Grizzly Bear

if only jay-z would consult w/ ilm before deciding which indie rock bands he's supposed to like

No, no; I was just clowning. I like the new Grizzly Bear disc, and the Jay-Z collaboration sounds cool.

So sick of hearing about this mediocre indie dribble.

ya your life must be pretty tough

HAHAHAHA

So sick of hearing about this mediocre indie dribble.

― Spinspin Sugah, Monday, August 31, 2009 2:24 PM

Yeah, because it's not like there are any currently updated threads on the front page about Neil Young, Mariah Carey, Chris Brown, Kraftwerk, Rush, Womack & Womack, Bert Jansch, ZZ Top, James Brown and Terence Trent D'Arby that you could visit instead. ILM = All Grizzly Bear, All The Time!

enthusiasm for what you spontaneously like --> enthusiasm for indie + disdain for what you used to spontaneously like --> disdain for indie + enthusiasm for what you spontaneously like + enthusiasm for obscure/difficult music and pop music --> enthusiasm for what you spontaneously like, conditioned by a deeper appreciation of many genres + disdain for what you genuinely dislike

Spinspin Sugah is probably somewhere in the "disdain for indie + enthusiasm for what you spontaneously like + enthusiasm for obscure/difficult music and pop music" stage.

Anyone heard the version of "While You Wait For The Others" with Michael McDonald on vocals? Fairly WTF.

I was just looking for that. Guess I'll have to wait until I get home to download it from iTunes.

I streamed it from here
http://volume-knob.blogspot.com/2009/08/jay-z-hearts-grizzly-bear.html

this sort of sounds like the band can't count

Excellent, thanks, NN!

Is Michael McDonald really singing about 'the perfect cleft' in that chorus?

wow, I wish Michael McDonald did this more often

oh, I guess I was standing about 15-20 yards away from Jay-Z yesterday, then.

Heard "Two Weeks" on Conan recently and the song is like a jammier version of the Rascals' "Beautiful Morning."

I think that a lot of the Nu-Pagan bearded animal bands sound like the kind of music mid-60s pop bands made around 1968 or 1969, when they were trying to adapt to the hippie-era before their popularity ran dry, and hiring an Eastern guru was a sound business decision. The touchstones seem to be the Hollies' Butterfly, Notorious Byrd Brothers, the Beach Boys' Sunflower et al.

Just got back from seeing them with the london symphony orchestra. Epic amazingness.

Bear's drumming, it never ceases to amaze.

Maybe I had built this up too much in my mind, but i was a little disappointed. It was still very good though. I liked the way that the orchestration added more details to some of the songs, but at times I struggled to hear the orchestra under the band.

Owen, were you there? I thought I saw someone who looked like you.

I think it depends on where people were sitting; i was on front row so got a lot of drums and guitar, but thought maybe further back the mix would be more balanced? Regardless of that they seem to get better every time i see them and the orchestra was a big added bonus

That's probably true. I was at the front last night too. For efterklang I was sat halfway up in the stalls and it sounded a lot better

Yup, I was there. I loved it... the band was in great form.

The problem with band+orchestra style performances is that the audience will tend to expect massive changes and rearranges from all the additional personnel. In cases like Grizzly Bear's, where the band is already so fully formed, there's really no room for all that much orchestral embellishment.

Most of the time, it worked great. Every song had a moment of transcendence... "Foreground" and "Ready, Able" especially were pretty special.

the latest album is my least favorite of their releases, I think, or at least, the one that sticks in my mind the least.

did they do little brother, owen?

i could imagine them drawing out foreground quite a bit with the help of an orchestra. it's so full of space, and that rare type of melody you can just play forever.

i still love veckatimest, but i'm starting to wonder if it actually is better than yellow house or horn of plenty. i really like the idea of a more compact and precise grizzly bear, but they've maybe lost too much of their glowing, silverey atmosphere to the cause. i suspect their next album will take a half-step back towards their earlier strengths. or they could do something totally different that they've never done before, which so far seems to be the their game plan.

Never listened to Friend before -- cover of He Hit Me (and it felt like a kiss) is fantastic.

this is a good grizz sounding record that's better than actual grizz records (& it's prod by one of the grizz dudes)

http://www.seizurechicken.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/bigecho.jpg

even tho it's a pretty airy record it feels less hollow to me than grizz's songs -- also prob part of it has to do with hype (sorry), like i can meet morning benders on a "this is a cool, mellow, sunshiney record with good singing and some nice arrangements" & leave it at that where with grizz i'm like "what do people here in this? i guess it's okay but... what?" and i kind of reject it & move on to something else cuz i don't see myself ever meeting it on that level

ppl should listen to this morning benders thing tho

hear* obv

also i listened to this cuz whiney gave it a 7 on twitter, so big ups

Whiney gave an indie record a decent score?

heard parts of this on YouTube or whatever -- didn't see the big deal. i should probably seek some of their stuff out in a higher-quality format

i made this thread, The Morning Benders - Big Echo but it seems no one on ILM really was interested,

this album is pretty good thou.

i mean, it's not a "big deal" so to speak -- even by pfork standards it's pretty much this year's cymbals eat guitars or whatever -- but it's just a nice palette cleanser sort of thing -- pleasant throwback beach rock -- would make good background music if you were reading outside

yeah, that's sort of how i felt about whatever i heard. not that it was awful, but i could more or less take it or leave it

is there a thread where we talk about Cant (Chris Taylor's solo project)? Dreams Come True, 2011, is pretty great and not very grizzly bearish, more like sadsack R&B-influenced lo-fi electronic music.

I mentioned it somewhere once but. Don't think anyone else joined in.

Cant's live show was/is really, really amazing.

So Painted Ruins is wonderful.

well this is hilarious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPI7oU-fuGw

holy shit

One of my favorite anecdotes from peak Brooklyn indie rock came from a video interview with Holy Ghost, where they talk about having lunch with one of the Grizzly Bear dudes. They tell them about their new song with Michael McDonald, and GB are like, "Wait no, we have a new song with Michael McDonald."

hahaha

Honestly never think about this band that often, so I suppose no surprise that I *was* surprised that it's been four and a half years since the last one, and also that I guess Ed Droste left the band last year. Covid time simultaneously flies fast and slow in both directions.

enjoying this
https://danielrossen.bandcamp.com/album/you-belong-there