If You Want To

- Underwater Bear Ballet

I have a new crush. Well, I guess it would be crushes, if you wanted to get technical. It’s a band (act as if your surpised, please); a local band, actually. It’s a band, I discovered by way, of my friend, Adam. Adam has great taste in music. He’s trudged through Boston’s most sultry heatwaves, and into the desolate and humid rehearsal spaces of Allston, alongside yours truly. He also carries the beer: Adam is an adventurer, and a trusted music ally. This post, however, is not about Adam. Although, if i may add, it does offer context, to the following. So, the group, at hand, the object of my affection, and the pinnacle of garage rock (according to Adam), bears the title Underwater Bear Ballet. Yes, Underwater Bear Ballet: given my devout love for panda bears, and my equatable feelings towards the Little Mermaid, and everything else under the sea, I’m pretty sure it was fate. Something or someone out “there” predestined this chance enrapture; this melodic affair, with a group, that encompasses everything, soundwise, I love in music…or maybe it was just Adam. Wether or not it was in fact a sign from the gods, one thing is for sure, Underwater Bear Ballet is the real fucking deal, folks. Born in Newton, Massachussets, but claiming Boston as their origins, this trio, maybe quartet? (there band line-up is difficult to discern in all it’s coolness, kind of like the rest of their Facebook page) exhibits a sound I’d identify as an alloy, composed of Deerhunter, Brian JonesTown Massacre, and even Nirvana, in the mix. UWBB’s track, If You Want To encompasses the same lofi, artistic qualities we often associate with Bradford Cox. However, there is a 90’s, charm if you’d like sort of grunge attatched to this. They are quintessential psychedelic, garage rock. Underwater Bear Ballet are heroes of the grime and the grunge. The group state’s it perfectly on their bandcamp, “It all started when we realized that we don’t really do anything besides play music so we decided to leave the basement and see what’s up in the real world”. Their music is indicative of this. They sound as if they’ve been locked up, hidden, like mad scientists at work, creating the perfect Frankenstein of sound: to of been finally released into the world, projecting a coolness, that is marked by their naïveté. They are so, so cool. With that said, grab a pair of goggles, a snorkel too, and stay underwater, with myself, and this new-to-the-scene, timeless-in-sound, and Boston-local band, Underwater Bear Ballet, for the rest of the summer.

Oh, and check out their page, “if you want to”…

- Madi