30 Songs in 30 Days - Day 6: Minus the Bear - “Get Me Naked 2: Electric Boogaloo”

Ah, Minus the Bear. Greatest new band to come out of the post grunge era.

Back in 2002/2003, right before I left LP to start working at Gamestop, I was listening to a lot of new music as I had a LOT of time to do so. I used to spend hours every week scouring newsgroups for new bands, downloading and listening downloading and listening, ect ect…

Under a header that said “New from Seattle!”, this band caught my eye by words alone. “Minus the Bear”. What kind of name is that? Well, certainly no stranger than “Barney Rubble and the Cunt Stubble”, but alas, it was different enough then the deluge of bands on the boards with every imaginable word preceded by “The” as their name. The album was called “Highly Refined Pirates”, okay…funny. The song titles, well, okay, they were all pretty good, but you know I had to check them out when I saw a song called “Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!!”. I got the album and was very pleasantly surprised to find that they were nothing like I’d expected.

Their lyrics immediately hit home. Here were songs about living and experiencing life for the best of what it was and from a very honest and real perspective. It felt so much like the same experiences I’ve had and how I’d described them. The music, as well, had a wonderful feel to it, sort of bitter-sweet, playful, yet melancholy, just right for listening to no matter how you felt on a particular day.

To wrap it up, if you haven’t checked this band out, you really should. Ignore the hipster fame they’ve garnered in the past few years, they’re definitely worth it.