The Bear Post

Illustration by Jason Sho Green

'Bears are crazy. They'll bite your head if you're wearing a steak on it.'
-> Space Ghost

* Bearsuit - Itsuko Got Married *
* Seabear - Singing Arc *
* Panda Bear - Ponytail *
* Message to Bears - Plane Over Evening Sky *
* Golden Bear - Galaxy Queen *
* Grizzly Bear - While You Wait for the Others *
* The Bear Colony - Hospital Rooms Aren't for Lovers *
* 14 Iced Bears - Cut *

Oh my God, it’s somebody’s birthday again

It’s the same problem every time. It’s someone’s birthday and you don’t have any good birthday songs.

It’s not like Christmas, for which there are already approximately 2,300,987 songs, and new ones added every year.

It’s a bit like Easter. Know any good Easter songs?

Exactly.

Well it’s the same with birthdays. So I’ve compiled a few, sorted by theme. None of them are particularly suitable for cakes, candles and wishes, but hey, that's exactly my point.

*A freaky kooky ooh ooh ooh look, a squirrel (!) birthday beside a lake. In Iceland.

The Sugarcubes – Birthday

"Today is a birthday
They're smoking cigars
He's got a chain of flowers
And sows a bird in her knickers

They're smoking cigars
They lie in the bathtub
A chain of ... flowers"

*Fuck it, what’s the point, this year will just be worse than last year.

Bright Eyes - Happy Birthday to Me (Feb. 15)

"Into this song I send myself
And with these drinks I plan to collapse
And forget this wasted year, these wasted years
Devoted friends, they disappear..."

*You’re in a club, surrounded by Danish models. Someone is opening a bottle of Cristal, and somehow there’s confetti everywhere...

Cut Copy – Lights And Music

"This is what you hoped to say on your birthday
the secrets that we held that day will be kept straight."

*All your friends have their birthday during the same month, and every year you have to buy a million presents at the same time. You consider perhaps replacing a few friends for others (with more practical birthdays) next year.

Candy Bars – The Birthday Song

"Oh my God, it’s somebody’s birthday again"

*And uhm… if you have a friend named Lisa.

Jens Lekman – Happy Birthday, Dear Friend Lisa

"Turn on the radio, clean the windows.
Do it in slow-mo, as the day unfolds.
Oh how the sun shines inside you, just like I do."

When you come, bring the sun

And for this post we travel to Europe...starting up north and heading south, towards the sun...

Iceland:
*Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook
This track (see lots of naked people playing in a forest... aka the video, here) is a taster from their new upcoming album, which will go by the title 'með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust'. Pretty catchy eh? Though it can also be loosely translated as "with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly", which is something you could at least attempt asking a sales assistant at your local record store for. They probably won't understand you, but still. It's better than ( ).
Their summer tour will take them across the world, from Mexico to Norway,
while Letters have no Arms will be lucky enough to catch them at Benicassim

Sweden:
*El Perro Del Mar - How did we forget
Taken from her beautiful new album From the Valley To The Stars
*El Perro Del Mar - Loneliness
*A Smile and a Ribbon - The Boy I wish I Never Met


France:
*Sebastien Tellier - Divine
France's 2008 Eurovision entry, and the reason why the French are just so much cooler than most of the world.
*M83 - Kim and Jessie

and 12 points go to me for not making any cheap Eurovision tie-in comments ;)