Few small updates:
- We're playing February 21st at Off Broadway for Tabitha Tomko's 30th birthday. All proceeds will go to Stray Rescue, which is awesome. It's our only real show this month, but we have a few things coming out pretty soon.
- We've got studio time booked in March, woop woop!
- CHRIS BOUGHT A NEW GUITAR.
I can honestly remember being in middle school talking with Chris how sweet it would be to get a Rickenbacker. Chris has a pretty funny, exhausting story about how came to get this guitar, including a failed almost-purchase, and includes him getting a minor discount because the guy selling it knew of Bear Hive. We all felt pretty cool after that, of course.
- I'm working on switching up the website, making it look nice. Hopefully.
~Nate
KDHX Local Artist Spotlight
We are all huge fans/supports of KDHX and it we were honored to be asked to be this month's "Local Artist Spotlight." We sat down with Mary Belzer and had an interview that took about 30 minutes. She chopped it all up and put together a great sounding piece. It will be playing on KDHX 88.1 for the next week or so, and you can listen to it at the link below. We were all three there, but Joel seems to have been left out. We'll tell him to talk louder next time.
http://kdhx.org/ondemand/media/bear-hive-mountain-to-maintain
- I really need to start updating this more. I think about it pretty often, but just sort of let it slide.
- The Halloween show was a huge success, and probably one of the top 5 shows we've ever had. Huge crowd, tons of fun. There are a ton of pictures on our facebook. Really funny. Playing a show dressed as Dr. Grant fulfilled some strange childhood dream of mine, I think.
- We played the 9th Rock and Roll Craft Show on November 25th, and it was fun as well, though a wildly different environment than the Halloween show. We played to about 10 people, and had to turn down, but the overall scene was great. We're a huge fan of these types of events, and it's great to see them grow and grow. We were happy to be a part of it.
- We're playing a massive party on New Years Eve at FOAM. It's totally free. Everything. Food, booze, whatever. I know it's open to anyone, but I'm not quite sure how much we are supposed to publicize. We've got a very awesome cover that we are excited to play. Maybe my favorite song ever. At least top 5.
- We've got about 3 songs that are half done. Once they are done we will go into the studio and record. Probably not playing many shows until then, though we've said that many times before.
- I finally got a laptop stand so I don't have to keep bending over and almost spilling beer on it. Nice!
- We're shooting a music video in January with Jon Miller, the guy who does most of our photography. Really excited about it.
- Hope everyone has great holiday times.
~Nate
- We're back!
- The trailer made it! And it's most definitely water proof! We really, unfortunately, weren't 100% sure about that. There's only so much you can stand in a circle around the trailer saying, "Look at the seals! It must be!" before you just load it up and drive through a thunderstorm on a rain-soaked highway in the middle of Wisconsin hoping, hoping so bad, that it really is.
- We realized about halfway through the rain storm that the trailer didn't actually contain any of Chris' stuff. We assured him we would break his stuff so he wouldn't feel left out if anything happened.
- We played at The Frequency in Madison, Wisconsin. The Frequency is an awesome venue ran by some really cool people. They book some awesome shows as well. Unfortunately, the only local on the bill dropped the day of the show, so we basically played to a few other touring bands and the sound guy, but we still had a great time. Just fun to be out playing.
- We played at Reggies in Chicago, and again it was really empty. Oh well. We drove back to St. Louis that night.
- We opened for The Octopus Project! Seriously, what an awesome night. Graham Matthews took some video of almost the whole set. A couple of the tracks he recorded aren't on our current EP, but will be on the full record. Here's one of them:
- We're playing a Halloween Party at Off-Broadway on Halloween Night. We think it could be huge. Lot's of sponsors, and all the people playing are great. We have a pretty awesome idea for our costumes as well.
- After this halloween show we are taking another break from shows to hopefully, finally, finish our album.
- We would really like to finish our album.
Thanks again everyone!
~Nate
Still So Many Shows.
- Our 6 weeks of madness has begun. We've played 5 shows in the past 3 weeks, with 7 more to go in the next 3.
- We played the West Cherokee Block Party After Party Party on September 22nd, and it was a lot of fun. We've known the owner's of the Livery for a bit now (Chris lives right next to it), so it was nice to finally get to play. Volcanoes played after us, and it was killer as always.
- We tried a Rapture cover, with Aaron from So Many Dynamos stepping in to play cowbells and make noises. We decided about 4 hours before the set that we would give it a try, and we all winged it as best we could. It was a ton of fun, not perfect, and we accidentally shorted Aaron a cowbell solo. Hopefully we can make amends sometime soon.
- We played the Strange Folk Festival the next Saturday, September 29th. I absolutely love playing outside in the middle of the day. I'm not sure why. The sound is usually mediocre and the crowds are usually passing, but I always love it. Strange Folk, though, had great sound, and we all had a great time. We had a Beth Bombara sandwich, as she played her stuff before us, then played with Old Lights after. Beth is awesome, we're hoping she can win that competition and get a free van.
