Tagged: sunbear writes

WEWOREMASKS PRESENTS: SUNBEAR’S 2012 YEAR END LISTS [YEAR END LISTS]

You’re sick of reading ‘best of’ lists, i know. i’m sick of writing them. list off a slew of great albums, throw a couple of hot button items and curveballs in the mix, assign an arbitrary numbering system … it’s not perfect but it’s a nice peek into my year of media indulgence and my iffy tastes. so here, ladies and gentlemen readers of weworemasks, is my list of notable albums, songs, videos, twitters, podcasts, and movies of 2012. enjoy and feel free to tango with me in the comments.

I’ll be back and posting on monday for anyone who missed me *crickets*

Previous Year-End Lists: Panda’s Year-End Lists | The Best Live Shows of 2012 | The Best of Television in 2012 | The Best of Sports on the Internet in 2012 | The Best Memes of 2012 | The Best Music Videos of 2012 | The Best Mixtapes of 2012

- sunbear
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show recap: mayer hawthorne and the county (april 29, 2012)

Say what you will about Stones Throw’s throwback-to-Motown act Mayer Hawthorne, but the only cheeseball moment from the neo-soul singer came about halfway through his set when he encouraged the crowd at Fitzgerald’s to “Take out those camera phones – take the picture you’ve been wanting to take. Facebook, Instagram: Go for it – Tell the world you’re watching Mayer Hawthorne” and proceeded to ham it up with cookie-cutter lounge act poses with his band. For Mayer Hawthorne (real name Andrew Mayer Cohen), a guy who looks more investment banker than Al Green, and who for an hour and a half treated the Sunday evening crowd to a set of classic soul and late 60’s early 70’s Motown, a little bit of cheese goes a long way.

Hit the jump for the full recap.

- sunbear
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show recap: say anything + kevin devine (april 27, 2012)

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photo by maysa askar

To the casual music observer, Say Anything might have just been a flash in the 2004 emo pan. A breakthrough album …is a Real Boy with singles to boot and a dedicated following of young, angsty anti-hipsters, frontman Max Bemis was the poster boy for the myspace generation, seething cynical sarcastic barbs for the disillusioned youth. A little more homework and you’d uncover a band that for a decade, recorded six albums, including the all-star, 27-track hyper-musical In Defense of the Genre, and managed to keep a healthy albeit very specific fan base of diehards who take Bemis’ word as emo gospel.

Hit the jump for the full recap.

- sunbear
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event recap: SXSW 2012 (march 15-17, 2012)


photo credit: TSS

We’re seasoned vets when it comes to SXSW. For the last 6 years, we’ve been at the festival to some capacity, regardless of how drunk we got or how bad our allergies were. And while last year’s festival left us jaded and hesitant of the crowds, we headed to Austin for a few days to engage in whatever came our way.

Review after the jump.

-grizzly and sunbear
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weworemasks presents: sunbear’s year-end lists [year-end lists] (2011)

So it looks like we’ve run the ‘fun lists’ into the ground, now it’s time to get down to the real deal. While Sunbear’s done a great job all year of keeping everyone up to date on the more ‘alternative’ sides of things and keeping me company at shows (mainly the drinking), he’s currently out on sabbatical in the Phillipines. While he was over there, he managed to muster me up a quick little year-end list, short of filler, blurbs and all that bulky meaty shit and kept you tuned for the barebacked year-end lists over in his camp. Hit the jump for his Top 20 Albums, Top 15 Live Shows, Top 9 Movies and Top 15 TV Shows – all in no specific order.

[ Previous Year-End Lists: Top Memes of 2011 | The LOST Songs of 2011 | 2011 weworemasks.com Reader's Poll | Top Sports Moments of 2011 | Best Music Videos of 2011 | Top 10 Live Shows of 2011 | Top 10 Disappointing Albums | Top 10 Worst Lil Wayne Lyrics ]

-grizzly c/o Sunbear

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show recap: austin city limits festival [day three] (september 18, 2011)


photo credit: amicitas

A familiar Texas friend reared his sunny head over Zilker Park on Austin City Limits’ final day. No it wasn’t Win Butler, thought that did also happen. A jilted sun reappeared after two overcast days with scattered showers and for the first time over the three-day weekend it finally felt like an outdoor Texas festival. Regardless of the heat, Sunday saw the most over/well dressed musicians, risking heat stroke to maintain their dapper image and leave an impression on ACL’s last day.

Recap after the jump:

-sunbear
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show recap: austin city limits festival [day two] (september 17, 2011)


photo credit: hey reverb

Just day one of Austin City Limits was an overheated, exhaustive affair, fueled on enthusiasm and Torchy’s Tacos. How could I brave a second day when the weather (sun and rain? C’mon, Austin) and overcrowding blunted that prior live music-lovin’ zeal? Easy: Cut Copy, Iron and Wine, Aloe Blacc, My Morning Jacket and of course, the illustrious Stevie Wonder, the festival’s token golden oldie.

Recap after the jump:

-sunbear
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show recap: austin city limits [day one] (september 16, 2011)


photo credit: brooklyn vegan

Austin City Limits is far and above the biggest festival in an 800 mile radius, and it’s safe to say that both Sunbear and I have both avoided it for whatever reason we could muster up. Namely – the price. Turns out, this year’s 3-day passes were bought on Sunbear’s behalf on a whim, and mine due to the mere announcement that Kanye West would be headlining one of the dates. So we braved the heat and weathered the small storms to gather with the 75,000 people (on average, per day) at Zilker Park.

