Minus The Bear to Self-Release 4th full-length

Personally, I'll be just as excited about the album no matter how its released, especially considering the awesome video jam (see below) they posted on their myspace earlier this year. This is nonetheless pretty interesting, considering the fact that self-financing and self-releasing seems to be a growing trend in bands like Minus The Bear, who are sort of bridging the gap between the underground and mainstream music scenes.

via Minneapolis Fucking Rocks: Seattle-based quintet Minus the Bear are currently hard at work on their highly anticipated fourth studio album, still untitled. Excited to expand on their inimitable brand of rock n roll songwriting and explore their existing love of audio ingenuity, the band teamed up with Grammy Award winning producer Joe Chicarelli (My Morning Jacket, The White Stripes) to lend a helping hand. Loved for their brilliant countermelodies and progressive arrangements by legions of fans, the band plans on taking their endless creativity and craft, which has been praised by the likes of Spin, Alternative Press, Paste and others, to new heights on this new album.

Minus the Bear will take the opportunity to self finance their new album, giving them full control in an evolving industry.



Speaking of great music, new Grizzly Bear comes out tomorrow, as well as new Phoenix. And we've only a few weeks until new Rancid, Sonic Youth, and Dirty Projectors. 2009 is quickly becoming the best year for music in recent memory, and I couldn't be more excited.

Just to anyone who may not know, the new mewithoutYou is streaming for free HERE. I like it a lot.

Last night Sarah and I saw Terminator Salvation. It was intense, I loved it. Also, the Sherlock Holmes trailer still has me all giddy and excited.

Busy, busy, busy. Things are crazy, but I feel overwhelmingly optimistic about this summer.

Moving Really Sucks

Family Tree

So, the last few days since I've gotten back have been quite interesting. My last night at Tufts was pretty insane; I'm pretty sure that every single person that was still at Tufts packed their delirious and excited bodies inside of both towers of Sophia Gordon, where a great amount of fun was had. I'm not sure if I've ever seen so many people packed into that small of a space. The next day, around afternoon I came home, where I was met by my parents, who had Chikfila with them. Mmm, lovely. I got a haircut that day (pictures later possibly, I've spent every night since then cutting more off in certain places) and I spent most of my first 2 days just hanging out with my parents and my dogs, catching up on sleep and reading. It was really really great, and much needed.

Then I went back to Boston for a day, where I had my fMRI training class at the Northwest science building at Harvard and then spent the day at the lab I'll be working at this summer at Harvard. I can't really describe how that was, it just got me so insanely excited for this summer and also the work I'll be doing in the years to come. It's always great to continually get that sense of validation, that I'm doing what I'm meant to do.

The day after I came back to Virginia I spent the day with Zach, which was great as always. We went shopping and I enjoyed Hot Topic's surprisingly good and well-priced selection of vinyl; I ended up getting a Hopesfall 10" and Minor Threat's Out of Step, and we spent the rest of the afternoon listening to Hopesfall, playing guitar and looking through old yearbooks. Then we ended up seeing Observe and Report, which was surprisingly funny, albeit a little bit disturbing and a tad depressing. The day after was a little bit more relaxed, although I hung out with Christina for awhile and eventually hung out with Carter and Lauren also, and I had a really good time. I cooked dinner for me and m'parents that night, and then went to the Jubilee with Zach and his nice friend Melody. I got home in time to see the last 10 minutes of the season finale of Greys Anatomy, which had me all teary eyed and emotionally wrecked. I decided to prolong the sentiment by girling out and watching both Love, Actually and the Jane Austen Book Club. Poor me. My movie choice for tonight is The Uninvited, to try to balance it out.

