Talking About Commas
"Gentle music with honest lyrics, this CD muses thoughtfully on the hectic modern lifestyle." - Beeb Ashcroft (Indie-Music.com)
"Connelly is apparently new to the folk scene, though audiences will be hard pressed to tell. Superior acoustic skills trickle all over [Sick of Blocking Out the] Sun, paired most often with a slightly country-fried slide guitar and Connelly’s own pristine vocal effort." - Kevin Leidel (muzikreviews.com)
"Its all very nice to listen to. Reminds me of if Morrissey were to have made music I liked. Tres cool" - Brad Barr (The Slip, Surprise Me Mr. Davis)
The Story of Talking About Commas
The concept for Talking About Commas was conceived in 2001 in Saratoga Springs, NY. While earning a music degree from Skidmore College, Bear Connelly started recording the original compositions he had been writing for the previous 5 years. In the Spring of 2001, Bear gained access to the school's recording studio and over the next year and a half recorded his debut album, 2002's Variations on Descending Patterns.
Upon graduating, Bear moved out west (first to Bozeman, Montana) in search of new surroundings and kindred musical spirits. A year later, while living in Colorado, he began to using the moniker "Talking About Commas" for his (at that point) studio-only one man band. Bear has played guitar, piano, bass, drums, Rhodes, congas, melodica, synthesized strings, and mandolin on TAC's first four releases and often sings his own harmonies. In 2005, TAC released a collection of home recordings dubbed 4-Track and Forget: Crude Home Recordings and Other Assorted Attempts at Enlightenment compiled from 5 years of demo tapes.
From 2004-2007 Bear lived in Lake Tahoe, CA. There he co-founded the band Two Out Rally with childhood friend Dan Hurley. While touring almost exclusively with Two Out Rally and The White Thighs, Bear continued to write and record songs for Talking About Commas and played some solo acoustic shows of TAC material in both Lake Tahoe and San Francisco. While in California, Bear released both of TAC's digital EP's (2006's Love is the Other Side of the Fence and 2007's The Blue River EP) through SNOCAP's online music store. Both EP's were recorded in Bear's home studio which lead to him experimenting with a wide array of synthetic sound textures not possible with acoustic instruments.
In August of 2007, Bear returned to his roots and moved back to Rhode Island. There he plans to record and tour as Talking About Commas full-time. Some shows will be solo acoustic efforts and some will find Bear accompanied by a band. You may also find him popping up onstage as a multi-instrumentalist with The White Thighs and playing as the acoustic duo Title Waive with Dan Hurley - who now plays with SF based indie rockers Big Light.
Talking About Commas' first LP on Rhody Records was released in July of 2008. The album, "Sick of Blocking Out the Sun", was recorded by engineer/musician, Pete Morse at Busted Barn Studios in Freeport, ME. It features Morse on electric guitar, lap and pedal steel guitars and bass, Stefen Samuels (of Portland Maine prog-rockers "Eldemur Krimm") on drums and a cameo by RI songstress Allysen Callery on the song "Plea Bargain". It was manufactured by Oasis and produced by Tom Newman.
In December of 2008, producer and bassist, Tom Newman joined the live configuration of Talking About Commas. After a couple shows as a duo, the band added drummer Ethan Fry to the mix and are now a trio. With the existence of the trio, Bear has started to play electric guitar more while the band explores new arrangements for the previously acoustic Commas material. The Trio made their live debut at the All Asia Bar in Cambridge, MA in March of 2009.