Friendly Bears

Friendly Bears is an avant-garde musical quintet based in Brooklyn, New York. The band is known for their complex compositions, drawing on styles in free jazz, modern classical, punk rock, progressive rock, and metal. Currently, the line up includes Tim Byrnes on trumpet, Rich Bennett on guitar, Matt Filler on baritone guitar, and Andrew Greenwald on drums. The band formed in the fall of 2000 under the name Osos Amistosos (Spanish for Friendly Bears) and have been frequently referred to as The Friendly Bears

The band formed in the fall of 2000 under the name Osos Amistosos (Spanish for Friendly Bears) and have been frequently referred to as The Friendly Bears

Under the lineup of Byrne, Greenwald, Bennett on baritone guitar, and Mary Halvorson on guitar, Friendly Bears released the 2003 12" split with Infidel?/Castro. They contributed four tracks of "Gritty dissonant analog math rock with a cool, calm and collected trumpet by Candiria's Tim Byrnes."

The summer of 2005 saw the release of "On Oceans, Light, and Sleep," a full-length CD from Pralaya Records.