Bear Colony – We Came Here To Die: Review

Bear Colony’s We Came Here to Die was released February 13th 2007 on Esperanza Records. As their myspace states, “The unfortunate inspiration behind this composition came from primary songwriter Vince Griffin’s troubled experiences of 2005”. He was misdiagnosed with Crohns Disease, which left him bedridden for a few months and caused him to start writing as an “outlet”.
For me this album is interesting, even though upon my first listen, I didn’t find anything that really stuck out to me, I found myself wanting to listen to the record over and over again. Now that I have listened to it plenty of times over the last week, I have begun to find the subtleties in each of the songs – as is true with most music with a little depth, it takes a little time to get into it (of course the best kind is the one that draws you in and has endless depths to discover, I can’t say this is one of those, though). This record is not necessarily something “incredible” but over all its pretty good. It makes use of a particular build-up style where they always go until the breaking point and then stop, there’s never the explosion of sound that you kind of wish they would get, but it makes you want to listen to the songs that much more, because you are perfectly unsatisfied – the perfect example is “I’m Not Brave”. Instead of taking the “big sound” approach, they choose to take the more subtle route and let the song just build and at its peak… just end – its an interesting stylistic choice, but it has a certain charm to it.
AMG calls this album “a pop-oriented version of Broken Social Scene” (which I found the link from Radiobutt), which I would say is pretty accurate, but what’s interesting is amidst those pop Broken Social Scene moments you find Griffin’s voice going to places that Radiohead’s Thom Yorke would go, not just with the way he sings those melody lines, but also with the melody lines themselves – its like a “Broken Social Scene presents… Thom Yorke” album, with a nice pop sheen.
Overall this album is good, the lyrics, from what I’ve got so far, are pretty good, nothing has really stuck out to me as brilliant, but the songs, with their electronica and rock elements, work well together and form together to be a “thing” rather than just individual tracks that happen to follow one another.

Do I recommend this album?
Yeah, I mean, not like highly recommend but if you’re looking for something that’s easy to get into, but still has some interesting elements, then I would say check this album out

*Music mentioned in this blog
Bear Colony
Radiohead

Music and its propriety

So I am in a constant struggle as to the propriety of music downloading. Here is the issue as I see it: music is best when it is heard. Bluntly, unless I listen to an album, I do not want to buy it. Everytime I've ever bought an album on name/band alone, I have been sorely disappointed – switchfoot, death cab for cutie, dashboard confessional, etc (you may be saying to yourself "what the hell was he doing listening to those bands in the first place?", I will be the first to second that sentiment). I want to hear an album all the way through, because, bluntly, I am a consumer, I want to know that my hard earned money isn't being wasted on some piece of crap record that has no merit whatsoever. I want to rest assured that my music isn't good for the first couple songs, and then crap for the only 10 (or 8 as the trend has been recently) songs on the album. I will use my current favourite album (maybe of all time) as a perfect example why this system works: The new Islands record, I downloaded it on a whim, and listened to it once and was like "huh, this is interesting... very different from the Unicorns (the lead singer's previous band), and I think that's a good thing", but upon listening to it a very hundred more times since I got it back in april, I have fallen very deeply in love with, because, frankly, its an an awesome record, that has some of the creepiest and most perfectly whimsical lyrics around – "remember who was in my arms, remember when I had arms..." etc. However, I never would have just bought this record on a whim, having not really enjoyed the Islands' first record all that much, I wouldn't have relied on the band name alone to push me into buying this record. However, having been given the time to listen to this incredible record I love this thing to death, and might always love this record – we'll see.
Another perfect example is Bon Iver. An incredible artist who crafts sound like its nobody's business (because, in this case, that's actually true). I first listened to Bon Iver upon recommendation from my friend. She told me I should listen to this one song called "Skinny Love" ––which I highly recommend you check out, because its unlike anything you've heard before. Upon listening to the song via their virb/myspace I was like, "I want more", so I listened to the rest of the album online, and then when they came to town I had to see them, because I had so fallen in love with their sound. My question is: how is seeing a band live any different than downloading their album online? The music is freely given, and with anticipation and hope that you will like it, and want to come back time and time again. Okay, yeah, you have to pay for a concert, and most of the money goes directly to the artist via shows, unlike with record sales. However, my logic is if I hear a bunch of really good music I am more willing to buy it. Now, with Bon Iver I actually didn't hear the entire record, apart from live, until two days ago when I went to the record store and bought a brand new copy of "For Emma, Forever Ago", because I wanted to support an artist I like so much.
Which actually brings me to my final point, something that I thought of the other day when I was buying CDs, and actually became very perplexed and confused by, and a little worried, because I'm not sure where this fits into my schema... so I'm a little shaken up by it. So, if you download a CD an artist makes no money off that record sale and the way that you show your appreciation for an artist is to buy the record for yourself, and actually use your money to say what you cannot say in person – most of the time. Okay, well when you buy a used record it is exactly the same. True, the artist already received that money for the initial record sold, but they don't make anything off of your current purchase, so how is buying a used record any better than just illegally downloading the record? ––besides supporting your local record store, of course. That is why I bought a new copy of Bon Iver and not a used one. I did, however, by a used copy of Rabbit Fur Coat, by Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, and that worried me a lot, because I love Jenny Lewis and I want to support her, but by buying that album used I have done nothing of the sort....I don't know.
So, in short, illegal downloading has led to my new favourite music, so I don't understand how it can be considered wrong... sure, I want to get paid as much as the next guy, but buying records doesn't always equate to financial stability to the artists themselves.
Peace.

*Music mentioned
Jenny Lewis
Bon Iver
Islands