Minus the Bear has announced the release of their new album VOIDS, due out March 3rd. VOIDS is the Seattle band’s sixth full-length album, and first new LP in half a decade. It also marks the band’s return to their original label home, Suicide Squeeze Records, a longtime pillar of the Emerald City’s vaunted indie rock scene. Produced by Sam Bell (The Cribs, Weezer, Bloc Party, Two Door Cinema Club), Minus the Bear started with a blank slate, and inadvertently found themselves applying the same starting-from-scratch strategies that fueled their initial creative process. “There was a lot of change and uncertainty,” says guitarist David Knudson. “I think the general vibe of emptiness, replacement, lacking, and longing to fill in the gaps was very present in everyones’ minds.”
Hear the first single “Invisible” below..
Change was everywhere. Keyboardist/vocalist Alex Rose took on a more prominent role in composition and handled lead vocal duties in Jake Snider’s stead on songs like “Call the Cops,” “Tame Beasts,” and “Robotic Heart,” drummer Kiefer Matthias joined the fold, producer Bell lent a fresh set of ears in the studio, and the band returned to their original label home at Suicide Squeeze Records. Minus the Bear were no longer swept along by the momentum that had driven them for the last fifteen years. Instead, they reached a point where they could recalibrate and redefine who they were as a musical entity. The resulting album VOIDS retains many of the band’s signature qualities—the hedonistic tales of nighttime escapism and candid vignettes of adulthood, the savvy up-tempo beats, the layered and nuanced instrumentation—while simultaneously reminding us of the musical wanderlust that initially put them on the map.
Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to release VOIDS to the world on March 3rd, 2017 on CD, LP and cassette. The first pressing of the album is available on 1,000 copies of Electric Blue (Minus The Bear exclusive) vinyl, 5,000 copies of splatter colored vinyl and 5,000 copies of 180 gram black vinyl. The LP jacket features PMS inks, a die-cut cover with a printed inner sleeve and contains a download code. The cassette version is limited to 500 copies and also includes a download code.
