Polar Bear Club are a band I came across one night back in 2008 while I was sitting in my room at my old house on 8th St. in West Oakland snatching up a random records off iTunes for an impending two week vacation to New York City. I had been downloading anything that would fall under the general pop punk/melodic hardcore catagory, and the iTunes music store suggested I check them out. I remember thinking "what the fuck kind of name is Polar Bear Club?" I ultimately said "fuggit" and bought Sometimes Things Just Disappear on a whim. Needless to say, I was blown away. Growing up during the golden age of what some, but not all people call "emo" in the mid-90s, it had been a very long time since I had heard any band nail that sound since The Promise Ring broke up.
As (mis)fortune would have it, Polar Bear Club happened to be touring California when I was going to be in New York, so I totally missed seeing them on their first US tour, but ended up seeing them about eight months later with Living With Lions in San Francisco, where their live show actually moved me to stagedive for what could have been the first time in 2009. After that gig it was sealed: I was a diehard Polar Bear Club fan.
Their previous full length, Chasing Hamburg was good, but as the album progressed, it lost the overall intensity and ferocity of their earlier releases (not to say that there weren't some bangers on it though). I don't fault the band for that. Writing an album is incredibly difficult. I was definitely curious to hear Clash Battle Guilt Pride, but after not loving Chasing Hamburg, I was expecting the record to lack the intensity that drew me into the band in the first place. Like so many other times in my life, I couldn't have been more wrong. If Chasing Hamburg shined grit and ferocity for pop sensibility, Polar Bear Club managed to blend both elements flawlessly on Clash Battle Guilt Pride. The opening track, "Pawner", is one of those opening tracks that sets the tone for an entire album, triggering that excited, antsy feeling in your gut when you just know you're in for one hell of a good time. Polar Bear Club dance on that fine line between accessibility and intensity for the remainder of the album, delivering stand out songs like "Killin' It", "Life Between The Lines", and "I'll Never Leave New York". Pop punk and melodic hardcore continue to be watered down by so many subpar Warped Tour bands or by kids who got tired of playing mosh metal and want to try their hand at "making it big". Polar Bear Club evoke the overall feel of an era of hardcore and emo that remains a not too distant memory for some of us, but continues to fade further in the rearview mirror as each year goes by. Clash Battle Guilt Pride is outstanding, and highly recommended by us at Freelance Fiend. It drops later this month on Bridge 9 Records.
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