The Bell Jar - I Infest, Therefore I Am (August 17, 2018) Album

The Bell Jar have announced their debut album, I Infest, Therefore I Am. The Bell Jar is made up of the remnants of former Tooth & Nail Records band Showbread.

The album will be released on 10th August.

A song titled 'Toxic Shock Syndrome' gives an indication of what the album may sound like. Josh Dies describes the project as a "dance-punk electro industrial noise rock band".

It was initially available for pre-order with the band choosing an unconventional strategy - if enough people didn't pre-order the album by 1st July 2018 they would destroy the masters and the album will literally cease to exist. At this point they would have refunded those who pre-ordered.

The album was fully funded and will be released on August 10th. Those who pre-ordered it will receive it early.

 

I wasn't a huge fan of Showbread's later stuff, but I like the energy on this song. Getting some Shiny Toy Guns vibes with the female vocals.

I find it a little hilarious that they're basically holding the album hostage unless they make enough pre-order money.

 

Yes they never seem to do things in a normal way.

I liked the final Showbread album to an extent but some of the preceding albums did very little for me. Nothing touched their earlier albums for T&N.

In contrast, this sounds a lot more interesting and I agree about the energy. Having female vocals does make a difference here.

 

Cancer is hands-down my favorite Showbread album, I also really enjoyed Who Can Know It when it came out. Showdead is a solid album, just not the style I leann towards these days.

 

That’s really interesting - I just can’t get into Cancer and I didn’t really like Who Can Know It. I contributed to the Kickstarter for both of them though!!

 

Looks like they'll make it if they can get halfway there in two days!

 

They've brought forward the deadline to June 1st but they're also 81% there with the funding.

 

Last day to pre-order this before it's destroyed tomorrow...

They needed 37 more pre-orders on the 28th May so three days later and it must be close. I hope this gets funded.

 

They did it! August release date. I'm ready.

 

Release date confirmed for August 10th. Those who preordered should be getting an email soon.

 

They seem pretty insufferable

 

The music or the people?

 

Showbread always just go for it, so this isn't surprising at all. I could totally see them (Josh) not releasing an album if the fans didn't seem that into it.

Also, I vaguely kept up with Showbread releases after Anorexia/Nervosa, is anything after that really worth checking out?

 

lol thats hilarious if they wrote a whole album just to destroy it

 

Yeah, the whole thing was very Josh. I'm glad it got enough pre-orders as the single sounds interesting.

I liked The Fear of God and Showbread is Showdead for what they were. I felt like Showdead was a strong end highlighting their most popular styles and bringing it together nicely. I know @coleslawed likes the other two (Cancer and Who Can Know It) - I personally struggled to get into them. It might have been the lyrics. I'm not sure.

I'm much more excited for this new band, based solely on the single. I hope it lives up to that but you can never tell!

It got enough pre-orders but I'm pretty certain they would have destroyed it - if you're familiar with Showbread, they always tried to think outside the box with their ideas.

 

Excited for this. Really enjoyed Showbread, last album was a treat. Was a bit turned off by the whole "preorder it, or else" nonsense...

 

yeah, Cancer is hands-down my favorite release from Showbread, but I do agree that Showdead was the logical thing for them to end on.

@awakeohsleeper I probably credit the lyrics on those two albums starting me down the path of belief I am currently on, just starting to do more of my own reading into different/non-traditional streams of thought within Christianity. Josh was also pretty regularly answering questions about his views on their social media at the time, so you could get a great insight into the content of their music.

edit: I still have never really given Anorexia/Nervosa the attention they deserve, was always waiting until I could get my hands on physical copies of both, but for some reason would only ever come across one or the other. I always loved Reese guest spots, and there’s some great ones on there.
side note-I should probably listen to more Five Iron, too. some of my favorite vocals on Showbread songs are his guest spots, and I love the ska parts of Cancer a whole lot.

 

Got the album last night - I think if you enjoyed the last album you'll love this. It's weird. It's aggressive. It's punk. It is a bit of an onslaught - no chance to catch your breath. The addition of female vocals are a treat. The synth sounds good.

In terms of the listening experience, the only thing I can compare it to is the first time I listened to The Chariot's debut album. It is just keeps coming at you - not much time to process anything. And then it's over. I'm getting to know it more with repeated listens but early days so far.

That's really cool - yes, I definitely appreciate their standpoint on a lot of things. I'd read a bit of Greg Boyd before and had never really had a Calvinist perspective so it wasn't necessarily revolutionary for me. So maybe it was the vocal delivery or even the music? I don't know. Something didn't click.

Anorexia Nervosa is a brilliant album when read with the stories. I remember listening/reading them back to back when they first came out. It was a phenomenal idea. I've tried listening to the albums on their own but it doesn't necessarily stand out. The songs with Reese on are definitely worth listening to - he's a great vocalist. But yes, definitely try and get a physical copy if you can. The stories make it a great experience.

 

Um....yes please

 

Influences:

 

Typical!

 

Both.

 

Please be the real Josh Dies.

I'm enjoying it and can confirm that the music is anything but insufferable.

 

Hooray, it's out!