The Grizzly Bear thread
 

Alright, so this past week I've gotten into Grizzly Bear. Had very briefly checked out a few of their songs before, but it wasn't until several days ago when I happened to click on a 'recommended song' link on Youtube while listening to a Panda Bear tune, that I listened to them intently. That recommended song happened to be Easier which, among all Grizzly Bear songs, is definitely the one which was going to jump out at me the most. So the magic of Youtube has gotten me into Grizzly Bear.

After now listening to Yellow House about 6 or 7 times, Veckatimest probably 5 to 6 times, and Shields 3 or 4 times, here are my observations (I still haven't really checked out Horn of Plenty too much yet):

If Animal Collective is kinda sorta the Yes of the 21st Century, Grizzly Bear is kinda sorta the Pink Floyd of the 21st Century. In fact, I can't help but wonder if the denizens of fans who are keeping The Dark Side of the Moon appearing in the Billboard Top 200 now and then even 40 years after its release would stumble across Grizzly Bear more often, that Grizzly Bear would be a more popular band than they currently are?

Anyway, my impression after several listens is that Grizzly Bear is very artsy rock. Except for a song here and there (such as Easier and About Face with me), I doubt Grizzly Bear is going to have much appeal to most people after just one listen.

The obvious progression of their songs and albums is that Yellow House started off almost as a folk-rock album, but they've progressively gone away from that. Personally I really like their acoustic/melodic stuff, so the progression is a bit disappointing to me. On the other hand, I can hear their songwriting mature over the course of the three albums. Yellow House has a few songs which have jumps from acoustic to loud segments which are rather awkward and don't quite work well, whereas their next two albums don't have that problem nearly as much.

And yet, I still find that Yellow House has only 1 or 2 songs that drag and make me want to skip it, while Veckatimest has probably 2 or 3, and Shields has 4 or 5. So it's a mixed bag. Some aspects of their songwriting have gotten better over the course of their albums, while other aspects have gotten worse.

Personally I'd like to see their next album do another folk-rock type thing. Would be nice to see if they could do an improvement over Yellow House.

If they keep progressing like they have, I think they might emphasize the electronic element that mostly underlies their music but is huge on their label (Warp), or maybe they'll go for the jazz that supports much of their sound. Personally, I think where they are now is perfect, having moved from shy bits of psych-ish folk to the more low-key prog indie they have now, but that's just my taste, as I don't dabble a whole lot in the realm of folk.

^
I did notice one track on Shields did sound very jazz-ish ("What's Wrong").

The standout song on that album is definitely the first one, though.

BTW I could *swear* I've heard "Two Weeks" somewhere before I'd even heard of this band. It sounds like a soundtrack to a movie, or something. Either that or it sounds a lot like some other movie soundtrack song.

"Yet Again" is kinda jazzy too, at least in the drumming. "Sleeping Ute" is great, I really just love the whole album, i feel like every moment is essential.

"Two Weeks" was really popular when it came out, it may be that, but I don't know bout it being in a movie, or any other song that may sound like it.

Maybe this is what I'm thinking of???





Kinda sorta vaguely similar.

BTW, this may sound weird, but when I was listening to Shields in the car today, in one of these odd deja-vu epiphany moments, I felt like I was listening to Shostakovich!


^
You'd have to listen to a whole bunch of Shostakovich to understand, but the melodies of Grizzly Bear reminded me of the somber, somewhat rambling but narrow-ranged melodies of much of Shostakovich's work, particularly his symphonies. Plus the way they often build up to these big climaxes, or suddenly get loud out of nowhere.

The whole crescendo type of sound you're talking about is also very big with Post-Rock bands, such as Explosions in the Sky or Godspeed You! Black Emperor and I think Mogwai; I'm only familiar with the first band, but I can testify that their songwriting ethos is ambient rock music building to great heights from hushed lows. That composer may very well be a favorite of these bands; Classical and avant-garde forms of music are usually a good source of inspiration for these bands.

Couple more things I wanted to add before I forget ...

1) One of their lead singers sounds a lot like David Bowie on many of their songs
2. The song endings. They just ... die. Ends with a whimper, not a bang. After I noticed this for several songs, I thought it was just a case of bad song writing. But then I noticed that nearly every song does it (or, at least 80%), which made me realize they did it on purpose. So now when I hear one of these endings I usually chuckle.

Hmm, I don't recall seeing this commercial, however. It was Super Bowl-only.

I basically haven't listened to pop music radio since sometime in the 90's so it's not like I've heard this song on the radio.

Ed Droste singing with Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes. Hope you enjoy.