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!
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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?
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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".
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"His spine", yet another Mattias Alkberg song that hides vicious sentiments in a sweet melody. "Hopelessness, despair / Lack of vision, education sucks / When you're born and torn / Between injustice and bad luck" The strings soar and the knife gets driven deeper into your gut. No optimism, no future. For some people at least: "You know what I need / Rights not charity, hope and equality / Not to be looked down upon / I'm not stupid just constantly reminded otherwise" It's that last bit that really gets me - hear something enough times and there's a chance you might start believing it. Resist! Fight back! Persevere!
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For as angry a song as "Placard" is, it sure doesn't sound like. I don't think I'll ever get used to hearing a bitter fight song with acoustic guitars and sweet, harmonized vocals. I love the juxtaposition, but it always catches me off-guard. "Now is payback time / Get up stand up don't put up with all / Their half truths and their lies" Perhaps I should add more Billy Bragg to my listening diet.
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"Ask me don't axe me" is one of those songs that gives me a Beavis & Butthead level of glee every time I hear the rumble of doublebass on the chorus. And then there's the all-Jejo video that has absolute no bearing at all as to what the song is about. "Yeah, I've got problems up to here, but they're not for you to share." Talking about it just makes it worse. "Ask me don't axe me again, be friends." All I wanted was a Pepsi?
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"Weakling keep blinking" is 3rd-world rock'n'roll. Imagine a band that has never actually heard rock'n'roll, but has only read about it - that's what this sounds like. The basic idioms are there, but there's something not quite right about it. You get the classic bluesy power-chord fifth-to-sixth riffing, the steady handclaps on the twos and fours. These are the basic elements of early rock, but The Bear Quartet has managed to make them sound awkward and perverted. The sound effects give it a totally creepy vibe and the instrument tones are all weird, misguided presets. I'm reminded of Stravinksy's "L'histoire du soldat" which incorporates jazz voicings despite the famed composer having never heard the stuff before. It is suggested that perhaps he had seen it written on paper, but never performed. Once again, you get many of the basic idioms of the genre, but the feel is off. Naturally, The Bear Quartet are well-versed in the ways of rock, but they manage to capture that same strange, uneasy feeling. And then they blow it up.
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This is another one of those songs that makes me giggle like an idiot every time I hear it. Aside from the chorus refrain, there's very little about the lyrics that's distinguishable to my ears without the words laid out right there in front of me. Naturally, being The Bear Quartet and seeing as how the lyrics are from bassist Peter Nuottaniemi, there is poetry behind the gibber-gabber though I find the meaning to be inconsequential to the enjoyment of the song. And there's that ridiculous wanky-blues breakdown, too. Genius? Yes, absolutely. Unnecessary? Sure, but it throws you off just enough so that the final chorus can floor you. I was iffy on BQ's new, more electronic and obtuse direction with the unveiling of single "I have an itch" before the release of "Saturday night", but hearing this song sealed the deal. None can compare! All hail!
Extra-credit for the engineering geeks: check out the waveform for this track. It's ridiculous - nothing but boxes of sound, red-lining at 0db. When I was compiling all the tracks from "Reader's companion volume two" I was amazed at how unmusical it looked in comparison to everything else.
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"Personality crisis" is my go-to Bear Quartet album for days like today, when I just feel beaten down by the workweek. It's the kind of record I can listen to anytime, even those days I'm so sick of music that nothing seems appealing. Like an old friend, it's always there to prop me up and comfort me. Yep, this is the soundtrack to my Friday night and I'm staying in.
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Once again, I hand things over to Jim Kelly from Parasol for this week's Bear Quartet post:
"Gay icon" was my first introduction to The Bear Quartet. A little slipcase CD with a naked man on the artwork that sat on the shelf for a year before some Swedish pals patiently explained that "The Bear Quartet are the very best band in Sweden, maybe the world." And this coming from members of the band I considered the best rock act in the world at the time. With this recommendation in mind and beginning to appreciate seeing Jari's scrotum on the gatefold (that took some balls!) I began an odyssey of obsession that all started with the opening track "From nowhere" and one of the best lines ever written:
Adam and Eve were the first, unemployed, in love and evicted...
A short, sweet, heartrending piano ballad that touched on the garden of Eden, a dysfunctional family (a common theme in Peter's songs, see "Disappearing act"), and a threesome (I think)... As soon as this poignant and plaintive narrative fades out, the rest of "Gay icon"'s glorious mayhem begins, an often shocking study in contrasts, with the tone strangely set from the start.
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harold | Mon, Feb 6th, 2012 22:42:51