- Chris has been doing some shows with So Many Dynamos lately. Here's a really funny interview where they eat pizza: http://www.pizzafm.org/weekly-mouthful-so-many-dynamos/.
- We purchased a trailer for the upcoming out of town shows. Joel and I drove up to Chicago and back in a day to buy it. Joel purchased a hitch and installed it on his Subaru Outbac. It was a really good plan.
- Joel wrecked his car a week and half before our first show in Kansas City.
- Fortunately! Joel's parents let us borrow their van. We could fit everything in it without the trailer, and still have room for all three of us. It worked really well.
- We played at the Riot Room in Kansas City on Thursday, October 4th. The Riot Room is a really nice place that books some great bands. Maps and Atlases played there a few days before us. We played with a band called Molly Picture Club, and they were really sweet. Definitely one of the better matches we've ever had. We're hoping to bring them to St. Louis sometime. Unfortunately, we only played to about 15-20 people at the most, but they seemed to have a good time.
- We learned a valuable lesson: Secure where you are going to sleep before it gets to late.
- We found ourselves at 12:30 AM, sitting outside our van in Kansas City, with no place to go. The bar had emptied out. We talked to a very, very high man on the street and he gave us advice on nice diners.
-I had a delicious grilled cheese sandwich. +1 high advice.
- We finally got ahold of our contact, and savior, in Springfield, Missouri, and we drove straight there. We arrived at around 5 AM, and slept on the floor.
- We played that night in Springfield at a place called Nathan P Murphy's. We'd played there back in the day as The Sham, and it was always an average experience. This night, for whatever reason, was awesome. We had a great crowd and had a really awesome time. Andy Sun put the show together for us last minute, and really saved us.
- We played at The Bridge in Columbia, Missouri on Saturday night. The band that opened was called Skating Polly, and if you haven't heard of them yet, check it out. The band is two 13 year old girls who jump between guitar, bass, keyboard, and drums. All their songs are 2 minutes at the most, and are straight awesome punk rock. Seriously. It was even gimmicky.
- We're playing this Friday at Off-Broadway with a bunch of awesome local bands: Mikey Wehling, Ou Ou!, and Frances With Wolves.
- We're playing this Sunday at The Firebird with freakin' The Octopus Project. Super stoked. We love the firebird, and we love the octopus project.
- After those we are going out of town again, then we play an increasingly huge halloween party at Off-Broadway. This show just keeps grabbing sponsors and we think it may sell out. We're really taking a lot of time to consider our halloween costumes and I think we've hit on an awesome idea. Can't wait for everyone to see it.
- We're probably going to take November and December off as far as shows go, and get back to work on the full length. Only a few more songs to write and record, then its out!
- I didn't take enough pictures out on the road, so here's a picture of my cat laying on all our stuff the day we got back.
Thanks for reading!
~Nate
SHOWS. LOTS OF SHOWS.
Seriously.
We may be going a bit overboard.
After only playing a few shows this summer we have decided to start booking again, and it has been crazy. As of now we have 11 shows booked between September 22nd and October 31st. We are going to 7 different cities. We seriously can't wait. This has been a goal of ours for awhile now, and it's nice to see it finally starting to realize.
There are still 3 shows that I can't confirm yet, but they will be soon hopefully.
At this point, we have played 20 or so shows (I try to keep track, but may have missed one or two here on the site). 20 shows over a year, and now 11 shows in 6 weeks.
Joel and I drove to the suburbs northwest of Chicago and bought a trailer for this. We'll be pulling it in his Subaru Outback. Good times!
After October we will probably take another break from shows and go back to working on the album. It will be finished, I promise.
Check out all the upcoming dates under the "Live" tab up above.
Updates
- We've been relatively quiet lately, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy. We're hard at work trying to put together some new songs to finish up our album. We're still hoping to release it soon, but we are ridiculously slow song writers, and don't like to rush anything, so we're taking our time.
- On that note, we will have given out our 1,500th copy of A Mountain to Maintain pretty soon. Still intend to keep giving them out, until the full length comes out, at least.
- We just had our one year anniversary! We've already accomplished some things we're very proud of, but don't intend to slow down.
- We are meeting in the next few days to discuss touring in the fall. We may be doing some dates with our band-boyfriends Volcanoes.
- We're working on T-Shirt designs! After we finish the design, we need to find a good St. Louis based printer. Anyone have any suggestions?
- We filmed a video with KDHX and Civil Ape. Not sure when it will be released, though.
- We played Nebula Co-workings Happy Hour event last month. It was awesome. We had a great time, we love them all.
- We played a show at the Barcade on Watson a few nights ago with Foxing. They are new and we really had a great time. Probably playing more shows with them soon.
- We have a few show announcements:
- We are playing the Strange Folk Festival! This is going to be rad. Two day event out in O'Fallon, Illinois, with some really awesome other bands. Last year the event drew over 15,000 people. More info on that TBA. Here's their website: http://www.strangefolkfestival.com/
- We are playing Off Broadway with Ou! ou!, US English, and Frances With Wolves. We love off broadway, can't wait to get back .
