Boy & Bear are a band that end up being in that weird gap between indie rock and folk that’s currently popular, for some reason. In their publicity photo, three of the five members wear hats, and two of these hats are flat caps, and this lets you know that they’re in touch with their authentic and folksy roots. The other hat-wearer is wearing a fedora, which defies comprehension. Sometimes you can hear a little twinge of their singer’s Australian accent, which is very unique, but it’s generally buried under sounding like either a slightly harder-rocking Mumford and Sons (“Southern Sun”) or a significantly more conventional Grizzly Bear (“Harlequin Dream”). This isn’t to say they’re bad, just extremely conventional. “Three-Headed Woman” veers dangerously close to rocking out in its first ten seconds, but then turns into another 100-beats-per-minute stomper that you can listen to while enjoying a delicious whale tail at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. “End of the Line” is Boy & Bear’s big anthem, which will provide you with a very meaningful experience.
Perhaps I’m making this sound way worse than it is by simply describing it in neutral terms, but by all means, if you like this sort of thing, you’ll like Boy & Bear. At the worst, you can, as I said, enjoy a delicious whale tail while listening to their music! (Island, boyandbear.com) Topher Duguay