Minus the Bear bares it all on tour

Minus the Bear

Diesel

1601 East Carson St.

412 – 441 – 8800

Sept. 29

Doors open… Minus the Bear

Diesel

1601 East Carson St.

412 – 441 – 8800

Sept. 29

Doors open at 6 p.m.

Minus the Bear is currently in the middle of nowhere; so far from civilization, in fact, that it doesn’t get cell phone service. Who knew places like that still existed in America? It’s all in a day’s, or night’s, work for a touring band – driving through the most remote parts of the country to play shows for folks miles away from a city is part of the job description.

And, according to Minus the Bear bassist Cory Murchy, these guys don’t mind at all.

“We tour in a Sprinter – it’s like one of those big Eurovans,” he told The Pitt News. “We love to tour. I mean, there was a show in upstate New York years ago, maybe on our first tour, and there were only two people there. But, really, that wasn’t even too bad because we were so drunk it didn’t even matter.”

While a nonchalant like this may paint the band as bad boys who don’t take their art seriously, that couldn’t be farther from the truth with Minus the Bear. This quintet of Seattle scenesters came together in 2001, all transplants from different bands at the time, including, most notably, rough-as-sandpaper post-hardcore pioneers Botch. That year marked Minus the Bear’s first release, a six-song EP called This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic, and the public’s misconception that these boys were, well, just joking.

The music on that first album was a dreamy, trippy blend of mind-bending guitar noodling, funky bass lines, impeccably danceable drums and vocalist Jake Snider’s detached and sexy voice melted on top of the whole mess – a musical recipe that made for the appealing beginnings of a marvelously memorable band. A bit misleading, then, were song titles like “Want to Throw Up? Get Me Naked” and “Just Kickin’ It Like a Wild Donkey,” making much of the press mistake the band for a bunch of jokers.

With 2002’s Highly Refined Pirates and several more EPs to follow, Minus the Bear’s music became denser and more, well, refined, as its titles got quite a bit sillier: “Thanks For the Killer Game of Crisco Twister,” “Hey! Is That a Ninja Up There?” and the fan favorite “Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse.” The band’s focus, however, was never song titles, as the music clearly shows: Each of the three songs above are a mini-symphony of danceable, complex indie rock jams with distinct parts of growing and sinking intensity.

But with 2005’s Menos el Oso and the just-released Planet of Ice, these Seattle boys began writing music so solid – beautiful, cold, grooving, intense and soothing all at once – that it was time to make the critics pay attention to more than just the song titles.

“We just got really tired of answering that question, but its still being brought up,” Murchy said when the topic was brought up yesterday. “I guess we’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t.”

And Minus the Bear, now minus those song titles, is the strongest it’s ever been.

“You can always find a coulda, woulda, shoulda when you release a record, but overall I’m totally happy with this one,” said Murchy. “I think, if anything, we’re a little looser in our playing now because we’re tighter as a band.”

Murchy isn’t alone in that sentiment, either, as Planet of Ice has been receiving quite favorable reviews from critics and a warm welcome from fans. The album is certainly the band’s most mature album, with music alternating from spacey blankets of sound to faster, more groove-oriented rave-ups of guitar-tapping blips and piercing, cascading instrumentals, sometime within the same song.

“The name Planet of Ice was something we started playing around with early on. We’d say ‘Oh, that’s so icy, that’s so cold.’ But really, in a lot of ways, this record is more human and warmer,” said Murphy.

But even though the band seems to have grown a bit more serious, Minus the Bear is still all about fun – just check them out live. Playing live, the band will get a crowd moving like the best DJ could; die-hards and casual fans alike getting down while Snider spreads his seductive lyrics over the audience as the rest of the band provides the dancing soundtrack to the night.

It’s a given that the crowd will dance, but do these guys like to get down?

“I can’t even remember the last time any of us danced. I mean we love to shake our asses on stage, but