Minus the Bear / Chin Up Chin Up

7 p.m. Monday, May 14. Pop's (1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois).

May 9, 2007 at 4:00 am

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Minus the Bear has come a long way since 2001, when it began as a side project of various Seattle bands. Back then the calculus-rock-loving group was fond of pairing goofball song titles (i.e. "Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse") with equally fanciful songs that burst with proggy keyboard melodies and slyly danceable beats. Each successive release has found the band toning down the humor in favor of complex emotional explorations — culminating in last year's Interpretaciones del Oso ("Interpretations of the Bear"), a solid remix disc on which P.O.S., the Blood Brothers, IQU and others deconstructed 2005's Menos el Oso ("Minus the Bear"). The band plans to showcase Interpretaciones and some new songs from the August-released Planet of Ice on this tour. Like-minded electro-prog space cadets Chin Up Chin Up open.