"Bears' confectionary, bubblegum sonic rooted in folky, tender hooks proves this duo is a species all their own. Headed by Craig Ramsey and Charlie McArthur (and fleshed out live with a slew of pals) Bears, whose eponymous debut dropped in 2006 followed by the Shortest Day of the Year EP, are at their best on sophomore set Simple Machinery, out Sept. 2, which offers a fine-tuned brand of orchestral, pastoral, and sunny indie-pop."
-SPIN.com [read]

"Winsome and pastoral, Bears' music stays just this side of too cute, with twittering keyboards and melt-in-your-ears vocals."
-SPIN Magazine November 2007 [read]

"...a band whose harmony-puffed pop and brisk riffs harken back to both the '60s legends (the Kinks) and '80s influences (the Smiths) alike. But the music on Simple Machinery lacks any sort of calculated nostalgia..."
-Alternative Press | Issue #224 | November 2008 [read]
-Alternative Press | Issue #236 | April 2008 [read]
-Alternative Press | Issue #220 | November 2006 [read]

"Bears' second full-length opens with their best song, the swirling, swooning, indefinitely moody "Please Don't". The song is all cloudy harmonies and squiggly 1960s organ, paced in a vaguely chest-vibrating way by the simplest of bass lines and broken by handclaps. Melodically, its sweetness is shadowed somewhat with minor key harmonies and fading vocal flourishes. It's a half-smile of a song, braced by sighs, about a boy who needs some space..."
-Popmatters [read]

"It begins and ends in celebratory fashion with a series of handclaps and harmonies, taking on the true challenge of a great indie pop record: the blurring of complex lyrical matter and simple, upbeat musical themes."
-The Tripwire [read]

Press for From the Forest to the Sea (2009; Misra / Moon Jaw)

"Ohio band Southeast Engine release what could be the first truly outstanding record of 2009: Weeks spent attempting to distill what the Band would sound like, were they recording and vital right now, is time well spent frankly. It is the past time of many music fan and writer. The magical combination of the vocals of Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Levon Helm have influenced low-fi records by bands all over the world. The lyrical content, its own pilgrimage to find the soul of America, is worthy of volumes. Far less frequent, however, is to find a band that wears those influences on their sleeves and yet still finds a way to be unique. This is the exact trajectory that Southeast Engine is on and continues to pursue with their latest release, From the Forest to the Sea."
-Pop Matters

"There are two main reasons why the character of that constant presence (Regret. Capital "R" regret) makes this album brilliant. First, you’d be surprised by how an album so lyrically and thematically overcome with one of man’s bleakest experiences can make you tap your feet. “Black Gold” is pretty obviously the best song that Southeast Engine has ever released. It’s one huge, triumphant, spiritual, Springsteenian polemic on big oil, the album’s clear centerpiece. It also expands Remnant’s morbid ruminations on his own transgression to humanity et al. In other words: We’re doing it again! We’re calling down the flood! We’re dancing recklessly up to the line past which there lies no redemption! Not just Adam Remnant and his pale-faced mistress, all of us!"
-Coke Machine Glow

"Southeast Engine’s fourth album sounds so out of time, and so removed from current musical fads and trends. The freak-folk tendencies, biblical allusions and poetic nature imagery could have originated in 2009, 1969 or 1869, for that matter . . . starting with a 10-minute three-part suite featuring dancing ghost maidens, a shimmering white dress that floats on air, and what sounds like a mystical vision of heaven and the hand of the Almighty reaching down from the clouds—is what ultimately wins me over. Remnant’s vision is so utterly singular, weird and compelling that you’ll stick around for this mapless journey. God only knows where they’re going, but being lost is most of the fun."
-Paste Magazine

"Few bands write about spirituality and mortality with greater eloquence. What Southeast Engine's forthcoming late winter release, From the Forest to the Sea (arriving February 17 on Misra Records), reveals is the musical muscle shown on 2007's stunning A Wheel Within a Wheel has only grower tauter, leaner, cooler. I'll confidently say From the Forest to the Sea is a dead lock for my '09 Best Albums list, and it's going to be a blast to see what the road does for them as they branch out from their Ohio home. This feels like a band teetering on the edge of incredible things."
-Jambase

"If there's a fear of what's coming next, Southeast Engine and the vocals of Adam Remnant seem to suggest, without saying so, that they've found their own personal pathway through the impenetrable boulders, a gap in the solid skeleton that they could get to in minutes if needed – whether to keep passing through to a better other side or to just take shelter from any storms from the sky. . . It’s a unifying sound that is unmistakable and bold, while remaining loose as a beautiful kiss that couldn’t have been prepared for"
-Daytrotter

"The Decemberists divisive rock opera "The Hazards Of Love" is getting all the attention—and rightfully so—but Southeast Engine’s "From The Forest To The Sea" is also quite good, tracing a primordial quest in reverse, moving from the rudiments of civilization to the ooze from which all life began. If you’re a fan of albums that play best straight through, ’09 is starting off right." B+ Rating.
-The Onion A.V. Club

