And now it’s time to forgive, it’s time to leave and let live, I’ve had enough of breaking down, it’s finally time for me to round the bend.

(Actually that might be “live and let live”, but I like the sound of it as it is…)

Named after an obscure Dylan song, Abandoned Love is an American label based first in San Francisco, then Austin and lately in Seatle. They’ve got quite an interesting roster of bands, including a few that are well worth investigating further - Virgin of the Birds, Parker Street Cinema and Nire all sound interesting on listening to the mp3s available at the site.

But I thought the pick of Abandoned Love’s bands was this one.

Grumpy Bear

There seem to be a few Bears around at the moment – I’m aware of a Grizzly Bear, some Art Bears and a Panda Bear off the top of my head – and I haven’t really managed to distinguish between them all. What’s a punter supposed to do?

Well, you could start off by listening to “Luis Bunuel”, a fascinating multi-phased effort from the Abandoned Love bears. Grumpy Bear are Tyler Blake and Lattney B. and are based in Arizona releasing carefully-put-together and somewhat melancholic pop songs that are based around regret and atmospheric synths.

One release came from their collaboration with Abandoned Love, 2006’s Songs from the Abattoir EP, but their Myspace page mentions other releases on other labels, which based on the songs I’ve heard, should be well worth tracking down.

I rather like the Grumpy Bear Myspace page, firstly because it’s one of the few still offering free downloads (three altogether, scholars and gentlemen, I say…), and secondly because it offers these words of wisdom on the band:

“Grumpy Bear has never been accused of "wearing a shit-eating grin," but has been called a "horse's ass," which makes little sense.
Grumpy Bear is not a preferred day-care provider.
Grumpy Bear has never rallied 'round a flag
Grumpy Bear will not be "breaking out" anytime soon
Grumpy Bear was not singing softly outside your window last night. But I was.”

I’m posting a couple of tracks, one from the Abandoned Love site, “Luis Bunuel”; and the second from their Myspace page, the beautiful “Round the Bend”, with vocals from Swedish singer Anna Järvinen – another name to research, I reckon…