Music
Press
A band that ebbs and flows throughout their set, at its largest Bear Country is a six-piece that includes guitars, keyboards, drums, bass, the occasional fiddle and three vocalists — two guys and a girl — who look like they fell to the stage from a time machine circa 1968. Ah, but their music is distinctly modern — the comparisons run the gamut from early Mazzy Star to Centro-matic to The Silos — this isn’t in any way traditional C&W, more like “alt country” thanks to the underlying twang. Quiet songs grow into bigger-than-life jams and then fall back down again — a far cry than the band I saw a year or so ago. Who knows the reason behind their transformation — maybe it’s just the nature of getting older and wiser. I’m told they have a new album in the can, waiting to be released. If I was Saddle Creek, I’d buy them away from Slumber Party before Merge does. Yeah, they’re that good.” – Tim McMahan – Lazy-i.com
http://www.timmcmahan.com/2009/06/live-review-bear-country-capgun-coup.html - Lazy-i.com
Discography
Out Roots Need Rain (LP) - 2005 - CD/Digital
Frozen Lake (EP) - Winter 2009/10 - 10"/Digital
Photos
Bio
After some line up changes and evolution in sound since the bands inception in 2005, Slumber Party Records Bear Country features a sound one might expect from life on the Plains in the modestly populated city of Omaha, Nebraska. While Bear Countrys sound on their debut album Our Roots Need Rain (2006) features the catchy melodies of airy folk-pop, it has diverged drastically after scrapping many recordings the band had worked on in 2006-07. Their latest and start-over recording, which was released in the winter of 2010 and is entitled Frozen Lake.
The sound of this EP and the performance of its material live hosts an eclectic sound rooted in folk, classic country, blues, and the minimalist and cool movements. Bear Countrys sound palette is based upon the bands focus to attain a dynamic and organic ensemble-like sound and is supported by a mix of voices ranging from breathy croons to throaty bellowed moans laying atop the amalgamation of minimal drums and percussion, stringed instruments and keyboards and their reverb-decay, and tempos that dip between boot-tappers and slow hip-swayers. Their songs range from soft, sweet, and flowing, to staggered and intoxicated volumes fortified in range by a songs experience. Live shows of Bear Country seek to maintain the organic and hazy nature of say Harvest, Sea Change, Pink Moon, or Kind Of Blue, while embracing experiments in sound such as recordings by Gabor Szabo, Radiohead, the Velvet Underground, or Califone all the while Bear Country seeks a gentle sweetness of country artist influences like Townes Van Zandt, Neko Case, Gillian Welch, and Michael Hurley. This music-child of Omaha hopes to bring all the feelings of an empty vista to its listeners, whether on wax or by the microphone.
After performing in support of "Frozen Lake", Bear Country is now writing, recording, and compiling material for a full length, as well as performing regularly in Omaha and around the Midwest, featuring new material and new takes on old tunes.
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