The last time Polar Bear Club were in Leeds was in May 2009, when they played on the Punktastic Stage at Slam Dunk Festival, but, this time round, we see the New York five-piece play in a much more natural setting – there’s no barriers and neon tutus in sight tonight – at the intimate Cockpit, bringing Shook Ones and Title Fight along with them.
Live Review: Polar Bear Club – The Cockpit, Leeds, March 2nd 2010
March 3, 2010
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Posted by changetherecord
Review: Polar Bear Club – The Summer of George (EP)
July 31, 2009
Early 2008 saw Polar Bear Club release their debut full-length, Sometimes Things Just Disappear, an instant underground hit, gartering much critical acclaim. A year-and-a-half later, the New York quintet are currently gearing up for the release of their next full-length, Chasing Hamburg, but, in the meantime, we have to settle with The Summer of George (yes, that is a Seinfeld reference), a teaser EP, featuring two songs from the new album, Living Saints and Boxes, plus one exclusive track titled Dead Man.
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Posted by changetherecord
Interview: Polar Bear Club
June 15, 2009
Having been to the UK three times already this year, Polar Bear Club are certainly no longer strangers to these shores, which is splendid, because we can’t get enough of them here at Change The Record, so we took it upon ourselves to catch up with Jimmy Stadt (vocalist) during their headline run on the Bridge Nine UK Tour in Newcastle earlier this month. We got talking about their forthcoming album, Chasing Hamburg, as well as their sordid criminal past of sketchy omelette making, and a whole lot more during the half-an-hour he put up with me.
Faye: How did Polar Bear Club form?
Jimmy: Well, we’re from upstate New York, some of us are from Rochester and some of us are from Syracuse, they’re about an hour apart from each other. There were two punk and hardcore scenes in the two cities, there were shows in Rochester and there were shows in Syracuse, but a lot of people from Syracuse came to shows in Rochester and vice versa. There were Rochester bands and there were Syracuse bands, so we all just kind of knew all the same people and we met going to shows. I was in a band with Chris our guitar player and Emmett and Nate were in a band called Marathon, and Emmett knew Goose, so it just kind of happened.
F: For those who have never listened to your band, can you give us three words to describe the sound of Polar Bear Club?
J: It’s so hard to describe your own band, people say punk and hardcore but I always think of it just as a rock band, because, that to me, can encompass everything in hardcore and punk rock, and softer stuff too. So, rock, I guess is one word… Loud [laughs] and energetic, we really try hard to have a good live show in terms of our energy, regardless of how anyone’s feeling that day, so: rock, loud, energetic, that’s good, pretty generic. [laughs]
F: What made you decide to go from being a part-time band to do this full-time?
J: I think we had realised that we had accomplished everything we could as a part-time band, we kind of hit that wall. It was like we could either break-up as a band or become a full-time band. It got to the point where we had played the part-time areas as much as we could, and people from across the country and even from the UK were sending us messages like, “When are you getting over here?” And when we were reading the messages, it was like, “Well, never.” [laughs] So, we said, “Alright, well, we can either break-up or we become a full-time band.” and we decided let’s do it, let’s try it.
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Live Review: Slam Dunk Festival, Leeds Uni, May 24th 2009 (Faye)
May 28, 2009
After spending hours in the sweltering heat, harassing bands and folk in the queue for on-the-spot interviews, as well as handing out D.I.Y. changetherecord.net ‘business cards’ in the form of notepad paper written in biro, accumulating some attractive sun burn and getting fat off essential pre-gig food (Morrison’s mini-doughnuts) along the way, 3pm finally arrived and doors opened. Holy run-on sentence.
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Posted by changetherecord
