UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE. (Bear's vacation, compilation, other stuff)

Hi guys. This has nothing to do with music, I just thought you might want to know what's going on in the next couple of months. There will be some small temporary changes here at Idle and the Bear. We've hinted at a few of them on our facebook, but if you don't have our facebook/didn't see it, then you have no idea what's going on.
First off, Idle has been scarce around here lately because of a shitty job with horrible hours, so he's rarely home, and when he is, he's tired as hell. So give him a break. He will be back to posting all the time soon, because...

I am taking a six week hiatus from Idle and the Bear. It kills me to do so, but I have to. I am transferring to University of Iowa for a resident research internship there working with the head of epidemiology. It will keep me VERY, VERY busy. And to be honest, I will not have time during this period to be posting at all. I COULD keep writing reviews, but because of my time limit/exhaustion, they'll be shitty and not thought out and I don't want to do that. When I write reviews, I like to take time to really listen to the album and think about what I'm going to say because that's what you wonderful people deserve. I would rather take a six week break (which I assure you, is going to kill me inside) than spend six weeks writing random, short, uninformative reviews that no one wants to waste their time with.

However, IDLE WILL STILL BE HERE. And he will be trying to up his posts to match what we usually get out in a week, but I can't promise you guys that. Either way, you will still be getting your weekly fill of Punx Rox Breakfast. Promise. If you aren't, let him know, and he'll show up at your house blasting Bad Brains and he'll punch you in the face a bunch and then leave. (Maybe you shouldn't let him know.)

Are you guys wondering about the compilation we brought up a few weeks ago? We are still working on it and it will still be released while I'm gone! (So pissed about missing it.) We're getting a few last songs from the wonderful bands that we're working with, and then it will be up on bandcamp on JUNE 20th. Save that date!
It will be CHOOSE YOUR OWN PRICE DOWNLOAD, and it will be 5 dollars to pre-order on CD which will be shipped out at some point this summer. We've been working with some really, really great bands that have been working their ass off for you and I hope that you guys will love it as much as we do.

While I'm gone, I will also be taking a break from all FACEBOOKING. That one is a personal choice to take a break from it. However, if any of you reaaaaallly want to get a hold of me about anything in particular (music coming out, your SUPERCOOLBAND, missing me, or just telling me a story about unicorns I don't give a fuck) you can contact me at hannah-shows@uiowa.edu.
Otherwise, you can always use our I&TB email (idleandthebear@gmail.com) pretty simple right?

Alright. I will be posting as much as my little hands can take this week, and then I will be saying goodbye to you all on June 18th.

With love,
-Bear

Nick 13- Nick 13

Nick 13, who you all know as the frontman and genius behind Tiger Army, has recently gone his own way (not forever!) to release a solo album. However, those of you who are used to the driving sound of Tiger Army are fit to be surprised. Nick's solo work is- get ready- country music. I can't say I'm terribly surprised, because you can definitely hear folk influence in Tiger Army's music. But still, it was a sound to get used to!

I'm going to be completely honest here- the only Tiger Army song I ever personally liked was their track on the Nightmare Revisited album. I think that they're talented musicians with a catchy sound and all, but it's really just not my thing. I'm going to transition from that into saying, neither is country. However, I still happen to know a lot about country and I've heard it on a regular basis my whole life (thanks, mom...)

In short though, I really only know enough to tell you guys that if you don't like country, you'll hate it. If you like country, you'll love it... And I'll leave it there because I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Yeehah, guys. That's a stream of the album on Alternative Press. Nick's facebook. Our facebook.

-Bear

Hard Girls/Kudrow Boo 7"

If there were some sort of weird survey going around that was like, "if you could have sex with two active bands, which bands would they be?" I'd probably be pretty likely to answer, "Hard Girls and Kudrow". What's convenient about this answer is the fact that these two bands released a split recently. What's inconvenient about this answer is the fact that this split was not released digitally at all. What the fuck? I can't afford vinyls, almost ever. I can afford free downloads, though. And I can afford free downloads of vinyl rips.

