Grizzly Bear - Shields

I like both bands tho! I'm just saying that that earlier song was the first grizzly bear song that lived up to that comparison or w/e

http://cdn.stereogum.com/files/2012/07/Grizzly-Bear-Shields.jpg

new album now is called Shields and is set to be released on September 18, 2012.

i think Warp229 is actually the catalog number.

love the newer song as well, this is going to be a great album.

i kind of liked Warp229 as an album title.

Yet Again sounds like Cass McCombs

Is it weird that I think Yet Again sounds a little like Hot Chip?

I think it just sounds like Coldplay.

Coldplay? Nonsense. This is really good. Seems to be continuing in the tumbling momentum and melodicism of Southern Point, which was my favourite off Veckatimest.

Yeah, I really like this and I'm anticipating a slew of high praise, the highest praise

Somehow they pull off sounding both like a dusty artefact and something modern and new, too.

I love how those two tracks sound. Very band in a room.

Nick, you genuinely hear melodicism of note on Yet Again? I like GB, but that melody gets on my nerves.

no one's mentioned whiney chilling and eating BBQ with them in Park Slope.

That definitely must have occurred pre-Yet Again.

no one's mentioned whiney chilling and eating BBQ with them in Park Slope.
--a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

Can't believe you didn't go with "grillin and chillin"

I dunno if I'd use "chillin" to describe their expressions in the photos.

2nd song sounds like The Dodos

2nd song ("Speak in rounds") is a skyscraping career high afaic. Excellent marriage of Ed + Dan songwriting styles, love hearing Ed sing like Dan, Dan sing like Ed, love love love. I'm a sucker for the motorik style and VI -> #vi tho

so i guess you like the record?

nah it's shit

'Gun-Shy' is the track I'm loving at the moment.

Nick, you genuinely hear melodicism of note on Yet Again? I like GB, but that melody gets on my nerves.

― some white dude (Turangalila), Saturday, 1 September 2012 23:07 (3 days ago)

I'm talking more of the album as a whole than Yet Again, but I certainly don't find it annoying.

I don't get the same kind of melodicism from Grizzly Bear as I do from The Beatles or Bacharach - to my (untrained) ears what GB do is far more oblique and strange.

Half Gate, guys!

Enjoying this record a lot. I couldn't even tell you what the stand out tracks are, it's taking a while to sink in. Which is great tbh.

Sun In Your Eyes is a big fat glorious psychedelic epic

Not being a huge fan of this band I must admit this album is doing something right. I Keep coming back to it and liking it more and more with each listen.

http://pitchfork.com/news/47798-stream-the-new-grizzly-bear-album-shields/

9.1 well deserved even though I would have rated it higher. By far their best album.

Not being a huge fan of this band I must admit this album is doing something right. I Keep coming back to it and liking it more and more with each listen.

― marginal victory, Friday, September 7, 2012

otm. i didn't "get" Veckawhateverist at all, but this just *sounds* great.

Local HMV hasn't even got any copies of this in yet; they're due 25 but they haven't arrived from the distributor yet. 12 years ago, my brother was the local rep for this distributor, and there's no fucking way they'd not have had copies of an album with this status in stores already; things really have changed.

Shameless self-linking http://www.uncut.co.uk/grizzly-bear-shields-review

That's dull Sick Mouthy. I picked it up on vinyl in Fopp. They must've had a good half dozen plus loads of CD's.

I feel like I'm the only one that's been holding off hearing this until I can get a physical copy. Then again that's how I feel with most new releases these days.

A 9+ review on Pitchfork must boost sales big time. Will be interested to see how much bigger they get.

Got a copy!

does jay-z like this record?

Jay Z loves it. Can't get enough of it. I think i saw him buy like 50 copies at Other Music today during the listening party. He's really REALLY INTO it. Jay LOVES IT

i haven't bought a CD is awhile now, going to buy this one.

A 9+ review on Pitchfork must boost sales big time. Will be interested to see how much bigger they get.

― InternetAlan, Monday, September 17, 2012 6:45 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean, if they were Yamatanka Sonic Titan, sure. This band is already headlining the Hollywood Bowl and Radio City Music Hall. Thinking a score from a music webpage is gonna boost their profile at this point is like wondering what kanye thought of his 10.0

I assume, being in Britain, that Alan's talking about their UK profile, which hasn't been massive previously, and P4K's a bigger deal over thsi side of the pond than it was for Veckatimest.

"i mean, if they were Yamatanka Sonic Titan"

great band btw!

