Atlanta, Georgia-based "twee-punk" outfit Gold-Bears (named after the much beloved Gummi candy) were formed in 2009 by Jeremy Underwood (Plastic Mastery) along with Erich Leudtke, Dave Fortner, and Santiago Archila. Raised on a steady diet of the Smiths, the Wedding Present, and My Bloody Valentine, the group members’ shared love of cacophonous reverb, jangly guitars, and lo-fi fuzz-pop has earned them comparisons to everyone from the Mountain Goats and Summer Cats to Boyracer and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. The band's first single arrived in 2010 via Magic Marker Records, followed by the full-length debut Are You Falling in Love? for Slumberland in early summer the following year. In the years that followed, Underwood assembled an entirely different crew of friends to help carry out the much more abrasive and mournful tunes that would make up the second Gold-Bears album Dalliance. Underwood's songs were realized with the help of Clinton Callahan, Scotty Hoffman, Sam Jacobsen, and Sean Zearfoss, with guest spots from Emma Cooper and Black Tambourine vocalist Pam Berry. Dalliance was released in the early summer of 2014, again on Slumberland. ~ James Christophe Monger