Mostly Bears is surrounded by mostly bears at Mostly Bears.
For the first time ever, the local rock band is exploring the store that inspired its moniker, Mostly Bears at 2309 E. Broadway.
After initially discovering the business in the phone book, the band appreciated the non-committal nature of its name: It sells mostly stuffed teddy bears of every imaginable variety, which you can also make, but that's not all.
"This place is cute," drummer Nick Wantland says.
"We should have our band practice here," singer and guitarist Brian Lopez says.
The group stopped by the store to talk about its long-awaited debut album, "The Ed Mitchell Clinic," which will be celebrated with a CD-release party Friday at Club Congress.
In just a couple years, Mostly Bears have conquered the local music scene. Last year, the three-piece released a four-song EP, "Only Child."
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"Ed Mitchell" expands on things hinted at on "Only Child" and proves the music of Mostly Bears is some of the most interesting and forward-thinking in town.
The 10-track album proves Mostly Bears can do a lot of things right: It now can deftly handle a catchy radio rock song ("The Digital Divide," "Melancholyism" ), a warm ballad ("Leda Atomica") and a dark, seven-minute opus ("The Pharmacist.)
"The Pharmacist" is the centerpiece of "Ed Mitchell," in the vein of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android," full of mood swings, frenzied instrumentation and unease.
"Ed Mitchell" was recorded at The Upstairs Studio in Tucson and is being released on local label Funzalo Records.
The group named its new album after Apollo 14 astronaut Ed Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon who experienced something bassist Geoffrey Hidalgo called "instant global awareness": seeing the planet from afar and realizing that the world is one.
Space is a recurring theme in the world of Mostly Bears.
The title song on the "Only Child" EP mentions dreaming of "stars and astronauts" and the "Ed Mitchell" artwork shows planets behind a deconstructed sketch of a human.
Lopez said he's infatuated with the final frontier, and it carries over into the band's music.
"If you took away the vocals, there'd still be a spacelike element to it," he said.
Mostly Bears will be touring heavily to promote the release the rest of the year, but it's already getting favorable response from college radio stations across the country, cracking the CMJ top 30.
Lopez said the airplay for "Ed Mitchell" has already been more than expected.
With the bar set high now, the goals for Mostly Bears' next album might be a little tougher.
"But we'll worry about that later," Lopez says.
If you go
• What: Mostly Bears in concert, with What Laura Says Thinks and Feels, Leopold and His Fiction.
• When: 8 p.m. Friday.
• Where: Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St.
• Cost: $5.
• More info: myspace.com/mostlybears and hotelcongress.com.
Go online
Watch Mostly Bears being interviewed at the Mostly Bears shop on AZNightbuzz.com.