Today I ran errands with my mom all day, finally catching up with Zach this evening to go to Maddy's senior project show, a Cystic Fibrosis benefit show at Cape Henry. It definitely didn't live up to "No Indigo Dunes" standards, but it was great fun. I ripped my shirt from sheer ferociousness while moshing to XPBJX, and got to see some wonderful people. It put me in a weird mood being at school after nearly a year, but all is well. Then I went out and got pizza with Zach and Nick and Jake and Steven and girl-Carter, which was awesome. Zach and I annihilated some bacon pizza, and both of us complained of feeling quite ill on the ride home. Eli called him while we were driving around, and we planned on going to hang out with her, but I guess it didn't work out. So, now I'm laying in bed listening to TV on the Radio and nursing a very full stomach. Off to watch the Uninvited and go to bed. By my logic, I figure even if it's horribly frightening (or just a horribly bad movie) I'll still have nice dreams about Emily Browning. Mmm:

Singing to the ambulance

I'm sorry dear, I haven't been sleeping because when I have I woke up and thought it was winter.

I'm sorry love for leaving you out, my head is an empty house when you're not around.

I'm sorry dear I haven't felt much like company, but if september won't bring you to me then i don't care.

I'm sorry dear for ignoring the phone, I've got clumsy feet and clumsy toes to keep me from home.

Surprise amazing record of the year

(so far)

PS, in the process of freaking out about this album I learned that Chad Gilbert is dating Hayley Williams. What a buncha cuties. I thought he was married to that girl from Eisley, but I guess they divorced after like one year. So it goes.


PPS, a lot of people have already left school, and it's such a weird feeling. I've had the "nice getting to know you this year, have a good summer" conversation way too many times today and it's actually kind of getting to me. Not to mention the fact that Adam may be taking a year off next year, which is kind of a scary thought to me. Blah.

We were younger then,

but I can still read the words across your chest.

Last night was pretty awesome. After a day of working in the lab and attempting to start my final philosophy paper, I took the T down to Central to see Now, Now Every Children. Their first full-length was one of numerous records that carried me through the last few insane months, and I was beyond excited to finally see them. I got there at about 8:20 and was literally the only person there besides the bands, so I decided to walk around Cambridge and found a cool used record store. They had a surprisingly good, well-priced selection, and I was considering buying two first-pressing Orchid 12-inches, but decided against it at the last minute, which was a wise choice, because otherwise I wouldn't have had money for a cab later. I ended up just sitting outside for awhile, and met two guys from Revere that were really cool. One of them had the Nephilim tattooed on his forearm, so I commented on it and we had a good chat about AFI. It's really cool how music can always give rise to sudden bonds like that. They have a band that I've yet to check out, but I might try to catch their show tomorrow if I like it. Anyways, the first few bands were okay, one of them was a local band that was fairly amazing, they kind of reminded me of Polar Bear Club and Minus the Bear, but unfortunately I've forgotten their name. Too bad.

Anyways, Now Now finally went on at about midnight, and it was incredible. All of the band members are such nice, genuine people, and I think I was one of few people there that actually knew them and sang along and whatnot, and I could tell that they appreciated it, because I think most people went to the show just because they were friends with the promoter. It's been awhile since I've been to a show that I was really looking forward to, and it was amazing just to turn off my brain for half an hour and sing along. It was tons of fun. I miss them already, I've been listening to them nonstop all day and I can't wait to see them again. I think they're playing Bamboozle, which would have been amazing to go to, but alas. School, finals, blah.

After the show I took a cab to College Ave to stop by Max's 21st birthday party, which was dwindling by the time I got there, but was still pretty fun for the time being. It was nice to hang out with people and enjoy one of the first summer nights in good company. After that I went back to Miller and sat outside with Jane for awhile, and then went in and hung out with Adam and Sarah. We attempted to watch Resident Evil, but I quickly fell asleep (around 4am at this point, I think). And today I've just been sitting around, listening to music and working on my paper. Oh, how I love relaxed days like this. The last couple of weeks have been much less stressful than I expected them to be, which has been a welcome change of plans, because I've really gotten to clear my head and get in the right mindset for this summer, which should be full of hard work, but also full of fun. I really couldn't be more excited for it.

As for tonight, I think I might go see a movie or something. Any recommendations? Or maybe I might go read outside, it's such a nice day. As you can probably tell, I'm pretty scatterbrained right now. I just haven't been in a good mood like this for a very long time, and it feels good to finally be getting back on track.

EDIT: I found that band I was talking about. They're called "You Can Be a Wesley," and they're awesome. Listen to "Creatures". http://www.myspace.com/youcanbeawesley