Artist: The Bear Quartet
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Once again, I am blessed with a guest contributor for this week's Bear Quartet post. Not only am I happy to take the day off, but I find that one of the best things about this series is reading other people's thoughts on the mighty BQ. So with that, here's Christoffer Davidsson:
There are a few things truly beautiful in life. It can be moments, places, people and so on. Lately, for me, it's been "I'm still her", one of many great songs on "Angry brigade". Peter Nuottaniemi's lyrics are hopeful, yet dark. Saying it's all going to hell, but that it's all right. I hope.
"There's happiness where and when I least expect
everything that I see will outlive me
there's happiness and of course fear and death
loneliness hard regrets, one fire less
we'll never ride into the sun with the end
hung above our hardships and our love
I didn't cry not until we lowered you
down into the cold ground the cold cold ground"
Jari's guitars are wonderful as always and I think Håkan Hellström would have killed for them, and maybe he will. Although Matt Giordano already covered this song, I think it is worth posting again. That's how good it is.
Enjoy.
Agreed. That's a statement that's impossible to deny.
The Bear Quartet - I'm still her
This week's It's A Trap! Last.fm listening group top 10 artists of the week:
01. Jens Lekman
02. Shout Out Louds
03. José González
04. Death Cab for Cutie
05. Belle and Sebastian
06. Interpol
07. Moneybrother
08. The Knife
09. The Radio Dept.
10. The Bear Quartet
Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Join us! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/
Here's the playlist for my radio show on Saturday:
01. Ted Gärdestad - Räcker jag till
02. TALK 1
03. The Setting Son - In a certain way
04. Beyond Dawn - TRNQL
05. Miss Li - Let her go
06. TALK 2
07. Jonna Lee - Dried out eyes
08. Death By Kite - Hiroshima
09. The Motorhomes - I wanna make you sing
10. TALK 3
11. Printer - Minds out
12. Alarma Man - Sweden, Sweden
13. Pistol Disco - Radiation
14. TALK 4
15. Knugen Faller - Lugna favoriter
16. Scraps of Tape - Since all the birds are moving, shouldn't we
17. Carpet People - If I lose my voice
18. TALK 5
19. Asha Ali - A promise broken
20. Ingenting - Punkdrommar
21. Holiday for Strings - I got two hands
22. TALK 6
23. NEI - City of gold
24. FAP - Sjömannen
25. Monoton - Hours
26. TALK 7
27. Deathbed - Everyday heroin
28. Dibaba - Go marching in
29. Johnossi - Execution song
30. Sista Sekunden - Se opp
31. TALK 8
32. Laakso - Worse case scenario
33. Tiger Lou - Sell out
34. Peter Bjorn and John - Matchmaker
35. TALK 9
36. Johndoe - Hardt som faen
37. Espen Jørgensen - Move ahead - quickly
38. Säkert! - Och jag grät mig till sömns efter alla dar
39. TALK 10
40. KVLR - Slow clapping
41. Anna Leong - 61
42. Final Exit - Bent out of shape
43. TALK 11
44. The Bear Quartet - Lights out, sound off
This week's Bear Quartet post comes courtesy of Lisa BK, Jim Kelly's better half:
The Bear Quartet's music and lyrics are so fascinating by themselves - so compelling and intricate and complex - they make me into an airhead. I don't know any of their songs' titles, see - I'm totally bewitched by the art. I usually have to hum or sing the song to Jim so he can identify it for me; failing that, we have to trot out the CDs and have a listen (bummer, I know) in order to find my favorites' names. The other day, he told me I really liked a song called "You built your life upon the ruins of mine", and I had no idea what he was talking about until he sent me the lyrics and I saw the following unforgettable lines:
but one day you'll get married
to someone big and scary
a hairy monster of a man
who'll make sure he's taken care of
'cause of burdens you've been carrying
kill him off if you can
Oh! That one! Yes! The one that our daughter used to walk around singing when she was three! Yes, yes, that one.
What kills me about the above part of this 1997 song (it appears as a b-side on the "His spine" EP) is not the lyrics, though they're certainly moving; no, it's the the slightly somber and conversational tone of the verse, with its acoustic guitar which then slides into a bootstrappy, oh-well chorus, with a strident piano and some handclaps moving things along. By the end of the chorus, though - after he sings kill him off if you can - it's turned into the most wistful thing, all "oooooo" with the background vocal and a little tiny bit of lonely, atmospheric slide guitar buried in the mix at the very end. Oh, the production. Ten straight plays in one sitting? I'm still hearing things I've never heard before. This is a b-side, people.
