Jules Shear, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1952. He is possibly one of most peculiar and adored american “singer- songwriters”. Brilliant, magnificent, controverted, definitively fascinating. He had to wait the covers of Cindy Lauper or The Bangles to obtain at least the recognition of the critics like composer. It has left magnificent moments to us in form of unforgettable songs, and that is the reason to begin to review his albums with diverse bands.
FUNKY KINGSHis first band, “Funky Kings” (1976), when he already moved to Los Angeles. It's not indeed a band of Pop Power, it's a band that took the influences of the American music of that age, Eagles, Jackson Browne… and in fact it was a superband. It also counted between its rows with Jack Tempchin, composer of hits for the mentioned Browne or Emmilou Harris.
In this their first work, the songs composed by him (Let Me Go and Nothing Was Exchanged) already gave us a big idea of which would be later the great "Jules and Polar The Bears."
If you're looking here for an album with heartrendering guitars or power pop melodies, you will take a deception, but really it's a very good disc that the lovers of the sound of the American West Coast will be thankful.
JULES AND THE POLAR BEARSAfter his experience with Funky Kings, Jules Shear formed his own band, The Polar Bears and they signed for Columbia Records. Got No Breeding is a 70's rock album but with the influences of the New Wave. The voice of Jules, peculiar like always, envolve us song by song. A jewel.
Phonetics was released in 1979 ans it follows the same line of "Got no breeding". Perhaps, this had less memorable results, but with good songs like "Good reason", pop in pure state or the beatiful ballads "The Smell Of Home" and "Real Enough To Love". The production was maded by Stephen Hague (Pet Shop Boys, Jane Wiedlin).
In 1980 they released a 7" e.p. called "Economy Package" with four good and previously unreleased songs. The production of The Polar Pair is good and it was the end of the banda until the year 1996.
In 1996, Columbia suprised us with a new Jules And The Polar Bears release. The album recorded in 1980 was unpublished. It contains 13 songs composed by Jules Shear. Like Columbia tells in the art cover, A lost classic !!
They return to the production of Stephen Hague with the own Shear. It has the same formula of the other works with the same results. (Thanks to Power Pop Lovers Blog)
RECKLESS SLEEPERS"You can get isolated in your garret and start falling into patterns," explains songwriter Jules Shear about forming his band, Reckless Sleepers, with guitarist/keyboardist Jimmy Vivino, drummer Steve Holley and bassist Brian Stanley, to record its debut I.R.S. album, Big Boss Sounds. "What's important to me is having these other guys' minds to play off of. It's fun. It's like the first time you had a group. We get together and make up songs."
Ten of which grace the quartet's Scott Litt (R.E.M., dB's, Patti Smith, U2)-produced LP, ranging from the metallic pop of "Tried To Please Her," the horn-laden funk of "Mesmerized," the title track to the British Invasion twang of "Nottinghill Gate" and the soaring trademark Shear ballad, "If We Never Meet Again." There's also a collaboration between Shear and Heartbreaker guitarist Mike Campbell, "This Heart." Eight of the tunes are co-written by Shear and the band. There's metal and spaghetti-Western guitar riffs, Booker T organ, reggae riddims and even the Marlboro Man theme.
"I wasn't looking for guys to get drunk with," says Shear of the genesis of the Sleepers, named after a Magritte painting he spotted in a London museum. The group was founded as a "Led Zeppelin-y" band by Jules and his buddy, Cars guitarist Elliot Easton, to play clubs in Boston and New York. After the addition of a U.K. rhythm section, drummer Steve Holley (who's played with Paul McCartney's Wings, Julian Lennon and Elton John) and bassist Brian Stanley (Bryan Adams and the Beach Boys), the band broke up, Shear being unhappy with the direction, only to reform months later without Easton. New York guitarist Jimmy Vivino now rounded out the group, hailing from an East Coast soul background which included stints with Wilson Pickett, Darlene Love, Ronnie Spector, Dion and Felix Cavaliere. More recently, he was musical director for a James Brown cable special and is producing Laura Nyro's new album
"We went though the process of finding ourselves," says Shear. "We shed a lot of skins in the process. Where we ended up is looser and far more positive sounding."
"I wanted to do something new," says Shear. "I just had to find the perfect guys to do it with. We make the music together. We sit there in the rehearsal room and play until we come up with something we like. It's an organic process. We don't work with drum machines or sequencers. We do it the old-fashioned way."
But Shear is most excited about his latest project. "Everyone in this band has been searching for ways to approach music in a way we can get the most out of it creatively," he explains. "I want to nail down the stuff I have in my head. Doing it myself hasn't been enough. We had to go out and find these other people to help each other."
Reckless Sleepers' Big Boss Sounds is the result of that quest, the optimum performances of the group's material.
"Communication is imperfect," Shear explains. "Music can be a much higher form because it doesn't need words. The music we make is probably more autobiographical than my lyrics. The band has inspired me to go out there and play again, and it's still cool. So who can complain?"
INTERNATIONAL RECORD SYNDICATE, INC.
I.R.S. PRESS RELATIONS (818) 777-4745 • (212) 605-0608 100 Universal City Plaza, Bldg. 422, Universal City, CA 91608. (Extracted from the press kit)
Download links:
Funky Kings - SelftitledJules And The Polar Bears - Got No BreedingJules And The Polar Bears - PhoneticsJules And The Polar Bears - Economy Package [ep]Jules And The Polar Bears - Bad For BusinessReckless Sleepers - Big Boss SoundPwd's: PVAcblog
Bitrate: >256
Funky Kings and Jules and The Polar bears rips courtesy of Power Pop Lovers Blog (Thanks guys)
Here is the rip of an old tape give it to me by the Watermelon Men fan "blue- cartoon". The history of them is written in the other posts. It's a Live Show in Germany in 1986.
