BEAR PROOF SUIT Record available NOW!

[Maltodextrin]

I am stoked that you are stoked, Simon.  Please, Canadian Postal Service, don't let this man down!  We need postive reviews from recognized scene authorities ASAP!

-Ryan

Sir, you needn't butter me up with baseless accusations of scene cred for me to publically aver that this is a fucking great EP. 

Felix was talking last night about how fast he always go through Criminal IQ wax, with people snapping it up immediately and demand consistently outstripping supply, so I would definitely recommend that anyone appreciating a nice, ugly blast of lofi proto-metal riffage wedded to the chassis of '82 midwest hardcore a la Die Kreuzen do themselves a favour and pick this up postfuckinghaste.  Only 500 pressed = putting the "criminal" in Criminal IQ.

[Mark Pesci]

Ryan, answer my question.  Do I buy this thing in Chicago from Darius or from you in Milwaukee?

[Dutchman]

Coulda swore I sent you a message in reply but you can get it from me in Milwaukee because I'll remember to bring it to the show, okay?

-Ryan

[vint]

The drummer of this band is a very spectacular person.

[rr]

Darius - if you see this and are going to Albion House Friday, you should bring some of these!

[Criminaliq]

who's playing friday?

[MattCoppens]

86 Mentality.

[Dutchman]

THIS SHIT IS NOW SORIANO-APPROVED, JERKS.  COMMENCE CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION.

Bear Proof Suit   Science is Dead 7"   (Criminal IQ)
     Man, records like this throw me into conflict. From start to finish, Bear Proof Suit's debut is great early 80s style hardcore punk, standing on the shoulders of a list of the genre's heavyweights. If Bear Proof Suit released this in 1983, it would sit with my other hardcore records and get pulled a couple times a year, whenever I am feeling cranky and want to listen to Music of My Youth. However, it is 2007, a quarter of a century past hardcore's prime and for all I know these guys weren't even alive back then. Maybe they were crawling. Whatever the case, they are playing their parents music, a genre that as anti-parent / anti-nostalgia / anti-timewarp as any genre ever was. It is difficult for me not to look at this as I would a modern day rockabilly  or any other music that has gone retro - as a revival of corpse fuckers. Perhaps this wouldn't bug me so much if hardcore wasn't so strident in it youth youth youth/now now now message. And perhaps I wouldn't be conflicted if Bear Proof Suit sucked. Fact is that these guys are a great band and they have made a great record, even if it is 25 years later than I'd like. -SS

Dig it.

-Ryan

[Dutchman]

Second pressing (different color cover) is imminent!  Hell, even Razorcake digs it and who knows how those fuckin people think?  What are you waiting for?!

BEAR PROOF SUIT:
Science Is Dead: 7”EP
Mid. West. Punk. Think more along the lines of Laughing Hyenas (RIP Larissa Strickland) than Negative Approach, celebrating sprawled-out crunchiness, a John Brannon-like, nasty you-just-nailed-my-foot-to-the-floor howl, and systematic dismemberment over tunefulness or hyper speed. That part I like: classic Midwest hardcore that’s smarter than it lets on and a little weird. Yet, like the Laughing Hyenas, I just wish the songs were a tad shorter and less repetitive because, while bearing their own weight and ripping plenty of flesh from bone, Bear Proof Suit still gets a tad tedious in parts. Points scored for a good job covering the Wipers’ “Upfront.” –Todd Taylor (Criminal I.Q.)

-Ryan