"Bear Hair" will be available 6/28/2011The Island of Misfit Toys are an eight-piece, pop/rock outfit comprised of frontman Anthony Sanders and seven friends.

Admittedly miserable during his tenure at a suburban Chicago high school “because no one had the right attitude about music,” everything changed when he enlisted a supporting cast of friends, now bandmates, to help him play live. By sheer chance, “everyone liked playing together so much and hanging out, it seamlessly formed into a band.” Their cohesiveness shows with a live show that finds half the band members switching instruments on any given song.

Early on, Sanders developed the code “I’ve got a bear in my head,” to warn his friends when he was moody. As a result, a former bandmate coined the phrase “combing out his bear hair” to describe Sanders’s emotional songwriting - hence the title of the band’s 2011 debut album. Drawing influence from myriad artists ranging from Why? to They Might Be Giants, Bear Hair runs articulate circles around even the biggest book worms. It is impossible to put a finger on any single source for the helter-skelter craft that is Sander’s songwriting, but Bear Hair is a combed-out, take home version for all kinds of fans.

Bear Hair is available now via Tandem Shop.

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