If reviews on Punktastic were done in a debate format, this one would be all over the fucking place. In the words of Sir Ben @ Punktastic, Minus The Bear are “fucking shit American indie wank for people that aren’t as cool as they think they should be.” But then Ben also thought that Solabeat Alliance were the saviours of the British music scene, so we can see how wrong he is on a regular basis!
The fact remains that Minus The Bear are a total and highly successful reaction to the head-fucking material peddled by it’s members in previous incarnations (Botch, Sharks Keep Moving). Pummelling grindcore this ain’t.
MTB may have grown up a little from debut album ‘Highly Refined Pirates’ (Which is a masterpiece … ignore the review on this site!) but I’m not entirely sure if it’s a positive thing. The songs on here are more streamlined and … refined? … than Highly Refined Pirates but as such, lack a little of the charm that was so evident on the full length. There’s nothing that matches up to the quite fantastic ‘Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse’ and no killer little lines reminiscent of ‘Our girls are looking soo goooood…’ or ‘You said, my life’s like a bad movie, and I said, that’s true of all of us’ but then I hardly expected there to be.
‘Hey!Is That A Ninja Up There?’ is probably the catchiest of the 6 ‘songs’ on offer here with a jagged upwards-spiralling intro drifting into a trademark jaunty verse and slowly drifting into the closer ‘Pony Up!’ which ends the EP in introspective fashion. The other four tracks are still very good, with opener ‘Fine + 2 Pts’ resembling some bizarre experiment between the Cure, The Aeffect and The Dismemberment Plan and being the most likely to stand the test of time from this selection but again, there’s something missing from the mix.
I still utterly love this band and proclaim them to be one of the few bands that can satisfy my mood no matter how I’m feeling, but it’s not quite up there with the full length, as much as it tries to emulate it. Still, if you liked the album or you fancy some danceable electro pop on a charm offensive, it’s a highly worthwhile purchase.
Ross
http://www.minusthebear.com/