Bear Hands are a post-punk/indie rock band. The group consist of Dylan Rau (vocals/guitar), Val Loper (bass), Ted Feldman (guitar), and TJ Orscher (drums). The group formed in New York in 2006, and signed with Cantora Records four years later upon the release of their debut single “What a Drag.”
Bear Hands first EP, Golden, was released in 2007, and became a “New York Buzz Band” due to popular blog features. Their debut album, Burning Bush Supper Club, was released in 2010, and the band toured as the opening act for Passion Pit, Gza, and We Were Promised Jetpacks. Their leading single “Giants” off of their debut became a top ten hit on the Alternative Songs chart in mid-2014. Bear Hands also got to open up for MGMT, due to the fact Rau had been classmates with MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser at Wesleyan, and thus landed the gig as the band’s opening act.
Discussing the formation of the band during an interview at SXSW, drummer TJ Orscher was quoted saying,
“Dylan had some material he wanted to put with a band, and a project Val and I were working on for the last half decade just ended. He said he knew the perfect guitarist and when we met up and played for the first time, as cliche as it may be, everything just clicked. We started writing material together, fleshing songs out and started playing some local shows around NYC. We fight like brothers and love like mothers. The rest is magic.”
Bear Hand with Wild Party at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Doors: 8 PM
All Ages