbus tomorrow (3/30) for their show at The Basement!
JACK IN THE POCKET chats with BEAR IN HEAVEN
On Monday, I chatted with Adam Wills, guitarist of Bear in Heaven, about their upcoming album, tour and show in Columbus, OH this Friday at The Basement!
Words can’t express how excited I am to see them in concert again!
Links:
Bear in Heaven interview with Jack in the Pocket 2010
I Love You, It’s Cool JITP Review
It’s been three years since Brooklyn’s Bear in Heaven graced our ears with a full length album. In 2009, Beast Rest Forth Mouth was met with a flurry of critical acclaim from some of today’s most respected music blogs and magazines. Now, after a lengthy period of non-stop touring, they are set to release their highly anticipated third album, I Love You, It’s Cool, on April 3.
I received an advanced copy of I Love You, It’s Cool approximately two weeks ago. Honestly, I have not been able stop myself from playing it everyday at a rib rattling volume. Nor can I stifle the smile that creeps across my face as soon as the first coolly cavernous synth strain of Idle Heart hits my ears.
I Love You, It’s Cool has a much stronger pop punch than their 2009 release, yet is still expertly embroidered with flourishes of psychedelic, electro, and krautrock the trio is known for. In this album, synths take a more prevalent role. They create varied layered shapes and temperatures from a boiling staccato, to a balmy swirl, to a downright wintery drone. Philpot’s vocals are clearer and don’t get muddled with the rest of the mix as they occasionally do in Beast Rest Forth Mouth which caused some pretty silly lyric misunderstandings. Adam Wills’ notes of deep, resounding bass and guitar gracefully weave or walk in step with the precise and utterly commanding drive of Joseph Stickney’s pro drumming.
Bear in Heaven has held on to the subtle strain of creepiness I find so delightful. Simultaneously seductive and disturbing, the fifth track Cool Light stirs up vivid imagery of lead singer Jon Philpot “shimmering in the moonlight” like a stalking vampire-ish character, “watching you.” The anthem Sinful Nature sympathizes with and encourages those who feel misunderstood to let their freak flag fly. Other stand out tracks include The Reflection of You and Kiss Me Crazy, which perfectly articulates the frustration of playing the role of the rodent in a cat-and-mouse relationship. Each track serves as a facet to a familiar story of a consuming, infuriating and inspiring love.
Bear In Heaven - Sinful Nature by Bear in Heaven
I Love You, It’s Cool drops on April 3 via Dead Oceans. Pre-order your copy today by clicking here. Bear in Heaven is currently on tour! Check out a full list of dates by visiting their website at BearinHeaven.com
[Ohio can catch BIH on March 30 in Columbus, March 31 in Cincinatti]
We’re giving away a pair of tickets on our Facebook page this Friday to see Bear in Heaven in Columbus at The Basement on March 30! Like us to stay up-to-date on JackinthePocket.com news and events!
Bear in Heaven - The Reflection of You
It’s no secret that Jack in the Pocket adores Bear in Heaven. Their music is phenomenal, they gave one of the best endings to an interview ever, and they’re three of the nicest dudes around. Here’s a shimmering new track from their upcoming album I Love You, It’s Cool due to drop on April 3. I have NO WORDS for my excitement for this record to come out! NO WORDS.
Hey Columbus, don’t miss these guys on March 30 at The Basement!!!
Original photo by Ed Luna, edited by Katie Pierce
What do you get in an age of illegal downloading, stream rips, and a struggling music industry? A beautiful, clever, entertaining, iron-clad album tease.
Bear in Heaven has released an early, slow, and steady stream of their new record, I Love You, It’s Cool. Catch is, it’s slowed to 400,000% below it’s normal speed. Leave it to these three to come up with something as genius as that.
Read jackinthepocket.com’s interview with Bear in Heaven from last year. I consider it one of my favorite interviews to date.
From left to right: Adam Wills, Joseph Stickney, Producer David Wrench, and Jon Philpot.
Photo by Shawn Brackbill
Bear in Heaven’s official statement from their website…
As a band, we have always sought to balance our interest in art and outsider music with a sense of humor about our place within the entertainment industry. When we began discussing the making of our third record 2 recurrent themes emerged:
1. the desire to release a companion piece of music that was more abstract and drone based than the material we had played every night for the last 18 months or will likely play for 18 months straight following the release of this record.
