#2 bears

Melbourne post-rockers The Boats do not work fast.  Their first album was recorded in 2004 and released in 2007.  Their second was recorded in 2006/07 and released in  2015.  Their latest was recorded in 2017 and released in 2023 as a celebration of their 20th anniversary as a band.  Still, taking one’s time can sometimes be a good thing.  In this case, it allowed for remixing, mastering and…

To coincide with our 20th anniversary as a band, we are proud to release our long awaited new album ‘2 Bears’ on the 20th of May 2023. Way back in May 2003, we crammed into a garage and had our first jam together. The result was an instant musical connection, born out of our love for post-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock bands of the 1960s & 70s, including experimental music.

It’s a connection that has continued throughout the years, even through our ups and downs – bringing us to our latest, and perhaps most eclectic and ambitious album yet: ‘2 Bears’. Recorded by Neil Thomason at Head Gap over two days in March 2017, we laid down 9 tracks to analog tape with an additional track recorded soon afterwards. Overdubs and preliminary mixes were also completed in late 2017.

Once the the pandemic arrived, the album was naturally pushed back, again. However, it gave Jonathan the opportunity to remix the entire album from scratch, reworking tracks such as ‘For Juno’ and ‘The Hunter’.

The album was mastered by Joe Carra in 2022, and then we waited… and waited for the album to be pressed to double vinyl. But after some minor hiccups, the wait has paid off. So it goes without saying, we are damn excited to finally release this critter to the world.

‘2 Bears’ is now available on all streaming services. But more importantly, our limited edition double vinyl is now available for order on Bandcamp, including a lossless digital version.

We really hope you enjoy the journey into the wild that is ‘2 Bears’.

the boats

There has been a further delay on the release of 2 Bears. However, Byron and Conolly are finalizing distribution and final track listing etc. Now expected to be released early 2019.

Recorded by Neil Thomason and mixed and co-produced by J. Byron. 2 Bears is a strange and wondrous journey from suburban sprawl and back into the deep woods, as man questions the nature of his inner animal.

The album was successfully crowd funded with Pozible, however the initial release will be digital with a further delay on the vinyl pressing.