Minus the Bear‘s place in the pantheon of all-time influential bands in math rock is undebatable. Since 2001 the band has been been credited with classics like Highly Refined Pirates and Planet of Ice, both of which contain some of MtB’s most signature, well-known songs like “Absinthe Party at the Flyhoney Warehouse” and “Throwin’ Shapes.”
But something hits different about the arc of the album that came between them, Menos el Oso. Always has, always will it seems, and with the recently resurrected Seattle quartet re-releasing it with five mastered demos, yet not touching the mixes of the actual album at all, it seems they feel the same way. It makes sense – the production, gear, and execution are all great. It’s just that they all secretly create this indefinable sense of urgency, like a static charge that builds throughout the runtime. It’s downright honorable they respected that.
Also, Ed Brooks, the guy who mastered it the first time, is the one who mastered the demos for the reissue, so we’re stoked to hear them. We know he does good work, but more on that later. To celebrate, Suicide Squeeze and Minus the Bear went all out for the 20th edition in other ways as well, like a 24-page photo journal from the sessions, autographed copies, and limited edition variants for vinyl. Check it out the demo for “Hooray” below:
Check out the PR release and relive the legends below:
Back in 2005, Seattle quintet Minus the Bear were riding the wave of a swift upward trajectory with their blend of ‘90s mathrock fretboard savvy, early ‘00s electro-indie textural depth, and the wistful melodicism of the more mature strain of Midwest emo. So it was an interesting time for the band to undergo a stylistic sea change. Looking beyond their fellow guitar slingers, Minus the Bear instead found inspiration in the more adventurous pop producers of the era and went full steam ahead with a revamped sound of glitchy guitar loops, modern R&B rhythms, and swirling electronic tapestries on their 2005 sophomore album Menos el Oso. The stylistic shift was a gamble in the waning years of indie rock orthodoxy, but the risk paid off and Minus the Bear’s popularity exploded. Twenty years later, Menos el Oso still sounds fresh and vibrant while simultaneously capturing the essence of a specific era where the rules and formulas of guitar-forward music were breaking down. To celebrate the album’s anniversary, Suicide Squeeze Records and Minus the Bear are offering up Menos el Oso (Deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition), featuring an expanded tracklist including five previously unreleased demos.
The eleven tracks comprising the original Menos el Oso remain untouched for this deluxe edition. From the moment the needle hits on “The Game Needed Me,” the listener is reminded that there’s no need to mess with keyboardist Matt Bayles’ air-tight engineering and production on the album. The template is established right away: David Knudson’s staccato guitar samples and pedal modulations, Erin Tate’s souped-up club beats, Cory Murchy’s syncopated backbeat basslines, Bayles’s heady synth hooks, and guitarist/vocalist Jake Snider’s soulful guitar lines and trademark croon.
There’s an element of revelry and melancholy across the entire album as Snider casually describes vignettes from the band’s first overseas tour—a six-date tour of Spain. These lyrical scenes drape the album in the excitement, yearning, aimlessness, and exoticness Hemingway captured in his rendering of The Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises, achieving a similar dichotomous fusion of celebration and reflection. The centerpiece of the album—“Pachuca Sunrise”—encapsulates this duality with such enduring and profound power that one cannot talk about indie rock in the first decade of the new millennium without including it in the pantheon. Songs like “Drilling” and “The Fix” further reinforce the lyrical and musical themes of the album as they describe an American contemplating the distance between their home country and the foreign shores of the Mediterranean Sea against a backdrop of chirping guitars and drum patterns that fuse the poptimist pulse of the era with the sweaty subterranean rock embedded in the band’s pedigree.
Menos el Oso (Deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition) expands the original LP into a double album featuring five demos mastered by Ed Brooks at Resonant Mastering on side C and an etching by Cory Murchy on side D. These early incarnations of four Menos el Oso tracks and “I’m Totally Not Down With Rob’s Alien” from the They Make Beer Commercials Like This EP showcase how razor-sharp and sonically satisfying Minus the Bear were even when their songs were still being workshopped. As companion pieces to the album, these alternate takes shine a light on the creative process of a band undergoing a sonic evolution while also just being solid standalone tracks.
In addition to the expanded tracklist and side D etching, the vinyl version of Menos el Oso (Deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition) features updated artwork in a gatefold jacket with a matte gloss and spot UV varnish, a 24-page photo booklet, and a vinyl cut by Bernie Grundman.
Fun Fact: There was a time we played in bands pretty professionally, and with one band in particular we specifically had a record mastered with Ed Brooks because of his work with MtB. When we were demoing songs, one of the titles we came up with was “Minus the Bareback Boys,” which we didn’t use, but we still laugh about it to this day.
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