2. an equal desire to have a little lighthearted fun & comment on the current state of album promotion, hype cycles, countdowns and all the marketing ploys that we accept as a reality of existing within an internet age.
At some point these two ideas merged into one. We would stream our album earlier and for longer than anyone else had before but we’d stream it once. We’d stretch it far beyond the limits of being recognizable as pop music. Draw it out so that snare roll lasts for days. Invite listeners to interpret & consider each sound. sit back and breathe.
High Places | The Summit | May 25th, 2010 | Columbus, OH
Photos by Ed Luna
It was a quiet Tuesday night in Columbus when I arrived at The Summit. I was a bit early for the interview, so I sat down at the bar and called up Ed. He was just getting off the exit. I looked around curiously. The crowd at the venue was thin, which surprised me. About a month earlier, High Places had to cancel their show in Columbus for a reason even unbeknownst to them. It was rumored their van had broken down, but during their set, Rob clarified that the van had been nothing but good to them, and didn’t want to jinx it with whispers of malfunction. “We don’t want bad karma,” he said. ”It’s actually ‘vanma’!” joked Mary followed by a dorky laugh.
We had stepped out for the interview in front of the venue just before their set. The streets were quiet… until I pressed the record button on my phone. Planes soared noisily overhead and macho men on crotch rockets kept zooming by.
KP: To start out, how did you guys meet each other?
Rob: Well, Mary lived in Michigan in Kalamazoo. I lived in New York and friends of mine were on tour. They played in Michigan and she played one of her first solo shows with them and they became kinda friendly. So, she came and visited NY just for a bassoon lesson, because she plays bassoon. We ended up linking up through our mutual friends that she played with. Kind of immediately we were like, “Oh you have a solo project? I just started a solo project too!” This was the days of Myspace when people actually used that website. We listened to each others things and thought it was really cool. We kinda became really good friends. A couple weeks later, I mean, really fast, we just started talking all the time on the phone. Then she set up a show for me in Kalamazoo when I did a tour with this other band I’m friends with in NY. We became even better friends after that. A few months later she asked if she could move in with me in NY and then we just started making music immediately. It kind of just snowballed from there.
KP: So what is your creative process like?
Mary: Well we both make little recordings all the time. When we lived together we would just be checking email or something and the other person would be tapping and we would record it. We have a ton of those files.
Rob: Really lo-fi media type recordings of different sounds.
Mary: It’s kind of like a sketchbook. We might have an idea for a beat and we just like, basically, say the beat and make a recording out of that. A lot of times when we craft our songs we end up using those really raw recordings for the basic structure of the beat. We just edit them a lot to make them fit together. But it’s a lot of layering different recordings. We make a good part of our music just with those recordings, cutting and pasting, doing a lot of things to manipulate the sounds and the change of the pitch.
Rob: It’s like scrapbooking. It is like making a zine out of using only a photocopier.
Mary: We use guitars a lot. Like, our early music was, I’d say like 60% plus percent of it was guitar just manipulated. On this record we decided not to manipulate the guitars quite as much so we could play them live.
Rob: Yeah, before everything was like slowed down, sped up… you know? So the mixing of the records were impossible to recreate live.
Mary: And then vocals come in at some point. Usually towards the end. But not always, sometimes we start with vocals.
Rob: So its pretty immediate and really back and forth.
KP: I hear your cats interfere a lot. [Laughter]
Rob: Yeah they have, for sure. But, its ok.
KP: So you just came back from a tour in Europe. How many days ago did you get back?
Mary: We just got back about three days ago. Saturday night.
Rob: We were in Europe for 5 weeks. Then we played Baltimore, D.C., and then here.
KP: That is pretty… bang! Bang! bang!
Mary: Yeah, I think we may still be jetlagged. [Laughs]
Rob: We left on March 19th, so it was kind of a long time ago. We like it, we’re not complaining.
Mary: We just haven’t had adequate sleep in a couple months.
Rob: My sinuses have a hard time catching up. Literally it was like, 2 shows in Norway, 2 shows in Portugal, then Baltimore, then D.C. and then here.