For Day One’s recap, I’ll be assisting Sunbear with the write-up, and he’ll be taking charge of Days Two and Three, coming soon. Recap after the jump.

-sunbear and grizzly

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show recap: arcade fire/explosions in the sky (may 4, 2011)


photo credit: 88 miles west

“Good evening, Woodlands. It’s good to be home.”

Okay, let’s stop right there. In the first words uttered by Win Butler, we had either breathed a collective sigh of relief, knowing that Arcade Fire, as begrudging as they can be toward their dusty Texan roots, were actually feeling pretty good about returning home (something they haven’t done since a headlining gig at Fat Cat’s – max capacity 130), or were directly lied to, by the straight-faced frontman of the band who took home the album of the year at this year’s Grammy’s.

Hit the jump for the recap.

- sunbear
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show recap: against me! (january 25, 2011)

As anyone who has heard the song “I Was a Teenage Anarchist” (was being the operative word) from 2010’s well received, if not completely commercial album White Crosses, can tell you: Against Me! have come a long way from the primitive one man anarchist project that Tommy Gabel conceived back in 1997. Once spearheaded by Gabel’s throat-wrenching political lyrics and a brash sense of leftist politics, the band has flourished into a stadium sized outfit with blue collar anthems that’d make Springsteen proud. And of course with such a progression towards a friendlier pop sound, there were bound to be detractors, but as of Houston’s sold out Warehouse Live show this past Tuesday, there were none to be found amongst the fist-pumping throng of die-hard (former) anarcho punks.

hit the jump for the full review.

- sunbear

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show recap: of montreal/janelle monae (november 4, 2010)

What can you expect from an of Montreal show 14 years into their bizarre career? Well, pretty much for bizarre to be … expected. At first, the collaboration between Janelle Monae and Of Montreal remained as the only link between the two bands, that is, until the show was over. This entire tour’s purpose was seen through the stage presence of both of these festival-headline-worthy acts, as the False Priests Meets the ArchAndroid tour hit Numbers, a Houston venue that is on its gradual descent into one of the city’s oldest, most historic (and equally disgusting) venues.

For the record, we didn’t want to pin the duties of this post to one bear, and seeing as how two were in attendance and Sunbear’s Fun Fun Fun Fest work will become demanding over the next two days, this is a joint venture.

Hit the jump for the recap.

-Sunbear y Grizzly

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show recap: lady gaga (july 25, 2010)

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A play-by-play of the Monster Ball concert would seem excessive, that is if Gaga’s persona wasn’t so excessive in itself. Every song was a production, with costume changes, stage-setups, and choreography to boot. In fact there was so much theatricality involved that the entire concert had to be spliced with video-intermissions of Gaga’s vaguely occult symbolism (which itself was spliced with scenes of her vomiting glitter and the like.) The whole production was an assault on the senses, pummeling eardrums with fervid synths and overblown bass, each costume a bigger eyesore than the last, her multicultural, sexually-androgynous dancers oozing sex with every step. To be blunt: it was all very Gaga.
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festival recap: houston free press summer fest [day one] (june 5, 2010)


photo credit: greeneyeri

The second annual Free Press Summerfest music festival descended upon Eleanor Tinsley Park this past weekend, at nearly double the size of the inaugural run last year, proving that yes, Houston is a city that cares about and loves its music. Our neighbors, Austin boasts the smug motto of being the “Live Music Capital of the World” and though that isn’t without merit, Houston has simply had it with being overlooked, not only as a tour stop for major acts, but for its diverse local talent. Summerfest is the marriage of those very ideas: that our local bands can play alongside the best of the best, with acts ranging from our own darling Wild Moccasins, to the extravagant Flaming Lips whose presence hasn’t been felt by Houston in 10 years. The musical diversity was palpable: everything from the southern twang of Tennessee’s Lucero, to the eloquent indie pop of Canada’s Stars, to southern rappers Slim Thug and Bun B representing Houston’s burgeoning rap scene. And the bears were there to witness its greatness.

-sunbear/grizzly

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weworemasks.com’s sxsw recap (2010)

sxsw is a lovely time of year where all of our friends from various cities in texas decide to congregate in austin for all of it’s lush atmosphere (think about it) and an endless lineup of flavor-of-the-year bands. all three bears, along with our videographer of the week josh, @klainep and grizzly’s main squeeze would become the wolfpack to scour the streets of austin in hopes of catching something memorable and damaging our livers.

this year, we’d spend a lot of time at rachael ray’s showcase (a first), walking (typical) and waiting in hopeless lines. we faced our share of challenges this year, but the bears prevailed and left austin alive with most of our parts in tact. as if this 3000 word recap isn’t enough for you all, then we will have full sets (yes, full!) of theophilus london, japandroids, fang island and local natives coming soon. stay tuned for those.

now grab a PBJ or PBR and enjoy the tales from beyond the bears.

-sunbear y grizzly

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show recap: tegan and sara/steel train (february 27, 2010)

last saturday marked the return of tegan and sara to houston, their first visit since 2008. fresh off their latest critically acclaimed album sainthood, the quin sisters’ nationwide tour took them to houston’s warehouse live’s gigantic ballroom where they kicked all new sainthood jams as well as some golden oldies. in tow was another wwm favorite band, steel train, who are releasing a new album themselves sometime this year. the bears were on hand, and slightly out of place with houston’s very large lesbian scene, to take in the festivities and copious amounts of vodka.

hit the jump for the rest of the recap.

- sunbear
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