"Fresh off a convincing performance at this year’s SXSW, Southeast Engine is ready to hit the road in support of its February release, "From The Forest To The Sea". Adam Remnant’s groovy rock quartet had some help from the Wrens in getting signed to Misra Records in 2007. Three records later, the Athens, Ohio, crew continues to deliver a gypsy-friendly rock sound. "From The Forest" track “Black Gold” creeps with hints of dark political and religious references disguised in a feel-good, ’60s-inspired chorus shout-along."
-Magnet

"The record sounds absolutely wonderful - like something from Big Pink: harmonies, thick glugs of acoustic piano, guitar and the sound of floorboards vibrating the way that rooms are meant to.... This is an album that rewards some time with its singular vision - it is epic in its own way. Going with the flow of the album is recommended - the music will mean so much more than when picked up song by song."
-Salisbury Journal UK

"flush with biblical references and prickling from end-is-nigh jitters, it's sometimes spooky stuff, simultaneously evoking an era before the arrival of musical recordings and also a post-civilization future. Vocalist/guitarist Adam Remnant is not only a compelling singer -- his quivering Appalachian yelp is perhaps the midpoint between Will Oldham (Bonnie “Prince” Billy) and Jason Molina (Songs:Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co.) -- but also a perceptive, precise storyteller, equally confident in clipped speech and extended, flowing narrative. . . For all of its occasional echoes of other lonesome-howl enthusiasts From The Forest To The Sea offers up a distinct essence of its own. Distinctive enough, I should add, that I can't wait to dive into their back-catalog...."
-San Francisco Bay Guardian

Press for A Wheel Within a Wheel (2007; Misra)

"Athens, Ohio's Southeast Engine see the light and release a rock opera of self-doubt and redemption... the music often matches the soul dividing sturm und drang driving the disc. It's rock opera, part Dante, part indie du jour, bombastic, to be sure, but never hectoring as it makes its way to moral détente."
-Pitchfork Media

***Paste Magazine - Top 10 Albums of 2007 - #2 - Writer Picks***
"...And perhaps that's why Southeast Engine—Athens natives a few years removed from the graduation ceremony, and still hanging out in that idyllic little college town—sound like they do. You can tell that lead singer/songwriter Adam Remnant has his English degree, and he drops enough literary references to make sure you know he's spent some time in old Ellis Hall. But there's a restlessness and desperation at the heart of his music that suggests that the old Athens malaise has already set in, and that feeling trapped isn't the exclusive domain of suburban executives with midlife crises and cherry red sports cars... There are three albums now - Love Is A Murder, Coming to Terms with Gravity, and the new one, A Wheel Within A Wheel, which is one of my favorite albums of 2007." - Andy Whitman
-Paste Magazine

"There's a lot of melancholy in the music created by this quartet from Athens, Ohio, yet frontman Adam Remnant fills the songs with a restless redemption."
-Chicago Sun Times

"Other albums I can strongly recommend include Southeast Engine's Misra debut, "A Wheel Within a Wheel."
-Brooklyn Vegan

***Jambase - Best Albums of 2007 - Cook's Corner***
"Not once have I been able to stop myself from hitting repeat when "A Wheel Within A Wheel" ends. Two or three spins are necessary each time to really roll around in all the pleasures hiding here. Don't be surprised if you clap your hands or sing loud enough to bother folks in the car next to you. Southeast Engine are super smart, rock savvy guys and they've made a great record for thinkers who love power chords and heartbreaking ruminations"
-Jambase

"And this is the story of A Wheel Within a Wheel: bold new influences fused so closely to the structure of these songs that, while each is facially striking during its sonic out thrust, by the end of any given song it has been reabsorbed and contextualized. These songs flit away from comfortable Americana and folk momentarily, with precision and intensity, but return to their base just as quickly... Southeast Engine have made their most interesting album to date."
-Coke Machine Glow

"Ezekiel's sighting of the fiery wheel is one of the Old Testament's most psychedelic moments, a fantastic conglomeration of images centered around a wheel within a wheel. That's the inspiration for this third album by Southeast Engine, a six-piece indie rock band headed by songwriter Adam Remnant. The album is shot through with religious imagery, but like the wheel, impossible to read in any literal way. It's sort of mystic contemplation of life-long love, spiritual struggle, midlife confusion and renewal..."
-Pop Matters

"...the one thing that every review should acknowledge is that A Wheel Within a Wheel is a poignant and pleasant album that finds Southeast Engine refining their sound to come up with a glowing mix of country, folk, rock, and pop... a sort of modern, indie rock survey of American music."
-30 Music

"The band's brand of genre ambiguity might stem from its relative isolation: Cutting its teeth in Athens, Ohio, the act so far had the grace to come to grips with its identity more or less removed from the national spotlight. It's a luxury few bands get when the hyper-connected devote their lives to scouring the 'net for new music, and it gives Southeast Engine a sense of self that many bands making their semi-debut wouldn't have... Southeast Engine has that slow-fired, laid-back feel you'd expect from traditional alt-country types, but spruces it up with a dose of indie-kid charm."
-Aversion