Ed (photog): Let me here you complain more! [Laughter]
Rob: [Laughs] No that’s a minor complaint, pollen. I’m just complaining about my sinuses. Other than that its fantastic!
KP: Mary, you were in an orchestra all throughout high school and your child hood. I was an orchestra geek too…
Mary: Oh, yeah? Wait, string instrument?
KP: Yeah, violin.
Mary: Violin, ok. I have kind of a gift for guessing peoples instruments.
KP: Aw, I shouldn’t have said violin so quickly. What was your high school experience like being an orchestra geek?
Mary: Yeah, I took 4 music classes out of 6. It was choir, jazz band, band, and independent study band… which is a cool thing I made up. [Laughs] And then I did an orchestra outside of school too. Yeah, it was always a big part of my life. My mom is a music teacher. My grandfather was a music instructor. It was a big part of our family. I’m the youngest so I think I was the one who really wanted to go for it. But, I feel like I had to try a bit harder than my siblings with the music thing. They were such natural musicians. Maybe it made me appreciate it more because I’m not quite as natural at it? Then I studied orchestral music in college too.
KP: Had either of you done looping, layering, and mixing before you guys met?
Mary: Yeah, we were both doing different versions of that. Like, I was using cassette tape field recordings with my solo project. And Rob was doing pretty similar construction to High Places.
Rob: But the big difference is, when we met, we really hadn’t done too much outwardly with our solo stuff. I had been making recordings for a long time since probably about the late 90’s but I never let anyone hear them until a few years ago. I was sort of a late bloomer.
KP: Now to the really fun questions… Do you guys know the music blog Yvynyl? Run by Mark Schoneveld in Philly?
Mary: Yeah!
KP: He wants to know if you would like to go on a date next time you are in Philly.
Rob: Me? Or her?
KP: Mary. [Laughter]
Mary: [Blushes] Umm, I’d have to ask permission for that I guess.
Rob: She’s totally taken.
Mary: I said I’d have to ask permission!
Rob: She’s like, “I’d have to see him first.”
KP: He’s a self proclaimed urban woodsman. You’d like him.
Mary: [Laughs]
KP: [Laughter] Joe from Bear in Heaven asked, “When was the last time you popped one off?”
Rob: [Laughs] This morning. We popped off about a dozen. We stopped at a party supply store.
Mary: Yeah, we’re always popping them off.
Rob: We can’t stop. It’s a sickness. [Laughter]
KP: What exactly is popping off?
Rob: We’d tell you but then…
Mary: It’s when people have a balloon-popping fetish.
Rob: We were on tour with Bear in Heaven and Mary’s sister’s boyfriend had sent her a link to a YouTube video. At first it was really dark, and it kind of made me sad. And then I realized that this guy was just like, totally cool with it and totally stoked on himself. It’s a little old man in boxer shorts in a room filled with balloons. He has a thing for sitting on balloons until they pop.
Mary: At the end of the video he’s like, “Do you like popping off? Email me if you like to pop off. poppingoff@yahoo.com… or something.
Rob: I guess it feels…. Well we’ve tried it actually. We all tried it. We weren’t like nude or in our boxers. We tried it with clothes. You’re kind of sitting there and there is this tension like, “When is it going to pop?!” and then it pops!
Mary: Weirdly enough, whenever we play with Bear in Heaven there are balloons around.
Rob: Yeah, we played in Amsterdam and we showed up to their sound check and they had found this massive phallic display of balloons that they found on the street. It looked like a yogurt explosion but it was just what balloons. It was kind of uncanny.
KP: Oh goodness, well that explains a lot. He didn’t give me any background. He just texted me today and said, “I saw you’re interviewing High Places. Ask them when was the last time they popped one off.”
Rob: We played a place, I don’t remember what city it was. But Bear in Heaven were coming a few days later and we told the venue to make sure there was a bunch of balloons there. We didn’t tell them why…
High Places LP High Places vs Mankind is out now on Trill Jockey. Follow their photoblog of their touring adventures here.
