Basting and bored, Christian Gibbs still had hours to go. It was summer, and the Brooklyn singer-songwriter had just begun a 12-hour security guard shift by the Whitestone Bridge in Queens. Sitting alone in his sticky van and watching bread trucks emerge from a nearby factory, Gibbs pulled out his guitar. He began playing a clipped, minor riff. Slowly, he sang a series of short, fragile phrases in a light tenor: “Fought the bear, fought the bear with my bare hands/Whitestone bear, at the factory’s idle hands/It’s lonely here, loneliness is big like bears/Fought the bear, fought the bear with my bare hands.”
A couple of months later, Gibbs recruited instrumentalists from his borough’s folk scene—Mike Cohen on bass, Kristin Mueller on drums, Chad Hammer on cello and Clare Burson on violin—to form Lucinda Black Bear. They released ‘Capo My Heart’ and Other Bear Songs in November.
On record, “Fought the Bear,” the song he wrote while on that shift, swells with tense percussion and dissonant strings, merging the melancholy lo-fi pop of Elliott Smith and Sparklehorse with Nick Cave’s dark aggression. NPR’s “All Songs Considered” recently named the album one of 2007’s most innovative.
“Neil Young or Tom Waits can release a country record and then release a record in whatever other style they want,” Gibbs says. “I wanted to play with different people, I wanted to stay excited and I wanted strings.”
The California native began his career at age 20 when he responded to a London newspaper advertisement for a guitarist and joined Modern English, the group best known for its 1982 single, “I Melt With You.” “One thing I would advise people is that, when you’re young, make sure your roadies don’t get paid more than you do,” Gibbs jokes about his early days.
After leaving Modern English, Gibbs led mid-’90s blues-rock band The Morning Glories. He embarked on a solo career, temporarily signing to Atlantic before self-releasing his material, including a 2005 steel guitar-infused gothic Americana album, Parade of Small Horses.
“I love Elliott Smith and John Vanderslice and the Flaming Lips; some of my past projects haven’t always reflected that side of me,” Gibbs says. “I really like old blues finger-picking stuff, but I also like textured stuff that’s a bit more innovative with instrumentation, key changes and technology.”
Lucinda Black Bear’s “Here I Am,” with its mournful harmonica, folk guitar, cello and rough baritone, ties Gibbs’ new band to his sonic roots. “‘Here I Am’ is about struggling with being reliant on things—it could be drugs, it could be lust,” Gibbs says. “I don’t like to give it all away, but that song is more about a thing than a person.”
And with six or seven songs already written, Gibbs promises the band will have a sophomore release. “It’s exciting—like moving to a new city,” he says, adding that the show at Union Hall this week “is going to feature strings and it’s not going to be barn-storming country songs. I wanted to give people a choice … That’s a lie. I just wanted to do something completely different.”
Jan. 18, Union Hall, 702 Union St. (at 5th Ave.), Park Slope, B’klyn, 718-638-4400; 8, $8.
A couple of months later, Gibbs recruited instrumentalists from his borough’s folk scene—Mike Cohen on bass, Kristin Mueller on drums, Chad Hammer on cello and Clare Burson on violin—to form Lucinda Black Bear. They released ‘Capo My Heart’ and Other Bear Songs in November.
On record, “Fought the Bear,” the song he wrote while on that shift, swells with tense percussion and dissonant strings, merging the melancholy lo-fi pop of Elliott Smith and Sparklehorse with Nick Cave’s dark aggression. NPR’s “All Songs Considered” recently named the album one of 2007’s most innovative.
“Neil Young or Tom Waits can release a country record and then release a record in whatever other style they want,” Gibbs says. “I wanted to play with different people, I wanted to stay excited and I wanted strings.”
The California native began his career at age 20 when he responded to a London newspaper advertisement for a guitarist and joined Modern English, the group best known for its 1982 single, “I Melt With You.” “One thing I would advise people is that, when you’re young, make sure your roadies don’t get paid more than you do,” Gibbs jokes about his early days.
After leaving Modern English, Gibbs led mid-’90s blues-rock band The Morning Glories. He embarked on a solo career, temporarily signing to Atlantic before self-releasing his material, including a 2005 steel guitar-infused gothic Americana album, Parade of Small Horses.
“I love Elliott Smith and John Vanderslice and the Flaming Lips; some of my past projects haven’t always reflected that side of me,” Gibbs says. “I really like old blues finger-picking stuff, but I also like textured stuff that’s a bit more innovative with instrumentation, key changes and technology.”
Lucinda Black Bear’s “Here I Am,” with its mournful harmonica, folk guitar, cello and rough baritone, ties Gibbs’ new band to his sonic roots. “‘Here I Am’ is about struggling with being reliant on things—it could be drugs, it could be lust,” Gibbs says. “I don’t like to give it all away, but that song is more about a thing than a person.”
And with six or seven songs already written, Gibbs promises the band will have a sophomore release. “It’s exciting—like moving to a new city,” he says, adding that the show at Union Hall this week “is going to feature strings and it’s not going to be barn-storming country songs. I wanted to give people a choice … That’s a lie. I just wanted to do something completely different.”
Jan. 18, Union Hall, 702 Union St. (at 5th Ave.), Park Slope, B’klyn, 718-638-4400; 8, $8.
