Bear In Heaven Fader Mix (download and tourdates)

Jon Philpot

Bear In Heaven are one of the most exciting psychedelic groups to come along in the past decade.  Admittedly it wasn't until I caught their devastating live show at the Ottawa Bluesfest a couple of summers ago, touring in support of Beast Rest Forth Mouth, that I realized that the lead singer was a man.  Listening to the record was vexing and not entirely comfortable.  It was one of those things you picked up because it landed in Pitchfork's top 50 and though you're convinced Pitchfork's utter shit there's probably something interesting going on from 30-50 on their best albums of the year.  Beast Rest Forth Mouth proved a long shot favourite.  In hindsight credit where credit's due they did give the incredibly deserving group their 'Best New Music' award nailing bang on what made the 2010 release so vexing:

"Beast Rest Forth Mouth is as familiar-feeling as it is difficult to pinpoint. Mostly made up of textural, spacious three- to four-minute pop anthems with towering choruses, BRFM is a welcome reminder that an album doesn't have to be bombastic to feel huge and important. Take out the earbuds and let it fill a space: This is music that's bigger than your iPod—music you'll want to feel all around you. Though not quite coming out of nowhere, BRFM seems like a surprise gift—a striking consolidation of the spiky psych-prog tendencies of their debut into a pop framework." ^[2]

Jon Philpot - Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest July 10, 2010

Seeing the band live I was duly chuffed, at a festival that opened it's first day with an epic performance by Furthur (the post-Grateful Dead vehicle fronted by Phil Lesh and Bob Weir), when leader Jon Philpot emerged wearing a Europe '72 Grateful Dead t-shirt.  Though Bear In Heaven's, who largely hail from Georgia but are thought of as a Brooklyn-based band, brand of psychedelia bears faint if any resemblance to groups like the dead or fellow southerners the Allman Bros. Band.   Their influences are more obviously krautrock and electronic music but their intent is quite consistent with psychedelic values of yore.  Where most psychedelic bands play a lot of notes (often accused of playing far too many) Bear In Heaven weaves dense textural landscapes of sound over which Philpot in his preening falsetto scatters his somehow meaningful but half-heard lyrics.   Bear In Heaven is concerned with the weave of notes back and forth just as much as they are concerned with the wail of sound.  The fabric they fashion is always lush, inviting and somehow questions and prods the listener on into a braver future.

Bear In Heaven Fader Mix (download)

Tracklist:

Cex – Enter Carter
Kyoka – Hadue
Factory Floor – Lying
Andrew Pekler – Misty Blue
Craig Leon – Donkeys
Alpha Wave Movement – Beacon 2
Oblio – Factory Of Reincarnation
Invisible Conga People – Cant Feel My Knees
Andrew Fitzpatrick – Coyote Prism
Bear In Heaven – Kiss Me Crazy (Certain Creatures Remix)
Diamond Age – Opening Credits
Bear In Heaven – Greece Sun
Harold Budd – Wanderer

"You lose work, you find work, somebody steals your stuff, you sell some stuff to replace the stolen stuff. In the course of change, a hole is formed and then filled. It could be there for a second or you could stand at the precipice for years. For better or worse, Bear in Heaven is always changing. Some bands don’t change, often out of a desire to keep their listeners. We’re of the mind that we shouldn’t fight nature’s ever-shifting sands. At this point time, the ground is caving in. We’re years away from who we were when Beast Rest Forth Mouth came out and one year away from when we finished I Love You, it’s Cool. This mixtape is the sound of us deciding whether we should start filling the hole or just dive in. It might be fun, we might not hit bottom. We might fly to the other side of this strange dimension. Will you let us do it? Will you join us? We’re playing some shows in October and December. Come see us stand on the edge. In the meantime, enjoy this mix. It’s filled with music by our friends, people we’d like to be friends with and sounds from the road." - Jon Philpot

Tour Dates:

10.24 – Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA * !
10.25 – College of William And Mary – Williamsburg, VA *
10.26 – Moogfest – Asheville, NC #
10.27 – MOTR Pub – Cincinnati, OH *
10.28 – Brillobox – Pittsburgh, PA *
10.29 – Black Cat Backstage – Washington, DC *
12.05 – Music Hall of Williamsburg – New York, NY * $
12.07-12.09 – All Tomorrow’s Parties By The National – Camber Sands Holiday Camp, UK

* with ERAAS
! with Pink Skull
# with Miike Snow, Squarepusher, Explosions In The Sky
$ with Small Black

 

The Stepkids - Suburban Dream (video and live)

The Stepkids are three singer/songwriters who've made better than average careers as sidemen for artists ranging from 50 Cent to Lauryn Hill and Alycia Keys. Guitarist Jeff Gitelman, bassist/ keyboardist Dan Edinburg and drummer Tim Walsh were raised on the East Coast jazz and R&B circuit where playing your part, soloing when given a chance, and generally giving life to other peoples songs and compositions is your paying gig.  "A lot of what excites us about this band is this band itself," says Edinberg. "It’s not either of us; it’s about creating an entity where the entity itself is what’s important.”   Gitelman, who resigned from touring as Alicia Keys' guitarist to concentrate full-time on recording the Stepkids self-titled debut album, has said "all three of us write and all three of us sing.  Drummer Tim Walsh concurs; "there's an equal split in the creative process. Any lyric, any melody, any idea could have been done by any of us."

Known for their phenomenal live show fans have dubbed the sound somewhere between Miles Davis On The Corner and the Talking Heads. The Stepkids groove is a fusion of punk and jazz, West African and 1960s folk, neo and classic soul, classic funk and 20th century classical. The band produce, engineer and record themselves on a reel-to-reel.   

Complimenting this lush live sound The Stepkids are known for their live performances featuring kaleidoscopic projections by experimental video artists Jesse Mann and David Knowlton Pond, enveloping the band in a wash of colours as they play.  They always perform dressed in white - it allows them recede into space, camouflaged by Technicolor paint drips.

THE STEPKIDS ON TOUR: EUROPE
Thursday, Nov. 24 - Paris, France - Le Petit Bain
Saturday, Nov. 26 - Toulon, France - Midi Festival
Tuesday, Nov. 29 - London, UK - Old Blue Last
Wednesday, Nov. 30 - London, UK - Notting Hill Arts Club
Saturday, Dec. 3 - Cologne, Germany - Weekend Festival
Tuesday, Dec. 6 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Paradiso
Wednesday, Dec. 7 - Porto, Portugal - Plano B
Thursday, Dec. 8 - Lisboa, Portugal - Music Box

BACK HOME
Friday, Dec. 23 - New Haven, CT - Toad's Place
Saturday, Jan. 14 - New York, NY - Knitting Factory

& AUSTRALIA
Wednesday, Jan. 25 - Perth, Australia - The Bakery
Friday, Jan. 27 - Sydney, Australia - Sydney Festival @ Keystone Festival Bar
Saturday, Jan. 28 - Melbourne, Australia - East Brunswick Club