Bear in Heaven | The Newport Music Hall |May 18, 2010 | Columbus, OH
photos by Ed Luna
The Newport. Legendary venue, not only in Columbus, but in the USA. It is the longest running rock club to date. I had been there many times. Upstairs, downstairs, out front, out back, but never backstage until now. Aaron, Bear in Heaven’s tour manager, met Ed and I out front with a smile. Then led us around the left side of the stage, down some stairs, through a narrow hall behind the heavy musty black stage curtain. I had to shimmy sideways to get through. Then, we cautiously climbed up a tightly wound metal staircase to the second level. Aaron opened the door to a black room, with a black couch, table, and a mirror with a bright white light shining above. Joe Stickney, a gentle spirit donning spectacles was relaxing inside and Aaron introduced us. Adam Wills, clean cut and sharply dressed entered a few minutes later followed by Jon Philpot. Jon was sporting flannel and an epic moustache.
KP: You guys just came back from Europe a couple days ago.
Jon: Yes, we just got back.
KP: Didn’t you get stuck because of the volcano?
Jon: We were stuck momentarily.
Joe: Yeah we got stuck in between Spain and the UK
KP: What did you do while you were stuck?
Adam: Drove around [Laughs]
Jon: Didn’t sleep, enough.
KP: How long were you in Europe for?
Jon: 5 Weeks?
Adam: No, 4 weeks…
Joe: We were 5 weeks in the states and then 4 weeks in Europe.
KP: How do you think European audiences differ from American audiences?
Jon: Uh. They speak a different language. [laughs] The thing that’s odd is, a lot of the times, you just play by yourself. No opener. I think expectations were high.
Joe: You get really good hospitality in Europe. I mean, the UK is pretty much just like the States. But, in the rest of Europe they put you up in nice hotels, cook you dinner. People seem genuinely happy to have your band playing there, you know?
Jon: Yeah they’re glad to have us in the States. But they just don’t have the behind the scenes so much.
KP: Your latest LP was released late last year. But your first record came out in ‘07? How has your recording process or creative process changed?
Jon: The creative process was… really, just about the same, but I think it was more effective because we were playing live. In the process of writing we were playing shows and working stuff out. Live.
KP: So you perfected your live show?
Jon: We did perfect it!
Adam: No. It’s totally perfect!
KP: What do you guys do when you’re not recording or touring?
Adam: I don’t remember… [Laughter]
Jon: I could tell you what I want to do…
Joe: I serve people drinks.
Jon: I want to watch movies… make movies…
Joe: I’d like to go waterskiing. But I don’t think it’s going to happen.
Jon: We could make that happen.
Joe: I’m going to have to go back down south.
KP: You could go waterskiing on Lake Erie tomorrow… in Cleveland.
Joe: I don’t know anyone with a boat.
KP: Boats should be in the water by now. I’m sure you could find someone. They’ll take you skiing.
Adam: Wassup! I’m in Bear in Heaven! Take me skiin’!
KP: Just post it on twitter!
Joe: Actually, that’s a good idea! Yeah! [laughter]
KP: So day jobs… Joe works as a bartender. And Jon, you’re a videographer?
Jon: Yeah, I like to shoot and do editing. All that kind of stuff. I’ve worked with some great people.
KP: Who has been your favorite person to work with?
Jon: Let me think here. Who was the best person I’ve worked with. Hmmm…
Adam: Me!
Jon: Yes! Actually, Adam Wills has been my favorite person to work with. He does video stuff too.
KP: Do you guys collaborate a lot? Make videos on the road?
Jon: We haven’t been able to do so many videos lately. We would like to do more. We are always thinking about that stuff.
KP: Have you thought about making a music video yourselves?
Jon: We’ve thought about it… [laughs]
Joe: They’ve done music videos. Jon did one and Adam did one for the last record.
Jon: We haven’t had time really, because we’re touring.
KP: Yeah. It’s a lot. Traveling that much.
Jon: Don’t get me wrong. It’s a lot of fun, a good excuse for not making a music video.
KP: I’ve seen a lot of interviews with you guys online lately. Have you ever had one that was really bad or uncomfortable?
Adam: There was one I didn’t participate in, but I heard about. The guy was like, “So! Let me just tell you I haven’t heard your band.” And that’s the type of thing where you’d rather be spending your time with a friend who is at the show, you know?
Jon: Ohhh yeaaah! I remember him.
