Minus The Bear – Bands Like It When You
Yell “Yar!” at Them
By: Joe Toeben
When looking at Minus The Bear most will think of Planet of Ice as the group’s best album but Highly Refined Pirates isn’t far behind in terms of quality. Bands Like It When You Yell “Yar!” at Them was a promotional release about two months prior to Highly Refined Pirates release. The first two songs on the EP are songs that appear on the album itself and the last song is a demo version that went on to appear as a studio version on the album. “Spritz!!! Spritz!!!” is a very typical Minus The Bear song, with soaring vocals, bouncy guitar lines, and bringing all the best kinds of energy to the song and leaving little to be desired after listening to it. It was easy to see how this was one of the songs to make the cut to the album and it still sticks out as one of the best Minus The Bear songs to this date, lyrically and musically. The third and shortest song on here did not make the album. It’s just more of just a filler or interlude to pass between the major four songs on the EP.
The one song on the here that did not make Pirates was “Drop It Like It’s Hot” which isn’t a terrible song by any means but it’s rather short and somewhat boring. The chorus and bridge do make up for the lackluster beginning and end of the song but for the only song that you won’t see repeated on a studio album it was rather disappointing it wasn’t higher quality, but then again if it was it probably would have been on an actual album and not on this promotional release. The last song is again pretty mediocre as well. It’s a slower, more down ridden song, with a slower guitar sequence but is stronger in the drum and lyric departments than most of the songs on this EP. This is not a necessary purchase by any means and should only be sought out by hardcore Minus The Bear fans since three of the five songs appearing on here also appear on their first full length debut as well. Overall not a bad release but it’s just one of those things that you can either take it or leave it.
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Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/minusthebear
For fans of: Maps and Atlases, No Knife, indie rock, cool music
