HEY, if you live in the USA and/or somewhere in the world that isn't lil ol New Zealand, then you can still purchase our debut album XIONG MAO. We would love you forever if you could do this as we make next to nothing off this stuff and it would be so good if we could recoup costs and afford to record an even more amazing album next year and then fly to YOU.

CD Baby is this great site that will ship to all sorts of places and sells MP3s. It will probably be up on iTunes all over the world soon too. All our love xo

Click HERE to visit Bear Cat on CD Baby

So ummm... if you live in NZ - in fact - even if you live overseas, you can buy our album Xiong Mao electronically or via CD mail order. If you could do this it would help us heaps. As we work real hard on this music but are still very very broke.

We have our album up on Amplifier.co.nz at this site: Amplifier.co.nz  ... go there and you can also take a look at the wonderful album art.

It's just $14.95 New Zealand dollars to buy the mp3s, or $25.95 to order the CD. The artwork is particularly spectacular. It is also available on NZ iTunes, though you need to live in NZ to access it there.

Our CD/mp3s will soon be available more widely for the rest of the world through the magic of www.cdbaby.com ... but if you can't wait til then, www.amplifier.co.nz is the best place to go.



Here is a bio/press release thing about Xiong Mao with all that typical self-congratulatory press release stuff...


................

Bear Cat @ Cassette #9
ALBUM RELEASE PARTY
with Cool Rainbows and Great North

Bear Cat are finally releasing an album. It is called Xiong Mao, literally 'Bear Cat' in Chinese.

Xiong Mao is the culmination of two years on and off recording. It cements in posterity a set of songs heavily obsessed with pandas, overflowing with disparate (sometimes ill-advised) ideas, grandly arranged with everything from trumpets to typewriters, to triangle, violins and omnichord.

We will be joined on stage by a full band, as we attempt to recreate the album on the night. The album will be on sale for a special price. Xiong Mao's artwork was created by Andrew de Freitas and it looks amazing.

In support we will have Cool Rainbows - the project of the hugely talented Djeisan Suskov (who recently joined Cut Off Your Hands)... with classic hooks married to futurstic Animal Collective-like production. Hear him here: www.myspace.com/djeisansuskov

and we'll be pleasantly joined by Great North, which is the soulful alt-country stylings of Hayden Donnell and his masterful band. They sing their wisened songs with voices full of whiskey and pain and are devastating stages nightly these days. They've recently recorded an EP with Dave Parker. Hear Great North here: http://www.myspace.com/greatnorthmusic

Cassette can get pretty busy, but we would LOVE to see you and play for you, so come a little early and avoid the line. It's a wonderful venue with nicely priced beverages and great sound.

Umm, just being about five years behind technology... the usual. Follow us on Twitter if you like :)

http://twitter.com/xiongmaobearcat

Online mixtape for Warsaw Radio
"Walking in the rain, wishing on a star, and being so in love..."
Recently Bear Cat were asked to put together an online mixtape for Warsaw Radio - which is a lovely website which puts together themed 9-song mixtapes from bands. I sent them a mixtape themed Walking In The Rain. You can listen to the mixtape here http://www.warsaw-radio.blogspot.com/  Sorry if the mixtape bears similarity to one that I made you, these were the songs that were bouncing around my head especially in recent months.


Shows
We recently played some wonderful shows lately opening for Connan Mockasin and Matt & Kim respectively... Cassette Number 9 has the nicest sound system and both of these bands were so inspiring in their own ways. Thanks for having us Matthew/Strange News!


Music videos
Bear Cat fans in American are 200% more prolific than us when it comes to making music videos.
Red Panda Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og8tnL5OFyM

B/W Hair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma9nyH08LqQ

"Super cute red panda attack" (not actually a song by us per se... but topical/amazing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=occw-8sSao4

These are great. But if you're a swell aspiring director and ever wanna make us a video... y'know, don't be coy!


Recordings
While waiting for finished artwork for our debut, in the meantime have been writing a bunch of new songs, mostly about sharks and basketball and true love and greatest fears and animals and people going wild (but y'know, not in a sexy way)... but I think we will wait til we have a whole bevy of finished songs before we record again - this time in a more concerted, concentrated fashion (here's hoping). Almost 100% our new songs will include 100% more recorder solos.

Please do attend the Matt & Kim show on May 6. We are opening for this fun band. Matt & Kim are from the USA. They have been touring with Cut Copy and they were recently announced to be performing at the Pitchfork Music Festival 2009. No big deal. Lots of music nerds love Pitchfork.

But Auckland is way cooler than that. And you can see them play there for just $15, which is pretty crazy for an international band. Matt & Kim are a fun party band. I like fun parties.

We will be playing with drums and violin, so if you haven't seen the expanded Bear Cat lineup with Romelli and Alex on these instruments then this would be the perfect opportunity.

I hope your week is going swimmingly.

xo

DAN

if you live in Wellington you might like to come and spend some time with us and our friends the Sing Songs and Teacups. plus a special performance of christmas carols.

Wow. We played at the Bunker Hill Folk Review last night and I cannot speak highly enough of this fine institution.

1. It is in an actual war bunker
2. It is kitted out with posters, an extensive music library + free tea and coffee
3. DIY bar w/ honesty box for $2 beers

I cannot believe that a council ever agreed to allow a war bunker on Devonport's Mount Victoria to become a club house for folk singers. It just seems like one of those things where councils would go... 'oh no, that would be much too... errr... difficult to allow'. I mean, y'know, red tape, there's absolutely no limit to the perfectly reasonable requests that bureaucracy can deny. So for one, I'm incredulous that this place actually exists.

And what a wonderful thing that it does. We had a magical time. I don't think of us as a folk band at all... in a musical sense I think I'm trying to make something that's closer to pop music or rock and roll, but I love the tradition of folk songs as stories. And sheesh, the people there were streets ahead of the average singer songwriter you'd see in a bar. It made me think how much better a lot of young folky kinda acts could be if they went along to this place and learned from the old folk. It made me feel very intimidated to perform, but we felt so privileged to be invited in. The place has a wonderful feeling of community and history, everyone is friendly and they have wonderful singing voices. Huge thanks to Richard for organising to have us.

Richard has been organising a series of events called the Bunker Hill Folk Review, which was what we played last night... from what I gather it's aimed at trying to get some younger people involved in this beautiful tradition. They also run a regular Devonport Folk Club night on Mondays.... (I think at 8pm?) which would be well worth going to. But as an intro to the place, you should add Bunker Hill Folk Review to your friends list and stay updated with what they're doing... Richard said they're trying to get Teacups and Hayden Donnell to play out there at some point which would be great.

So yeah, they're in our top friends, or go to this site here

Oh gosh, honestly, it was magical.