Black Bear Tribe: rocks rebirth

I was tired of it. the ironic low energy indie pop folk electronica overproduced undertalented overrated underground soulfull-soulless drible. Lets be real. Really real at the core. When you were 14, what got you you through the day? Not the music that "youve probably never heard of" not the stuff that "is really experimental" not whats " really going back to the roots of America folk" not the music that is best listened to with arms crossed and a low fat soy no sugar extra whip half caf extra shot latte . I'm talkin about the music that was the soundtrack to your first kiss, that got you stoked up before every football game, that you had blasting rolling in to the school parking lot at 7 am, that made you want to be a rockstar, live for something bigger than yourself, that you could never listen to standing still, that you partied to, that you got laid to... that was the music I wanted so desperately to make every since I started playing the guitar 10 years ago after I saw "School of Rock" for the first time. I'm talking about Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Rush, Pink Floyd,  Queen, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Metallica, Van Halen, Guns & Roses....I dare you, any of you to tell me you honest to god don't love at least one of these bands. They hit you below the belt, drag you through the dirt and then lift you back up  to heights you never thought imaginable. Call it Classic Rock, if you want or just Rock & Roll, Stoner Rock or just plain Rock I'll take it.

Now finally, thank Christ, after 10 long years, I have the band to make that music with! And they called themselves :
                                                 Black Bear Tribe

I happened upon the group by chance it seems. Maybe it was fate. Maybe the work of the devil. But whatever weird machination that works upon us it was; here is how it happened:

I, that is, Sam, actor and musician, found myself graduated from my undergraduate theater  program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. What was a young fresh faced actor to do but make the move to the Big Apple, beat the heat under the bright lights, and make a name for myself. Of course this whole adventure would have been impossible without my folks and little lady Linda fronting the rent for our Manhattan janitor closet for the first three months. Once footing in the city was secured and readiness to pounce into the theatrical menagerie of NY was acquired, a kink was throw into the works that threw my whole plan off kilter. From the ashes of a Brooklyn folk group came Jason Kraft. My good college buddy Brittany had played Uke in the group and thought Jason and I should meet up and jam seeing as we were both rock-blues musicians looking for comrades. "Sure" i thought "I'll entertain this folk guy and jam" but i didnt really think much would come of it. We met on a brisk October afternoon at Madison Square park. Jason sporting black wayfarers and an untamed mane of curls, was a man of unending energizer-bunny like exuberance. I liked him, but the music was what we came here for. We exchanged a few folk tunes we'd written with lukewarm response. His music was folk for sure but his voice sounded like it came straight out of  the 1978  heavy metal scene. Then I figured I should cut the nonsense and show him the kinds of rock tunes I really wanted to play. I unleashed a few of my riffs and to my shock, Jason, exclaimed "Did you write that? " "yeah" I said "Fuck yah, thats the kinda stuff I wanna do!" he said. After another half hour of realizing all of our shared influences and favorite music, it was decided. We were gonna make a goddamn rock and roll band!

The internet is a wonderful place. It is also a misleading temptress and dangerous wasteland of spare time. It had been for some time for me in my search for a bassist and drummer. I had been looking for musicians before i even met Jason but now I really had to up my game if we were gonna get a group on its feet any time soon. Somehow I stumbled across both a bassist and drummer at the same time.

Jeff and Trevor were old college buddies who had played together in various bands for 4 years before we met them. Their synergy with each other was obvious from the first second the of the first jam Jason and I had with them. John Paul Jones and John Bonham, Geddy Lee and Neil Peart, Jeff Hechler and Trevor Ezell. Done. Blamo!

I had sent the guys a rough demo of my song "Black Arrow" about the defeat of Smaug the dragon from the Hobbit. It was a pretty staightforward Zep inspired tune, but if everyone could dig it and pull it off well it would be a great test to see if we could work together. Additionally we agreed to jam out on Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Lovin' You" , my personal favorite song of all time. We worked "Black Arrow" without a hitch. It sounded great right from the get-go and things were movin and groovin. But when Jason hit the wailing notes of "Said I've been cryin" in SIBLY and the whole band came triumphantly crashing back into the chorus, I think all four of us knew that something magic was happening in the room, and in that moment the band that was to be Black Bear Tribe was born.

How we came up with the name is a strange tale for the next blog post.

Now here we are. Four young pups with our eye on one goal: Bringing back honest raw gut-wrenching ball breaking face melting bra unstrapping engine revving stereo pumping heart racing soul seething Rock

you on board?

Join the tribe


Excelsior,

Sam of BBT


http://blackbeartribe.bandcamp.com/