"It doesn’t take long to pick up on the crisp autumnal backdrop that was taking place while Slothbear was recording its latest EP “Canter On”. Recorded during one weekend in the fall of this year and released 1st November, Slothbear’ s haunting effort explores the echoing walls of guitarist Josh Ginsberg’s newly vacated childhood home. The concept behind it was a final send-off for the home that held a lifetime’s worth of memories within its walls.
From Long Island, New York and formed in 2008, the band is made up of Doug Bleek, Ian Miniaro, Craig Heed, and Josh Ginsberg. Already with a full length debut album (“Qids”, 2010) not to mention a 7” (“Seventeen Once”, June 2011) to their credit, upon listening it is highly evident that Slothbear continues to grow by leaps and bounds, constantly evolving and exploring their particular brand of spacey, noisy, reverb-heavy folk pop.
Reminiscent of early Deerhunter, Slothbear shares the same sense of nostalgia for youthful excitement and bittersweet memories. This is demonstrated most profoundly in “Ex-Teen”. As bassist Doug Bleek’s first jaunt in singing lead vocals, he excellently evokes the growing pains of romantic disenfranchisement. Through the use of a harmonizing chorus, they are able to clearly evoke the feeling of profound Coming-Of-Age wistfulness.
Not only does Slothbear share with Deerhunter similar preoccupations with different nuances of nostalgia, but musical sensibilities as well. This can be observed in the excellent, “Wide Berth”, which serves as an outspoken statement from an overlooked margin of outsiders looking inside, and not seeing much room for them to coexist in a world with increasingly narrow limitations placed within the counterculture. Rather than allowing space for those who otherwise are not granted with space to grow in the status quo, the avant-garde serves little in terms of diversity of acceptance. It is worth applauding a group that calls out this sad, hypocritical fact so succinctly.
However, it must be emphasized that these certain similarities should not be read as mimicry in any way, Slothbear is its own distinct animal (the visual image of a sloth hybrid with a bear not withstanding). Theirs is a swirling avant fuzz-pop, spacious yet jangly power-pop dynamism, reminiscent of ’90s era college radio staples such as Pavement and Sebadoh.
Despite an acute awareness of the hopeless inequalities and world weary of repeated transgressions, Slothbear still are able to display a plucky, hopeful edge. It is an uncompromising edge paired with a vision of the world they would like to see exist. In much the same way that those in, say, the Occupy Movement have been criticized as extreme idealists, the same criticism could be bestowed upon the boys of Slothbear. But where would we be without our dreamers?"v (Lost in paradise: listenbeforeyoubuy.net)
From Long Island, New York and formed in 2008, the band is made up of Doug Bleek, Ian Miniaro, Craig Heed, and Josh Ginsberg. Already with a full length debut album (“Qids”, 2010) not to mention a 7” (“Seventeen Once”, June 2011) to their credit, upon listening it is highly evident that Slothbear continues to grow by leaps and bounds, constantly evolving and exploring their particular brand of spacey, noisy, reverb-heavy folk pop.
Reminiscent of early Deerhunter, Slothbear shares the same sense of nostalgia for youthful excitement and bittersweet memories. This is demonstrated most profoundly in “Ex-Teen”. As bassist Doug Bleek’s first jaunt in singing lead vocals, he excellently evokes the growing pains of romantic disenfranchisement. Through the use of a harmonizing chorus, they are able to clearly evoke the feeling of profound Coming-Of-Age wistfulness.
Not only does Slothbear share with Deerhunter similar preoccupations with different nuances of nostalgia, but musical sensibilities as well. This can be observed in the excellent, “Wide Berth”, which serves as an outspoken statement from an overlooked margin of outsiders looking inside, and not seeing much room for them to coexist in a world with increasingly narrow limitations placed within the counterculture. Rather than allowing space for those who otherwise are not granted with space to grow in the status quo, the avant-garde serves little in terms of diversity of acceptance. It is worth applauding a group that calls out this sad, hypocritical fact so succinctly.
However, it must be emphasized that these certain similarities should not be read as mimicry in any way, Slothbear is its own distinct animal (the visual image of a sloth hybrid with a bear not withstanding). Theirs is a swirling avant fuzz-pop, spacious yet jangly power-pop dynamism, reminiscent of ’90s era college radio staples such as Pavement and Sebadoh.
Despite an acute awareness of the hopeless inequalities and world weary of repeated transgressions, Slothbear still are able to display a plucky, hopeful edge. It is an uncompromising edge paired with a vision of the world they would like to see exist. In much the same way that those in, say, the Occupy Movement have been criticized as extreme idealists, the same criticism could be bestowed upon the boys of Slothbear. But where would we be without our dreamers?"v (Lost in paradise: listenbeforeyoubuy.net)
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