Bear Quartet, during this period, came completely into their own as a band. Their music and lyrics from the late 1990s possess depth, layers, maturity, great lyrics, and flawless songwriting and musicianship found nowhere else in their oeuvre; when songs like "YBYLUTROM" are castoffs, it's clear that BQ had discovered the Rosetta Stone for creating the kind of music that doesn't betray when it was written. The kind you hum for your husband so he can tell you what it is because, well, you were so taken by everything else going on...
The Bear Quartet - You built your life upon the ruins of mine
This week's Bear Quartet post comes courtesy of Jim Kelly from Parasol, probably the most BQ-obsessed person I know (besides myself, I guess). His pick: "I would be poor". Read on:
It's a simple sentiment: "without you I'd have nothing" and one of the sweetest love songs in existence, within The Bear Quartet canon and without. And lo and behold this sweetly simple ode was penned by "the kid", keyboard player Calle Olsson. "I would be poor" (a "Gay icon" album b-side from the "Load it" EP), is a song of two stripes, split right down the middle. What starts out as a plaintive acoustic ballad backed by gently tinkling ivories (foreshadowing!), with Mattias crooning about sticks and stones and every little thing, about how treasures mean nothing without the love of your life to share it... at the midpoint Calle's piano rears up and the song becomes a sure-fire, immediately smile-inducing, rowdy ragtime shamble, with a singalong gang chorus and a keening keyboard's siren wails hanging like streamers. A paean to someone (or everyone), and ripe for your (potential) special someone's next mixtape.
The Bear Quartet - I would be poor
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show:
01. Sahara Hotnights - Visit to Vienna
02. TALK 1
03. José González - Down the line
04. Anna Ternheim - Girl laying down
05. The Bear Quartet - The supremes
06. TALK 2
07. New Decade - I guess you ran from something
08. Commando M Pigg - Allt genast
09. Mikkel Metal - Bano
10. TALK 3
11. Johan Hedberg - Nygubbe4
12. Mikko Singh - Toisella puolella
13. Mimas - Thought discuss
14. Fattaru - 100:-
15. TALK 4
16. Sista Sekunden - Jag är aldrig nöjd
17. E.S.T. - Tuesday wonderland
18. Syster Lycklig - Drömgränd
19. TALK 5
20. The End Will Be Kicks - Ass of a friend
21. The Grizzly Twister - Tigers made of paper
22. Samuel Jackson Five - Easily misunderstood
23. Grande Roses - Dead town
24. TALK 6
25. Thomas Dybdahl - B A part
26. Njurmännen - Cold meat industry
27. Tobias Hellkvist - Moment at ven
28. TALK 7
29. David Sandström Overdrive - Here's for summer
30. Randy - Freedom song
31. Kalle J - Vart stack du?
32. The Flaming Sideburns - Bad trip
33. TALK 8
34. The Bell - I am history
35. Lack - Pessimist poetry
36. The State of Floral Beings - Andy
37. Fireside - Problem (to you)
38. TALK 9
39. Firefox AK - Love to run
40. Manes - Cinder alley
41. Lukestar - Untitled
42. TALK 10
43. Oskar Schönning - S
In the beginning - 1992 or thereabouts - The Bear Quartet wasn't much more than a run-of-the-mill indie act. They were good, but they wore their influences on their sleeve and were barely distinguishable from the rabble. The one thing they did have going for them was location. Aside from the whole big fish/small pond thing, they also had that certain something that I only hear from bands out of Norrland. A certain discordance in the melody, that unmistakable northern darkness in the lyrics. "You hate the sound of sobbing meat / it's in your eyes whenever we meet" is not the sort of couplet you'd hear from Superchunk, but there you go. On the other hand, I think a lot of people around my age probably have a certain nostalgia for this particular sound so I understand why BQ's first album "Penny century" is held in such high esteem. Ah, the glory days of 'college rock', back when being indie actually meant something! Or did it ever? I was too busy trying to be punk.
The Bear Quartet - Headacher
Mattias Alkberg chats a bit about upcoming plans for the new albums from The Bear Quartet and Mattias Alkberg BD and more: http://www.mabd.se/?p=76
My Swedish skills suck (as always), but I can tell you that MABD is working on a double concept album with English lyrics.
