Frugal indie-poppers everywhere can breathe a collective sigh of relief — Slumberland Records has done us a favor.
You no longer have to scour Ebay for those early, long-out-of-print 14 Iced Bears 7's. Slumberland has compiled them on CD, along with eight previously unreleased BBC session tracks, some live cuts and demos. In the Beginning spans 14 Iced Bears’ first two years, from 1985-1987 — the period when some of their best-loved material was released.
But you don’t have to be an indie-popper, frugal or otherwise, to appreciate the Bears’ shambling brand of British pop music. In many ways, 14 Iced Bears epitomized the mid-1980s C-86 sound, despite their exclusion from the New Musical Express C-86 tape compilation for which the musical style is named. (Bands who were featured on the compilation include the Pastels, Primal Scream, McCarthy, and the Wedding Present, all of whom typified this short-lived, yet influential trend in British music.)
The C-86 sound was notable for combining the jangly guitar pop of the Smiths, the three-chord naivety of the Ramones and the nostalgic sweetness of the 60s girl groups.
14 Iced Bears managed to draw on all of these influences and still throw a little psychedelia into the mix. Slumberland Records claims the Bears’ brand of psychedelic pop music combines “the best elements of 60s heroes like the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd and the United States of America with a stripped-down, post-punk sound …”
In the Beginning features classic Bears tracks such as “Cut,” “Balloon Song” (which has been covered by San Francisco pop outfit The Aislers Set), and “Come Get Me.”
It combines the bands’ first three 7”s, and includes unreleased tracks that no collector would be able to turn down. This release chronicles 14 Iced Bears tentative and prolific beginnings — a time when their line-up was nearly as shambling as their sound.
—Meghan Gaynor
