MP3: The Bear Quartet - Everybody gets to play
Our guestposter for this week's Bear Quartet post is Martin Lundmark of Tenderversion Recording. Not only is he responsible for many of my favorite recent releases, he's also one of the guys responsible for the "Money talks" BQ tribute compilation, so you know the subject is near and dear for him.
Ok, I'm not sure where to begin. There are thousands of beginnings to this story. This love affair, of sorts. I guess we're divorced now, me and The Bear Quartet. But we used to be very much in love, married. That passionate kind of love, the one you only experience if it hits you while you're still in your teens.
I saw a CD at my local record store once. This was 12 years ago, or something. It had a picture of a worn-down kitchen or bathroom wall on the front cover. Who the fuck puts something like that on the front sleeve? The aesthetic used, the portrait of something gloomy - even though I didn't recognize at the time - was very much BQ. I bought the CD thanks to the artwork, which didn't look like anything else. "Everybody else" would become my favorite album for the remainder of that year.
Two years later, BQ released "Moby Dick". I think I didn't listen to anything else for months. I saw them live for the first time at Arvikafestivalen that year. Me and 23 others. The festival was crowded, but somehow everybody else missed this show. Like always. And that chubby guy who sung didn't fit with the beautiful voice heard on "Everybody else", that tiny guy who kept beating his guitar with a drumstick couldn't be the same guy creating the most mesmerizing hooks on "Moby Dick". It just didn't seem right. This was before you could Google for bandpics. This was before shitbands with a shitload of energy could make themselves famous on MySpace.
I ran into drummer Jejo Perkovic at Debaser in Stockholm in 2004. I'd just put together a tribute album with 16 artists covering BQ songs. We got to talk, I bought him a glass of white wine and soda. I don't remember that much of our conversation, but one thing stuck in my mind. He told me that he considered "My war" to be their "White album", their masterpiece. I guess he was right.
Lately, or for a long time, I haven't been listening to The Bear Quartet. I've missed out on their two last albums. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that The Bear Quartet used to be the best band in the world. And still is.
The Bear Quartet - Everybody gets to play