Minus the Bear - Planet of Ice
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Minus the BearEdition: Music CD
Published: 2007
CD Release Date: 2007-08-21
Music Label: Suicide Squeeze
Soundtracks:
- Burying Luck
- Ice Monster
- Knights
- White Mystery
- Dr. L'Ling
- Part 2
- Throwin' Shapes
- When We Escape
- Double Vision Quest
- Lotus
Free Music Notes for Planet of Ice
Free Music Review: So Different, They Needed A New Planet
Hit: 5 Stars
I first became an avid fan of Minus the Bear following their brilliant 2005 album Menos el Eso's release. I read a five star review for it in AP magazine wherein they sounded like the departure from the music I typically listen to (mostly post-hardcore) that I'd long been looking for. I bought the CD, cranked the volume up in my car, put the windows down, and prepared myself for what I assumed would be 40 minutes of blasting my new favorite album down the streets from Best Buy to my house with pride. Within a few blocks I turned the volume down and found the dial in my mind for disappointment to be at an all-time high. Slowly, each listen after that fateful day revealed something new to me, and one good song linked into others, and in time, the album revealed itself to me as the masterwork it is. The same was true of Pirates... if not for Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse (on Pirates), The Fix (on Oso) and the stellar drumming on everything between (something I couldn't help but notice, even as I turned my speakers down for my first MTB experience), it is entirely possible I would have dismissed these otherwise sublime albums instantly and disregarded Minus the Bear completely.
Flash forward to a time a few months prior to the release of Planet of Ice. I started scouting the band's MySpace dying to hear anything new from the band in extreme anticipation. The first tracks I recall them releasing were Dr. L'Ling and Throwin' Shapes. My first listens of both (despite previously learning my lesson) made me cringe a little. After a view more plays, the subtleties became more apparent, and they grew on me. Minus the Bear is not a band that can be fully appreciated in one listen, nor can any of their full-lengths. Songs like Knights come closer than ever before to establishing instant recognition and enjoyment from fans and newbies alike, but impressively, without feeling for a second like an attempt to "sell out," which seems to be all the rage these days. Planet of Ice may very well be their most off-putting album to date, but in a way that true fans of the band will appreciate them for all the more. The intricate guitar play on tracks like Dr. L'Ling, Double Vision Quest, and When We Escape along with the lush keyboard textures throughout provided by newcomer to the band Alex Rose (showcased fully on Lotus) cannot be fully experienced in one listen, which may not appeal to many out there, but anyone looking to dissect and really get into their music (which is one of the biggest draws to MTB, and always has been) will be delighted with Planet of Ice.
Lastly, I would like to address a comment I saw previously while reading others' reviews of this album. It seems people are discontent to see the song titles wrapped up so neatly with three words or less and not completely irrelevant to song's subject matter. I can't speak for everyone out there, but I know I've tried vigorously to get others to listen to and love this band, and when I have to explain that one of their best songs is "Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse," by the time I'm done with the song title they won't listen to another word I have to say. Ever tried to discuss with someone who is not an avid Minus the Bear fan how amazing "Hey! Is That a Ninja up There?" is? If the answer is yes, you can understand why they have simplified their song titles. After three albums, it's not hard to see why they would want to be taken seriously, and while the pointless song titles of the past bring hardcore MTB fans together, it makes it all the harder for outsiders and critics to take them seriously. Their sound has changed enough to remain fresh with Planet of Ice, but it's still an amazing album. Not to mention that they still have a sense of humor. Perhaps I'm the only one who has seen the hilarious video for Throwin' Shapes prior to writing my review... and I seem to be the only one I know who has connected the song White Mystery to the flavor of Airheads candy. Nothing has changed about MTB; they have only grown and have moved in a direction that makes them pioneers of the present and capable of remaining relevant for a long time to come.
Planet of Ice Poster
For the past six years, Seattle's Minus the Bear have orbited the music world like a distant meteor, fine-tuning their brand of indie rock and discovering how technology can help enhance the band's unique pop vision all of which is about to culminate with their latest full-length Planet of Ice, an album showing the band not so much transforming their sound as transcending it. Although the band has released a handful of EPs and two full-lengths in their prolific career (most recently 2005's Menos El Oso and the sister remix CD Interpretaciones Del Oso), with Planet of Ice the band which now features new keyboardist Alex Rose have taken their brand of idiosyncratic indie rock to new heights. I feel like this is the most cohesive record we've done, bassist Cory Murchy says. I hate the term `organic,' but that's the one term I can think of when comparing this to our other records because there's a lot of weird electronic stuff going on there, but there's some really raw riffage as well.Minus the Bear's Planet of Ice marks the Seattle band's third full-length release (not counting three EPs and a remix album), and achieves an effect as spacious and blinding white as the landscape the title evokes. Psychedelia and math rock are here in equal parts, making for a somewhat bi-polar listening experience--the excellent "Part 2" opens with a downright Pink Floydian acoustic guitar before winding up to a driving circuitous conclusion, while nine-minute closer "Lotus" reels all over the stylistic map, starting and stopping in a mini-suite of hammering guitars and vaporous keyboards. Most songs keep well away from a standard verse-chorus structure, with lyric and instrumental passages stitched together like some indie rock Frankenstein (tracks are occasionally book-ended by wittily realized sonic manipulations that might cause the listener to check the CD for skips), but Minus the Bear keeps the melodies potent and the emotion high enough to prevent Planet of Ice from drifting into impenetrable shoe-gazer territory. --Ben Heege
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