Photo by Victoria Jacobs.

Bear Hands
We Were Promised Jetpacks
March 14, 2010
Radio Radio, Fountain Square, Indianapolis

Link: Bear Hands: http://www.bearhandsband.com/

All it took was an EP to make Bear Hands seem golden because that EP (titled Golden) gave them several years worth of indie cred, that is until recently. If you thought that EP was chock full of rock goodness, then you just wait, 2010 is the year of the bear.

With a tour, a pit stop at Radio Radio in Indianapolis, Sunday, March 14, with We Were Promised Jetpacks, and a full length album currently being finished up and due out later this year, this is a Bear Hands unlike you have seen or heard before.

“There are lots of programmed drums and sampling on this upcoming album,” said vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist Dylan Rau. “We also have a lot of keyboards and me singing in falsetto.”

This is a bold step for the band who initiated their career with a more in-your-face, organic rock approach. This was a result of recorded the Golden EP live to recording. It gave the band an instantaneous view of the studio and Rau a gruffier rock face.

“There were a couple songs on the newer album that were slower numbers,” he said. “It did not require my singing and shouting so we shaped it up and the falsetto naturally took form.”

And if you ask Rau which he likes better, the instantaneous, raw approach or the layered, polished approach, he will favor more time in the studio.

“I prefer the overdubs. I actually want to spend even more time in the studio and will probably be able to do that with the next record that we make.”

And it’s the mechanical feel that sets this yet-to-be titled album apart. While some of the songs were written and worked up in the studio, others Rau wrote years ago. To see them come to life after all this time was an amazing feeling for the songwriter.

People who get a chance to see Bear Hands live will get the opportunity to hear their new material as well as some familiar ones.

“For the tour, we had to incorporate the use of a computer into our lifestyle, but we are getting the bugs ironed out and it seems to flow will with the live show.”

But the band is up for the challenge and is working to be the best band they can possibly be while pushing themselves into new terrain. Who knows what the future will bring them.

We Were Promised Jetpacks
These Four Walls
Fat Cat
Rating: 1 out of 5

Another indie band from the UK with a sound that I’ve heard a million times recently.  Not much new happening here I’m afraid.  The songs aren’t bad, they’re simply not giving me anything I haven’t been given already.

We Were Promised Jetpacks are the racers in the middle of the pack.  At the moment, with few exceptions it all seems to be happening on our side of the pond.  Here in North America (Canada & The States) you can’t move sideways without hearing a great new band with a slightly new take on the pop-song format.  Over in the UK, it sems almost impossible to hear something fresh.

Where are all the great UK bands?  I’m not foolish enough to think that just because I haven’t heard them they don’t exist.  I’m sure they do.  But for whatever reason, they seem to be buried in the silt and sludge of a million other boring and mediocre bands.  Throw We Were Promised Jetpacks into this category, I’m afraid.