Back in 1987, Adrian Belew was a hot commodity.
After all, he'd earned considerable clout after working with the likes of David Bowie, Talking Heads and the reconstituted King Crimson. Heck, he'd even made a couple decent solo records that not only displayed his angular guitar talents, but revealed a knack for melodic Beatlesque pop hooks.
Thus, when he turned down all other offers to form a pop band with members of an Ohio band known as the Raisins, many were left scratching their heads in disbelief.
The upstart band then signed to equally upstart label, PMRC Records (a subsidiary of IRS Records) and began work on their debut album.
Upon release, the album sunk without a trace due to a severe lack of promotion on the part of PMRC/IRS. The label would survive long enough to bury yet another Bears album, Rise And Fall, two years later.
The Bears debut album remains an absolutely stellar gem in Belew's repertoire, but one that very few people know about. Sadly, the album remains out-of-print, with copies of the original CD selling for upwards of $75 on eBay.
1. None Of The Above
2. Fear Is Never Boring
NOTE: As my buddy Ginch has pointed out, this CD was re-issued in February '09 and is available on Amazon. Use this link, as a search for "the bears" on Amazon (even if you narrow results by choosing "music" results) will not produce the necessary link to purchase the CD.
4 comments:
Great post!
Saw them play to support this record. They rocked hard. Now I'm off to find my copy.
I don't download a lot of your stuff, but I enjoy the writing a lot.
Thanks,
Nick
http://www.amazon.com/The-Bears/dp/B001TNYQAC/ref=sr_f3_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1245421780&sr=103-1
for what it's worth...
Weird...before posting, I did a search on Amazon under "music", typed in "the bears" and that listing did not even come up...thanks ginch...$7.99...wow.
Growing up listening to radio from Cincinnati, The Raisins' version of "Fear Is Never Boring" was inescapable during the summer of (?)'83.
Nice to see The Bears get some love.
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