September 23, 2009

The 'Gum Drop CVII: Hear New Bear In Heaven, Win A Pearl Jam Guitar

thubmnail icon: The 'Gum Drop CVII: Hear New Bear In Heaven, Win A Pearl Jam Guitar

Brooklyn quartet Bear In Heaven's second full-length Beast Rest Forth Mouth is out 10/13 on Hometapes. Before that, the collection's first single "Wholehearted Mess" shows up on a 12" EP with three remixes. In this week's Drop, we asked Bear founder Jon Philpot about the song and our favorite re-visioning, courtesy of Philadelphia's Pink Skull. We couldn't fit the entire response in the Drop, but you can read the whole thing here, after you take a listen.

STEREOGUM: What's the song's narrative?

JON PHILPOT: It's about a messed up mom and her kid. Their car overheated and they're stranded on the highway. And It's hot outside -- 92 in the shade. She asks the kid to get out of the car so they can walk for help and he says no. He just wants things to be right. Why can't we just be normal like everyone else? Trying to convince him to go, she sings him a song about how it'll be fine -- she wishes for help, gets none and leaves. I'm not advocating irresponsible parenthood. It is a party-ish song. It's sort of cathartic for me. The first car I bought was a piece of crap, used Chrysler Lebaron. It always overheated. I remember working so hard for that damn thing and it just took over my life. Strange how "things" can do that ... At times, I think we all feel like the mom or we feel like the kid, sometimes we feel like the car. So scream out your window, cut loose, freak out and then get back in the game. People depend on you.

STEREOGUM: Do you think the Pink Skull's reworking shifts the meaning?

JP: They totally flipped the track. Cut out all the words except for the first line and the word NO ... over and over again. It's genius! They changed the perspective and the meaning. You could say it's from the kid's perspective. No, I'm not going. No, I'm not listening to you. No, I won't let you hear the words in this song. Then you become the Mom. No... No.... No...

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A connective aside: Bear In Heaven play a show with Pink Skull 10/14 at Kung Fu Necktie in Philadelphia. You'll find more tour dates at MySpace.

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This week we also offered the chance to win a custom Gibson Pearl Jam guitar and the just-released Backspacer on vinyl. One winner gets the custom Gibson Pearl Jam guitar, featuring an element from the Backspacer album art. This is what it looks like: