Sweden’s most critically acclaimed and innovative band
was formed above the arctic circle in the town of Lulea in 1989. The original members were Matti Alkberg (guitar and vocals), Jari Haapalainen (guitar), Peter Nuottaniemi (bass), Johan Forsling (guitar) and Magnus Olsson (drums). Madly brilliant demo tapes was passed on from music lover to music lover and played loud on cheap cassette decks, and the band was hyped by various music critics even before they had recorded as much as a single.
They were not signed until the spring of 1992. It was A West Side Fabrication who realized The Bear Quartet’s amazing potential. The first album, Penny Century was released in the fall. Then drummer Magnus quit (why is it always the drummer?) and Urban Nordh became the guy beating the skins.
The Bear Quartet’s creativity seems endlessly flowing and they recorded two beautiful albums, Cosy Den and Family Affair and the EP Revisted before they took an involuntary break in the spring of 1995 when Jari and Urban moved to Stockholm, and Johan left the band. Later that year the fourth album; Everybody Else is released as well as two EPs It Only Takes A Flashlight To Create A Monster and Flux Detail. The Bear Quartet’s creativity was far from exhausted and they started working on the next album, Holy, Holy. It’s not until now that the band consciously slows down. They manage to stay away from the rehearsal space for two months. When they go back in they work differently; without a goal and without a deadline.
The songs grow wild and beautiful.
In June 1996 the songs start to feel finished. Then The Bear Quartet suffers another drummer loss when Urban decides to devote himself to something utterly different. After some time they find a dignified successor in Jejo Perkovic (also drummer for the hardcore band Brick). During three weeks the band records 23 songs. Five of them hese can be found on the EP Before the Trenches and eleven on the masterpiece Moby Dick.
The Bear Quartet has always been the critics’ darlings, but after Moby Dick the Swedish music press where desperately searching for new, undiscovered superlatives to describe The Bear Quartet’s outstanding compositions. During the spring of 1998 The Bear Quartet recorded their seventh full length album, Personality Crisis. with a large and helpful input by Carl Olsson (of Blissful) and Björn Olsson (Union Carbide, Soundtrack of our lives).
The single Human Enough off that album was played frequently on National Swedish Radio. The EP Mom and Dad was released later in the fall with same result. The Bear Quartet toured Germany during the spring of 1999, where Carl Olsson became a steady member of the group, as he managed to overflow a hotel room in Leipzig and pack the tour bus all by himself. In the early summer of ’99 The Bear Quartet began recording what would eventually become My War and Gay Icon. Although the recording process stretches from June 1999 to November 2000 the actual days in the studio are no more than twenty.
The Bear Quartet was on a creative high, and late 1999 the songs for My War were mixed and mastered. My War was, according to major Swedish rock critics, the most introspective and realized album of the band so far. Sort of a The Idiot for the 21st century. Two Eps are taken from the album: Old Friends and I Don´t Wanna. Both living proof of the Bear Quartet´s genius. If My War was a slow and quiet album with their most private lyrics so far, Gay Icon was, as always, a reaction against precisely that. It opens with a short, heartfelt piano ballad (key lyric: Adam and Eve were the first unemployed, in love and evicted) but as soon as it´s over the mayhem begins. Not since their debut, Penny Century (1992), has the band recorded noisier songs than i.e Be A Stranger, Capable and Hunchback. Overall, Gay Icon bursts with sonic experimentation and soul. The two Eps taken from the album, Load It and Fuck Your Slow Songs does prov that The Bear Quartet´s remarkable sense of melody isn´t lost at all.
And it should be said that if you favour the bands more balladry side you´ll find lots of songs on Gay Icon that will blow your mind completely.
But the fun doesn´t stop at that. In March 2002 the band released the full on nihilistic album which is Ny Våg. It´s a hardrocking, teethgrinding monster of an album. In fact, it´s the bee´s knees. From classic punk (Euthanasia, Number) via noisy improvised instrumentals (Go To Bed, Head, 10.20 100), to ambient pieces (Night Nurse, Heaven/ No Heaven) it is unlike any album prior known to man. But fans of the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Brian Eno and Black Flag will not be disappointed. As, of course, fans of The Bear Quartet. Because, odd as it may seem, all the songs featured here on are prime examples of classic BQ song writing. The lyrics may occasionally be in Swedish and the overall mood is darker but the record possess all the elements that we have come to love and expect from this genius lot.
But then comes a new sharp turn, from the slightly dark and introverted to more straightforward pop and rock songs with the release of their commercially most successful album with us, ”Angry Brigade”. An album that contained several popular songs, not least of which the opening track ”Put Me Back Together” attracted a lot of attention.
However, nothing lasts forever. So after this successful album it was time for two more or less obscure albums ”Saturday Night” and ”Eternity Now”. Both have their fine points and there are clearly some bright spots. But these meant financial disasters for us, so after ”Eternity Now” it was thank you and goodbye. From our sid, no hard feelings, except that we had hoped they would have delivered even more pop-adorable hits. Something that we actually knew was a no-brainer, because these bears don’t compromise on anything.
In the continuing saga of the Bear Quartet they released two more albums, before they split up. With that said, what more was it prove – for a band that have done almost everything to such great artistically grandeur. Wherever the Bear Quartet did go, only one thing was for sure: nearly no one’s ever been there before.
But, with a big but, I would have liked to end this story like this: And the story goes on. Whatever happens, one can only imagine what the outcome will be.
The Bear Quartet:
Mattias Alkberg – vocals
Jari Haapalainen – guitars
Peter Nuottaniemi – bass guitar
Jejo Perkovic – drums
Calle Olsson – Keyboards