THE ANTLERS: THE BEAR
Discosalt Video of the Week 2/21/10: Official music video for The Antlers song “Bear” from their album Hospice on Frenchkiss Records, directed by Evan Owen Dennis.
Last night I had the good fortune to catch The Antlers perform at Terminal 5. Their live show, like their album, is a testament to the bands creative ability to deliver grandiose and yet intimate smart indie rock. Written by Pete Silberman over the course of two years in his Brooklyn apartment, Hospice tells the story of a man who is slowly losing the love of his life to bone cancer, but was written “as a way to cope with the illness and death of someone who was close to him, but abusive.” (boniver 7.9.09) Its a concept album, woven together by intimate stories that build into the albums greater theme: The idea that sometimes in life, love is not enough to save someone and despite being in love, two people can do enormous damage on one another. By giving the abuser cancer, Silberman illustrates that people can act abusively in a relationship, not because they are monsters, but because they are sick and terrified and both physically and mentally drained from the experience. This is an album about helplessness, guilt and loss.
“The Bear” is the 5th track on Hospice. A curious song which uses images of an abortion. Seemingly out of place, this image actually ties in with Silberman’s theme, if you think about the song being about an abortion of commitment. An abortion of a dangerously co-dependent relationship between two people who share a dark secret, or have created something that only they know and understand. The bear comes to represent the ominous ties of commitment, like a baby but wild like a bear, which eventually overwhelms the couple. Being only 20, but feeling old,the sickness of the relationship has aged them both. They are terrified of one another and what their commitment means. In the end, they “cut the bear from beneath” and end the relationship. The cut, the song and the album run deep.
The Antlers – Bear from Evan Owen Dennis on Vimeo.
