Minus The Bear - Infinity Overhead

Minus The Bear are entering their second decade as forward thinking rockers, varying little in that time from their initial formula of dance-inflected, finger-tap driven guitar rockery. The years have fostered a comfortably incremental expanding of their fan base, and seen companion amounts of sales. As such, the crowds and rooms they play in have also gotten bigger, to the point where the douchey contrarian in me has seen me staying home for the last couple of tours. JS-NYC absence aside, the shows were held to be good, even with one-time MTBer Matt Bayles ending his performing tenure with band to return full-time to his production gigs for the likes of Mastodon and Mono.

Infinity Overhead is the fifth overall full length from the Seattle quintet, and the second Minus The Bear release for LA indie powerhouse Dangerbird Records, sporting ten damn solid tracks that may be the best MTB tracks since their first two releases. Things are not broken, and Minus The Bear are not trying to fix a damn thing: Knutson is pretty fierce with the tapping and all around pretty aces on the six string end of things, tearing tracks like Toska up in pronounced fashion, but still able to rein it in when the song calls for it. Vocals are the same brushed metal smooth you've come to expect, dappling the glimmering sonic underpinning of Matt Bayles nicely. Someone would do well to get these gents locked into some soundtrack work with the quickness, as I see someone licensing one of these tracks and Minus The Bear blowing up in Death Cab fashion. They do indeed make beer commercials like this.

Minus The Bear are due to jump off an run of dates with Cursive soon. Keep track of them and all things Infinity Overhead here.

R