Bear in Heaven on tour in support of new album

Tour Dates
06/24 - Portland, ME @ Space
06/25 - Winooski, VT @ The Monkey House
06/26 - Buffalo, NY @ Big Orbit's Soundlab
06/27 - Hamden, CT @ The Space
07/09 - New York, NY @ Pier 17 #
07/10 - Ottawa, ON @ Cisco Systems Bluesfest
07/13 - Cambridge, MA @ TT The Bear's Place ^*
07/14 - Northhampton, MA @ Iron Horse Music Hall ^*
07/15 - Toronto, ON @ El Mocambo ^*
07/16 - Ann Arbor, MI @ The Blind Big ^*
07/17 - Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival ^
07/17 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall ^*
07/19 - Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon ^*
07/20 - St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club ^*
07/21 - Fargo, ND @The Aquarium
07/23 - Seattle, WA @ Capitol Hill Block Party
07/24 - Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore Cabaret ^
07/25 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir ^
07/26 - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop ^&
07/27 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo ^&
07/29 - Denver, CO @ Hi Dive ^
07/30 - Lawrence, KS @ Replay Lounge ^
07/31 - St. Louis, MO @ The Luminary Center for the Arts ^
08/02 - Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop ^
08/06 - Berlin, Germany @ Festaal Kreuzberg
08/08- Katowice, Poland @ OFF Festival
08/06 - Berlin, Germany @ Festaal Kreuzberg
08/08 - Katowice, Poland @ OFF Festival
08/10 - Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega - w/ Oh No Ono
08/11 - Oslo, Norway @ Blaa (Oya Club Night)
08/12 - Gothenburg, Sweden @ Way Out West
08/13 - Arhus, Denmark @ Musickaffen - w/ Sleepy Sun
08/14 - Haldern, Germany @ Haldern Pop
08/15 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melweg - w/ Sleepy Sun
08/16 - Dresden, Germany @ Beatpol
08/18 - Frankfurt, Germany @ Ponyhof
08/21 - London, UK @ Cargo
08/22 - Powys, UK @ Green Man Festival
08/23 - Edinburgh, UK @ Capital - Fringe Festival
08/24 - Belfast, Ireland @ Speakeasy
08/25 - Dublin, Ireland @ Crawdaddy's
09/07 - Nashville, TN @ Cannery Ballroom %
09/08 - Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade (Heaven Room) %
09/09 - Orlando, FL @ Club at Firestone %
09/11 - Raleigh, NC @ Hopscotch Music Festival
09/12 - Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
09/29 - Ithaca, NY @ Castaways ^
09/30 - Montreal, QC @ Pop Montreal ^
10/09 - Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits

# with Zola Jesus
^ with Twin Sister
* Mountain Man
% with Crystal Castles
& with Beach Fossils

“We don’t write songs in a day, or even a week,” says Bear In Heaven bassist/guitarist Adam Wills. “Most of them take months.”

Well that explains a couple things, starting with the simple fact that Bear In Heaven’s breakthrough moments—Grizzly Bear’s blog-baiting endorsement of “Lovesick Teenagers,” the “Best New Music” stamp Pitchfork plastered across the Brooklyn band’s second album, Beast Rest Forth Mouth—didn’t happen overnight. Believe it or not, frontman Jon Philpot founded Bear In Heaven way back in 2003, using the sweeping soundscapes of his previous project (Presocratics) as a starting point for the Tunes Nextdoor to Songs EP.

Four years and several lineup changes later, Bear In Heaven the band (rounded out by Wills, drummer Joe Stickney and multi-instrumentalist Sadek Bazaraa) emerged with their first fully-realized release, Red Bloom of the Boom. A celebration of wide open spaces and not-quite-sounding-like-anyone-in-particular, it’s the closest Bear In Heaven have come to cutting a prog rock album, although Philpot insists, “We’re bigger fans of Krautrock. We’re suckers for that continual pulse and things that just hum. You should be able to feel music, not just hear it.”

That’s certainly the case on Beast Rest Forth Mouth cuts like “You Do You” and “Wholehearted Mess”—songs that reach for the stars with Cluster-like synth lines, Faustian effects, and steely motorik beats. And then there are the sneaky moments that emphasize what a widescreen affair Beast is, including the massive, life-affirming choruses of “Beast In Peace”; the queasy build and thundercloud climax of “Dust Cloud”; and the frayed electronics and death march drums of “Deafening Love.” That fan favorite went through 23 mix changes before settling into its final Apocalypse Now-groove.

“We know when a song is done,” explains Philpot, “but that doesn’t stop us from tweaking it over time. We’re actually still messing with our current ones!”

The group’s restlessness is understandable when you consider their background, from Philpot and Wills’ film/TV work—something that’s taught them to tell stories through songs—to such side projects and one-off performances as the scale-climbing metal of Dark Vibe and the pure minimalism of Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Trio.

As Wills puts it, "We've all been really lucky. To have spent time discussing music on a peer level with the likes of Tony Conrad and Rhys Chatham, it's been an education."

One bit of bad luck that’s followed Bear In Heaven since the start has been the amicable loss of members, right down to Bazaraa’s recent split. While the band’s left the door open for him, they’ve soldiered on as a synth-driven trio, including a triumphant string of shows overseas.

“As the lineup changes, we have to find new ways to keep the sound full,” explains Stickney. “Our solution has been more synths and samplers. We haven't been kicking people out or anything, though. It's been a drag every time one of our friends has decided to stop playing because we miss them and it's a pain in the ass to learn how to play the music differently all over again.”

“Trust me, there are lots of panic attacks,” adds Wills. “We aren't 21—we have lives, wives, apartments to pay for…It’s crazy at this point to drop everything and just run with the band, but there's no other option. We are living this, and we're gonna see it through.”

And the next step in that process? On the record shop side of things, Bear In Heaven will release a special double-disc edition of Beast Rest Forth Mouth this Fall The extra disc: a bonus 10-track remix album companion featuring The Field, High Places, Studio, Justin K. Broadrick (a.k.a. Jesu. Godflesh), and many more. The group will take to the road again soon, headlining a North American tour (including a stop at Pitchfork Fest) in July, followed by a return to Europe for a month of headlining dates and summer festival shows.

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