So, about Hard Girls. Two-thirds of Hard Girls is Pteradon, and the other one-third is Shinobu (the singer of Shinobu, in fact. Mike. Mike Shinobu. That's not his real last name. He kind of looks like Francis from Malcolm in the Middle). And, if you were to take one-fourth of Operation Ivy or the same one-third of Common Rider and throw it into Hard Girls-they'd turn into Classics of Love. But, our focus as of right now is Hard Girls.

The Hard Girls half of the split is like if Alfred Hitchcock was a punk band instead of a legend of the film industry. I'm not only saying this because the first song is titled "Birds", but I am partially saying it due to that. But honestly, I could see Hard Girls being exactly what that would sound like. There's some lo-fi brilliance and hecticness afoot, and it's as sexy as it could possibly be. The major thing Hard Girls and Kudrow have in common is the fact that they both sound like Shinobu. Hard Girls is like Shinobu plus another amazing vocalist for you to fall in love with.

Kudrow is like Shinobu, but with Jeff Rosenstock from Bomb the Music Industry! being a badass all over the tracks. The Kudrow half of the split starts off with some face melting guitar badassery, and it's pretty fucking sweet. I think Jeff just has his finger on the pulse of what will sound amazing to everyone who has an ear for music. Which is pretty much everyone, I believe. Plus, the first song is called "Puppy". How fucking sweet is that? The vocals on this song are pretty crazy and low class. I don't know what I mean by calling it low class, but that's how I feel about it. I love it. This just makes me even more excited for the upcoming BTMI! album. FUCK. The song ends on some more face-meltage.

"Rewards Zone" is even better than "Puppy". Being totally serious here, guys. This song is fucking awesome. I love Jeff's lyricism. Jeff is the Soupy of indie-punk, and Soupy is the Jeff of pop punk. That's how I've felt about things recently. I find it so easy to connect with lyrics by either of the individuals and it makes the listening experience so much better, to the point that their styles of lyricism almost seem imperative to me when I listen to a different band. I get so frustrated with everyone else, now. So uncool.

So, if you're not broke as fuck, you should definitely pick up the Boo Split by Kudrow and Hard Girls. It's definitely worth your money, honey. I'm sorry, that was really weird to rhyme right there.

-Idle

Hard Girls. Kudrow. Idle and the Bear.

The Wonder Years - Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing

God, there was so much fucking anticipation on this album. At least three times a day I would jump on my netbook and check album leak websites and what.cd just praying that Suburbia would be listed. I've just needed it to come out so badly...and once it finally came out, it did not let me down.

A lot of people seem to not like The Wonder Years, but a lot of people also like to watch Two and a Half Men. So, you can really only trust people's opinions as far as you can throw the person who had the opinion. So, I guess you can't really trust me, because I'm a big dude, but you could trust a baby pretty easily. I don't really think any babies are plotting to back-stab you, but to be fair-neither am I. The point I'm laboriously trying to reach is that people talk shit because talking shit is fun for them to do. But what the fuck are they releasing this year? Two shits a day? Fucking congrats.

SUBURBIA

I really can't fucking believe I've been blessed with the ability to listen to this album for the past 24 hours. I feel like things might be okay for a little while. I've been hearing a lot from people that it's just going to be some sort of Upsides rip off. Then I listen to it, and realize that it's not at all. There are a couple of songs that continue a theme from a song released on The Upsides...but that's a completely fucking normal thing for a band to do. Considering I've heard this stated by a guy who listened to Streetlight Manifesto...it was pretty funny. If you've listened to SM, then you know what I mean as far as they haven't written a legitimately new song since 2003.