- We are putting together our own show sometime soon, probably at Plush. Also in talks with the Firebird. It's been too long since we've played the Firebird.
- Recap: Not playing a ton of shows at the moment, working on finishing CD. Touring in the fall. Working on designs for Tshirts. Few show announcements. One year as a band!
Love,
~Nate
FRIDAY
Hey friends,
Thanks again to everyone that voted for us! Come celebrate with us this Friday at Nebula Coworking at Jefferson and Cherokee. They are doing their monthly Happy Hour event, and this month they are celebrating the addition of Do314 to their building. We will play from 5:30-6:30ish, but the real important part is there will be free beer and the Pi food truck will be out front. This is going to be a ridiculous amount of fun. You can read more at
http://do314.com/event/2012/06/15/nebula-do314-happy-hour-w-bear-hive-free
We're big fans of all these people involved. We played the HOLLERLUJAH party at this same place, and it was one of the most fun shows we've ever been a part of. We're really looking forward to getting back in there, and can't wait to see what they have in store.
And after that, come down to El Lenador with us, because we are also playing there that night. DOUBLE-HEADER STYLE.
~Nate
Woo!
We won!
Thank you everyone who voted for us, has listened to our tracks, or seen us live. We really, truly appreciate the support. We thought we had a chance to win, but every band in the category is so good, we had no idea.
The St. Louis music scene is so vibrant, and so diverse. The showcase on Washington, and the party at the Old Rock House, was such a beautiful demonstration of what St. Louis has to offer. And really, the Riverfront times has a hard job, because they can only nominate a few bands per category. There are so many more good bands.
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If you haven't seen it yet, here's the video we did with Johnny Andrews from the StL Post-Dispatch. It's pretty awesome. We had no idea what to expect, but we think he did a great job.
Thanks again everybody.
~Nate
Updates!
- We are almost done recording three new tracks. Chris just has some final vocal work to do, then mixing/mastering. We aren’t quite sure exactly how these will be released yet, as they are part of a larger full length album goal, but you will most definitely get to hear them soon.
- We’re shooting for 10-11 tracks for the full length, we hope to release it late-summer.
- Since we’ve last spoke we’ve played a few pretty cool shows. We played for the first time at The Luminary Center for the Arts. These are great people and we were super excited to get to play there. We opened for Oberhofer, who is awesome. We also, due to some technical problems, learned what it was like to play without being able to hear any of our keyboards/drum machines. If you’ve seen us before, you can imagine that that would be pretty difficult. We managed through it though, and learned a pretty good lesson. At one point I was actually watching the equalizer on my compy bounce in order to keep track of the beat.
- We played the Cherokee Street Cinco de Mayo festival. This was our first outdoor show and though we all almost lost it due to heat stroke, we had a fantastic time. The people from the St. Louis Secret Sound Society set it up for us. We had a great crowd, and from the stage you could see all the way down Cherokee street, looking at a few hundred, if not thousand, people.
- Johnny Miller, the guy who took our press shots, was working the festival and decided to stop by and take some shots of us while we played. They are probably some the best pictures anyone has taken of us yet. Here’s a few of my favorites, but you can see the whole batch at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.302034176544363.68546.131780623569720&type=1.
- There’s nothing like a good all-local show to make you love the StL music scene even more. Volcanoes asked us to play their tour kick off show with them and Union Tree Review, and we were more than happy to be a part. The Gramaphone was packed with a noisy, super receptive crowd. We had a blast, and played one of the new songs we’ve been working on.
- The voting for the “Best New Band” RFT award has been up for a bit. If you haven’t, go to http://polls.riverfronttimes.com/polls/stl/musicshowcase2012/. We highly recommend you listen to as many as you can, and then vote. There are a ton of good bands here in StL, give them a try.
- We just gave out the 1,000th copy of “A Mountain to Maintain.” I was going to stop at 1,000, but now that I’ve reached it, I figure may as well keep going. We’re going to start sending them out to other cities. You know, expand that presence and stuff.
- Johnny Andrews from the St. Louis Post Dispatch (I know, all the photographers we work with are named Johnny), is working on a short documentary style piece on us for his blog. He hung out with us all day while we practiced and got ready for the Gramaphone show. Hopefully will come out this June, but may end up being July. I’m pretty sure the video is just going to be 90% pictures of my cat.
- We’re opening for RACES at Off Broadway next tuesday. We love Off Broadway. This is our first show there as Bear Hive, and I believe we are the only local band.
- We’re also teaming up with KDHX and Civil Ape to make a video for one of our songs. That’s in it’s beginning stages, we’ll know more soon.
- Hopefully soon we’re going to get some stickers and t-shirts. Still trying to figure out the design, and whether we could print all this stuff on our own.
That’s all I have now, I think. We’ve been very busy.