Even voorstellen - Chinese American Bear Announce New Album, ‘Dim Sum & Then Some’

08/05 (moshi moshi/konkurrent)
LIVE 22/09 BOTANIQUE/BXL
april 26 "Turn up The Radio (把收音机开大点)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTfjjjrg2yc
march 26 "All The People (所有人)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1qWWVvICjI

Chinese American Bear, the duo of Anne Tong and Bryce Barsten, today announce their new album Dim Sum & Then Some, due out May 8th via Moshi Moshi Records. The announcement arrives alongside the release of groovy, buoyant lead single "All The People (所有人)." The album is a positive and lighthearted collage of the duo's life together - exploring all the things they love: food, appreciating small joys, the Chinese-American upbringing, love, and fairy tales. 

All The People (所有人) is probably my favorite song on the album," Barsten says. "It’s so fun, light, cool, and a little weird. It’s a song for everyone. All the people. It has some fantasy vibes, musically and lyrically." 

The track is also accompanied by a video directed by Barsten–he explains: 
“The original idea for this music video was to build giant costumes for people to wear, but that quickly became too ambitious of an idea, haha. Then it dawned on me one day to use puppets! It'd still have that tactile/physical feeling, and I could have multiple characters. I made it in my parents basement actually, which feels hilarious to say. I felt like a little 12 year old gremlin, working every day in the depths of the basement.”

“The ‘La La’ characters are all stop motion, frame-by-frame, and then hand puppets are filmed live. I honestly didn't even write out a script or anything for this. I just knew I wanted the puppets singing in a theatre, I wanted the ‘La La’ characters to be like these goofy squads of backup singers, and I wanted puppets to shoot beams of light out of their mouths that turn into a heart for the final build of the song. I had like two tiny lights my dad gave me to light the puppets, but mostly just used the overhead lights in the basement. The whole thing is real DIY, like most things we make, but I put a lot of love and time into giving it life. I think with the coming of AI, it feels even better to make things like this. To be hunched over in my parents basement for hours, excited and inspired, using my hands, and brain.”

Tong expands on the inspiration behind the track: "When Bryce first showed me the sounds for 'All The People', it immediately reminded me of a fantastical setting with castles and fairies so I leaned in that direction with the lyrics. It was fun to write about a topic we hadn’t explored much before. I’ve written a lot on our favorite foods and Chinese culture but hadn’t explored much fantasy. We’re actually both huge fans of fantasy in general (Bryce puts on the Lord of the Rings movies at least twice a month in our household, it’s his comfort background noise).  I also recently started getting into 'Romantasy' (A Court of Thorns and Roses, Fourth Wing, etc.) so I was also in that mindset."

The sounds on Dim Sum... are more musically dense and exploratory, marking a sonic evolution for the duo. The band finds themselves delving much further into experimental territory, while also incorporating more traditional pop elements than they ever have. There's a nice mix of sonics on this album, featuring warbly guitars, hints of psychedelia, pop, disco, and strings, while also incorporating synth driven, electronic, sounds, as well as droney, hypnotic elements. The LP is a true reflection of the Chinese American Bear ethos: open, curious, and lighthearted. 

Chinese American Bear is a lighthearted and quirky mandopop duo from Seattle, creating fun & eclectic bilingual English/Chinese ear candy. Comprised of Anne Tong and Bryce Barsten, the married couple creates groovy, and infectiously fun tunes in their home studio together. Their sound, resulting from the intersection of Barsten's fondness for MGMT, The Flaming Lips, Pond, and Sly Stone, with Tong's classical piano training and love for all things pop (Taylor Swift, Jonas Brothers), have allowed them to carve out their own brand of indelible indie pop. They've earned tens of millions of streams, global acclaim, and have been featured in VOGUE+, Paste Magazine, Under the Radar, celebrated by BBC Radio and KEXP (#1 album), and spotlighted across major Spotify playlists including All New Indie, Indie’s Top 50, Fresh Finds (#1 cover track), Bedroom Pop, Chill Vibes, and more. They toured internationally with the release of their second album Wah!!! including 15 cities in China, multiple trips to the UK, dozens of festivals, and support for the pop star/internet phenomenon Poppy (USA), and Greer (USA). Their music has been featured in the film The Wedding Banquet, Apple TV series Platonic, EA’s new “Skate” video game, an Apple commercial, and more. 

