{"id":353,"date":"2009-06-07T14:02:31","date_gmt":"2009-06-07T20:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=353"},"modified":"2017-08-29T21:52:03","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T21:52:03","slug":"grizzly-bear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2009\/06\/07\/grizzly-bear\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzly Bear"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Friesen
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo by Tom Hines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn general, we\u2019re all just feeling a bit more brighter,\u201d says Christopher Bear, drummer and vocalist for Grizzly Bear, describing reasons for the sound of Veckatimest, the band\u2019s latest release. It\u2019s a record that sees the Brooklyn-based folk rockers take their melancholic, quasi-traditional Americana style and brighten it up. And why not feel brighter? In 2006 the group released Yellow House, their second full-length and first as a four-piece, to critical acclaim. This set off a whirlwind of unanticipated events: tours with the likes of TV on the Radio, Feist and, more recently, Radiohead as well as the release of another solid disc, the Friend EP, for which the band reworked a number of its older songs with grander instrumentation and production. Things are most certainly coming together for the band, and with Veckatimest it\u2019s clear that the band\u2019s enthusiasm and excitement is making for some blissful pop music.<\/p>\n

Veckatimest features sonic textures and lyrical themes the band has yet to fully explore, but it doesn\u2019t sound out of place among the band\u2019s previous works. Grizzly Bear began as a solo project of guitarist\/vocalist Edward Droste, who put together a moody and heartbreaking song cycle in 2004\u2019s Horn of Plenty. It was a record that, backed for the most part by guitar and the occasional splash of drums and keyboards, portrayed the hidden beauty of broken and despondent relationships. Soon after its release he added Christopher Bear, multi-instrumentalist Chris Taylor and guitarist\/vocalist Daniel Rossen to the mix, paving the way for the sounds found on Yellow House and the Friend EP, sounds which were much larger and more polished.<\/p>\n

With these additions, the band faced new challenges and possibilities in regards to songwriting. \u201cStarting Yellow House, a lot of the songs were fully written before we recorded,\u201d Bear explains. \u201cIt was less focused on how we write together and more focused on how we record and arrange songs together. Friend came about because we were touring for a long time, and there were things we started to do live that were different than on the record and we wanted to capture that, just because after playing so many shows the band was really starting to change.\u201d The band was in transition, shifting from its original DIY, bedroom-recording aesthetic to a fuller and more complex sound.<\/p>\n

With Veckatimest this transition appears to be reaching its fullest potential yet. \u201cI think we are more familiar with how we play live,\u201d says Bear. \u201cA lot of this stuff came about in a live setting. Songwriting wise, the songs were in everybody\u2019s hands at a much earlier stage.\u201d The band members were collaborating in new ways. \u201cThere really are a lot of different permutations of people writing on different songs, which gives Veckatimest sort of a different story. It certainly feels much more organic, a sort of growing together.\u201d<\/p>\n

This new approach to songwriting\u2014giving each band member more say in the whole process\u2014has resulted in a sound more stripped down than Yellow House\u2019s yet still very complex. Whereas previously the band would add layer upon layer of instrumentation and vocals onto their tracks, the songs on the new record are sparser, allowing more space for the band\u2019s primary instruments\u2014guitar, piano, drums and voice\u2014to work with. \u201cWith Yellow House, we continued to stack more onto each song. At times it felt like we were throwing the kitchen sink onto every song, which was really exciting for us at the time,\u201d Bear recalls. \u201cWe were figuring out how we work together and what certain textures we were fit to explore. I think with Veckatimest we were using a lot of the same things we learned, but focusing it more, not afraid to do a song with just piano and voice, or just a single vocal track.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, \u201cFine For Now\u201d features instrumentation that is much simpler than what we have grown to expect from Grizzly Bear. It consists of nothing more than drums, guitar and vocals with some occasional splashes of keyboards. However, the way the band works together, playing on each other\u2019s strengths, the song remains equally, if not more intense than much of the band\u2019s previous material. Grizzly Bear has made good writing music that sounds simpler than it actually is, freeing the music from clutter.<\/p>\n

This more open sound is evident in the record\u2019s poppy moments, such as Rossen\u2019s song \u201cWhile You Wait for the Others,\u201d the bouncy \u201cCheerleader\u201d and the album\u2019s centerpiece, \u201cTwo Weeks,\u201d a stunning track that features Droste at his best, backed by captivating \u201cwhoa-oh-oh\u201d harmonies. And it\u2019s these pop hits that will first draw you in.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the album\u2019s darker moments that really exhibit how creative the band is. On first listen you might say Veckatimest reveals the band becoming less melancholic. \u201cThere are some brighter tones to the record; there still is also some more moody material that feels more spacious,\u201d says Bear. Songs such as the lead-off track, \u201cSouthern Point,\u201d and \u201cAll We Ask\u201d, both which feature string arrangements by Nico Muhly, hold the record together, demonstrating command of lyrical themes and sonic textures.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s growing together as a band that\u2019s informed much of the record\u2019s lyrical content, as the songs, for the most part, deal with the struggles and joys inherent in the developing of relationships. On \u201cAll We Ask\u201d the band chants, \u201cI can\u2019t get out of what I\u2019m into with you.\u201d On \u201cReady, Able\u201d Ed Droste repeats, \u201cBefore we go, I want you to know, what I did.\u201d Relationships are instrumentally or lyrically at the fore.<\/p>\n

Veckatimest has been one of the most talked about and hyped-up records of the year and it\u2019s well-deserved. Rarely does an album display a band collaborating so effectively\u2014taking on specific themes and ideas without being afraid to leave things ambiguous in the end. It\u2019s a fascinating listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Friesen \u201cIn general, we\u2019re all just feeling a bit more brighter,\u201d says Christopher Bear, drummer and vocalist for Grizzly Bear, describing reasons for the sound of Veckatimest, the band\u2019s latest release. It\u2019s a record that sees the Brooklyn-based folk rockers take their melancholic, quasi-traditional Americana style and brighten it up. And why not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[407,454],"class_list":["post-353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-grizzly-bear","tag-indie-rock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10110,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions\/10110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}