Bear In Heaven
BIOGRAPHY
Brooklyn-based behemoth of psychedelic prock (pop-rock) Bear in Heaven began its lurching, cinematic life in the soft focus dreams of musician Jon Philpot’s lonely studio in Atlanta, Georgia. Realising that no dreams ever came true in Georgia (this may need citation) he relocated to New York, where Bear In Heaven became John Philpot, all alone and all unemployed, trying to figure out how to make music in his bedroom. Fortunately, the fellow soon found some friends to play with, and released BiH’s first EP Tunes Nextdoor to Songs via Prefuse 73 protagonist Scott Herren’s Eastern Developments label. The EP was made up of solo recordings by Philpot with guest musicians overlaying various instruments.
Their first full length, Red Bloom of the Boom (put out by Hometapes in 2007) received a muted response in the press, prompting Philpot and the band to re-asses and refine their sound as a band, stating in an interview that as a full band they were “figuring out our process…figuring out our systems” (popwreckoning.com). In 2009 they released their next full length Beast Rest Forth Mouth through Hometapes again. Just prior to it’s U.S. release Philpot commented that “now that we’re like a band and want to make music that reflects what we’re doing live, it’s limited the palette and made us sort of more cohesive I think. When we started playing altogether, we were playing the songs I had recorded on my own. We were kind of trying to translate them in a weird way. We had synthesizers and samplers and we were trying to translate these weird very personal-time songs, none of the timing was in any kind of normal counts or anything like that. It was basically like a cluster fuck” (popwreckoning.com).
Musical clusterf**ks aside, the band were already gathering considerable steam before omnipotent taste-setter Pitchfork dropped a blog-bomb on the internet’s face by bestowing upon them the “Best New Music” award, the reviewer reporting that Beast Rest Forth Mouth is “as familiar-feeling as it is difficult to pinpoint. Mostly made up of textural, spacious three- to four-minute pop anthems with towering choruses, BRFM is a welcome reminder that an album doesn't have to be bombastic to feel huge and important. This is music that's bigger than your iPod—music you'll want to feel all around you."
Thanks to a number of reassuringly ambitious performances at SXSW (including one at our very own Transgressive/Rockfeedback party), the band have already been gathering an increasingly voluptuous amount of steam behind their live engine, and this engine will promptly be chugging it’s way over to the UK this month. We recommend you go have a look-see. Though not quite coming out of nowhere, BIH have a surprise gift - a striking consolidation of spiky psych-prog tendencies into a pop framework.
TOUR DATES
20th April 2010 - The Lexington, London
21st April 2010 - Freebutt, Brighton
22nd April 2010 - The Deaf Institute Manchester
23rd April 2010 - Captain’s Rest, Glasgow
24th April 2010 - Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh
25th April 2010 - Brudenell Social Club Leeds
26th April 2010 - Windmill Brixton London
LINKS
VIDEOS
BEAR IN HEAVEN – BLOGOTHEQUE – FOR BEAUTY
BEAR IN HEAVEN – LOVESICK TEENAGER
BEAR IN HEAVEN – WEREWOLF
Bear In Heaven - Werewolf from Hometapes on Vimeo.
words and thoughts by Samuel Smith