HEROS SEVERUM: Wonderful Educated Bear

Heros Severum

Wonderful Educated Bear

© 2002 Heros Severum (643052001221)

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A mix of angular, brash guitars, booming low-end percussion, and melodic, intertwining male and female vocals, owing much to an early 80's post-punk influence.

tracks

1 The Mechaniks of It
2 Grounded... Like a Prop Plane
3 Driving in a Perpetual Summer
4 Hidden in the Words
5 *
6 Out of Round
7 Colors - Paint and Body
8 Rail Against the Contraption
9 From Foot to Foot
10 Bear in the Circus
11 A Better Man

notes

Sometime during the humid summer of 2000, three veterans of the Athens, Georgia independent music scene came together with the sole purpose of rediscovering the joy in making music. With this meeting, Heros Severum was born.

Heros Severum's sound is a mix of brash guitars, booming low-end percussion, and melodic intertwining vocals. The sound created is unique, and has more in common with early 80's no wave bands like Mission of Burma and the Minutemen than with any of the band's rock and punk contemporaries.

The music is angular and decisive, focusing on arrangement. Each member's individual parts themselves simply serve the greater whole, a method of songwriting which seems to have been lost on many of today's rock/punk/emo output. The band has also eschewed the traditional bass instrument, choosing instead to coax the low end out of the six string instruments and keyboards.

Each song is unique in topic, with subject matter drawing from many inspirations. Whether expressing a simple observation, a pledge to live one's life by, or a desire for a better life, the lyrics are always positive. A common theme in the lyrics is a deep need to do something more, to point out the problems we face in the modern world with an eye toward making things better, while remaining apolitical and free of spite.

Live, the band is explosive and engaging, a flurry of motion without pause. The band minimizes stage banter to strike a balance between live energy and precise mechanics. The music itself never stops, as the band plays live to a soundtrack of vinyl records ranging from old southern gospel to free jazz, from Swedish folk songs to Jimmy Durante. Music within the music, the soundtrack to a live experience.

In its brief existence, the band has had the fortune of playing with the likes of the (International) Noise Conspiracy, Les Savy Fav, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, the Hives, Small Brown Bike, Milemarker, Burning Airlines, Hey Mercedes, Mock Orange, Cat Power, and Roger Miller's Binary System.

Heros Severum's members were formerly in the Athens bands Wunderkind and The Bet. Both bands were instrumental in maintaining the Athens D.I.Y. scene. Members of the band also formerly operated Athens' 357 Warehouse, an all-ages D.I.Y. venue for indie and punk bands honed their skills.

Wonderful Educated Bear's genesis traces back to a fateful July 2001 weekend when Heros Severum opened for Burning Airlines at an all-ages show in Athens, then had breakfast with frontman and uber-producer J. Robbins the next morning. J expressed an interest in producing Heros Severum's full-length, setting the wheels in motion for Wonderful Educated Bear. The record was recording in two sessions (December 2001 and February 2002) at Skylab in Athens, and was mixed at both Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia and Chase Park Transduction in Athens.

While not a concept album per se, Wonderful Educated Bear nonetheless is built upon songs with common themes of the struggle to be a better man, to remain positive against the pressures of the demands of modern society, to make a difference. Sonically, the record is a brash breed between math and punk, with a contrasting juxtaposition of both male and female vocals which makes for a very unique record.

reviews

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  • Heros Severum is great.
    author: CHINASKI (www.cdbaby.com/cd/chinaski)

    Standout track 'driving in a perpetual summer' justifies the purchase of this album alone. Heros Severum is great. Taking punk to the next level --- this ROCKS.

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