Wednesday Bears: New Miike Snow video - The Wave

I don't think anyone is sure what this mass desert murder video for Miike Snow's "The Wave" really means, but the male figure looks a lot like central character in Xavier: Renegade Angel. Don't remember it? No one is getting mad at you for not. Watch the video below and grab the group's new album Happy To You now.

New Miike Snow - Paddling Out

Last month, Miike Snow (not a single guy, remember) debuted "Devil's Work," the group's newest work since 2009's self-titled release. And in anticipation for the release of Happy to You, which is due out very soon, but still doesn't have a specific date, the group released "Paddling Out." Listen to it below, and catch the band's upcoming tour (dates listed here.)

Paddling Out by miikesnow

Late Night Bears: New Miike Snow - Devil's Work

More than two years after the release of Swedish group Miike Snow's eponymous debut, we get our first taste of the trio's upcoming sophomore campaign with "Devil's Work," which is due out sometime early 2012.

Listen below courtesy of Exclaim.

Devil's Work by miikesnow

Bears and Bullets Top 25 Songs of 2009 (Pt. III)

We'll continue our top 25 countdown with songs #15 through #11.

#15: Lust for Life - Girls

"Lust for Life," opened Girls debut Album with a long stretch of wishes and desires, asking for really the most simple things, but end up getting less than nothing. That "brand new start" lead singer Christopher Owens sings about comes at the back end of everything, after he realizes that those wishes, realistic or not, aren't going to happen. Despite the uplifting harmonies, percussion and tambourine, the song splits between sobering and gleeful, knowing that Owens never ends up getting the "boyfriend," "pizza," or "beach house." And yet the hand-clapped led second verse with the rest of the band filling in delightful 60's California harmonies makes you almost forget how much you can screw up before anything goes right.

Girls - Lust for Life - MP3

#14: Animal - Miike Snow

There's something oddly chilling about Miike Snow's "Animal." The production of each and every beat leading into and ending the four-and-a-half minute song is so precise that the rough idea of human's basic instincts and flaws and they're downfall seems almost counter-intuitive. What is heard, however, is one of the year's more catchy and accessible indie hits.

Miike Snow - Animal

#13: Summertime Clothes - Animal Collective

The first of several Animal Collective songs on this year's list, "Summertime Clothes" is a casually inviting spin into the Baltimore band's engulfing psychedelic pop. The jumpy, blippy, starry summer night single stood in the shadows of "My Girls," during Merriweather Post Pavilion's reign over 2009, but many argue that it surpasses it in excellence. While that may be here or there, "Summertime Clothes" deserves its due recognition.

Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes

#12: Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

The charging anthem of It's Blitz!, "Zero" ushers in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs first and best attempt to bring electro-charged pop to the Brooklyn band's garage-driven sound. When Karen O's voice rises with the "climb, climb, climb," guitarist Nick Zinner's pulsating melody enriches, pushes, and explodes, climbing higher and higher until "Zero's" breaking point. And that "Zero," despite being who they are, sound bigger than ever.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero (Live on Letterman)

#11: Swim (To Reach the End) - Surfer Blood

"Swim"'s endless Weezer-esque comparisons are becoming a tad null. Weezer, at their mid-90's peak resembled something close to what Surfer Blood were able to churn out -- the driving hooks, insatiable fuzzy riffs, pounding drums and chanting chorus -- but that 90's band is long gone. "Swim" sounds more complete, refreshing and tauntingly infectious than anything on Raditude, while keeping a keen ear of sincerity in the mix. The song doesn't belong in the 90's, or anywhere else really - it's pop in an endless form, that sounds similar and different after each listen.

Surfer Blood - Swim (To Reach the End) - MP3

Check Back Later for Tracks #10-#1

Monday Bears: New Mike Snow Video - Black & Blue

Swedish band Miike Snow, which up until this point I thought was the name of lead singer/songwriter Andrew Wyatt, have released the second video from their self-titled full-length debut for their single "Black & Blue."

The video features an old bearded man in the mold of a modern day Davinci constructing visionary musical masterpieces (we'd like to think), motivating him to leave his musical cave to the beauty of the outside world.

The group is currently touring Canada and the Mid-Western U.S., and will eventually hit the Pacific coast before venturing back to Europe, so it should be a significant amount of time before they come back to the East coast.

Miike Snow - Black & Blue