Yeah, I'm talking about their UK profile. Don't get me wrong, they already fill reasonable sized venues here as it is but there's a big leap between where they are presently and the level of success achieved by someone like Bon Iver on the back of his recent well reviewed LP.

There is generally a bit of a gulf in the popularity of a lot of Pitchfork friendly bands here than in the US from what I can tell. Someone like Spoon for example have zero profile here whereas I’m lead to believe they’re quite well known in the states.

not to make this a pfork thread, but just got an email from a local venue that included pf review scores for upcoming bands. :(

although i think i know who sends these out and he's a dick whose true love is xtian emo bands.

wondering what kanye thought of his 10.0

tbf, i'm surpised kanye didn't get a '10.0' tattoo somewhere

He did, we just can't see it.

I think and hope that a band who puts out a record of this high quality would be oblivious to Pitchfork numbers and/or message board response.

Yeah, this is pretty awesome. Their best yet. Their songwriting gets more focused, their instrumentation more forceful, but there's still amazing subtlety here, absolutely fucking formidable chops and interplay. Only Southern Point, Two Weeks, and While You Wait For The Others would fit on here in terms of focus and energy, I think.

One thing slightly confuzzles me, though, about them; they have such an ornate, intriguing, elaborate, mysterious, dreamy sound and aesthetic, and yet so often such prosaic song titles. Feels really at odds sometimes.

i wish the whole record was as muscular and tortoise-y as 'sleeping ute'

The end of Yet Again is muscular as hell. And Speak In Rounds. There are flurries elsewhere, but nothing as consistently as Sleeping Ute, granted.

Veckatimest never fully hybridized Ed and Dan's songwriting voices the way Yellow House and Shields do. I mean, I liked every Veckatimest song on its own, but the contrast in sentiment between "I live with you" / "...Others" and "Two weeks" / "Cheerleader" / "Foreground" was not all that complimentary. Dan's seriousness made Ed's breeziness feel lightweight. And vice versa; Ed's stuff made Dan's songs sound wilfully difficult and mean. Tiny complaints! Veckatimest is rad. But I think Shields is an amazing thing to hear as a followup.

So I am the only one here who doesn't get this forced, hipster-prog wankfest, what 'Shields' is.
OK, not that bad, but both 'Yellow House' and 'Veckatimest' were much more likeable records, and this is a way overrated.

Think I prefer Veckatimest as a whole but this has some very good moments.

That's crazy talk. It doesn't sound like Diana Krall, certainly, but it sounds great.

I'd like to think so but this doesn't look too good.

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=27146

That means nothing; trust your ears!

Saying that, here's a couple of waveforms.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/th_ScreenShot2012-10-22at102907.png

Top= Speak In Rounds, bottom = While You Wait For The Others.

Yes, it's loud(er than Rid of Me!), but it's not noticably clipped at all, there's plenty of movement, headroom, and, most importantly, it sounds wonderful; the timbres, separation, etc etc etc.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/ScreenShot2012-10-22at102907.png

Fuck you, photobucket.

I know that waveforms do not tell the whole story but that's good to see. Sure it looks busy but it also looks like there's some headroom.

Like I said, I've not heard the CD at all so I was just throwing it out there to see if anyone who has had any opinions.

It's very easy to get obsessed with numbers and perfection and so on, but it's not really very useful. I'm a lot more pragmatic now than I used to be. Speak in Rounds is the 'rockiest' track on Shields, and if it gets up to peak without shaving edges off during the rockiest bit, then so be it.

God knows what Dr Loudness War's stats actually mean, but putting them together like that is like comparing a Ferrari to a Golf to a Transit van based purely on size of engine and BHP, without looking at them or test driving them or considering what they're actually for.

Hidden by TNP gets a shite rating on there - http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=14461

Appears that it was sympathetically mastered. Found this illuminating and in depth article with the mastering engineer.

http://www.sonicscoop.com/2012/09/13/behind-the-release-grizzly-bear-shields/

While I’m glad that people are paying more attention to things like dynamic range nowadays I am increasingly getting frustrated at people yelling “brickwalled” at anything with a busy waveform rather than, as Nick points out, trusting your ears in the first instance. The stuff I heard about the ‘Shields’ CD originated on an audiophile forum and often they are the worst for judging sonics primarily on, often arbitrary, numbers.

