After only one day of the fall semester, many students would probably say it’s already time for a distraction. Luckily for them, Brooklyn-based band Bear in Heaven will play Spanish Moon tonight to serve as their emotional rescue.
“We love the venue,” said bassist Adam Wills. “This’ll be our third time playing it. It’s a great sounding room. Everybody who comes out just seems to be ready for a show versus getting warmed up halfway through the set.”
Tonight’s performance is one stop of their tour promoting their latest album, “Time Is Over One Day Old.” The album’s title says volumes more for what the band attempts to convey in the music, Wills said.
“It couldn’t be more abstract,” Wills said. “The umbrella of time is infinite. So it allows us to interpret specific meaning in the time. Even in the last six months, it’s kind of shifted its meaning, and that’s what was so appealing about naming the record ‘Time Is Over One Day Old.’ It allows for an infinite amount of interpretation because time is infinite, apparently.”
Led by vocalist Jon Philpot, Bear in Heaven has been actively releasing music since 2007 with the well-received “Red Bloom of the Boom.” The 2009 album “Beast Rest Forth Mouth” received significant attention. The group has experienced continuous changes in both lineup and style, all while maintaining its signature introspection and somberness.
“[The album’s] special trait is, I think, it’s the least cluttered record. There’s a lot of very subtle moments on the record where the last couple would have been not so subtle,” Wills said. “I think it’s still a very recognizable Bear in Heaven record.
We’re still, more or less, using the same tools and same palettes. The attention to space is probably just the big change between this record and our last few.”
The album, which was modestly received by critics, follows the same formula as the band’s three previous albums. Large soundscapes are present, similar to Icelandic post-rock mainstays Sigur Rós. But the textures are different from Sigur Rós because Bear in Heaven seems to write songs from the inside out. The songs’ solid choruses are centered and load bearing to the sound. From there, Philpot and his partners build sound to fill the space that’s left.
This airy song structure clearly deviates from the typical formula of college rock: chunky chords, catchy solos and lyrics about young adult life. Nevertheless, Bear in Heaven continues to attract listeners young and old for each of their appearances at Spanish Moon.
“We’re just doing our own thing,” Wills said. “I think there’s an audience out there no matter what kind of music you’re making. If you’re just making music for yourself, no matter what the output is, a younger college crowd picks up on that pretty quickly.”
Fellow New York artists Young Magic and Weeknight will accompany Bear in Heaven on the road.
“Young Magic are friends of ours,” Wills said. “We toured with them very briefly a couple of years ago. We spend a lot of time laboring over whom we’re going to bring on tour. I sometimes think of it as a DJ set where you just want things to flow. Like all the bands are complementary to each other, but also the bands have a good amount of contrast.”
Wills said these two acts were chosen for touring because the band wanted to present a diverse range of musicians while keeping a hint of New York style.
“I think each band’s palettes are totally different, but there’s some really heavy links,” he said. “That’s just so key. I think we could make it a lot easier on ourselves. There are so many great bands out there, but we just wanted to almost feel like just one three-hour block of one very awesome set. Kind of like, ‘Here’s three totally different bands.’”
Bear in Heaven, along with Young Magic and Weeknight, will play at Spanish Moon starting at 8 p.m. tonight.