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Motion City Soundtrack Start Popsickle Festival

November 10, 2010 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Motion City Soundtrack will headline the first ever Popsickle Festival in their hometown of Minneapolis, MN on December 18th. The band is starting the festival in the vein of Lollapalooza and hope to continue it every winter. More information is available below.

Taking over Minneapolis’ famed  First Avenue and spilling over into 7th Street Entry, the all ages festival will feature headliners Motion City Soundtrack along with Minus the Bear, Foxy Shazam, Gold Motel, A Great Big Pile of Leaves, Now Now Every Children, One for the Team, Gospel Gossip, Take Cover and The Chord and the Fawn with more to be announced.

As one of the few festivals taking place in the winter time, Popsickle will fill the void that is much needed during the desolate set of winter months.  More than just a concert, Popsickle will provide fans a fervent day in December of music and friends and fun, that will keep them warm all winter long.

We wanted to start a festival in the vein of what Lollapalooza was to me in the early “˜90’s “” a bunch of bands that most likely would never have toured together, but were all doing something interesting and unique in that particular point in time. Our version of that will be much smaller of course, but the idea is the same.  We hope to make this an annual festival that takes place in Minnesota every winter and hopefully can continue to grow in both scope and girth. ““ Justin Pierre/MCS

Popsickle will introduce fans to new bands as well as introduce fans to each other!  The annual festival, a celebration of winter and great music, will be something fans can mark on their calendar and continue to look forward to every December.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: A Great Big Pile of Leaves, foxy shazam, Gold Motel, Gospel Gossip, Minus-The-Bear, Motion City Soundtrack, Now Now Every Children, One For The Team, Take Cover

Win Minus The Bear Tickets

December 27, 2009 By A. Renteria 1 Comment

Minus The Bear have recently posted a bulletin on their ilike.com profile with some upcoming tour dates, the first on December 31st in Seattle. As a special thanks to their fans, Minus the Bear are giving away FREE tickets to their New Year’s show. Send an email to [email protected] for a chance to win.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Minus-The-Bear

Minus The Bear

December 17, 2009 By A. Renteria Leave a Comment

Minus the Bear posted on their myspace page that they are aiming for an April release:
“For the curious kittens out there, we are aiming for an April release. As soon as we have more details, we’ll let you know!”

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Minus-The-Bear

New Info From Minus The Bear: Tour, Live Set, and Vinyl

January 14, 2009 By Ben Minsky Leave a Comment

Minus The Bear will be heading to Australia for the Soundwave Festival. Here are the dates:

Feb 21 2009 Soundwave Festival Brisbane, Queensland
Feb 22 2009 Soundwave Festival Sydney, New South Wales
Feb 27 2009 Soundwave Festival Melbourne, Victoria
Feb 28 2009 Soundwave Festival Adelaide, South Australia
Mar 2 2009 Soundwave Festival Perth, Western Australia

Also, Minus The Bear recently recorded a live set at Seattle’s Showbox for Rhapsody. Songs include “Dr. L’Ling,” “Throwin’ Shapes,” “Memphis and 53rd,” and “The Fix.” The set can be heard by clicking here.

Lastly, the band’s EP, Acoustics, will be released on vinyl starting February 17, 2009. Only 5,000 copies will be printed.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: acoustics, Minus-The-Bear, soundwave festival

Albums In Stores Tomorrow 6-3-08

June 2, 2008 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Here are some albums hitting stores tomorrow. Let us know which ones you’ll be picking up!

Weezer – Weezer
Paper Rival – Dialog
Alesana – Where Myth Fades To Legend
Warped Tour Compilation 2008 (2 Disc)
Minus The Bear – They Make Beer Commercials Like This (Reissue)

Filed Under: News Tagged With: alesana, Minus-The-Bear, Paper-Rival, Warped Tour, Weezer

Minus The Bear Premiere “Throwin’ Shapes” Video

March 10, 2008 By Bryce Jacobson 1 Comment

Minus the Bear‘s new video for “Throwin’ Shapes” can be seen below.

Filed Under: News, Videos Tagged With: Minus-The-Bear

New Live Photos In Photo Section.

October 20, 2007 By Jeff Watson 2 Comments

I posted some live shots of Ela, Helio Sequence, and Minus the Bear from their show in Norfolk, Virginia at the NorVa.

(Only a couple good shots, the rest are “filler” photos in my opinion.)

Check em out: Here.

