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Polar Bear

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There is more than one artist with this name:

1) Polar Bear is a British jazz band led by drummer Seb Rochford. Signed to the Babel Label, their first album Dim Lit was a small-scale success. Their second album, Held on the Tips of Fingers, merged elements of cool jazz, funk, dance music, free jazz, electronica, and Drum and Bass, and was a crossover hit, earning Polar Bear a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize in 2005. The success was all the more unusual for a largely instrumental album. The album was nominated for a BBC Jazz Award 2006. They are part of the F-IRE Collective.

Their latest album (titled eponymously, released July 2008) continues much in the vein of their sophomore release, focusing on the fusion of many different styles of jazz. While much more dense and lengthy than their earlier releases, early reviews are speaking highly of it.

2)Polar Bear were a Los Angeles-based band led by former Jane’s Addiction bassist, Eric Avery, who formed the band with Biff Sanders, formerly of Ethyl Meatplow, as a side project. They recorded most of their music in downtown Los Angeles, at Motiv studios. Many Jane’s Addiction fans consider Why Something Instead of Nothing? to be the best post-Jane’s Addiction work done by any of the four original members. It was re-released in 2004.

Tagged as:

jazz, contemporary jazz, experimental, post-jazz, free jazz
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Top Albums

Held on the Tips of Fingers
Polar Bear
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Polar Bear
Polar Bear
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Dim Lit
Polar Bear
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Why Something Instead of Nothing
Polar Bear
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Top Tracks

1	To Touch the Red Brick full track	58
2	Beartown	53
3	Argumentative full track	48
4	Held on the Tips of Fingers full track	46
5	Was Dreaming You Called You Disappeared I Slept full track	44
6	The King of Aberdeen full track	42
7	Your Eyes the Sea full track	41
8	Fluffy (I Want You) full track	40
9	Tay full track	26
10	Goodbye full track	24
10	Appears, Moves And Sails full track	24
12	It Snows Again full track	23
12	Life That Ends Too Soon full track	23
14	Tomlovesalivelovestom full track	22
14	Brian full track	22

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o-o_o-o wrote:
8 days ago

you are the best! so deep. great music!

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stevelawless wrote:
11 days ago

they were great at Brighton Jazz Club

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KapiniuGrazuole wrote:
15 days ago

very...very...extraordinary :)

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TheLeafLabel wrote:
17 days ago

Free exclusive download of title track from new album Peepers here: http://soundcloud.com/benwl/polar-bear-peepers

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adrianoesteves wrote:
October 2009

Great Great Great!

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cherrybl0550ms wrote:
September 2009

They were at LOLA-fest, they were amazing and had such a great energy together, definitely check them out.

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AndyEgg wrote:
September 2009

Had to go out and buy the album today, got nothing solid of yours. Now I have a CD.

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teleol wrote:
August 2009

that's WOW stuff!

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evridikka wrote:
May 2009

wow. absolutely love it. :)

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GoGoJonah wrote:
May 2009

jazzy. i like it.

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Euchrid_Escrow wrote:
April 2009

im desperate to see them live. such a great band!

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experimento69 wrote:
April 2009

For ERIC AVERY's Polar Bear, better use this tag: http://www.lastfm.es/music/Polarbear

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gmaurice wrote:
April 2009

Hi, saw Polar Bear at the Scala and they did an absolutely brilliant track in the middle of their set - it was a lot of start/stop rhythm and incredibly tight jazzy improv over dark elctro coming from the laptop. Can anyone let me know what that track is called? i NEED it :)

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DaveLeRave wrote:
April 2009

Dublin was insanely brilliant

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ComaChameleon wrote:
April 2009

Why Something Instead Of Nothing is honestly an amazing album. A shame the 'original' Polar Bear has not gotten enough credit here.

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armitage_cake wrote:
April 2009

Last night was fucking ill

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platonic_love wrote:
March 2009

beauuutiful

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ShivaSugar wrote:
March 2009

They have the same moniker of an indie group whose leader is Eric Avery former Jane's Addiction...

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HighPlainsDrift wrote:
March 2009

hmmm I feel like they improved with 'Polar Bear'. More experimentation, ambient/electronic sounds melded with longer sequences is excellent.

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nasri_v_pizdy wrote:
February 2009

качество!

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Videos

Events

Feb 19 Polar Bear The Old Market, Hove, East Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom
Add shout | 4 attendees
Feb 20 Polar Bear The Farmhouse, Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom
Add shout | 2 attendees
Feb 24 Polar Bear The Junction, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
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News

me and pamelia kurstin in brighton

11 Oct 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/sebastianrochford

hello, me(seb) and an amazingly gifted thermin called pamelia kurstin are playing a little place called the fairtrade gallery on friday 16th october if you would like to come you can get tickets by ca. …

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new album and new label
30 Sep 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/sebastianrochford
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venetian snare remix
15 Apr 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/sebastianrochford
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another poem by my dad
17 Feb 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/sebastianrochford
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Recent Activity

symphony85 and mountaingnat added Polar Bear to their libraries. 5 hours ago
Sfiera tagged Polar Bear with ‘location:uk:eng:london’. Wednesday afternoon
ham649ton tagged Polar Bear with fusion jazz and avant-garde jazz. Wednesday afternoon
KingCapisce, KevinHuxley, Eva_T and 1 other person added Polar Bear to their libraries. Tuesday evening
o-o_o-o updated the Russian wiki page for Polar Bear. (diff) Sunday afternoon
genencretzite, Herr_Surowica, warmbit and 1 other person added Polar Bear to their libraries. 8 days ago
o-o_o-o tagged Polar Bear with ‘avant jazz’. 11 days ago
FreekinF and GarsdaleSpartak added Polar Bear to their libraries. 14 days ago
pauladaunt connected Polar Bear to the group Europeans who love the rest of the world. 17 days ago
dwall1, NialloRegan and o_b_y added Polar Bear to their libraries. 19 days ago