Ha, Plumb by Field Music, which has a note in the sleeve about lack of DRC in mastering, gets a rubbish rating: http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=18328

Rock albums are by their nature not that dynamic - rock's meant to be loud and exciting, it's not classical music or jazz.

lol @ The Drift only scoring in 'transition'. http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=21912

I do disagree that the dynamic range database is a total waste of time mind you. While it's not the be all and end of an albums fidelity it is one amongst many ways (specral analysis, waveforms etc) of trying to quantify the quality of an audio recording. One of the major reasons I buy new vinyl is because often a seperate (hopefully high resolution) master is used. Loads of modern CD's seem sadly to be made for the car/to be ripped to mp3 and as such get over compressed and limited.

Also, I agree on the point about rock being meant to be loud. With that in mind those TNP and Field Music LP's look ok.

This is as bad as to be expected however.

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=7123

That mixing interview is great.

Desire from Spirit of Eden only gets a red 8, but it's also the track with the fucking huge awesome overwhelming thunderstorm of drums.

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=7452

To be honest the SACD and recent vinyl remaster, as well as the original 1988 CD issue all sound better to my ears than that remaster of Spirit of Eden. That database seems to highlight that as well.

I've only ever heard the 97 CD. I'm happy with it!

THis is interesting - http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=10694 - because I know from someone in the band that this vinyl release was a needle-drop from the CD master and they were fucking furious.

The 97 CD was my first copy and the one I grew to love but you should really check out the high Rez or original CD as well.

Needledrop or CD masters being used for records should be a crime.

Cosmogramma... http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=5448

Ouch.

Going back to something I mentioned yesterday, Newport HMV must have heard my silent cry and I now have "Veckatimest" - plus "Soon over Babaluma" in the '2 for £10' offer. Hurrah.

Regarding SoE, I have the 97 CD and was happy with it until I picked up a recent TT best of for £3, mainly for "John Cope", and the remastering on "Wealth" and the single edit of "I believe in you" sounded so good and so much better. If I see the new remaster of SoE at a decent price I'll pick it up.

"Shields" doesn't sound brickwalled to me, and it's your ears that decide whether it sounds good at the end of the day.

Love John Cope.

wtf album sounds fine and is perfectly dynamic, what is this, the steve hoffman board?

Nah, it wasn't on the Hoffman board. Those guy's are crazy.

It was on a private torrent tracker.

I was a big fan of these guys but here my problem is that what you guys are saying is absolutely true, but I don't hear much else going on. It's all lovely to the ear and dynamic in its way but for me it seems to just float around on that plateau of loveliness-in-variation without much else to distinguish it song by song. Listening to it, quite intently, for I think the third time, at one point I accidentally skipped to another track and couldn't for the life of me work out which one I'd just been listening to. I'm sure there are good counterarguments and I'm sure it's my fault but I'M COMPLAINING ANYWAY.

Took me several listens to star pulling the songs apart, definitely. Half a dozen at least.

My only negative point of the album would be The Hunt, or maybe the fact that is placed in the middle of the album.

merdeyeux I felt that way after the first few listens. I still kind of feel that way about the last album, actually. but this one really came together to me.

posted an as-far-as-i-know mostly-unreleased old Grizzly Bear song on stg this week:
http://www.saidthegramophone.com/archives/unpredicting.php

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/grizzly-bear-shields-round-42-nicks-choice/

i have been totally emerging myself into this album. listening to it on head phones and loving all those little parts. it no way can compare to Veckatimest as that album has better songs. this album, however, is a pleasure and i'm glad i bought it.

http://www.stereogum.com/1166392/debating-the-grizzly-bear-ny-mag-story-and-making-a-living-making-music/top-stories/lead-story

Doug is the frontman of Brooklyn-based experimental metal band Pyrrhon, about whom Decibel Magazine said, “Outré as they get, everything Pyrrhon do emanates from an obsidian death metal core — just that this music is that much more expressive, its impact that much more disquieting than almost anything else in the genre.”

Doug Moore: The New York Mag piece on Grizzly Bear makes me feel lucky to be a member of a generation of musicians who never expected to be able to quit their day jobs.

ah fuck meant to post that in other thread

http://www.youtube.com/liveatthehouse

Edward Droste @edwarddroste
#tbt to when we were on the cover of NY mag and they made it look like we were broke and complaining. Good times.

Edward Droste @edwarddroste
That article really pulled the rug out from under us! We were led to believe it was essentially a history of us....lol! Nope!

Judging by his instragram, Ed's doing alright.

good 2 know

How does Ed know Megan Amram? Seems like they're always hanging out and tweeting at each other.