Filed Under: News, Photos Tagged With: ela, helio-sequence, Minus-The-Bear, norfolk, norva, the-norva, virginia

Minus The Bear Posts New Music Video

August 31, 2007 By Brett Panzer Leave a Comment

Minus The Bear has posted their latest music video for the song “Knights” off of their new album Planet of Ice which just dropped last week. The video can be seen by clicking here.

Filed Under: News, Videos Tagged With: Minus-The-Bear

Albums In Stores Tomorrow 8-21-07

August 20, 2007 By Bryce Jacobson 2 Comments

Here are some albums hitting stores tomorrow. Let us know which ones you are picking up.

The Dangerous Summer – If You Could Only Keep Me Alive EP
Cartel – Cartel
Just Surrender -We’re In Like Sin
The Panic Division – Songs From The Glasshouse
Verona Grove – The Story Thought Over
Modern Life Is War – Midnight In America
Throwdown – Covered With Venom
Aiden – Conviction
Minus The Bear – Planet Of Ice
Madball – Infiltrate The System
Devil Wears Prada – Plagues
Long Since Forgotten – Theft
Rilo Kiley – Under The Blacklight
Nikki Sixx – The Heroin Diaries

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Aiden, Cartel, Devil-Wears-Prada, Just Surrender, Long-Since-Forgotten, Madball, Minus-The-Bear, Modern-Life-Is-War, Nikki-Sixx, rilo-kiley, The Dangerous Summer, The-Panic-Division, Throwdown, Verona-Grove

Minus the Bear – Planet of Ice

August 5, 2007 By Sam Anacker 11 Comments

Artist: Minus the Bear
Album: Planet of Ice
Label: Suicide Squeeze
Purchase: Smart Punk
Release Date: August 21, 2007

Overall: 7.0
Music: 8.5
Lyrics: 6.5
Production: 9.0

Minus the Bear has been consistently labeled as the “band that should’ve” ever since they burst onto blogs in 2001 with the EP, This is What I Know About Being Gigantic and quickly built a strong following. Through subsequent records the band has continually been criticized for their sound remaining stagnant. The band attempts to fight this label as they release Planet of Ice on August 21, featuring a new member and a new sound.

The new album is almost a complete departure for the band, as the long titles so prominently displayed on Highly Refined Pirates as well as their EPs has finally vanished for better or for worse. Gone as well are references to adventures east of the Atlantic, which were featured on both LPs, in songs such as “Pachuca Sunrise” (from Menos el Oso) and “Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse” (from Highly Refined Pirates). Instead, inside Planet of Ice one will find moody, atmospheric pieces evoking comparisons to Pink Floyd.

Planet of Ice begins with Jake Snider’s familiar low pitched delivery. His deep shrills are set over a backdrop of complex guitar riffs. What is immediately noticeable in the opener “Burying Luck” is the increased presence of the synthesizer (played by newcomer Alex Rose). Another thing that is easily found within “Burying Luck,” as well as Planet of Ice in general is another Minus the Bear signature- an overabundance of choruses.

This brings up Minus the Bear’s most continual flaw; a lack of innovation within an album. While Dave Knudson tries adamantly to keep things interesting, pulling out epic prog rock-like solos and working expertly with Snider to create an amazing dual guitar sound, ultimately the songs on Planet of Ice begin to run together. This is not to say that the album is not enjoyable, but rather the entire album carries such a similar sound that one can at times hardly distinguish song from song, and you end up with instrumentation that sounds more at home as a symphony with ten movements, rather than an album with ten songs.

Even with the noticeably similar sounding songs throughout, some gems do emerge. One of the two tracks which are currently available for download, Dr. L’ling is by far one of the most engaging Minus the Bear songs yet, combining the tone and atmosphere set by the rest of the album with some of the more intriguing lyrics and the stand out performance by Erin Tate behind the drums. Snider croons “Don’t give me no hand-me-down love/It don’t wear the same/I want love that looks good on/With a fit that screams my name” eventually yielding to awe-inspiring guitar.

At times throughout the album displays great strides in musicianship, but in the end this album becomes a new face to the same problems which have plagued Minus the Bear from being a stand out act. While this album may contain some of Minus the Bear’s most musically accomplished songs, it also contains some of their most forgettable.

Track Listing
1. Burying Luck
2. Ice Monster
3. Knights
4. White Mystery
5. Dr. L’ling
6. Part 2
7. Throwin’ Shapes
8. When We Escape
9. Double Vision Quest
10. Lotus

Filed Under: Album, Reviews Tagged With: Minus-The-Bear

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