Lesser (Known) Lights #3

The Bears – The Bears

In one of the mid-credits scenes from the third “Guardians of the Galaxy” film, the reconstituted titular heroes are discussing favourite musical artists. Adam Warlock has the most out-there choice with Adrian Belew, citing both his solo outings and his work with King Crimson. But why no love for The Bears? Their self-titled debut album from 1987 was a favourite of mine at the time, and when I looked it up again after the streaming era began, our reacquaintance was, for my part at least (I can’t speak for the band), a joyful one.

The Bears came together after former members of The Raisins joined up with Belew, who had produced the band’s one album, after King Crimson was, well, dissolved by leader Robert Fripp. The result is a sort of eccentric power pop: it has the power pop markers of hooky melodies, vocal harmonies and generally sunny-sounding tunes, but with the kind of weird little musical flourishes that one would expect from a band that included a guy who once co-wrote a song called “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part III”. (I also loved the stylized cover art – the chin on Rob Fetters is Tony Robbinsesque.) The album didn’t sell very well, and though CFNY played the song “Trust” for a time, the album didn’t make the station’s list of the year’s top 100 releases. Favourite tunes here include “Fear Is Never Boring”, “Man Behind The Curtain”, “Figure It Out” and, yes, “Trust”. I could live just fine without some tracks – it’s 36 years and counting of being mildly annoyed by “Wavelength” – but aren’t most records like that?

After 1988’s “Rise and Shine” also faltered commercially, they split up, but have twice reunited to release new albums and play some shows. And now they are largely overlooked, and not just by Adam Warlock: the band has roughly 1500 monthly listeners on Spotify, yet over 66 million people spent some time this past month listening to Ariana Grande smother drunk sparrows. “Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3” had the chance to help change this, but dropped the ball. For shame, James Gunn. For shame.