Golden Bear is the second band in the 101X Homegrown Live lineup and their specific breed of indie pop rock should complement Dark Water Hymnal’s folk rock quite well. Golden Bear has been playing the Austin music scene since the early 2000’s and have released two full-lengths and an EP. Their third LP, Alive, is slated to drop this spring.
Golden Bear has drawn comparisons to Built to Spill, The Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse and The Polyphonic Spree. This last comparison surprisingly made the most sense to me. Golden Bear’s vocals consist of exuberant choruses and hopeful lyrics and their drums lay down solid pop beats and powerfully build the songs to their climaxes. These two strong sonic elements are present in most of Golden Bear’s songs and encourage you to both sing and dance along to the jams. Golden Bear’s drums and vocals specifically reminded me of the way The Polyphonic Spree build choral and percussive crescendos. Also, I think there are tonal similarities in the voices of Chris Gregory from Golden Bear and Tim DeLaughter from The Polyphonic Spree. Listen for yourself below.
The track “Prospect Park” is off their upcoming album and is a mix of some tasty keyboard and glockenspiel melodies peppered with some psychedelic moments. The upcoming album is sure to be full of the triumphant choruses, strong beats and catchy riffs that Golden Bear has gifted us with for years.
Golden Bear - Night LightsIn going through Golden Bear’s backlog of tunes, one track called “Night Lights” really stood out to me. This song wowed me with its vast variety of guitar lines and its imaginative lyrics. Hopefully, Golden Bear will play this along with some of their older tunes at the show.
I’m looking forward to seeing these guys perform and seeing how they bring their anthems alive on stage. Come out and see them this Friday at the Mohawk with The Great Nostalgic, Marmalakes, and The Dark Water Hymnal.