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| From | Brian Curtis <brioohs@sbcglobal.net> |
| Subject | Re: da Bears |
| Date | Wed, 09 Jun 2004 18:21:05 -0500 |
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on 6/9/04 6:00 PM, Greg Sager wrote:
> Plus, there's an old LP from '87 that I've just acquired that's been taking
> up a lot of my listening time lately: The self-titled debut from the Bears.
> *Great* album, and anyone who's skeptical that the trademark avant-garde
> squall of Adrian Belew's guitar is suitable for a power-pop context will be
> disabused of those doubts after just one listen. Belew and his three cohorts
> sound like they had the time of their lives recording this. The songs are
> uniformly excellent, and although they're pretty basic pop songs they
> certainly aren't rote genre exercises; they take a wide array of twists and
> turns that, coupled with Belew's skronk and some nice vocal interplay
> between Belew and fellow guitarist/vocalist Mike Fetters, really make the
> album distinctive. I don't know if this has ever been made available on CD,
> but I'd highly recommend it in whatever format in which it's available.
Obviously there would be skeptical folks when they're told by a guy from
Chicago that The Bears are good - but the musical ones are good. I've
always thought that Adrian Belew was more than capable of tossing his share
of hooks, his more avant-garde stylings duly noted. The three Bears studio
albums are well worth listening, as is the more recent live CD - and they
have a live DVD out now too. Visit http://www.thebearsmusic.com for more
details. Those first two Bears albums are currently rare and hard-to-find
on CD (thank goodness I've got 'em), but they are supposedly going to be
reissued in the future. Oh, Greg, that's ROB Fetters, not Mike.
For those looking for similar stuff in Adrian's solo catalog, I highly
recommend "Inner Revolution" which was recently reissued by Wounded Bird,
and "Here" which includes a song cowritten by Ross Rice ("I See You").
I met Adrian back in the late 70s here in Springfield, Illinois where he
lived for awhile. This was post Zappa & Bowie, but pre-Lone Rhino, and he
was recording demos at a converted potato cooler on the north end of town
which was dubbed Cwazy Wabbit Wecording. I was checking out the studio (for
future recording) while he was there - nice guy. That was the same day he
tracked some local horn players for the track "Adidas In Heat."
Brioohs
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