Paw Tracks: Bear Hands

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THE WOOLY WORLD of music blogs has empowered thousands of typers to create their own fanzines and hype their new favorite bands. But a lot of those groups don't come to the music bloggers by chance; entire PR divisions (and even whole companies) are dedicated to spreading the music of the bands who have hired them, hitting up everyone from the online divisions of print mags like Spin, right down to the lastest e-zine to make its way into the Elbo.ws music-blog aggregator.

One band that has been helped immensely by bloggers — and, if the trend continues, be hindered by them eventually (c.f., The Black Kids, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Tapes 'n Tapes, etc.) — is Bear Hands. The group has just two years and a self-released four-song EP under your collective belt, yet its already managed to tour Europe, be called one of the "Top Bands of 2008" by Alternative Press and open for Ted Leo, MGMT, Vampire Weekend, Ra Ra Riot and more.

The currently unsigned four-piece group evokes classic indie rock: the loose energy of Pavement, the rhythmic displacement of Modest Mouse and the soaring guitar-rock melodies captured on numerous 7-inch single A-sides released circa 1993. (Stream much of the "Golden" EP, new songs and remixes on the band's MySpace page.)

The Brooklyn-based, Connecticut-born Bear Hands are sandwiched between Statehood (ex-Dismemberment Plan) and Tigercity on Jan. 10 at Rock and Roll Hotel. Express asked five quick questions to singer-songwriter Dylan Rau.

» EXPRESS: You've created buzz very quickly. Any sense of how that happened?
» RAU: In an acute sense, I can obviously identify when and where we picked up a manager or started playing cool shows, but broadly it's more difficult to say. We really just try and write songs and perform them the best we can and essentially let the business side float along next to us. This may prove costly. We've been talking to a number of labels. I can say that we will be releasing a single on Too Pure on March 2.

» EXPRESS: When you brought the songs to those early practices, did the compositions have such rhythmic foundations, or were they folkier? And did you already know you wanted to push the rhythms far into the foreground, a la Modest Mouse?
» RAU: I definitely still write a majority of the songs on acoustic guitar before turning them into Bear Hands songs. This lends itself to a folk aesthetic, although I wasn't really interested in doing that kind of thing as a consistent live entity. As soon as I bring the songs to the band, they tend to do whatever they want with them.

» EXPRESS: How do the songs differ when you play live? I can hear them being turned into a sprawling blast because of the rhythms.
» RAU: I think we have a lot of songs that are loud and fast, and sometimes live they get louder and faster. We've been trying to rectify that. Usually we play about eight to 10 songs.

» EXPRESS: I loved the description you gave of Bear Hands to Alternative Press: "skinny music for skinny people". It seems to me that it was a clever way of saying "indie rock," a way of embracing the term creatively and not running away from it.
» RAU: Honestly, talking about the generic classification of bands doesn't really interest me anymore. Anyone can claim to be anything and I would like to be able to accept that. Being called indie rock doesn't offend me. I've casually called the band indie rock before. It's easy.

» EXPRESS: When do you think you'll record your debut album? Any artist or producer that you'd like to work with?
» RAU: I think we'll be able to finish the record in the coming months. I would love to work with Brian Eno, obviously; Swizz Beats, Rusty Santos, etc. I really love this band from Australia called Empire of the Sun. They are so, so fresh.

» Rock and Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NE; with Statehood and Tigercity, Sat., Jan. 10, 9:30 p.m., $10; 202-388-7625.