Regardless, Suburbia is an album full of new songs and new lyrics and new ideas and new vocals. Soupy sings with the same conviction and power as he had when hitting the first line on "New Years With Carl Weathers" off the Upsides. There's this ultra-evident growth in his vocal prowess from the first release to this release, and it's pretty awesome to be able to check in at various times in the band's history and hear what he sounded like and where he was in life. I think it was the moment that Soupy realized he should be writing lyrics about exactly what's going on in his life that the shit really took off. I mean, the fun songs on GSOI were pretty rad, but I'm pretty sure nobody will remember the bit about the Kool-Aid man cutting off Captain Crunch's head as much as they'll remember that time Soupy shaved his beard. And that's just how it goes. People like being able to related to songs...it's just how pop punk kids are. Blame Descendents or something

I'VE GIVEN YOU ALL

The album kicks off with "Came Out Swinging", which unfortunately is not a Weird Al type parody of an Offspring song, rather it's a song that starts off this story-like album. It's not a story as in like...The Hobbit. It doesn't have a logical beginning and conclusion and whatnot. It's like the middle book of an extensive series. There's a lot of loose ends on both sides, but a lot of plot progression and character development. And guest vocals from Four Year Strong about halfway into the album. That kind of story.

"Woke Up Older" is like the poppy song for this album, and it's really fucking rad. I like all of the songs, pretty much, though. I'm a fanboy and it's to be expected. I'm probably an embarrassment to the Dopamines shit I'm wearing...but they're a buncha posers anyway. This song also serves as a perfect example of how they progress musically with each record. The drums are fucking amazing at times, and the guitar leads and beautiful. The song is as catchy as ever, and just like everything else the band has ever released, it'll be stuck in your head like hair follicles. Deal with it.

"The fountain is off! This is the first time I've been back to the city in months! I'm trying to hold it together, but irony's found cracks in the foundation!" Who doesn't already know this song word for word? I think the whole world does. At least that tumblr place does. Everyone there is crying over how awesome this song is. And yes, it's fucking awesome. I think I've already specifically reviewed this song in another post, so I don't think I should go on about it. BUT GOD, THE GUITAR IS GREAT. "I WALKED UPSTAIRS TO SHAVE MY BEARD; I FELT LIKE I WAS HOLDING SADNESS HERE." "I'M NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK, I'M JUST A FUCKED UP KID. I HAD TO TAKE MY OWN ADVICE AND DID."

"Suburbia" serves as a song that places you into the city Soupy calls home from time to time. It's like an intermission or an interlude. It's pretty boss. I had to mention it even though I don't have too much to say about it.

Then there's this song about not fitting in for so long, and everyone having just hated the band. It's called "My Life as a Pigeon"...which is totally about Hank. This song is stylistically different from much of The Wonder Years work...and that's kind of a thing with quite a few songs on this release. They've definitely done what they set out to do, which is write a new album that can possibly trump The Upsides. It's hard to say that for sure, because I mean...how the fuck do you trump one of the best albums in pop punk history? Saves the Day went as far as possible away from trumping Through Being Cool, and that seems to be the case with a lot of bands. But, with The Wonder Years, you have to be strapped in and prepared to be ear-raped with pure gold. Because this album is fucking awesome, fucking catchy, and fucking everything I wanted.

"Summers in PA" is another poppy as fuck song for this release. It also has some FYS vocals thrown into it. It's perrrrfffecccttttt. I don't know, it's just so great. I mean, it's followed by a better song... so it's hard to keep talking about it because I'm really just anxious to move on and talk about "I Won't Say the Lord's Prayer". I mean, it's basically a song about the way a lot of us feel when we look at people who are blindly religious, and it just seems so questionable and depressing I don't know, I don't really like talking about religion anymore, but it just seems so 10 years ago to be up in arms against it and whatnot. This song can do the talking for me.

AND NOW I'M NOTHING

"Coffee Eyes" is another one of those songs that were released earlier than the rest...so it's another one of those songs that we all know the lyrics to and are all obsessed with. I mean, out of the three pre-released songs, it's not my favorite by far. But it's still so fucking good. It's also another one of those songs with super powerful drumming.

Now we have "I've Given You All", which is an acoustic track which serves as the second part in the whole series of setting-type interludes for this album. This song is also just super fucking depressing. I hate people. It's about a possibly homeless-possibly apartment-owning dude in a raincoat who liked to sleep outside and was beaten to death in a park. And it's about old alcoholics and whatnot. Blah, it's just so sad. Blah.