The playlist for this week's radio show:
01. Laakso - Worst case scenario
02. TALK 1
03. Superfamily - I want my money back
04. The Bear Quartet - Ask me don't axe me
05. Ståålfågel - Små gröna män
06. TALK 2
07. Printer - Satisfaction (radio edit)
08. NEI - New morning
09. Paper - Out of it into it
10. Darkthrone - Canadian metal
11. TALK 3
12. Sweatmaster - Animal
13. Bloodbath - Buried by the dead
14. Moneybrother - Guess who's gonna get some tonight
15. TALK 4
16. The Perishers - Victorious
17. The Skull Defekts - Unholy drums are singing
18. Hell On Wheels - Alexander
19. TALK 5
20. Karin Ström - Ordlös
21. Kompjotr Eplektrika - Skulldrummantra
22. Scraps of Tape - How your heart gets thrown
23. TALK 6
24. Brainbombs - Stinking memory
25. M:40 - Brännmärkt
26. Logh - Bring on the ether
27. TALK 7
28. CS Nielsen - Happy
29. Amorphis - Weaving the incantation
30. Juvelen - Hanna
31. TALK 8
32. Killerchaps - Equally dumb
33. Dinosau - Derr lady
34. Knugen Faller - Inte som ni
35. TALK 9
36. The Kissaway Trail - La la song
37. Pg.Lost - Yes I am
38. Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - Marry me
39. TALK 10
40. Don Juan Dracula - Take me home
"Born with teeth and a thorn in everybody's side" The desire to be a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. C'mon and fess up, you know you've done it. Face it, some people deserve to be antagonized. In a way, The Bear Quartet has made a career of it. Not just defying expectations, but seeing how far they can go to alienate everyone around them. And that's exactly what this song is about. "No one's gonna run me out but everybody ran me out" Mattias says. If you say "play by my rules or not at all," sometimes that means you won't play and BQ knows it. An acceptable risk? Perhaps if you measure success based on integrity, "but I'm sad to say: your ways will never make your records sell." Many now-heralded bands never survived long enough to garner the respect (and success) they deserve during their lifetime. Maybe BQ will defy convention in this regard too, but I kinda doubt it. They will continue to defy and antagonize. I don't think they can help it - it's who they are and you either love them for it or you don't.
The Bear Quartet - Born with teeth
It probably won't be released until early 2008, but The Bear Quartet are planning to record their 14th album this year.
"Where do you put your hate?" Do you bury it deep inside? Or do you channel it into something else more useful? I know I used to put it into music. Still do sometimes, though now it's often not much more than the physical act of beating the drums. Whatever works, right? As long as I'm not taking it out on the undeserving. "The guilt and anger the boredom that's hard to shake?" How do you not let it consume you? I'm amazed that anyone makes it through highschool (relatively) unscathed. Not that it becomes any easier as you get older, especially since the stakes are often far, far higher. Somehow, we get by.
The Bear Quartet - Where do you put your hate?
A Bear Quartet post in the middle of a Gothenburg spotlight? What to do? Perhaps you were expecting the Bad Cash Quartet cover of "Put me back together"? No such luck! I won't take the easy way out with a mere cover song. Nosiree! Instead of posting some random GBG covering BQ, I bring you BQ live in GBG with the classic tune "Mom and dad". Enjoy!
The Bear Quartet - Mom and dad (Live in GBG)
The Bear Quartet's most recent album "Eternity now" picks up close to where the weirdo electro of "Saturday night" left off and then quickly takes it deeper into darker, far stranger territories. Opening track "Battle hymn" sets the stage. Explosions in the distance? The hiss of heavy machinery? Or is that a gas leak? And then comes the metallic throb, stuttering along at a not-so-steady pace. As for melodies, nothing sounds quite right. The keyboards are reduced to a cavernous howl and the guitars struggle with tuning. The effect however, is complete. Are you prepared for battle?
The Bear Quartet - Battle hymn
I trudged through quite a few of the usual downer Bear Quartet tunes before switching tactics and deciding on "Number" as this week's mp3 post. An initial listen might have you thinking of Faster Pussycat's "Bathroom wall", but that would be off on the wrong path. The sex part is only a backdrop to its true intentions, about living up to your full potential. Listen:
I am entitled to speak my mind about what you do
I'm not patronizing, I am merely endorsing:
do what you want to / not what others expect from you
you are a person / and should demand some respect
Which is to say: I may not approve of your actions and think you could do better, but I admire the way you carry yourself. "You're so much more... you could be anything at all." As for the music, it's classic BQ in full slacker indie mode. Jangly chords over roughshod drums and lots of wanky, tossed-off and out-of-tune leads. Then it breaks at the end and the smooth vocals of Kristofer Åström carry us out. Easily the highlight of the often-rambly "Ny våg".
The Bear Quartet - Number