Chinese American Bear Bio:
As Chinese American Bear, married musicians Anne Tong and Bryce Barsten know that the way to a person’s heart is through their stomach. “I remember learning a little Chinese for when I first met Anne’s family, and it was so amazing that you don’t say ‘how are you?’ or ‘what’s going on?’ when you’re greeting someone, you say ‘have you eaten yet?’” Barsten smiles. So when his previous band disbanded and he and Tong started working on music together for the first time, the Seattle-based duo turned to that intimacy and warmth to lyrically match the musical soup of Flaming Lips, Beach Boys, Bee Gees, B-52’s, and Teletubbies that they had been cooking up, peppering their songs with food references to reinforce the filling emotional resonance. And through that fusion, Chinese American Bear started writing music that exposes new listeners to Chinese flavors in their indie pop delicacy and provides a sumptuously nostalgic glow for countless fans in the Asian diaspora who had been craving representation.

“When we started this project, we never intended to have me sing in Chinese, or even for me to sing at all!” Tong laughs. At first, the songs were a pandemic project, Tong just being a “supportive partner” helping Barsten with some ideas and teaching him how to speak a bit of Chinese. But the further along the songs got, the more confident Barsten felt that his wife’s voice just made everything sound better. While she studied classical piano through college, Tong had never trained as a vocalist or sung in a band, but somehow it just fit. 

After moving to the US in elementary school, Tong grew up with a complex relationship to her heritage. She spoke Chinese at home, but she sometimes felt embarrassed to speak it in public. “Kids of immigrants often just want to fit in, to assimilate, especially in school. Japan really exported their culture in the '90s, and in the last 10 to 15 years Korean culture has become huge,” she says. “But we’ve heard from so many fans that hearing me sing in Chinese has made them feel proud to speak Chinese for the first time.” But Chinese American Bear isn’t standing as some self-serious cultural icon. Instead, many of Tong’s lyrics are joyously direct and full of references to dumplings, noodles, and boba tea, both because food is so central to the culture and it’s the perfect way to tap into the nostalgic joy of that special cuisine. “It’s also true that I have a limited vocabulary in Chinese and we love to eat, so it just makes sense,” Tong laughs.

On their single “Take Me To Beijing”, the ties to China hit an even more sentimental root. Built on a clap-along beat, burbling electronics, and washes of synth, Barsten’s composition feels like Architecture in Helsinki by way of Beach House, while Tong’s lyrics recall her beloved childhood summer trips to visit family. “Take me to your hometown/ Let’s drink some oolong tea/ Show me where you first loved/ Show me your family,” she glows, grabbing onto her memories and sharing them with the listener through each new sensation. “I've had Chinese-American fans tell me that the song has made them tear up a little bit, feel emotional,” Tong says proudly.

While that emotional reaction may be a surprise for listeners who first find themselves just grooving to the pristine indie pop, Chinese American Bear’s very existence remains an unexpected adventure for its members. “We truly never set out to be in a band together, and we almost approached it at first as a bit of silly fun,” Tong says. “It was a way to try something “alternative ''after a lifetime of classical music and a strict upbringing pushed towards a traditional career path. And for Bryce it was a way to reset his approach towards songwriting and find his original child-like joy in creating music after spending several intense years in a band that he took much too seriously..” But now that the couple are fully leaning into the project, they’re finding that their fun and passion are joined beautifully in the adventure.

Barsten, meanwhile, grew up on a llama farm in Washington state, playing in a long-running string of folk and rock bands. He and Tong met in high school in Spokane, and dated through college and post-grad time in New York and Chicago before getting married in 2018. And whenever Barsten’s bands weren’t busy in that long stretch, he taught himself how to produce and took odd jobs producing and mixing for other bands. That diverse experience helped him achieve a sound at once immediately familiar and dizzyingly new for Chinese American Bear.

After releasing their first self-titled album Chinese American Bear on their own in 2022, Chinese American Bear first signed to a label in China, while simultaneously building a fervent following in the United States and Europe.  They then signed with Moshi Moshi who released their sophomore album Wah!!! in 2024 and are set to release their third album Dim Sum & Then Some in May 2026.  