"You drove me all the way up here, because you could tell that I was a mess. I wasn't going to make it to dinner, I shouldn't be calling again." This song..."Don't Let Me Cave In"...is so fucking good. It's another of the pre-released tracks that are already burned into our heads. It also has a music video...which totally made it so that both Wonder Years music videos have Johnny from The Flaming Tsunamis featured in them. He's their merch guy and all. So it makes sense. This song is just so amazing. Every line is so catchy and necessary.

With each song, one will notice that this is not some sort of Upsides rehash. It's the logical progression of the band, and it's awesome. Every song feels completely needed in this arrangement, and every song has some bit of awesome to contribute. That being said, "Hoodie Weather" does sound like it's an Upsides song. I mean, I think it's like a part two to "All My Friends Are In Bar Bands" or something. I mean, musically it's not similar at all, but lyrically it definitely is like an Upsides followup. The vocal melody at parts reminds me a lot Fireworks...which makes sense because they play together all the time. It's just all in all and great addition to the record, and a nice penultimate song.

SUBURBIA I'VE GIVEN YOU ALL AND NOW I'M NOTHING

The album ends with basically the part of story that places you where the band is at the end of this story, and the anticipation of what's going to happen for the next installment. I hope the next album isn't released in two parts, like some Deathly Hallows shit. I've killed for less. There's this part in this "And Now I'm Nothing" song about baby jesus being stolen from the manger in town that makes me laugh. Because in my hometown, somebody kept doing that every year, so now the baby jesus is chained down to the nativity scene. Also, the lady who paints him every year was criticized for making him black and they had him repainted. It was pretty lame. I really like the happy-sounding guitar leads throughout this song...they're definitely a nice touch. Overall, I would have to say this isn't one of my favorite songs for the album. I think it's definitely the perfect way to end this record though. I'm in love with The Wonder Years. It's okay if you're not; I understand. Well, I don't really understand. But, you know...I don't really understand. It's whatever, though. I won't judge you if you don't judge me.

JUST FUCKING LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM. Try to not like it. Be THAT guy. Go open some pits and steal some shoes. Be THAT guy.

-Idle

Idle and the Bear's facebook.

Have Nots- Proud

The Have Nots started their journey as a band in Boston, 2007. Jon Cauztik, Matt Pruitt, Jameson Hollis, and Steve Patton have all done quite a bit with the group since then. They released their sophomore album, Proud, on May 3rd through Paper + Plastick and it's quite the album! Jon and Matt are both great vocalists and guitarists, Jameson backs them up on bass, and drums are Steve. It's ska-punk with a kick!

The album starts off catchy right off the bat with "Proud." It's a song about not selling out as you get older, along with great supporting vocals and a super-addictive melody. It hooks you in from the start with the fast paced, awesome sound.

The ska sound doesn't really come out much until the next song, "The Brink." Have-Nots are kind of halfska, because even though they have the upstrokes, they're missing the horns. For better or for worse, they're missing that element, and yet I still seem to enjoy it quite a bit.

The topic of "Freedom Of Recession" is pretty clear, and it's another great song!

"At the core, we're sticking to our loud, fast, danceable ska influenced punk rock, but we're also letting other influences shine through a little more. Reggae, country, hardcore, pop punk, rock n roll, all of that. It’s like if Cocksparrer, Peter Tosh, Teenage Bottlerocket, Social Distortion, Kid Dynamite, The Clash, Billy Bragg and Paul Simon had a ska baby.” - Steve Patton, the drummer, gives a little insight into what the band was going for in this album.. And I think it describes the sound better than I could!

The album is jam-packed with lots of "woah ohs", catchy guitar lines, and super fast drums. Love it.

It was recorded with Matt Drastic and mixed by Stephen Egerton, and you can definitely hear their influence on the sound of the album.

"Louisville Slugger" (which you can download for free online) is another one of the best songs on the album. It's a powerful song with sad lyrics, great melodies, and I absolutely love it. Probably my favorite.

Overall, great record with so many different sounds and ice cream. I'm lying about the ice cream, but you could add ice cream to it. Preferably not too close to the vinyl!

