Minus the BearPlanet of Ice | Suicide Squeeze September 18,
2007 10:52:30 AM
|
On their early releases, the Seattle fivesome Minus the Bear seemed more serious about their music than about its presentation. Their deft, often pyretic indie rock came wrapped in packages with titles like “Get Me Naked 2: Electric Boogaloo.” But in 2005, on Menos El Oso, they began to jettison some of the silliness as they gave in to slicker production. Planet of Ice is the next logical step: the last vestiges of mischief have been replaced by a heavy dose of angst. It’s a change that suits frontman Jake Snider’s agreeable tenor, which brings to mind that of Jawbox’s J. Robbins. And he’s never sounded quite so bitter and damaged: “Watched you get in the taxi, your hands on another man/You must be crazy if you think I’ll stand back,” he intones in “Dr. L’Ling,” and in “Ice Monster,” “I could give fuck all what you do to me/Your party’s over, it’s done, the end.” Synths murmur and writhe over drummer Erin Tate’s adroit polyrhythms, and there are loads of guitars — heavily processed ones that nuzzle, wobble, and tumble, and only rarely bite. That’s unfortunate, because Minus the Bear are at their best when they let down their guard and allow a little heat to penetrate their Planet of Ice.
|
|
|
- Inside the prize-filled trophy home of a seemingly obsessive-compulsive contest enterer
- A do-gooder who recorded abusive Boston police officers was himself arrested under a controversial ‘wiretapping’ law
- That intoxicating smell, the siren-call sizzle — looks like pop culture has gone hog wild
- Never mind its tough-girl alt-porn feminism: SuicideGirls has already moved on to a new generation
- We already know about politicians’ capacity for coarse behavior. But how low can the press go?
- Body modification as art at the Peabody Essex Museum
- That intoxicating smell, the siren-call sizzle — looks like pop culture has gone hog wild
- Is there one political story the press shouldn’t report?
- Dutoit and Elder at the BSO, Collage’s Berio, Boston Conservatory’s Turn of the Screw, and Kurt Weill at the Gardner and the MFA
- Body modification as art at the Peabody Essex Museum
- The right of a performance artist represents the rights of all Americans. Plus, an opportunity with Cuba.
- We already know about politicians’ capacity for coarse behavior. But how low can the press go?
|
-
Cease to Begin | Sub Pop
-
Night of the Furies | Merge
-
Why Bother? | Thrill Jockey
|
- No Arms | Self-released
- Super Gangster (Extraordinary Gentleman) | Koch
- Flock | Yep Roc
- Line in the Sand | SideOneDummy
- District Line | Anti-
- Holon | ECM
- Outside of Portland, a Battle Within rages
- Reba Duets | MCA
- Dirt Farmer | Vanguard
- Dununya | Jumbie
|
|
|
|