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Music

We Saw This: Bear Hands

We met up with Bear Hands before their show at Knitting Factory last week to talk about a wide variety of subjects, like gun control and George Lucas.

July 20th was a strange day. New York woke up in a fog of rainy 60 degree weather to learn of the Aurora massacre with the rest of America, so I wasn't surprised when my interview with Bear Hands veered from the prepared questions I had scribbled down about their new EP to discussing gun control laws.

Sitting in the Knitting Factory green room with Dylan Rau and Ted Feldman before their show Friday was a pleasant dose of humanity on an otherwise dark day. The Bear Hands fans appreciated it too apparently since the small venue was packed with kids pushed to the front singing along to every word of their songs.

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The kick-off show to their summer tour, it was the first time Bear Hands had performed in some while. At times they sounded a bit sleepy, you could tell they're bored with playing the hits. The difference in the energy of the new material compared to classics such as "Tablasaurus" and "Crime Pays" was immense. The good news is the new stuff is super good. With a full-length album expected to come out sometime early next year, 2013 could very well be the year of Bear Hands.

VICE: The last time I saw you guys was at Googa Mooga, you were hating on Anthony Bourdain.

Dylan: He's easy to hate on.

Ted: He's also a charming fellow.

Dylan: Have you met him?

Ted: No, but I've seen him on TV.

Dylan: I was going to ask you if you met him because you always meet crazy people. You met George Lucas.

You met George Lucas?

Ted: I met George Lucas and he quoted his own movie to me. He quoted Star Wars! I'm a film maker too, so I said "It's good to meet you, I'm a film maker trying to make movies," and he said "there is no try, only do," or whatever the line is that Yoda says.

I didn't realize you were also a film maker.

Ted: Well Dylan and I met at college and we were both studying film. We met on the set of a senior thesis film, and I've tried to keep it up.

Cool. I wanted to talk about the new EP. Your music has always commented on society, usually in an awesomely humorous way, yet the EP felt a little more serious and definitely more political.

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Dylan: Well we've always been political junkies, just amateurs, we read a lot of news. We were talking about reading too much news today. And when you read the news, unless you're a fucking idiot you start thinking about it. And so that's been building up a long while with me. The songs were actually written over a long period of time.

Ted: And we thought this was the right time to release them.

Dylan: We released it on the 4th of July.

Yes, I read that you released the EP as a "present to America." Was there any message you were hoping to send within the EP, or was it just awesome free music for people to play at BBQs?

Dylan: Freedom of the press!

Ted: Illuminati!

Dylan: Well the 4th of July release date did have to do with the content of the record, but I think more importantly it was a deadline for ourselves because sometimes it's tough to get the group motivated.

Ted: It was just the right date for the project given the content of the songs. But there's no like, message that we wanted to write.

Dylan: Well you know, it's weird being an American. I feel proud to be an American and I know that's a weird thing to say, because ideologically I oppose the idea of nationalism but I still think that America is a great, free, place and kind of like…

Ted: It's a great idea!

Dylan: The phrase beacon of hope is terrible because of the black marks on our human rights history, and our foreign policy, and assassinations and all that shit, but at the same time the freedom of press, and the freedom to assemble, and the freedom to be a freak in America is strong and I appreciate that.

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And then terrible things happen in America like what happened in Colorado….

Ted: It's been a weird day.

Dylan: You shouldn't be able to buy AK 47s. Or if you do, you should have daily visits from FBI agents. It's disturbing, it has been for a while. I mean how many more of these things have to happen before things change?

Ted: There's clearly a problem in Colorado.

Dylan: It's up to them to do something about it.

Truth. Do you guys see yourselves ever getting involved politically?

Ted: I would totally play fundraiser for Barack Obama.

Dylan: Two party system, a lot is unfair about that, but you gotta pick one.

"Disaster Shy," Part three of Songs From Utopia is about New Orleans, do you guys have a special connection to the city?

Dylan: I wrote that tune after Katrina. We don't do very well there, we don't have a big fan base, but we still love the city.

Ted: It's a strange place for music, for our kind of music. Here's a story, totally unrelated to the EP. The last time we stopped in New Orleans we walked to Bourbon Street and immediately ran into some friends from Brooklyn. And then realized by the throngs of fans singing in the street that it was March 11th, some kind of celebration for the band 311.

Dylan: Every bar was playing 311 and we were like what's going on?

Ted: And then we realized it was March 11th, which is apparently 311 Day!

Dylan: They are a cult band. Hundreds if not thousands of people were in the street belting out 311 songs.

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Wow, I was blissfully unaware of 311 day. What date would Bear Hands Day be?

Dylan: 4/20. That's my birthday.

Ted: It's also Killer Mike's birthday. And Hitler's.

And also the anniversary of Columbine.

Dylan: This is getting fucking weird and meta.

Ted: And now it's Bear Hands Day.

So what's next for Bear Hands? When can we expect the next LP?

Dylan: Early 2013, after we get back from our upcoming tour.

Any spoilers on what we can look forward to from it?

Ted: It's going to be less political.

Dylan: This is where we dump all of the lovey romantic tunes, the choppier upbeat tunes. It's a step away from Songs From Utopia. Even though it says Volume One I don't think we know when Volume Two will take place. I don't think we can will ourselves to write political songs, they just have to come out.

Ted: Because we're not a political entity.

Dylan: That's right, we're a money making entity.

Bonus points for the night: Ted playing the maracas was the most adorable thing I've ever seen.

Points subtracted for the night: Rain and morbidity.

Previously: We Saw This: JEFF The Brotherhood 

@TheBowieCat

Photos by @timthegiraffe