It's a familiar story. Two friends living in different parts of the U.S. decide to start a band. Things start going good, one of the friends moves back home to pursue music, a year later, 13 songs of pristine pop music arrive at my doorstep. OK, maybe it's not a familiar story. Actually, it sounds more like something out of a movie than anything that could actually happen in Cleveland, Ohio. But a little over a year ago, it did happen. And the result is Bears.
In recent years, the term 'Bears' has taken on a wholly different meaning from that of its animal counterparts. There's even a magazine devoted to the bear. I'll give you a hint; it's got something to do with overweight, hairy men. This brand of Bears has nothing at all to do with that brand of Bears. Bears the band is the product of two song writers living in the Cleveland area, writing a mixture of twee-ish pop that falls somewhere along the Belle and Sebastian/early Ladybug Transistor lines. Occasionally, it drifts into chord progressions that remind me of Elliot Smith as well, and for all those reminders, I am forever glad that I took the time to get to know this brand of Bears. Despite the fact that Bears onstage is comprised of six members, the core of the group (multi-instrumentalists Craig Ramsey and Charlie McArthur) are the prinicipal song writers and performers on the band's full-length debut. And they know what they're doing in regards to the classical brand of melodic, innocent pop music they're creating. Forget any pre-conceived notion of what a bear is...
Bears do it the good old fashioned MySpace way. Go to http://www.myspace.com/bearspop to stream songs off of their first full-length album.