Complete with mascot-headed dancers, backup vocalists, and endless enthusiasm, the band’s concerts have been compared to punk shows for toddlers. “We wish we had a budget for a full on giant noodle monster to take the stage. Flaming Lips-esque,” Barsten says. “We just constantly embarrass ourselves on stage in the best way, trying to keep that levity and goofiness.” Consistent with the rest of Chinese American Bear’s work, even that levity has a purpose: bringing a burst of childlike wonder. And by bringing that joy to audiences alongside Tong’s memories and heritage, it feels all the more real. Every slurp of noodles and sip of tea feels at once like a misty ideal and immediate reality translated through Barsten’s immaculately dreamy compositions. "Recording in our little home studio, we could write about what makes us smile on any particular day: food, love, friends, and funny bits about our lives," Tong says. "We are so excited to share that, to play these songs live and put on crazy concerts with an army of dancing dumplings."

Even voorstellen - Kevin Morby - “Little Wide Open”

15/05 (dead oceans/konkurrent)

April 26 “badlands” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_OPPEkz8k0

March 26 “die young” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK5fD0ASbq0

Febr 26 “javelin” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JDL9GAjgeE

LIVE Sat. July 11 – Brugge, BE @ Cactusfestival

Kevin Morby announces his eighth studio album, Little Wide Open, out May 15th via Dead Oceans, and shares its lead single & video, “Javelin" en "Die youg”. Little Wide Open was produced by Aaron Dessner.

“Little Wide Open is set to a backdrop of tangled highways, towns with populations less than 100,000, roadside crosses, a rock and roll romance, coupling butterflies, being an American entertainer, Econoline vans and more,” explains Morby. “This is, without a doubt, the most personal and vulnerable album I’ve ever made. Aaron did a heroic job of holding me back from throwing too many tricks at the songs, and letting my stories stand a bit naked. Despite its title this album is in fact, very wide open.”

Of now’s single, “Javelin,” Morby says: “This is a song I wrote about being in love with someone you keep circling around the globe, relentlessly traveling through the air and down highways, and then returning home alone to middle America. Amelia Meath (Sylvan Esso) shines here, with her incredible vocals. I had invited her into the studio and asked that she create a backing choir out of just her voice - but her presence is so special that her ‘backing vocals’ can’t help but take the lead.”

The accompanying video for “Javelin” stars Morby and friend Caleb Hearon on an ATV driving around the fields and backroads of Missouri, with cameos from Kat

In the summer of 2024, Dessner had asked Morby to support The National at their London show in Crystal Palace Park. Shortly after, Dessner—who was on a hot streak, having produced albums for Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and Gracie Abrams—reached out to Morby to say he’d love to produce his next album. They began recording at Aaron’s Long Pond Studio in Stuyvesant, NY, early in 2025 and finished in September of that year.

The album, which includes a host of contributors such as Dessner—who plays multiple instruments across it— Meath, Justin Vernon, Katie Gavin, Lucinda Williams, Mat Davidson, Meg Duffy, Oliver Hill, Rachel Baiman, Stuart Bogie, Tim Carr, Andrew Barr, Benjamin Lanz, Colin Croom and Tom Moth, has been described by Morby as the third in an unintentional trilogy of releases, following 2020’s Sundowner and 2022’s This Is a Photograph, which catalogued his time in middle America after moving back to Kansas City. This time out, Dessner’s production elevates Morby’s recordings while never losing focus of the songs themselves. There’s a newfound confidence and clarity in both Morby’s writing and Dessner’s production that recalls Tom Petty’s 1994 classic Wildflowers. Now primarily living in LA, the atmosphere that runs through Little Wide Open has changed somewhat from its predecessors. The feeling of restlessly hurtling towards something new. A future unseen and untested, but inevitable.

Kevin’s friend, critically acclaimed novelist Rachel Kushner, has written an astonishing essay about Little Wide Open, entitled “Field Guide to the North American Troubadour.” Rather than mangle or chop up the work for the purposes of fitting something so artistically written into the format of a press release, please read her full essay below.

Little Wide Open Tracklist

1. Badlands
2. Die Young
3. Javelin
4. All Sinners
5. Natural Disaster
6. 100,000
7. Little Wide Open
8. Cowtown
9. Bible Belt
10. I Ride Passenger
11. Junebug
12. Dandelion
13. Field Guide for the Butterflies