Golden Bear Release Everest and Their Bio

“Completely original and instantly memorable.” “Band to watch in 2007” – The Onion

Dear Listener,



This is Chris from Golden Bear and I’m writing this letter to tell you about our new EP, Everest. In 2006 and 2007, Golden Bear released two albums (Golden Bear and To The Farthest Star). Both were well-received and I was feeling good about that. We played SXSW and went on a tour of the East Coast to promote To The Farthest Star. The tour was a great and electrifying experience which I will not forget. In every city we played, we met many friendly folks who had warm and positive things to say about the shows. However, people often told me that they wished that our records felt more like our live shows-spontaneous, unhinged, and raucous. This bugged me. It bugged me because they were right. Making an album more consistent with who Golden Bear really were on-stage became #1 on my list of things to do.



I have heard people say that making an album is a bit like an exercise in one thing or another, be it songcraft, production, or any number of ideas. I agree with this. Golden Bear #1 was an experiment in even making an album, which I had no experience doing. It was learn-as-you go. Listening back, I take the good with the bad. Golden Bear #2 was about trying out a new style of songwriting (written on piano, rather than electric guitar) and a different method of recording (in my house on equipment we scraped together, rather than in a real studio). I would say Everest is our effort to catch the sound of Golden Bear circled-up, playing together like we would at a rehearsal or a show.



I was a little anxious about being able to approximate the sound of our live show in the first place, but I figured to hell with it-let’s give it a shot. And I’m glad we did. There were no endless nights of playing the same song 150 times, no overscrutinaztion, and in all honesty, no hitches in the plan whatsoever. It was loose, rowdy, and rewarding-just like our shows. After finishing our parts, we brought in a couple of pals to add some sugar (Kullen Fuchs [Ian Moore, Future Clouds & Radar] and Sara Beck [aka Pink Nasty]), got our friend Erik Wofford (who produced our first album, as well as albums by Voxtrot, Explosions In The Sky, and The Black Angels) to mix the songs, and Everest was done and ready to go.



So here we are. I am proud of these songs and how they sound. Like always, Golden Bear gave it our all, and we’ll keep on doing that. Hope you enjoy.



Best, Chris Gregory

GOLDEN BEAR
Everest
(C-Side Records)

In lieu of a video - here is a child trapped in a claw machine. No particular reason...