Check them out here or here or here. Us.

-Bear

Farewell Continental- Hey, Hey Pioneers

Farewell Continental is this awesome pop punk band from Minneapolis. When I first read the press release on this, I read the members as Allie Fox (vocals and keyboard), Dr. Richard Kimble (vocals, guitar), Dr. Norman Spencer (vocals, bass), Jack Ryan (drums, vocals), and Rick Deckard (vocals, guitar.)..Those are names from Harrison Ford movies. But hell, I'll go with it. Allie and Richard Kimble both took the lead vocals. I looked at the picture of this group, and thought, Hey... That guy looks like Justin Pierre. Needless to say, I was excited for it to come out in May because hell, it looked awesome.

Then I start listening to it. And before I dive into this, I'd like to make something clear. I have a sixth sense. I like to call it my Justinpierredar. I can always tell Justin's voice from a mile away. Any big Motion City Soundtrack people out there probably have the same radar in them, too. And then I listened to the first track- "Seasoned Veterans." My Justinpierredar was going INSANE! So I do some minimal research, and I find out it is. They have fake names. This group is ACTUALLY Kari Gray, Justin Pierre, Thomas Rehbein, Jim Adolphson, and Josh Mckay. Tricky bastards. Needless to say, with that combination of talent, this band rocks. "Seasoned Veteran" is a great song. It starts off sounding like it might as well be MCS- it's the familiar strange quiet background guitar melody with Justin's voice singing just to you.. But as the track goes on, you start to notice some differences. The keyboards are better. The full melody kicks in, and then it takes on a totally different (yet completely awesome) sound. 

"New Tile Floor" is probably the cutest song on the album. The starting keyboards from "Allie" and duet between her and Dr. Kimble is the most adorable thing I have ever heard. They sound so great together. I think their voices were made for eachother, and the lyrics are absolutely phenomenal. But what else would you expect from a band that includes Pierre? It's fucking awesome.

Other songs, like "Mad Operator" are more Allie dominated. She has a great voice, and I love the lyrics. They're so good. It's adorable, catchy indie pop punk and I adore it. 

"A Story from the Bottom of the Sea" actually reminds me a lot of Lemuria. The melody could easily be Lemuria, and the vocals are very similar. And if it's like Lemuria, it's gotta be good. 

"Tiger Claw" is the last song on the album, and it continues the same theme the rest of the album has. Awesome. It's got very interesting guitar and bass lines, great harmonies, and amazing drums.

Normally I like to mention the very best songs of an album, but how do I do that when all of the songs absolutely ROCK? This band is wonderful. I found a  new love in some of the members, and continued an old love for the other ones. Even though it came out in May, I bet a lot of you hadn't heard it yet and you damn well better.

Learn more about them and keep up with us.

-Bear

Win stuff from Dead City Radio

If you guys haven't heard them yet, you've gotta hear Dead City Radio. As of now, they only have one single out, but that single completely blew the mind of everyone who's heard it so far and they're making quite the impact on the music community in a short amount of time. They're signed to Full Effect Records, and working on an album to be out later this summer/early-fall. Dead City Radio displays a really broad range of sounds- the album contains some garage rock, some indie, some punk...some of everything! 

That is the first single from the upcoming album, and I loved it from the start. Douglas Garnett, the core of the group and a friend of mine, has been working his ASS off for this group and truly loves music more than you guys know. 
One great thing about Dead City Radio is that they love to connect with the audience- and there's a great opportunity they're giving you guys right now.
"'Sign up now to our DEADMAIL LIST and win a one-of-a-kind USB Flash
Drive of POST TRAUMATIC TALES written/recorded and produced by DuG
only! Winner will be announced June 15, 2011 on
www.deadcityradio.info'"

Let me clarify- even though the album is  (obviously) being mixed by the record company, Garnett is personally mixing it himself to put on one flash drive to give out to a fan. Just one. And all you have to do to enter is sign up to his mailing list- win/win situation, am I right?

GO HERE to enter the contest and learn more about the group.

-Bear