Joe: He was just like, “ Yeah, this is just gonna go on my blog. I haven’t posted anything on it in 6 months.”
Jon: It was like a dissention! [Laughter] Wasn’t he working for Wired? Yeah, we though Oh cool! Wired Magazine! And then it just got shittier and shittier as it went on!
Joe: He was like, “Yeah I don’t know you band. I really came here to interview Freelance Whales and Cymbals Eat Guitars, but people just told me I should interview you guys too so…” That’s when our answers started getting completely nonsensical.
KP: Have you had any misadventures on tour? Here or in the states?
Jon: I think all of our adventures have been completely intentional. No mis-.
Adam: I think the greatest misadventure was our last day in Europe. We had a day off in Gent, Belgium. Our tour manager took us to this street that had a bunch of bars on it. We’d go in one bar and have a couple beers and then go to another bar… Then we were like, “What the hell is going on here?” Didier, our tour manager was like, “Oh yeah. The legal drinking age is 16.”
Jon: It was CRAZY!
Adam: It was insane!! I don’t think they were carding either because there were definitely kids that looked like they were 12. And Jon’s 36, [Joe] 32, [I’m] 31. We could have been all these kids dads!
Jon: I looked like a fucking loser. I mean… [Laughter]
Joe: We were on the dance floor…
Adam: So it was like 5 dudes, all just dancing with ourselves. Probably the most fun night of tour.
Jon: We went crazy. We got a shit ton of high fives too.
Joe: We high fived close to 100 people that night.
Adam: That’s another thing we noticed in Europe. People think high fiving isn’t cool over there. But getting drunk with a bunch of 13 year olds….
Jon: Someone actually asked me, “Do you really high five?! Is this a real thing?” And I was like, “YES!! An actual thing that we enjoy doing.” [Laughter]
KP: On this tour you’re opening for Metric. That’s pretty huge!
Jon: Yes!
KP: How many shows have you done with them?
Jon: Just one, this is number two.
KP: How was the first show?
Jon: It was awesome. Nerve-racking a little bit, I’m not gonna lie. I think I feel better now.
KP: Do you have a set goal before you go on stage, like to pump the audience up?
Adam: No, its kind of weird b/c we’re so different than them. I think we’re gonna make new fans, but its obvious that we’re gonna weird people out and turn them off. So I fully embrace that. I’m just like lets scare so people tonight!
Joe: That’s entirely true. Last night it seemed like everyone was generally digging it. People were moving, you know? I think if you can get that response from people who are probably hearing your music for the first time, then I don’t think there’s that much of a disconnect.
Adam: I read a review on some website from someone who was at the NYC show who was like, “It seemed like they were makin’ noise rather than makin’ songs.” Or something like that.
KP: Really?
Adam: Well… its true… [Laughs] we do make a lot of noise. Which is cool for Metric because their taste is pretty wide, it seems. For them to bring us out is pretty ballsy I think.
Jon: It’s not the easy bet, you know? So, they’re taking a chance and it’s really, really cool.
Joe: I think they’re doing it b/c they like our music and they’re in a position where they don’t need a support act that’s gonna help fill out the room. They’re gonna fill the room regardless. They’re in the spot that all bands want to be in where you just get to pick whoever you want to open up for you.
Jon: When we get big, we’re going to get Marshall Cantrell and Tony Conrad to open up for us. Or a rappin’ bum. [Laughter] (The rapping bum is local Columbus celeb.)
Bear in Heaven’s Beast Rest Forth Mouth is available now through Hometapes and it is sooo good. Make sure you wear quality headphones and open a window when you listen to it. Perhaps a slice of pizza will accompany it well too?
The interview continues here:
KP: Well thanks guys! Actually, if you guys are looking for a place to eat afterwards… if you want the landmark place in Columbus, you gotta go to Hounddogs Pizza.
Adam: Oh we already know about it! Aaron (tour manager) was like, “I know this place dude!”
KP: You have to get it with the Smokin’ Joes crust.
Adam: Are you coming with us?
Aaron: I was offered falatio in order to trade one of my extra pieces of pie that had walking out in the parking lot there…
The rest is too good to type, I leave you with the first JitP Audio clip from an interview.
visit JackinthePocket.com to access audio file.
