Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Sunbears! share tour, single, and animated news in advance of 11/11 release!



"...Sunbears!, a sunshiney psych-pop act that feels like a space-age sequel to the shambolic visionary guitar-pop Lips of the mid-’90s. They’ve got their own album called Future Sounds on the way too, and “Now You’re Gone” is the lead single. The song shimmers as it speeds ahead like a bullet train to Wonderland, cascading harmonies telling a tale of heartbreak that still somehow feels uplifting. Maybe it’s the exclamation point?" Stereogum

Joyous, uplifting, almost (dare we say) spiritual. All words to describe Jacksonville, FL’s psych-pop outfit SUNBEARS!
The band has amassed a devoted national following after years of touring, critically lauded releases, and of course, their sensory stimulating live shows.
2014 is destined to be a banner year for the ‘BEARS! with the band hitting the Spring festival circuit, celebrating a 5-year anniversary with a limited vinyl issue of their much-loved 2009 EP Dream Happy Dreams, participation in the upcoming Flaming Lips-curated Sgt. Pepper’s tribute album (along side MGMT, My Morning Jacket, Phantogram and Miley Cyrus), and of course the much anticipated release of their second full-length Future Sounds on boutique indie label New Granada (Tampa, FL).
 

Check out video evidence of the ReANIMATED video, through this YouTube clip.
The vinyl is a picture disc that animates if you film at 25 frames per second or hold a strobe over the disc at 25 frames per second. But who, you ask, has one of them strobes just laying around? Well, you're about to! The band also developed an iPhone app, "Sunbears Psychedelic Stroboscope!" that will be on the iTunes app store any day now. The app accesses the flash on your iPhone to strobe at 25 fps. when you hold the phone over your Sunbears! Future Sounds ReANIMATED LP! The animation comes to life!! The Special Limited Edition Zoetrope Disc will be available exclusively through New Granada Records.

Recently upgrading from the long-standing lineup of duo Jonathan Berlin (vocals, bass, guitar, keys) and Jared Chase Bowser (drums), the band has expanded to an honest-to-goodness classic rock-n-roll lineup, welcoming JAX pals Walter Hill (guitar, keys) and Jordan Allen Davis (guitar, drum pad). This expansion affords the luxury to move and breathe, especially in the live setting.

SUNBEARS! hit the road for leg one of their national tour starting October 31st in Florida.

SUNBEARS! On Tour!

10/31 - Jacksonville, FL @ Underbelly
11/01 - Tampa, FL @ New World Brewery
11/03 - Atlanta, GA @ Mammal Gallery
11/04 - Richmond, VA @ The Camel
11/05 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Smiling Moose
11/06 - Philadelphia, PA @ Ortlieb’s
11/07 - New York, NY @ Pianos
11/09 - Boston, MA @ TT The Bear’s Place
11/11 - Brooklyn, NY @ Glasslands
11/13 - Winston-Salem, NC @ The Garage
11/14 - Savannah, GA @ Geekend at Ampersand
11/15 - Athens, GA @ Caledonia
 


In lieu of New York’s Singing Serpent Studio, where 2011’s You Will Live Forever was recorded, the band decided to keep it close to home, tracking the new album at Atlantic Beach studio Twin Hill Studio by ‘BEAR Walter Hill and Wesley Hill with Jeremy S.H. Griffith (of the aforementioned Singing Serpent) at the mixing board.

With tongue firmly planted in cheek, the band called the album Future Sounds reflecting the songs as sounds of the future, recorded in the past to be heard in the present. As opposed to it’s predecessor’s uplifting messages of hope, Berlin calls the new album “lyrically bleak… Mostly filled with existential quandaries on subjects that we as humans can never truly know… Like life after death, for instance… And whether or not we spend our short little lives worrying about such things.”


Credit: Lauren Atkins

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